The town's planning commission decided on October 17 to recommend a location on Middle Seymour Street. Middlebury has not yet reached an official decision on where the train will stop in town, although at this point little doubt exists about the question. The idea went nowhere the environmental assessment translated into about a year's delay. They argued that rail routes in the middle of town were an anachronism and could better serve as bike paths, for example.īut the bypass would have been "challenging, at least, and highly expensive," Gish said, referring to numerous practical impediments. “But rather than carry that risk into construction and potentially cost the taxpayers additional funds, VTrans and the Federal Highway Administration have elected to engage in an additional administrative process.”Īt the time, some residents were pushing for a bypass that would take the rail line out of downtown altogether. “It is unfortunate that the collective efforts of so many can be sidelined by the threat of legal action,” Chris Cole, then VTrans secretary, said in a statement cited in the Burlington Free Press. In December 2016, the Federal Highway Administration and VTrans opted to conduct a full environmental assessment in order to address community concerns, as an alternative to litigating. That controversy raised the threat of a lawsuit challenging the project. Merchants in the town center groused about the business they expected to lose while the area went through the upheavals attendant on replacing the bridges. Much has delayed the bridge-tunnel project. Middlebury's community liaison for the project, Jim Gish, told VBM that it would wrap up in the spring of 2021, meaning, in his estimation, that, "Amtrak will arrive later in 2021, or maybe 2022." The replacement will take the form of a short tunnel through the business district, with a lowered rail-bed that will allow the Vermont Railway to haul "double-stack" container cars and other oversize loads on the route.Īfter no shortage of wrangling over the impact that the construction would have on the town's commercial life, the $71 million project is now proceeding on schedule. That project will replace two aging bridges that carry key streets over the tracks in the heart of the Addison County shire town. "The service start is going to be contingent on when the Middlebury bridge-tunnel project is going to be finished." Amtrak declined to comment on the timeline for the service launch, referring VBM to the Vermont Agency of Transportation.ĭan Delabruere, who directs the Rail and Aviation Division at VTrans, did not have a definite timeline, either, but said, "We're thinking we're going to be done in early 2021" with his division's improvements to the Rutland-Burlington line, which is owned by the state and operated by the Vermont Railway, a subsidiary of Vermont Rail System (VRS). The Rutland-Burlington service would extend Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express train north to the Queen City. (The same article cited then-governor Peter Shumlin's goal, announced in 2011, of restoring passenger rail service to Montreal by 2014– but that's another story.) A 2014 Seven Days article reported that "state officials are saying that will begin in about three years" – that is, in 2017. Right now it appears to be at least three more years away. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine The prospect of Amtrak service between Rutland and Burlington reminds one of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: The closer one gets to it, the more it recedes, keeping its distance on the aspirational horizon. Rendering of Amtrak parked behind Union Station Burlington.īy C.B.
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