Federal Railroad Administration Plan

On May 3, the CT Examiner interviewed Joseph Barr, Director of Network Development in the East Coast, who is working on the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study.  The Kenyon to Old Saybrook bypass is not off the table and Mr. Barr speaks of a past Environmental Impact Statement as if it was complete, but NEC Future never had environmental data for Charlestown and nearby towns. We will need to get that environmental data to them all over again. See our web page on the Federal Railroad Administration Plan for background.

“Because they had such a failed public process before, and because what they proposed was so devastating to the environment, historic resources, to people’s homes, they ought to want to start with a really open process, because people will assume that they don’t have any other ideas, because I’ve only heard of two, and one has been taken off the table. So if they have another idea, no one knows what it is, and the people in the path of that other idea ought to know, too.”

CHARLESTOWN — Years after a proposed “Kenyon to Old Saybrook” high-speed-rail bypass through areas like the historic district of Old Lyme and and Stonington’s Olde Mistick Village sparked public outcry in Connecticut, few realize the pivotal role that Charlestown played in stopping the plan, or at least delaying it until now. Story at CT Examiner.

Ruth Platner: “I asked Bard to make some images that combined high-speed trains with some of the destruction the new route would create such as the permanent fragmentation of 1,800 acres of permanently protected open space, but Bard refused to create such disturbing images. If these images violate the ethics of a robot, why are they okay to make a reality in Charlestown!?”

The on-going “New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study” will recommend a new off-corridor route that meets goals for time and capacity included in the 2017 NEC Future Record of Decision. Whether that means a return to the idea of a bypass, such as the controversial route previously planned through Charlestown, or a direct inland route between Hartford and Providence is not yet clear, although a recent interview with Congressman Joe Courtney hinted that the direct inland route may already be off the table.

CT Examiner editor Gregory Stroud shares information about current planning for high-speed rail in the northeast, including how the decisions made might affect southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. This 52-minute video is a refresher on the past flawed federal process and provides information about the “New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study” that began in November.

Amtrak officials acknowledge that the ground rules for the new study guarantee a new off-corridor route and require the same metrics previously used to justify a controversial high-speed-rail bypass through Charlestown and coastal Connecticut. Read text of story in the CT Examiner.

Federal Railroad Administration announced $16.4 billion of funding for passenger rail projects along the Northeast Corridor, and additional funding to reevaluate and finalize high-speed rail options across southeast Connecticut and southern Rhode Island. The study follows up on the “Kenyon to Old Saybrook Bypass” proposal for an inland high speed rail route slated between Kingston, R.I. and Old Saybrook that faced multi-state opposition and was set aside in 2017. 

Five years after the Federal Railroad Administration set aside the idea of a high-speed rail bypass between Old Saybrook and Kenyon, R.I., in the face of near unanimous opposition across the region, the federal agency announced today that it was reviving a key study intended to settle, once and for all, a route for rail travel between New Haven and Providence.

Since July 2021, when the The Northeast Corridor Commission released Connect NEC 2035, a 15-year development plan and planning process for the Northeast Rail Corridor, Charlestown’s Town Administrator has written to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) several times asking for information. Now seven months later, Charlestown has finally gotten a reply from the FRA, but not a lot of answers.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont discussed accelerating investment in high-speed rail by leveraging the new federal funds provided by the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act at a meeting with Amtrak officials. A spokesperson for CT DOT said the meeting did not include a status update on the Old Saybrook to Kenyon bypass.

A U.S. Department of Transportation “Providence to New Haven Capacity Planning Study” has some local officials wondering whether the original plan to run train tracks through sections of their town, and other Rhode Island and Connecticut towns, might not be dead after all.

Charlestown’s Town Administrator, Mark Stankiewicz, has written again to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) asking for clarification on the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study. The concern is that the study leaves open the door for new rail alignments that could negatively impact Charlestown’s residents and natural resources. The Town has had no response to its August letter to the FRA. The text of Mr. Stankiewicz’s newest letter to the FRA is in the post.

On November 3rd, 2021, a meeting took place between representatives of Charlestown and the RI DOT Director Peter Alviti and RI DOT Intermodal Programs Chief Stephen Devine. The meeting was requested to provide an update on the NEC Connect 2035 plan and specifically the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study.

