The New Bedford map, shown in the Southeast Region public presentation, does not accurately depict the current rail layout. In particular, it lacks the EPA sludge facility with rail access right to the water.

Boston has a responsibility to put Safety & Security at the top of the list before expansion occurs, whether for economic reasons or not.  Perhaps the Boston Colleges and Universities would contribute endowment funds to provide new safety technology on the rail systems to protect their students and others in the City - it would be a noble cause for their funds.  The Commonwealth needs to start putting Safety and Security first in all of its transportation planning analysis.

An important rail project would be the extension of the Middleborough Line to Buzzards Bay. Such a linkage would provide an immediate transit option for the greater Cape Cod area, reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, and assist with the revitalization of the downtown area. I commend the MBTA for its successful implementation of the Charlie Card and believe that such a system would be even better if it could be used pay for the parking at the station lots also. Keep up the great work and thank you for the opportunity to comment.

I was surprised at the lack of information that the report in Wareham contained about the freight and truck traffic to Nantucket from Hyannis and New Bedford.  The report would indicate that there aren't even ports in these two locations and I am certain they are both bigger than New Bedford. I was further curious of why the Providence/Quonset ports were not factored since they generate shipping that is Massachusetts.

In 2002 the Commonwealth granted the Housatonic Railroad $3.6 million for track upgrade work on the railroad’s Berkshire Line. In exchange the Commonwealth, through the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction (Now the EOT), received an easement to operate a tourist passenger rail operation between Lenox (Berkshire Line Milepost 80) and Stockbridge (Milepost 69). The Berkshire Scenic Railroad Museum, Inc. is the designated operator of the tourist rail easement. As part of the arrangement the Housatonic agreed to bring the rail line up to passenger standards. The easement has a period of seven years, ending next year, in 2009, with the Museum’s Santa Trains in early December.     The Housatonic Railroad has done an amazing amount of work to improve the right of way through Berkshire County. A large number of cross ties have been replaced and a tremendous amount of ballast stone has been brought in. The 25 mile per hour speed (up from 10 mph) that these improvements allow permit safer and more efficient freight service in Berkshire County and allow the Berkshire Scenic to offer a variety of visitor experiences.    

Our all volunteer group operates weekends only and for just five summer months; our regular-season passenger count this year was just over 11,000, which represents a 4.4% increase from the 2007 season, the 6th consecutive record number of passengers riding our trains. 

The museum has leased three 1920s passenger cars (which match our existing fleet) from the Commonwealth. These coaches had been standing unused in Holyoke, Mass for ten years. The museum performed the work required to permit movement of the coaches over CSX track to Lenox, arranged for that movement and have put two of the coaches back into regular service here in Berkshire County. In addition to the multi-million dollar track upgrade grant, hundreds of thousands of public dollars have gone into coach restoration, Lenox Station maintenance, and siding restoration in Lenox and Stockbridge. It only makes sense to preserve the direct public benefit from all this public investment.

The Housatonic Railroad is looking for grant money from the public sector or, perhaps more possible in these difficult financial times; used track materials; i.e. used cross ties and used rail. These materials may be available through ongoing maintenance performed by the MBTA in the eastern part of the Commonwealth.  You have a printed document submitted by the Housatonic Railroad to the Mass Freight and Rail Initiative at the public comment meeting in Springfield last week. On page 4 it outlines, in no uncertain terms, the fate of the easement which permits Berkshire Scenic operation without further public support.

Notice for meetings that will occur when the general public can realistically attend (i.e. after 5:30 PM) should be given at least two to 3 weeks in advance. The only meeting you have scheduled that is after 5:30 PM is in one week.  This suppresses public participation as people like myself who work full time need more than a week to plan to attend these important meetings.  In general, if you truly want public participation, none of these meetings should be scheduled during hours that the public is working.

Since when is the section of the Manchester and Lawrence branch in Methuen owned by the city, I thought the MBTA owned it up to the state line. Is the M&L even going to be included in the plan?