{"id":547190,"date":"2010-04-29T07:41:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-29T11:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2010-04-29T07:41:05","modified_gmt":"2010-04-29T11:41:05","slug":"rail-proposal-in-mass-could-be-nation%e2%80%99s-first-high-speed-project-lahood-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/547190","title":{"rendered":"Rail proposal in Mass. could be nation\u2019s first high-speed project, LaHood says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/massachusetts\/articles\/2010\/04\/27\/transit_chief_has_big_hopes_for_western_mass_rail\/\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cache.boston.com\/resize\/bonzai-fba\/Globe_Photo\/2010\/04\/26\/1272338830_8205\/539w.jpg\" width=\"293\" align=\"left\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/climatewire\/2010\/04\/28\/7\/\" >ClimateWire<\/a>: A planned high-speed commuter rail service connecting New Haven and  Hartford, Conn., and Springfield, Mass., could become one of the  nation&#8217;s first completed rail projects, Transportation Secretary Ray  LaHood said Monday as he encouraged officials in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Ecoregions_of_Massachusetts,_Connecticut,_and_Rhode_Island_%28EPA%29\">Connecticut and  Massachusetts<\/a> to work together and with the federal government to move  the project along.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All of us have the same goal, the same desire, and that is to have  high-speed, real high-speed rail service in the corridor, in the heart  of New England,&#8221; said Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R). &#8220;If we can meet  a timetable and be aggressive as we have planned, then I think we will  be the first in the nation to accomplish that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Connecticut, which is submitting studies to federal officials for  funding, anticipates that the train will be operating by 2014 or 2016.  The federal government has already given $40 million to the state, which  is being used to build a second set of tracks in certain areas.  Connecticut transportation commissioner Joseph Marie said the state will  apply for a second, more substantial round of funding. The state must  also match 20 percent of the federal funding.<\/p>\n<p>There once was Amtrak service that covered the New  Haven-Hartford-Springfield network, but it ended 40 years ago. Efforts  to revive the rail line have been hindered because of stretches with  just a single track. The next step to the project, according to  planners, would be linking western Massachusetts to Boston with its own  high-speed rail. The Connecticut project could also be extended past  Springfield.<\/p>\n<p>The service would help the thousands of commuters between  Massachusetts and Connecticut or those who drive to New Haven to catch  trains to New York or Washington (Susan Haigh, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/massachusetts\/articles\/2010\/04\/27\/transit_chief_has_big_hopes_for_western_mass_rail\/\" >AP\/<em>Boston  Globe<\/em><\/a>, April 27). <strong>&#8211; JP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3316&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3316\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ClimateWire: A planned high-speed commuter rail service connecting New Haven and Hartford, Conn., and Springfield, Mass., could become one of the nation&#8217;s first completed rail projects, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday as he encouraged officials in Connecticut and Massachusetts to work together and with the federal government to move the project along. &#8220;All of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}