A massive proposal that could plug the commuter rail gap from New London to Wickford, improve rail traffic along the entire Northeast Corridor, is chugging along and won some much-needed help in a recent meeting between Gov. Dan McKee and other state officials, and Westerly town officials.
What it eventually looks like is still to be determined, and at best officials believe its completion is at least five to 10 years off.
What they do know is that if completed it will be an economic and commuter boon to businesses like Electric Boat in Connecticut and Quonset, and their employees. The move comes at a time that EB is anticipating the addition of nearly 20,000 employees over the next decade.
In the meeting, Westerly officials said Governor McKee gave his support for the expansion of Shoreline East from New London to Westerly, said he would try to persuade Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont to do the same, and state Transportation Director Peter Alviti said a study has begun to assess future use of the Westerly station if improvements are made to the station,
Chris Duhamel, Westerly Town Council president, said the immediate aim is to get the project on a priority list for federal funding. Officials believe that the chances of receiving federal funds improve considerably if it is a two-state effort.
What’s being discussed:
- Extending Connecticut’s Shoreline East Commuter Rail from New London to Westerly at a projected cost of $243 million, according to a 2023 Eastern Connecticut Corridor Rail and Transit feasibility study. That plan would require raising the platform at Westerly’s historic train station. It also calls for new stations at Groton and Stonington, and improvements or a new station in Mystic.
- An extension of Shoreline East to Norwich, at a projected cost of $636 million.
- Just raising the platform at the Westerly Station, re-built over 112 years ago by the New Haven Railroad, would cost an estimated $20 to $30 million, officials said. The result, according to reports and officials, would likely double the number of stops by Amtrak from five trains a day to 10, substantially increasing rail traffic at the station that’s now about 50,000 passengers annually. The original station, at the same location, was built in 1837.
- Extending commuter rail beyond Westerly to Wickford, thus eliminating the only gap in commuter rail in the Northeast.
Funding, according to a July report by the Rhode Island Association of Railroad Passengers, if just for the elevated Westerly station platform, would come from a number of rail grant programs through the Federal Railroad Administration. If it becomes a two-state commuter rail project, it is likely to become eligible for funding through the Federal Transit Administration.
But nothing is certain.
“Although federal funding for rail projects has never been so plentiful is nonetheless finite, which means the Westerly Station upgrade project will have to compete with many other deserving projects nationwide,” said the Association report, authored by Alexander Berardo, West Bay coordinator for the Passengers’ Association.
According to the Passenger Association’s report, the initial project would be to elevate the platforms at the Westerly station.
“Installing high platforms at Westerly will pave the way for Rhode Island and Connecticut to close the only gap in commuter rail between Boston and New York,” the association said. “The Westerly station upgrade project can stand on its merits. The benefits would accrue not only to a single small town in southern Rhode Island, but also to the overall system into which it is integrated – the Northeast Corridor.”
In the meeting last week, Alviti told Westerly officials that a study is already underway to project future rail travel if the Westerly platform is elevated. Westerly is only one of four of the 28 station stops that Amtrak’s Northeast Regional intercity rail service makes that are exclusively low platform stations. The others are Mystic, Connecticut; Newark, Delaware; and Aberdeen, Maryland. Newark and Aberdeen are already slated for improvements.
The Alviti study is similar to the one conducted in anticipation of construction of the Pawtucket-Central Falls station, which opened in 2023 at a cost of $62 million.
High level platforms provide operational and accessibility improvements, which accommodates commuter rail, and would increase Amtrak stops. Low level platforms, the Passengers’ Association, said “present accessibility challenges for riders and trigger extended dwell times at station.”
Higher platforms mean level boarding, which expedites passenger flow by providing stair-free access. Stairs, the Association said, are “cumbersome to navigate” for handicap riders or carrying luggage on board.
