Federal Board Next Stop In Sudbury Transmission Line Case

SUDBURY, MA — After a loss last week in the state's highest court, a group opposing an Eversource transmission line project in Sudbury are looking to a federal agency for help.

On Friday, the state Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) upheld a 2019 decision granting Eversource permission to bury transmission lines along a 4.3-mile former rail corridor. As part of the project, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation would build a paved trail on top of the buried lines as part of a link in the Mass Central Rail Trail.

Anticipating the negative SJC ruling, Protect Sudbury President Ray Phillips said the group in March asked the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to declare the MBTA corridor as an active freight railway. Among other functions, the STB regulates whether freight rail lines can be sold or repurposed.

If the STB agrees the MBTA corridor is "active," that could overrule any previous state decisions on the matter — including the 2019 Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) decision that gave the green light to Eversource, Phillips said.

"We're 95 percent sure we'll reach that affirmation," Phillips said.

The rail corridor hasn't been literally active with trains since 1971. But Phillips said burying the transmission lines would prevent the corridor from ever being used for train travel again. The MBTA in the 1970s was studying whether to use the corridor for a new commuter rail line.

In a reply to Protect Sudbury's STB petition, the MBTA said it bought the former Boston & Maine Corporation railway in the 1970s outright, and did not seek permission to allow freight trains to use the tracks. The Boston & Maine company was granted an easement to use the tracks for freight, but a federal court discontinued that easement in 1980.

"Based upon the foregoing facts, it is evident that the subject Petition is [Protect Sudbury's] attempt at an end-run around previously-concluded and currently-pending state court actions, and that [Protect Sudbury] hopes through the petition to persuade the Board to override applicable state law upholding MBTA’s prerogative," an MBTA response to Protect Sudbury's STB filing said.

Phillips said it could be several more months before the STB makes a ruling due to board's workload around the pending merger between CSX and Pan Am railways.