October 28, 2020
Union Station gets $29M federal grant for upgrades
Photo | Grant Welker
Worcester's Union Station
By Grant Welker
Worcester's Union Station has received a $29-million federal grant for accessibility and infrastructure improvements, including a new platform that will enable multiple trains to stop there simultaneously, a potentially major boost to increasing fast commuter rail service to and from Boston.
The funding, announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, will enable Union Station to expand its capacity for both MBTA commuter rail trains and for Amtrak, which passes through from Boston to Springfield and points west less often. The upgrades are meant to improve train reliability, reduce delays and solve track conflicts created by passenger and freight trains passing through a limited number of four tracks through Union Station. Only one of those tracks has an ability to pick up and drop off passengers.
The MBTA, as of May, has planned to start work in November, with a construction period lasting about two years.
The new platform will be built on the other side of I-290 from Union Station itself, in an area that's now used as a surface parking lot. A pedestrian bridge with elevators will take passengers over the commuter rail track, where a platform will run underneath the highway to where trains traditionally stop at the station to load and unload passengers. The existing parking lot will be repaved and given aesthetic improvements.
Photo | Courtesy | MBTA
Renderings of proposed improvements at Worcester's Union Station
Union Station, the last stop on the Framingham/Worcester line, has 19 daily trains to Boston on weekdays and nine on weekends. An express train, called Heart to Hub, is scheduled to resume service Nov. 2 after being suspended because of dropping demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
Union Station, among the MBTA's busiest commuter rail stations, has been hampered by having only one loading platform, Beth Larkin, the MBTA's assistant general manager for capital delivery, told the MBTA board in 2018. "That leads with issues in respect to reliability," she said.
The board voted then to approve a design contract for the project, a first step toward making it a reality.
The new federal funds will also be used to improve tracks and signals. The 800-foot-long passenger platform will also provide full handicapped accessibility.
Union Station's funds were part of $291 million in federal rail funds announced Wednesday, including $65 million to repair an Amtrak bridge over the Connecticut River in Connecticut.
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