Editor’s note: This commentary is by Melinda Moulton, who is CEO of Main Street Landing in Burlington.
Thirty years ago, Main Street Landing began to plan for the return of passenger rail to Burlington. We built the train station, asked the governor to proclaim an official Rail Day, and helped produce an annual event offering citizens free train rides, food, and beverages on the day we awarded the Vermont Rail Advocacy Award to a notable Vermonter who helped pave the way for passenger rail.
Fast forward to the present day and Amtrak is scheduled to return to Burlington in a few years. What a wonderful moment this will be for Burlington.
Along with this joyful expectation, but to our horror, the Vermont Railway and the Vermont Agency of Transportation have decided to expand the existing rail yard and install a second set of tracks between King and College streets to store and service trains.
This second set of tracks is not necessary for Amtrak’s anticipated arrival, and will specifically be used to store and service trains – any trains that Vermont Railway wants to store and service on this second track. Do Vermont citizens want diesel trains stored and serviced (including fueling and emptying septic) on the downtown waterfront – in front of Union Station – next to the ECHO Leahy Center – eight feet from residents and businesses, stretching 700 feet from King to College streets at one of the most pedestrian active locations on the waterfront? Our group, “Lovers of Burlington’s Waterfront,” has a plan to make sure this does not happen.
In the short term, store the trains in the existing rail yard where they belong for servicing and begin the work to extend Amtrak to Montreal. With a modest upgrade of track between Burlington and Essex Junction the train can continue north to St. Albans where there are facilities to service and overnight the train. This extension of the Ethan Allen North leaves the train poised to fulfill the state’s long-term goal of getting to Montreal where 4 million people live. Just think of the boon to Burlington if our Canadian neighbors could take a train to our door. This upgrade of the Burlington-Essex branch has been estimated at $7 million. We could unite the Vermont passenger rail network. A further benefit would be to experiment with regional rail – perhaps using AllEarth Rail RDC trains.
The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission report authorized by the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the City of Burlington is deeply flawed.
Evaluation criteria were not properly weighted. Air quality and emissions were the worst of any location when calculated up to 50 feet from our buildings. Yet with the second rail line – trains will actually be located eight feet from our residents and businesses. This alone should eliminate Union Station for the storage and servicing of trains. Cost estimates to store and service the train at our site did not include the bike path removal and relocation, the second rail line, the new platform built for ADA accessibility, and all the safety features and fencing required. Nor did it include the cost for the remediation of toxic soils. And yet the study says that to park the train in the rail yard would cost $50 million.
The criteria: Scores for crew hours, horn impacts, and Vermont Railway impacts are all questionable and unfairly designate Union Station for the storage and servicing of trains.
Selecting the Union Station site was a foregone conclusion in the minds of the Agency of Transportation and Vermont Railway. We do not think any of the Burlington locations in this study are appropriate except the most logical one — the existing rail yard just a block away.
So how can you help? Join us in our support to return passenger rail to Burlington’s Union Station on the existing rail line. Let us stand together to let the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the city know that we do not want any new rail lines on the waterfront to store and service trains.
We need your support to insure we keep the waterfront beautiful, safe and publicly accessible by preventing any extension of the existing rail yard onto the waterfront.
Please sign our petition “Lovers of Burlington’s Waterfront” at Moveon.org. Also join our Facebook page “Lovers of Burlington’s Waterfront.”
Let your city council, state legislators, and government leaders know how you feel about a second rail line on our waterfront.
Share this with your neighbors. We can have Amtrak without destroying our beautiful waterfront. We can stop this second unnecessary rail track on the waterfront and have passenger rail, but we need citizens to take a stand. Please stand with us.