At the Council meeting, I proposed a motion “to authorize Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz to take whatever action is necessary to protect the town” from changes to rail alignments or other proposals that may be made as part of the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study. The authorization is needed so that the Town can be nimble as circumstances unfold.

Town Council member Deb Carney recounted assurances from Amtrak CEO William Flynn at the August 10 Town Council Meeting that the most likely new route for a high-speed rail connection from New Haven to Providence would be along the I-95 corridor. As far as NEC Future is concerned, the route “more parallel to Route 95” is the Kenyon to Old Saybrook Bypass. And if we are to believe the verbal assurances of Flynn, rail officials are once again on a collision course with eastern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island.

We ask that the Town Council and our State Government Officials inform the Federal Railroad Administration that Charlestown should have a seat at the table on the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study; that there be a complete environmental impact study; and that we remain opposed to the Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass.

On July 16th the Connecticut Examiner reported that both of Connecticut’s senators support the just-announced Connect NEC 2035 that implements the first phase of the Federal Railroad Administration’s NEC Future plan. No mention was made of continued opposition to the Bypass. What was offered instead was a promise from Connecticut’s US Senator Chris Murphy to be “sensitive to existing communities that live by the rail.” This letter, written by Ruth Platner, was published in the CT Examiner as a response.

In 2016, the Federal Railway Administration released a plan to bisect Charlestown with a new high-speed track known as the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass”. The Northeast Corridor Commission has now released Connect NEC 2035. This plan does not include the Bypass, but what the maps in the release do have is a giant circle covering our region, indicating that high-speed rail in our area will be studied. The “New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study” is on the table, and that is extremely important and potentially dangerous for our town.

We can’t really think of any reason to mention these ‘dropped’ routes specifically in the Record of Decision, other than to guide later planning, and to assure that plans for the Kenyon to Old Saybrook Bypass, and Quadtracking between Branford and Guilford are reintroduced into decision making at a later date.

“Just in Charlestown, we had 19 pieces of open space that would have been affected, and we counted upwards of almost 100 pieces of private property,” said Filippi. “The rerouting in northern Charlestown was going to save about one minute of time and cost over a billion dollars to do. And it just didn’t make sense.” Video included

“We now place our faith in RIDOT and CTDOT to work with the FRA on a good-faith process to evaluate the New Haven to Providence corridor and impacts of the various route alternatives.”

Greg Stroud, “And let me say that the entire Northeast Corridor owes a debt of gratitude to the leadership and work, late in coming, but remarkably effective, from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, and the Charlestown government. It has been a model effort on their part as a local government. Let us all learn from them.”

Now, the new plan is calling for a studies in both Connecticut and Rhode Island to examine ways to improve service on this stretch. The FRA said those studies will be conducted by the states in conjunction with the FRA and other “stakeholders,” but the agency did not offer specifics on funding, costs or a timeframe.

Bowing to local pressure, the Federal Railroad Administration has dropped plans for a controversial new rail line from Old Saybrook CT to Richmond RI from its ambitious project to overhaul the railroad system in the Northeast corridor.

The official waiting period after the release of the Federal Railroad Administrations’s (FRA) Final Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement ended on January 31. The FRA could have published a Record […]

This beautiful essay by Ken Payne makes the case that keeping our curvy train tracks and the natural and historic landscapes the train passes through are vital to Rhode Island’s […]

Hamden, CT – (May 4) – With a final Record of Decision on NEC Future expected as soon as late May, the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is reaching out […]

With just weeks remaining before the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) completes a five-year NEC Future planning process, finalizing a ‘once-in-a-generation’ blueprint for rail travel and investment along the Northeast Corridor, advocates of historic, cultural and environmental resources in Connecticut are responding warily to recent statements from Connecticut DOT and FRA officials.

Their consensus was that the people along the Old Saybrook to Kenyon ByPass have to remain vigilant in their opposition and continue to document their positions in both town and state plans. Those currently in positions of power will not be those who make decisions in the future, and regardless of the current decisions, the communities must create documentation that protects historic buildings, open space, farms, and tribal lands. The struggle continues.

When: Thursday, March 30 at 7PM
Where: Kettle Pond Visitor Center, 50 Bend Rd., Charlestown
What: Status Update and Discussion on “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass”
Our guest speaker is Gregory Stroud, Ph.D., Director of Special Projects at the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. Greg is also the founder of the grassroots advocacy group on High-Speed Rail, SECoast.

