$460 Million Proposal To Electrify North Shore Train Service

BEVERLY, MA — At a time when the MBTA is cutting service to make up for a year when people stayed home, a public transportation advocacy group is pushing for $460 million in investments to the Newburyport/Rockport commuter line to help get people back out and about along the North Shore as the coronavirus health crisis hopefully wanes.

The electrification of the trains, as well as adding proposed "high-level platforms" and some station infill, will provide a "fast, frequent, electrified, all-day train service" to the North Shore, according to the TransitMatters, which published its study on Wednesday.

TransitMatters said the study shows the electrification would cut 18 minutes from the Boston-to-Newburyport trip, 23 minutes from Boston-to-Rockport and would allow train service every 10 minutes in Salem — similar to subway service.

TransitMatters also recommends restoring the Peabody Branch to Danvers and an extension to Downtown Newburyport.

"Running the service more frequently throughout the day, and doing it reliably helps more people use it — and doing it electrically helps the environment," Regional Rail Coordinator Ethan Finlan told Patch.

(The full study can be found here.)

The group argues to get away from viewing the train service as strictly a "commuter rail" for those working traditional business hours because that relegates the public transportation source to "being a very large infrastructure that has to be maintained for a small group of people."

Making the trains more efficient, more frequent and more accessible, Finlan said, opens the service up to those who will likely work less-traditional hours in the wake of the pandemic, as well as those who want to use public transportation in place of cars to explore the North Shore for tourism and recreation.

"Why spend all this money?" he rhetorically asked of the $460 million price tag. "When you electrify the system you not only make it more reliable, you improve the service in the long run. Electric trains break down less frequently and making them electric also make them cheaper to run."

Finlan said the MBTA has already endorsed the concept of commuter rail electrification as part of its modern transportation theory, but publishing the study is a way of keeping that ideal at the forefront as the role of public transportation is debated post-pandemic.

That the MBTA is cutting service just as people are expected to become more mobile with coronavirus vaccinations and the hope of fewer restrictions is flawed logic, according to the advocacy group.

"This TransitMatters report outlines a clear and transformative plan to electrify the Newburyport/Rockport line in a way that will reduce travel times, protect our environment and expand ridership," State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn, Marblehead, Swampscott) said. "We must urgently put this plan into action and assure that all communities — particularly those within the Environment Justice Corridor — have access to a more efficient, affordable and reliable commuter rail system."

Finlan said the MBTA's projection that it could take years for train demand to come back is inaccurate and potentially self-fulfilling.

"Every time there is a major cutback in frequency there is no formula they can use to say when it's time to bring it back," Finlan said. "If any option is available, people are more likely to use it. If not, they will drive and add congestion to the roads and the need for more parking lots — which we all love — or they are not going to go. They are going to go someplace else or stay home.

"So (cutting service) is penny wise and pound foolish.

Finlan said rather than be burdened by the memory of "Big Dig" massive cost overruns, the MBTA should be emboldened through its perseverance with the Green Line extension project through the pandemic where threatened cost balloons were mitigated.

"It's not cheap," he said. "But it's an investment in a much better transit system."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)