Planners promise 10-to-1 payback with $6.4B to $9.4B Hartford-Springfield-Boston rail proposal
Updated May 06, 2021;
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SPRINGFIELD The Springfield/Hartford area has missed out on 130,000 new jobs since 1990, jobs that could have come here if the region had the commuter rail service enjoyed by other East Coast cities.
“That’s the major differentiating factor, the availability of rail,” said Jessica Jones, senior analyst for the engineering firm AECOM.
Improving rail service from New York City to Boston through Hartford, Springfield and Worcester could cost $6.4 billion to $9.4 billion over a 10-year-buildout. But that expenditure would yield $47 billion to $84 billion in new gross regional product over 30 years, according to a study AECOM prepared for Connecticut’s Capital Region Council of Governments and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in Springfield.