Links below are to letters of opposition written by organizations or officials to the Federal Railroad Administration. We don’t yet have links to all documents. If we’ve missed anything, please […]

The following post was published by SECoast and is shared with us here by the Executive Director of SECoast Gregory Stroud. Greg has summed up all the new developments in […]

The portion of the project along the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island would be devastating to historic communities … In addition, we wish to emphasize that, in our view, the proposed project fails to comply with Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act.

In sum, we urge the Federal Railroad Administration to remove from its Tier 1 Record of Decision the portions of the project in Connecticut and Rhode Island that involve bypasses on new alignment and other draconian impacts on historic resources. Instead, the agency should conduct more detailed reviews to develop feasible and prudent alternatives that would avoid and minimize harm to these resources.

The “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” portion of the proposal lies within or runs immediately adjacent to the focus area for the Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge, where land acquisition authority has been granted to conserve important fish and wildlife resources.

The proposal could have substantial effects on managing these species over time, including impacts to habitat connectivity, direct habitat loss, reduction in habitat quality adjacent to the rail lines, and the direct reduction in available habitat.

We believe that it would be an error to embed the bypass in the NEC Future project in Tier 1. The impacts in Rhode Island and its extraordinary costs balanced against its actual benefits in our state do not appear to warrant it. The requisite level of detailed environmental review in Tier 1 is not present; therefore it is critical not to have the bypass embedded in the project through a Tier 1 ROD. Your openness to taking our position into account is appreciated.

On behalf of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Connecticut’s statewide historic preservation advocacy organization, and SECoast, our special project dedicated to organizing and educating the public to protect Southeastern Connecticut and the Lower Connecticut River Valley, we submit the following comments to provide feedback on the Preferred Alternative and the contents of the Tier 1 Final EIS for NEC Future.

We have organized a notable volume of informed commentary on the NEC Future Plan, but remain concerned that the Federal Railroad Administration has not acknowledged public, municipal, legislative, or Congressional concerns expressed in two states about their fundamentally flawed planning process, insufficient public outreach, or un-substantiated inclusion of the Old Saybrook to Kenyon bypass in the F-EIS.

We seek your explanation as to whether you can legally alter the selected alternative in the ROD and remove the Westerly-Hopkinton-Charlestown-South Kingstown bypass as the state and communities have requested. If the FRA has the authority to remove the bypass as part of the alternative selected in the Tier I EIS ROD, we would ask that you exercise that authority.

We also write to reiterate that Rhode Island, specifically Providence, must remain a central part of the NEC. Any alternative that results in service bypassing the state is completely unacceptable.

Despite bone chilling cold and wet and some roads still covered from an overnight snow, a crowd of well over 100 gathered in the path of the proposed rail bypass […]

Julie Carroccia spoke on behalf of Charlestown at the Rally against the Bypass held in Mystic Connecticut on February 11, 2017. Other speakers were US Senator Richard Blumenthal, Loren Spears […]

It is crucial not to let the proposed Bypass go to Tier 2. By stopping it now, you will: Ensure fast rail service to Providence; Create jobs now; Save Money; Save time and avoid costly lawsuits; Save farms and open space; Join with colleagues in the State of CT …

The state of Rhode Island, municipalities, foundations, non-profit organizations and the federal government have made considerable investments to protect these preserves and other properties in Rhode Island’s communities for their natural resource (including habitat for rare and endangered species, watershed and water quality protection), cultural, and public recreational values. These investments were NOT made with the intention of creating a “land bank” that could be used as the “path of least resistance” for new transportation infrastructure such as the proposed new rail corridor being considered for the bypass.

You can learn more about the Rhode Island Land Trust Council at their website.

Though I fully support the critical aspects of the NEC FUTURE Tier 1 Final EIS referenced above, I do not support the Rhode Island portion of the Old Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass as it is currently proposed.

The route the Bypass takes in Rhode Island cuts through environmentally sensitive conservation land, drinking water resources, Narragansett Indian tribal land, family farms, and historic districts. I encourage FRA to move any decisions on realignment through this segment of Rhode Island into a Tier 2 process, which will allow for a more complete evaluation of these environmental and community concerns.

