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St. Hilaire should change rail vote

By Staff | Mar 17, 2012

The 3-2 vote by the Executive Council against accepting federal funding to study the economic viability of extending passenger rail service through central New Hampshire is proof yet again of the wisdom of most of the other colonial states.

They abolished their executive councils in the name of good government ages ago.

Among its other duties, the council must approve all state contracts above a minimal amount. Last week’s vote was on whether to accept a $3.6 million contract that would use federal money to study the economic viability of extending a rail line to allow passenger and heavy freight trains to travel from Boston to Concord.

Incomprehensibly, Executive Councilor Dan St. Hilaire of Concord voted against the contract, as did Councilors Chris Sununu and David Wheeler. Councilors Ray Wieczorek and Ray Burton voted in favor of it.

St. Hilaire’s explanation for his decision made little sense, and we urge him to reconsider his vote. He doesn’t want to see competition for federal money between an effort to recreate rail service and the need to come up with an estimated $365 million to widen Interstate 93. But the two projects would not be in competition, as Transportation Commissioner Chris Clement testified.

St. Hilaire also cited the failure of a 1980s passenger rail project from Boston to Concord. The situation is much different today, and the rail line, as envisioned, would be constructed to serve not just high-speed, light-rail passenger trains but double-decker freight cars capable of carrying nearly 300,000 pounds during noncommuter hours. The economics of such an effort would be very different from a plan that relied on passenger service alone.

Accepting the federal grant to study extended rail service does not commit the state or federal government to build anything. It would simply give businesses, taxpayers, lawmakers and commuters the information they need to make an informed decision about the future of rail.

Most states, and most nations, now realize that while highways need to be improved to meet demand, the future doesn’t lie in ever-wider roads. It may depend on the creation of a 21st-century rail system.

Passenger trains now run along New Hampshire’s coast and just over its western border in Vermont. But even combined, they draw on a population base that’s only half that of the 700,000 people who live in the corridor that would be served by a train through central New Hampshire.

St. Hilaire is right about one thing: At peak periods, I-93 does become a parking lot in some stretches, clogged with buses, trucks and cars. Widening the highway will solve that problem for a time and must be done.

But the long-term solution probably lies in putting some of the people in cars and buses in passenger trains and some of the goods now in trucks in freight cars.

New Hampshire won’t find out, however, unless St. Hilaire changes his vote.

– Concord Monitor

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