Railroad Study Will Pop Up At Scarborough Beach And Rocky Neck State Park
When: Saturday, August 15 from 9 am to 5 pm
Where: Rocky Neck State Park ( 244 West Main Street (Route 156), Niantic (East Lyme), CT )
and
When: Sunday, August 16 from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Where: Scarborough North State Beach ( 870 Ocean Road, Narragansett, RI )
The New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study team is popping up again with very short notice in Narragansett, RI and in Connecticut.
Amtrak’s Outreach and Engagement Plan for the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study describes the purpose of a “pop-up” event as a way to distribute information about their study and collect input from community members.
For its outreach, Amtrak is working primarily with an engineering and planning firm, HNTB Corporation, and it is the HNTB team managing the pop-up events.
At the August 6 “Pop-Up” in Ninigret Park, there was a table with pamphlets, a bulletin board on which members of the public could place three stickers they were given indicating the topics they were most concerned about, and one-on-one conversations with individuals from the outreach team wearing yellow t-shirts..
On August 6 there was one representative from Amtrak, Joe Barr, Senior Director, State Partnerships and Development–East at Amtrak. The other individuals staffing the table and talking to the public were planners and individuals from HNTB’s stakeholder engagement team.
Most of the information at these pop-ups is already available at Amtrak’s Capacity Planning Study website and had been provided in two June webinars held for elected officials. However, the conversations with the team members can be enlightening.
Background About The Study
In 2016, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released a plan to bisect Charlestown with new high-speed track that would have crossed into Charlestown from Westerly, run from Charlestown’s western edge to its eastern edge, and finally reconnected with the existing railroad near the Great Swamp State Wildlife Management Area in South Kingstown.
Land in Charlestown and Connecticut was squarely in the middle of the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass.” The Bypass was the “preferred alternative” in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
More than 16 organizations worked tirelessly against the Bypass, including Greg Stroud and his organization SECoast, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, and the Charlestown Town Council elected in 2016.
When the Federal Railroad Administration released its Record of Decision on July 12, 2017, and dropped the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” from the decision, it was great news and a big win for Charlestown. However, the Bypass was replaced by a required study that was needed to develop a new preferred alternative and that left Charlestown at risk for an alternative that would be similar to that of the Bypass.
Amtrak made an announcement on May 21, 2026, that the study required by the FRA’s 2017 Record of Decision had finally received federal government and other funding to proceed. Amtrak estimates that the study—the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study—will take up to two years.
In early June, Amtrak launched a website, https://newhavenprovidencestudy.com/ that included a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document. Amtrak says the website will be enlarged as the study progresses and more information becomes available.
We’ll keep you updated as we learn more. We are committed to protecting Charlestown and the natural resources and public and private property that would be destroyed if anything like the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” returns.
Visit Amtrak’s Website New Haven To Providence Capacity Planning Study Visit Our Railroad Page To Learn More About Past Work To Stop The Bypass Sign Up For The CCA Newsletter To Stay Informed
The New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study website allows the public to sign up for the study’s mailing list and optionally to provide input to Amtrak about the study.
Sign Up For New Haven To Providence Capacity Planning Study Updates Provide Comments To The New Haven To Providence Capacity Planning Study