Charlestown invites residents to meet the team behind Amtrak's New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study

Charlestown Asks Residents to Face the Boogeyman

Adriana Vossari, RI & Local Government News

The study covers the rail corridor through southern Rhode Island and could shape future track alignments, speeds and service. Charlestown residents have a direct channel to comment while the work is still at the conceptual stage.

The Town of Charlestown is inviting residents to meet with the Amtrak team running a new study of the rail corridor between New Haven and Providence — the same 65-mile stretch that produced a proposal a decade ago to cut a high-speed bypass straight through town.

The invitation appears on the town's website under the heading "Public Invitation: Amtrak Northeast Corridor Study Team Community Engagement." Charlestown has maintained a dedicated page for Amtrak matters since the last round of federal rail planning, including an email address, amtrak-comments@charlestownri.org, for residents who want their comments on the record with the town.

The study itself began in May and is scheduled to run through May 2028, according to Amtrak's announcement of the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study. It covers the Northeast Corridor main line between the two cities plus the connecting corridor through Hartford toward Springfield, and it accounts for Amtrak intercity trains, CTrail's Shore Line East and Hartford Line, and MBTA commuter rail. The Federal Railroad Administration awarded Amtrak up to $4 million on November 6, 2023, to complete the work.

What the study will and will not do matters for anyone worried about their property. Amtrak says the current phase is limited to conceptual design and analysis of alternatives. It does not include detailed engineering, land acquisition or construction. Any improvements that come out of it would then have to move through the CONNECT NEC and Capital Investment Plan processes, and later stages would depend on funding that has not been appropriated.

Amtrak also states plainly that the study "does not include a preconceived preferred alternative alignment or set of improvements," and that it will not build on NEC Future, the 2012-2017 federal planning effort. The company's own summary acknowledges that the earlier process was "unable to undertake the levels of public engagement necessary to respond to concerns raised by the public regarding that proposal."

That proposal is why Charlestown pays attention. In December 2016, the FRA published a Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement naming the "Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass" as a preferred alternative. New track would have entered Charlestown from Westerly, crossed the town from its western edge to its eastern edge, and rejoined the existing line near the Great Swamp State Wildlife Management Area in South Kingstown. The route ran through Burdickville village, the Carter Preserve, the Revolutionary-era Amos Green Farm, tribal land and Historic Columbia Heights housing.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Amtrak is facing handicaps at least as severe as they were in 2017 with train-hating Donald Trump in the White House and conservative Republicans in control of Congress. With no funding or political support, the Kenyon Bypass never stood a chance.  - Will Collette

Town officials learned about it from news coverage. An online petition against the plan gathered more than 1,500 signatures within days. A public meeting in Charlestown on January 10, 2017 drew more than 400 residents along with state and federal staff. Two weeks later, Charlestown and Westerly council members led a delegation of residents to the State House.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlestown Citizens Alliance leader and Town Council President Tom Gentz admitted publicly that Charlestown had received earlier notice in a large document that he and his CCA colleagues had failed to read.  - Will Collette

On July 12, 2017, the FRA issued a Record of Decision that removed the track realignment proposal from the New Haven-to-Providence section and instead directed Connecticut and Rhode Island to collaborate on a capacity planning study. That is the study now underway. It was the win Charlestown wanted, and it also created the process that could revisit alignment questions.

The corridor's underlying problems have not changed: limited capacity and curved shoreline track that holds down train speeds.

Amtrak plans roughly 30 outreach events across the study area, beginning with appearances at community events this summer, and says it will form a public advisory committee. Not everyone is satisfied with that approach. Gregory Stroud, editor-in-chief of CT Examiner, who helped lead the opposition to the earlier proposal, has questioned whether pop-up appearances can adequately explain a complicated planning process, and said his concerns extend to how the study itself is structured.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Stroud and his CCA collaborator Ruth Platner have attempted to keep this issue alive for their own purposes even though the Kenyon Bypass issue flatlined almost a decade ago. It has helped Stroud build readership for his website and helped Platner whip up fear among the Charlestown electorate.  - Will Collette

Amtrak has set up a project website and email address where residents can ask questions, submit feedback, ask about upcoming public meetings and sign up for periodic updates. Charlestown residents who want their input logged locally as well can write to the town's Amtrak comment address. The full announcement of the study is posted on Amtrak's media site, and the town's Amtrak page collects the 2016-2017 record at charlestownri.gov.