CT: Connecting New London to Vermont: Reviving the 'Central Corridor' passenger rail line

By bus, the 18-minute drive from the Norwich Transportation Center to New London Union Station stretches up to an hour.

A Massachusetts-based transportation advocacy group wants to get commuters to and from the two cities in as little as 25 minutes by extending a passenger rail line from New London to Brattleboro, Vt., with stops at Mohegan Sun, Willimantic, the University of Connecticut in Storrs and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to name a few.

The idea of establishing a “Central Corridor” passenger rail service has been in the works since the 2000s. After momentum behind the rail expansion peaked in the 2010s, advocacy efforts grew quiet — until this year, when the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced that it would be building a train station in Palmer, Mass., a key stop along the proposed route that would allow for connections east toward Boston.

Laurence Shaffer, the president of the Central Corridor Passenger Rail Coalition, said “the time is now” to push for a north-south connection along the railway.

“I would say to my friends in Connecticut that passenger rail service is a real possibility for us,” Schaffer said.

“You've got all of the assets on the ground. We have the track — which is in great shape — we have the willingness, and we have the political support. Now it's just a matter of us being able to marshal all of our resources so that we can push the people who control these things into a position of supporting passenger rail service on the Central Corridor line,” Shaffer added.

Reestablishing a 19th-century route

Over the last month, the coalition sent letters to towns across eastern Connecticut, asking local governing bodies to pass resolutions reaffirming their support for a passenger service.

Using existing freight lines from the New England Central Railroad, the Central Corridor would start in New London with Amtrak connections from Boston to New York to Washington, D.C. It would then carry north to Mohegan Sun, Norwich, Willimantic, Storrs- Mansfield and Stafford Springs.

Once in Massachusetts, the train would stop in Palmer with connections to future service lines to Worcester, Boston, Springfield and Albany, N.Y. From Palmer, the train would continue to Amherst and Millers Falls before coming to a halt over the Vermont border in Brattleboro, where passengers could get on an Amtrak north to St. Albans or south to New Haven and Washington on the Vermonter.

According to a 2017 report by MassDOT, it would take approximately three hours to travel the 121 miles from New London to Brattleboro with all the stops.

While the infrastructure that would support the Central Corridor is an active rail line, its use today is solely commercial.

Acquired by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 2012, the New England Central Railroad operates 345 miles of track across Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. According to an NECR spokesperson, Tom Ciuba, the bulk of the freight line’s cargo consists of lumber, construction waste, demolition debris and grain that support businesses throughout the Northeast, including the New London and Hartford areas.

In a statement, Ciuba said the NECR would be “open to a conversation” if “a legitimate passenger rail business were to approach New England Central about passenger operations.”

Between 1848 and 1947, passengers rode the New London, Willimantic & Palmer Railroad, and later the Central Vermont Railroad, along the same route proposed for the Central Corridor.

While the railroad connected New London and Norwich with communities in Palmer, Amherst and Brattleboro for decades, Amanda Kennedy, the executive director of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments (https://secogct.gov), said reestablishing the passenger line would build “a totally new kind of economic network … that doesn't exist in any other way.”

“It’s not a very strong economic spine right now. Amherst to Palmer to Norwich currently doesn't have very good transit connection … so, it would be hard to say what that would mean (for the region) economically,” Kennedy said.

Benefits vs. costs

Kennedy said providing direct rail access to the region’s major tourist destinations would be very attractive, as would direct connections to UConn Storrs and Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic.

Additionally, Kennedy said a passenger line could ease congestion for commuters. She explained that more and more workers employed in the New London- Groton area are seeking housing opportunities farther north in Norwich.

However, Kennedy said that for the present moment, enhancing bus connections between Norwich and New London is “more feasible and would serve many more people in most cases than a passenger rail system.”

“It's great that so many people are interested in and passionate about restoring or improving passenger rail, it's just really hard to figure out the most effective use of limited funds,” Kennedy said. “It's just a question of (whether) the ridership would be high enough to offset the overall cost.”

In 2023, the state Department of Transportation published a report on the feasibility of extending Shore Line East rail service to Norwich, Montville, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Connecticut College, Groton and Stonington.

While the report determined that current demand is not high enough to sustain the railway’s expansion, Kennedy said she also came away with the understanding that the population within the corridor could grow to a point where rail investments would be justified.

