Westminster to Get Commuter Rail Station
by Jay Shenk
Technically, Wachusett Station, as the new commuter rail station will be known, is in Fitchburg, but it’s very close to Westminster, located at the intersection of Routes 2 and 31, just behind the Fitchburg Industrial Park (Authority Drive). This project, which includes a new layover station (site to be determined) will be built thanks to a TIGER (grant from the US Department of Transportation) for $55,000,000 of stimulus money. This is the 7th largest transportation stimulus grant in the US.
From the US Department of Transportation website:
The TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) Discretionary Grant Program was included in the Recovery Act to spur a national competition for innovative, multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional transportation projects that promise significant economic and environmental benefits to an entire metropolitan area, a region or the nation. Projects funded with the $1.5 billion allocated in the Recovery Act include improvements to roads, bridges, rail, ports, transit and intermodal facilities.
Governor Patrick’s office stated that this project “will divert 824 vehicle trips daily from Route 2 and add 306 short-term construction jobs and at least 855 new jobs in the long term”, a view that seems decidedly optimistic since the parking lot is only designed to hold about 280 vehicles, and how this project will generate 855 new, permanent jobs is a mystery to me, since it’s just a commuter train station. Regardless, getting a commuter station so close to Westminster is great—when we want to go to Boston, whether for work or to visit, we won’t have to drive to Leominster or Fitchburg to catch the train.
Not so wonderful is that the preliminary plan calls for building a new layover station for six trains, and the preliminary project plan has that layover station in The Westminster Industrial Park, extremely close to the Town owned Crocker Pond Recreation Area. The letter from our Board of Selectmen, written after a well attended and emotional meeting with town residents, expressed our concern with the layover station as proposed. There are three main objections to the currently proposed layover station:
The first objection has to do with town revenue-- because the layover station is tax exempt, situating it in one of our main industrial parks takes a big bite out of our potential tax revenue. It also has the possibility of discouraging other business development in the same industrial park, as businesses, especially the more high tech type we are likely to attract, aren’t going to want to be next to a noisy, vibrating, diesel fumes spewing layover station.
The second objection has to do with the layover station’s proximity to Crocker Pond. The originally proposed location was in the same park, but not so close. The currently discussed location is alleged to be so close that people at our town beach could see and hear the trains while smelling the wafting diesel fumes.
The third objection falls under the NIMBY category, and I’d just point out that none of us would want a layover station in our backyards. At the Selectmen’s meeting it was pointed out multiple times that the MBTA makes a lousy neighbor—numerous attendees with experience in other towns alleged that the trains run constantly and ignore local rules and agreements about noise and shut down times. Even in the best case, trains are going to be loud, cause vibrations, and smell of diesel.
There are alternatives to situating the layover station near Crocker Pond, each with pluses and minuses. There will no doubt be plenty of discussion on this issue, so hopefully there is common ground where everyone can benefit, including the Town of Westminster. News reports suggest that at this point the location of a layover station, or even the necessity of this particular station, is still to be determined.
To read about the original Selectmen’s meeting on this, click here.