Because of the many and extreme negative environmental and cultural impacts that would be caused by the new rail segment known as the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” we ask that the Bypass be removed from the plan before the Record of Decision. Supporting the removal of the Bypass doesn’t mean we are against improving high-speed rail. The Acela is already traveling around 100 miles per hour in Charlestown. Keeping the train in its current alignment would save over a billion dollars in Charlestown alone. With a more practical vision we could get investment in rail in the right places and in the right way and we could get it a lot sooner without sacrificing Narragansett Tribal land, public parklands, protected open space, wetlands, tourism assets, active farms, historic mill villages, and private homes.

This video is from the January 25, 2017 Rally at the Rhode Island State House to Drop the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” from the Federal Railroad Administration Tier 1 […]

I have personally heard from hundreds of constituents who oppose the proposed realignment in Washington County, and I want them to know that I have heard their concerns and I support their community,” said Langevin. “I am a strong proponent of high-speed rail, but I believe there must be a solution that modernizes intercity passenger rail in Rhode Island without disturbing ecosystems, impinging on property rights, and threatening the natural beauty of Charlestown and surrounding areas.

Shortly before the State House Rally to protect and support our parks and hiking trails, Narragansett Tribal land, historic neighborhoods, active farms, wetlands, homes, and more, Charlestown Town Council President […]

The Federal Railroad Administration’s new rail line proposal known as the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” would bisect The Nature Conservancy’s 1,112 acre Carter Preserve and leave half of its […]

Maps, photos, and descriptive text by Cliff Vanover. Information in this post from NEC Future Tier 1 Final EIS – Chapter 7.12 Noise and Vibration. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) […]

Going to the January 25 4:30 pm State House Rally against the Bypass and for all the wonderful things we might lose?

You can bring signs that state your objection to the Bypass, but please note that Capitol Police do not allow any handles on the placards, so they should be sturdy enough to hold up and not flex too much.

Need ideas for signs? Here are some slogans that have been proposed.

Really?! Missing from the Westerly Sun’s Monday, Jan. 16, “Highs and Lows” was any mention of a meeting in Charlestown that was attended by well over 400 people!

I urge the editor to give “Highs and Lows” ink to the hearing that brought overwhelming opposition to the proposed new tracks through Charlestown. I also urge your readers to look closely at the issue and to email their comments to the Federal Railroad Administration at amtrak-comments@charlestownri.org by the Tuesday, Jan. 31, deadline. Anyone, not just someone from Charlestown, can send a comment to the Federal Railroad Administration at this address.

What: Attend a Rally to protect and support our Parks and Hiking Trails, Narragansett Tribal land, Historic Neighborhoods, Active Farms, your home, and more
Where: Inside the Rotunda of the State House in Providence
When: 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 25
How: Get on the bus with us! – Meet at Charlestown Town hall at 2:00 p.m.
RSVP: Please read the whole post, you have to reserve a seat on bus. Even if you drive yourself, there are rules for signs at statehouse, and more in this post that you will need to know.
Yes: It’s more important to attend the Rally than traveling to Springfield for FRA “open house”!

Note from CCA: This Press Release from Senator Reed’s Office does not give a specific date for the extension except it would be at “least several weeks”. That would put […]

On Wednesday, Charlestown Council President Virginia Lee and Vice President Julie Carroccia along with Westerly Town Council President Jamie Silvestri and Westerly Councilman Jean Gagnier led a delegation of Charlestown and Westerly residents representing some of the groups impacted by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) plan to a meeting at the State House.

The delegation’s goal was to bring these deficiencies to the attention of the Governor so that she could be fully aware of the negative impacts in Charlestown and nearby Westerly and Richmond. Keeping the high speed rail in the current right of way will avoid all of these impacts, save the state of Rhode Island millions of taxpayer dollars and still allow for modern high speed rail transportation to link Providence to Boston and New York.

Every State Senator and State Representative that represent the towns of Washington County have signed a letter in opposition to the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass”. The letter was sent to our Congressional Delegation and Governor. They have sent a similar letter to the Federal Railroad Administration. We are most grateful to all our South County Legislators for their support in removing the “Bypass” from the FRA’s long term planning. Thank you!!