According to the report, upgrades and station construction on the Palmer Line through New London and Norwich would cost Connecticut more than $635 million in one-time capital costs and an additional $33 million each year in operating expenses.

MassDOT’s 2017 Central Corridor Passenger Rail Feasibility Study estimated that the project would require $376.5 million for new stations, train cars and tracks, signal and bridge rehabilitation. The study said Connecticut’s share of the costs would be approximately $197 million, with about $48 million dedicated to station development. Except for New London, none of the proposed stops on the Connecticut portion of the Central Corridor has a working train station. Additionally, annual operating expenses for the entire line were estimated at $5.9 million.

The same study also forecasted the Central Corridor’s ridership at a rate of 400 people per day, with the bulk of passengers boarding at the New London and Mohegan Sun stations. However, rail advocates, like Shaffer of the Central Corridor Passenger Rail Coalition, argue that estimate is too conservative.

“I don't think those numbers are legitimate or valid,” Shaffer said. “Every transportation planner in the world gives these estimates that under no circumstances support rail service. … We have more than enough of the population to support passenger rail. … I think if we bring the service, they will come. Our passengers will show up.”

‘A great idea’

Shaffer said he first became involved in Central Corridor advocacy after Amherst, where he had served as town manager, lost its Amtrak stop to a reroute in 2014.

“Our students, but citizens also, really came to enjoy passenger rail service in Amherst, Mass.,” Shaffer said. “I began to see just how worthwhile having passenger rail service is to a community. What a powerful mechanism it is, not only for transportation, but for all types of services in a community, not the least of which, of course, is economic development.”

Beyond improving transportation, Shaffer described how rail lines create hubs that support economic revitalization, tourism, housing, employment and education.

In addition to reducing traffic on the roadways, Shaffer said passenger rail is also more ecologically responsible. Numerous studies have shown that choosing public transportation can lower an individual’s carbon footprint. Connecticut’s 2023 rail study estimated that rail improvements in the southeastern part of the state could “result in a reduction of nearly 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.”

Angela Adams, the ​executive director of the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce, said that reestablishing a train stop in Norwich would be “a great idea.”

“To put that back in use and bring people back in the downtown now that downtown is starting to thrive again, … it's good timing with the projections of all the potential that Norwich has right now for rebuilding,” Adams said.

Adams said she sees the railway as an opportunity to boost tourism and draw young professionals to housing in Norwich’s downtown, especially those who may not drive.

In a statement, Mohegan Tribe Chairman James Gessner Jr. said the tribe would back a casino train stop if the Central Corridor comes to fruition.

“This is an exciting concept for the region that has come up in the past and the Mohegan Tribe has always been supportive,” Gessner said. “We would welcome the opportunity to work with the interested parties if and when it becomes more of a reality.”

A potential step forward

In Connecticut, the creation of the Central Corridor appeared close on the horizon in 2012. That year, roughly 50 state and federal lawmakers, college leaders, business representatives and local officials boarded the “Central Corridor Express” for a slow-moving ride along the Thames and Yantic rivers to draw support for the effort.

In the years after the excursion, talk about the proposal in Connecticut had largely died down, but Shaffer said the Central Corridor Passenger Rail Coalition is revamping advocacy efforts after MassDOT announced that it will be building a new train station in Palmer as part of the Bay State’s East-West passenger rail expansion.

Shaffer said the good news is that Palmer is getting a station. The bad news is that MassDOT’s proposed site is about a mile from any potential intersection with the Central Corridor.

“In the coalition's opinion, it's the wrong site,” Shaffer said. “But, we're at least moving in the right direction. So, that's the impetus. There is money now for East-West. There will be a stop in Palmer, Massachusetts. So, now is the time to really hit hard on this North-South connector.”

“The more North-South connections we can make into that East-West line, the more passengers we can put on that (Central Corridor) line,” Shaffer added. “If we did get enough support for North-South, it will really politically put a lot of pressure to reconsider the location in Palmer to something that's more conducive.”

While the coalition works to relocate the Palmer station before MassDOT’s shovels go in the ground, Shaffer said the coalition does not view this as a 'now or never' moment for the future of the Central Corridor.

“We never say that,” Shaffer said. “This business takes a long time, so it's never ‘now or never.’”

“We'd love to do it sooner than later, but we're realists. We know that it takes time to garner all the political support and to jump through all the hoops necessary to achieve what we hope to achieve,” Shaffer added. “We don't know how long it'll take, but we're committed to taking the time.”

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