By Patrick Donges
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-983621.mp3
Pittsfield, MA – Throughout the week, the Housatonic Railroad Company, which currently runs freight along 161 miles of rail lines, has held public meetings with regional planners in Pittsfield and Connecticut to reveal the results of their latest analysis of the benefits of local passenger rail service.
The company teamed up with Stephen Sheppard, professor of economics at Williams College in Williamstown, to examine what passenger rail could bring to the Berkshires in terms of jobs and revenue.
Up until the rise of Amtrak about 40 years ago, residents could ride the rails from the Massachusetts-Connecticut border up to North Adams. Colin Pease, Vice President of Special Projects at the Housatonic Railroad Company, said the results of Sheppard's analysis are encouraging.
"Our proposed project would generate $625 million in additional goods and services for the region this rail line serves. Equally as important, he found that we would be generating 733 new jobs for the region during the construction phase of the work and 610 new jobs year-in and year-out once the service begins to run."
Along with those figures, the report also notes a positive effect on the housing market by raising property values and creating new opportunities for potential second homeowners and a positive effect on tourism throughout the region; Lauri Klefos is President and CEO of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau.
"I am so thrilled with the results."
"I had put them in touch with Steve Sheppard because he does economic impact models for a lot of our local cultural institutions and whenever we have big events; his numbers are always conservative and very well respected. And, the results are more than I expected, so it's very exciting."
Klefos attended a briefing earlier this week at the Pittsfield office of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission to discuss both Sheppard's study and a separate survey study recently completed by Northampton-based research firm Market Street Research on potential riders; here's Pease.
"What they found was that the type of service we're proposing would attract 2 million one-way riders per year. It is a number that makes the service sustainable and makes us confident we can run it without a public operating subsidy."
Pease also noted that in setting out the parameters for Sheppard's study they only examined those benefits that could be immediately measured quantitatively, disregarding those that may come as a result of the service. Those outlying benefits include the potential for redevelopment of vacant mill buildings along the line and, as Klefos notes, the addition of a unique travel option across the county.
"There is no way to measure the impact of just the appearance of rail coming to the Berkshires."
"Rail is coming back; it's a trend that went away and is coming back, so there are people that love to ride the rail. Will it bring people that just want to ride the rail, who aren't coming here for a specific show or a specific reason, but just want to ride the rail?"
Pease said the positive results means the company will move forward towards actually beginning work on the line.
"We're very encouraged by the numbers and we are definitely moving forward. We are now going through a refinement process where we're analyzing a fair structure and back talking to people trying to basically create a fair structure that is competitive and that will attract people."
"Once we do that we will then be in a position where we can finalize our financials and then come up with a financing plan, and we hope to do that this fall."
According to Pease, that financing could include both private and public money, noting that while the company has not been in touch with federal officials, state officials in both Massachusetts and Connecticut have expressed an interest in the project.
"We do believe that a portion of the service can be financed publically, and some of it will be financed privately. We haven't broken down what that split will be, but it will result in the need for a public-private partnership."
Pease said the total cost for reconstruction of the rail lines to accommodate passenger cars, upgrading cars and locomotives, and building stations will be $200 million, which he said was considerably cheaper when compared to other regional rail projects.
In a report published Wednesday in the Berkshire Eagle, Massachusetts State Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli was cautiously optimistic about the prospects for public funding for the project, saying there isn't much "appetite" in Washington or Boston for that level of funding.