In what clearly could be the most positive economic development news for the city of Fitchburg in at least a decade, if not two, U.S. Rep. John Olver announced Wednesday that a $55 million federal grant will pay to extend the Fitchburg commuter-rail line 4.5 miles into West Fitchburg and build a new station there.
The announcement is huge news not only for the city, but for the entire North Central Massachusetts region, which will benefit from the project’s short-term job creation, and in the long term from the new businesses and new residents who will move here because of the incredible advantage the expanded commuter rail line offers them.
“Quite frankly, I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime, so this is huge,” state Rep. Stephen DiNatale, D-Fitchburg, told the Sentinel & Enterprise on Wednesday.
The project includes the construction of a new station, called the Wachusett Station, at the intersection of Routes 2 and 31, freight train line improvements and a new parking lot.
The design phase will be carried out during the next six to nine months, and construction can begin immediately after, according to Mohammed Khan, administrator for the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority.
The project must be complete within two years, according to the grant stipulations.
Rep. Olver issued a press release late Wednesday morning announcing that MART officials had received the grant that they applied for four months ago.
Fitchburg is one of just three Massachusetts cities to receive a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, and the money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the federal stimulus bill.
“This is (a) major next step in (North Central Massachusett’s) transportation infrastructure development and the Fitchburg line improvements,” Olver said in a statement. “Not only is this about direct job creation and local industrial development, but the project will benefit the entire region’s economy permanently by extending improved commuter rail service to communities north, west and south of Fitchburg.”
MART actually applied for $65 million, Kahn said, so he worried that a $10 million shortfall would prevent plans for a proposed train layover station in Westminster from moving forward, but Gov. Deval Patrick told the Sentinel & Enterprise Wednesday that there will be no shortfall.
“The state will take care of the balance,” Patrick said.
That’s great news, especially because it comes while work is already under way to reduce travel times for Fitchburg-area rail commuters from the current 90 minutes to roughly 60 minutes.
That will also send many people who now travel Route 2 to get to Boston every day to the commuter rail line, and also encourage more businesses and people to make North Central Massachusetts home.
Several people have played key roles in getting this latest grant, and the money that’s been used and is now being used to speed up the Fitchburg commuter rail, which is drastically needed.
First, Olver has been a champion of the project to improve and lengthen the rail line for years, even when it seemed that nothing would change on the line, and we congratulate him for his efforts and his success in helping to secure the grant.
Our Statehouse delegation has also worked with state and federal officials to help secure the latest grant, and previous commuter-rail line money.
Likewise, although we have often disagreed with Gov. Patrick on a number of policy issues, there is no doubt that he played a vitally important role in helping to get this grant.
Patrick told the Sentinel & Enterprise that he made numerous phone calls to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, to ensure that Fitchburg and other Massachusetts communities, would receive the TIGER grants they applied for, and said he is “thrilled with the outcome.”
Patrick said Massachusetts received $95 million in TIGER grants, which he called a “disproportionately large amount of money.”
There seems to be little doubt also that Patrick’s relationship with President Barack Obama helped him to get the grant for MART. Politics, in no small way, is all about relationships, and we believe Patrick used his relationship with the president to help get this grant.
We commend Patrick for his help in obtaining the grant, because this is the kind of public project that has the potential to help the region now and for decades into the future.
And then last but not least, it’s important to remember that the most important person to thank is the American taxpayer, who is paying for federal stimulus projects and will be for years to come.
It would have been much wiser to pass a dramatic across-the-board tax cut for all Americans — along with a public transportation bill focused on commuter and long-distance high speed rail travel — than the federal stimulus bill.
But there is no question that this $55 million grant will be money well spent.