The Federal Railroad Administration claims in their Tier 1 Final EIS that from Washington DC to Boston they do not impact any tribal land. In Charlestown however, the proposed new […]

Charlestown Town Council President and Vice President Press Release Officials and volunteers from the Town of Charlestown held a constructive conference call with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Friday, January […]

“This has been one of my family’s favorite hiking spots for the last 20 years or more. I’ve grown up in those woods, on these trails and can’t imagine my life without them. Not only has it been educational learning about the ecosystem and wildlife that resides there but it’s a place of tranquility. To say that I’m opposed to the proposal set forth by the Federal Railroad Administration is an understatement.”

Bypass would destroy the bucolic Burdickville village, demolish the historic districts of Columbia Heights and Kenyon, ruin the productive fourth-generation Stoney Hill Farm, divide The Nature Conservancy’s treasured 1100-acre Carter Preserve, demolish the preserved Revolutionary-era Amos Green Farm, and invade other protected conservation lands, all to enable long-distance passengers to traverse our town a minute faster than current rail transport allows. The inestimable and irreversible environmental costs to our town for that minute saved (to do what?) are staggering.

“In doing so it bisects the Frances C. Carter Memorial Reserve. This reserve was completely overlooked in the EIS analysis. The straightening also manages to cut through the Amos Green Farm and the Stoney Hill Cattle Co, which is a 4th Generation Family Farm. It also fills in wetlands at the Burlingame Wild Life Preserve and the Great Swamp Management Area in Kingston. Because the trains already travel at high speeds, it is difficult to see why this expenditure is needed. And the few seconds (if any gained) hardly justify the economic and environmental damage done by rerouting the tracks.”

On Tuesday, January 10, after listening to testimony from many of the more than 500 citizens who had gathered to protest the proposal for construction of new rail lines through […]

We are here to defend the natural and human resources that this proposal destroys. This preferred route includes the degradation of homes, farms, our watershed and conserved lands of the Nature Conservancy, local Land Trusts, RIDEM, Tribal and municipalities. We have a legal obligation to object to the sale, degradation or taking of these lands. There are legally binding conservation easements and management plans attached to conserved properties, with the intent of preservation in perpetuity. Perpetuity meaning forever, protected on the basis of common trust and not to be violated.

This short film was created by Carla Ricci, owner of the Amos Greene Farm. The historic Amos Greene Farm is one of the many farms or parklands protected by conservation easements along the path of the proposed train route through Westerly, Charlestown and Richmond. Those easements protect the land from a change of use by future owners, developers, and state and local government. Will they be strong enough to stand up to the state of Rhode Island if the Federal Government is their partner? Where the state holds the easement, they have a legal obligation to enforce the easement – even enforce it against another state agency. Contracts are not always followed, especially when no one is watching, but we are watching and ready to fight!

We begin at the border of Richmond, heading west southwest towards NYC on the proposed bypass route. As noted in the recent post about the impact of the bypass on the village of Kenyon, at the border of Charlestown and Richmond the tracks would be carried aloft on a nearly 1/2 mile bridge roughly 25 or 30 vertical feet above the Pawcatuck River, wetlands and floodplain, and more importantly, high enough above the existing tracks to allow trains below to pass, since the existing tracks would still be used were the bypass built.

This video follows the path of a proposed new pair of train tracks through Charlestown. The existing tracks will remain for freight and slower trains. The new tracks are for […]

The EIS, planning, and preliminary engineering etc., is prepared by Parsons Brinkerhoff/AECOM Joint Venture. It’s reported that $40 million has been spent so far on this planning process. How hard would it be to spend a few more pennies to write a letter stating that the plan includes “new rails and a new rail route in your community”. Or better yet, why not have included the towns in the scoping process from the very beginning?

Since the mid 20th century, when many railroad companies went bankrupt and abandoned miles of rail beds, an effort has been underway to turn their defunct rights-of-way into parkland for bicyclers and walkers, popularly called “Rails to Trails.”

Under the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) proposal in Charlestown, the existing rail lines will not be converted to trails, they will remain to be used for rolling freight and slower trains. Charlestown would end up with four rails, the existing rail lines that run from Kenyon, through Shannock, Carolina, and Wood River Junction, and two new high speed rails running through over 2000 acres of parkland, including the 1,112 acre Francis Carter Preserve.

