Commuter Rail Expansion in the Buzzards Bay Watershed
June 2008: Legislators appropriate funds for studies of the expansion of the Lakeville rail line to Wareham and Buzzards Bay. Read this Standard Times newspaper article: Wareham rail plan gets boost.
Last Meeting
Representative Susan Gifford, Representative Bill Straus and Senator Marc Pacheco hosted their third meeting of discussions regarding the potential station locations for a proposed Wareham and Buzzards Bay commuter rail extension on Wednesday, October 24, 2007, 7:00 to 8:00 PM at the Wareham Town Hall Auditorium on the second floor. (Read the Meeting Notice.) The purpose of the meeting was to obtain feedback, gauge interest, and hear concerns from area residents.Purpose of this Page
There is considerable interest about expanding commuter rail line services into the Buzzards Bay watershed. Expansion of commuter rail service can have important economic and social benefits to communities. At the same time, it is important for planners to carefully consider the locations of new lines, stations, and parking areas in order to minimize impacts to the environment, traffic, and abutting properties. Municipalities must also adopt or change their general and zoning bylaws to best encourage new development to meet their "Smart Growth" and "Low Impact Development" goals. The purpose of this page is to provide citizens, planners, regulators, and legislators with information and links about these rail expansions, so that decisions will be made that provide the greatest public benefit with the least environmental impact.
Southeastern Massachusetts existing and
planned commuter rails, and disused lines.
Large map.
XLarge print quality map.
Background
Southeastern Massachusetts is the fastest growing region in Massachusetts, and among the fastest growing areas in the Northeastern United States. More than 200,000 new people are forecasted to move to the region in the next 20 years. Major regional transportation improvement projects, like the proposed MBTA Commuter Rail Extensions to Fall River and New Bedford, and the Rt. 3 & Rt. 24 widening (together costing more than 1.6 billion dollars), will create new growth pressures that area municipalities must address. For these reasons it is important that Buzzards Bay communities adopt comprehensive strategies to better manage new growth, particularly pollutant discharges associated with stormwater and wastewater from developed and redeveloped areas.Existing and abandoned rail lines
Existing MBTA Commuter Rail Line Rail Line
The existing MBTA rail line is operated and managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and includes Amtrak service. Detailed maps of this service are available on the MBTA commuter rail website.South Coast Rail Project
The South Coast Rail Project is an effort to restore passenger rail transportation from South Station in Boston to the cities of Fall River and New Bedford. The ongoing and lingering debate holding up this project (besides financing) is whether it is best to make this connection to New Bedford and Fall River via the Stoughton, Attleboro, or Middleborough terminuses of the MBTA commuter rail branches.To help advance the process and receive feedback, a South Coast Rail Project website has been established. Additional information about this project is available on SRPEDD's Southeastern Massachusetts Commuter Rail Task Force page.
Read also this April 2007 Governor Patrick press release on New Bedford- Fall River Rail System.
Large map of South Coast Rail Project.
Existing rail line through Rochester, Wareham, and Buzzards Bay village. Large Wareham map.
XLarge print quality map (3.3 MB JPG).
Pdf version of this map (2.4 MB pdf).
Pdf version with wetlands / rare habitat (3.4 MB pdf).
Sites discussed at 8/22/07 meeting
Tremont Nail Site
Vicinity of Bennys Department Store
County Road Area at Wareham-Rochester Border
Wareham Buzzards Bay Commuter Rail Expansion
The option of extending the existing commuter MBTA rail line that terminates in Lakeville-Middleborough, and bringing this service through Wareham and into the village of Buzzards Bay in Bourne has been repeatedly discussed. The existing rail line already serves freight trains and limited passenger service. For a commuter rail service, the railroad beds would need to be improved, and parking and terminal facilities would need to be planned, sited, and constructed. However, the costs of these upgrades would be relatively small (possibly less than $100 million, read this article), as compared to the 1.4 billion dollar Fall River-New Bedford expansion. Unlike the South Coast Rail Project, the Wareham-Buzzards Bay Village extension has not yet entered the planning phase (read this NBST article about local legislators seeking to begin this process).In the panel to the right is an aerial photograph showing property abutters, environmental, and physical features of the region that would need to be considered in the planning process for this commuter rail extension. Construction of public facilities in the Velocity Zone is discouraged because these areas are subject to severe erosion during hurricanes and other severe storms, however virtually none of the rail line is within the velocity zone. Most of the rail line in Wareham is in the 100-year flood plain, however structures in these areas need only meet certain building codes, and may be affected by high higher flood insurance rates. Projects in the Coastal Zone Boundary that receive federal funds require a federal consistency review by CZM.
View also:
13 Panel maps of Wareham rail abutters, superimposed on topographic maps (3.5 MB pdf file).
Map of Rochester rail abutters, superimposed on a topographic map (168 kb pdf file).
Area residents: Please take this Town of Wareham Survey and provide your feedback.
Wareham Commuter Rail Meetings
A groups of area legislators have held public meetings obtain feedback, gauge interest, and hear concerns from area residents about a potential commuter rail expansion to Wareham. Meetings were held on July 26, 2007 (newspaper article) and August 22, 2007 (meeting notice). The next meeting will be at night, sometime in the latter half of September.SRPEDD Reports and Information
The Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District (SRPEDD), located in Taunton, has previously conducted studies that relate to a commuter rail expansion into Wareham. The links below open documents and information on their website that may be of interest.Chapter 10: Commuter Rails (A chapter in the 2007 Regional Transportation Plan. Page 10 discuss siting an intermodal transportation center near Tremont Nail and Mill Pond.)
Transportation Oriented Development (PowerPoint slide show).
Surveys of Commuter Rail Users (PowerPoint slide show).