They express a “Don’t worry, relax” attitude, which is hardly reassuring because an examination of the proposed bypass, especially in Richmond where it begins, clearly shows the route has been carefully sited to take into account the existing topography of the land, as well as the many buildings, other structures and roads in the way of the proposed bypass. So moving this section is probably not an option. The designers and engineers have chosen the best possible route, for them, but not for those who live close by.

Westerly Sun — Narragansett Medicine Man John Brown said Monday that the tribe has not received any notifications from the Federal Railroad Administration about the Old Saybrook to Kenyon proposal that would impact tribal lands.

“It seems like a lot of entities and agencies were not included and I am concerned about any Finding of No Significant Impact or any attempt to publish a Record of Decision,” he said. “Those two determinations are central to any project moving forward.”

This is an updated map and post from our December 27 post on this subject. We’ve added farms and more permanently protected open space parcels to this map. The map […]

The FRA plans to bisect our town with a new high-speed track that runs from its western edge through homes in the bucolic Burdickville village, across a four-generation farm-to-table operation on top of Schumankanuc Hill, over Native-American tribal land through the center of the 1,100-acre Carter Preserve (owned by The Nature Conservancy), and splitting the Revolutionary-era Amos Green Farm, adjacent properties protected by conservation easements, and federally funded Historic Columbia Heights housing, to reconnect with the existing railroad near the eastern edge of town.

What these comments tell us is that the draft EIS didn’t make the impacts to South County at all clear. Now that they are clearer, would these same reviewers still have little or nothing to say about the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass”? This lack of clarity and specificity in the Draft EIS is one more reason why there ought to be an extension of the comment period on the Final EIS from January 31 to April 1, 2017.

On December 23, The Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association released the following statement about the Federal Railroad Administration Plan to create new rail lines in Charlestown and other affected towns. “The […]

The map above shows the approximate path of the proposed new rail lines through Charlestown Rhode Island in red. The existing rails are in black. The areas shaded in green […]

The Westerly Town Council has written a letter requesting help from US Senators Reed and Whitehouse and US Representative Langevin in opposing the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass”. The image […]

The following letter was submitted to NEC Future as a request for an extension to the comment period on the Tier 1 Final EIS and is shared with us here […]

The above map shows the path of the proposed new rail lines through Charlestown Rhode Island in red. The existing rails are in black. The grey shaded areas are Rhode […]

It’s the holiday season, but there is a January 31 deadline fast approaching to oppose the Kenyon to Old Saybrook bypass, and you want to know what you can do?

Write to NEC Future now and ask for an extension in the deadline!

The Federal Railway Administration’s Holiday gift to South County is one we may all want to return, but the Federal process requires that we write and tell NEC Future that.

Please email or write and then share the post.

By KENDRA GRAVELLE – Chariho Times
“One of the options on the table was that there would be a bullet train from Boston to New York and that Providence would get bypassed,” said Chip Unruh, press secretary at the office of Senator Jack Reed. “So [Reed] was pleased to see that Providence wouldn’t get bypassed. This gives thousands of Rhode Islanders increased transportation options, and is extremely important for local businesses. It makes our state a more attractive place to do business.”

Connecticut’s US Senator Richard Blumenthal held a town meeting at the Old Lyme Connecticut Town Hall at noon on Thursday, December 22 to discuss the Federal Railroad Administration’s plan for the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon” bypass.

He said this proposal must be countered and combated, it must not be allowed to be approved as a plan.

Charlestown resident Kevin Tanner has set up a petition at MoveOn.org to let State and Federal officials know there is local opposition to the proposed railway path in Charlestown. The […]

Below is a Topographic map showing the proposed rail lines, the Pawcatuck River, and two conservation areas owned by the Westerly Land Trust. Click on the map for a larger […]

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released their final EIS on Friday to straighten the tracks of the Northeast Corridor. This is nearing the end of the EIS process, but did […]

One week before Christmas the Federal Railroad Administration has released their Environmental Impact Statement to straighten the tracks of the Northeast Corridor over the next several decades.

• Impacted communities have 30 days to respond
• Cost of this proposal at around $130 billion
• New rail lines would cut off 45 minutes of travel time between New York and Boston – but how much time in Charlestown is not known
• Rerouting the rails through the Grills Preserve in Westerly, and Burdickville Rd. Area in Charlestown, cutting through the Carter Preserve, then transecting the Amos Green Farm, Columbia Heights, and Kenyon, and many other homes and properties along the way