Transportation

The MBTA Commuter Rail’s express train from Worcester to Boston will begin running again after being closed for roughly two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, the MBTA announced Tuesday.

A New York-based rail system construction company has been fined $220,000 to resolve allegations it failed to pay proper overtime rates to workers on public works projects in Framingham, Cape Cod, and the Berkshires, the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General announced Tuesday.

Massachusetts’ average gas price hit a new record high after rising 18 cents in a week to $4.39 per gallon of regular unleaded, according to a Monday press release from travel association AAA Northeast.

Durham School Services, an Illinois-based bus-driving company which previously worked with the Worcester Public Schools, will see 181 layoffs in June due to WPS’s vote last year to end its partnership with the firm.

Worcester Business Journal began listing the most influential people in the Central Massachusetts economy in 2013, using various iterations of the concept to arrive at the Power 50, which started in 2018.

The Power 50 may not necessarily hold the most power in the region, but they are the people who most effectively wielded their power to have an outsized influence on the economy and the community within the last year.

Federal and state officials on Tuesday agreed on a path forward to extend passenger rail service west of Worcester to the cities of Springfield and Pittsfield, an effort designed to finally connect the eastern and western parts of the state by rail.

The new service is meant for local businesses to be able to meet consumer demand for faster delivery service.

The Worcester Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail will temporarily reduce its weekday train schedule starting May 2.

In the latest round of the fight between Silicon Valley and Massachusetts regulators over whether workers for companies like Uber and Lyft should be considered full-time employees, the businesses are pushing a UCLA study showing gig workers have had an economic impact of $899 million in Worcester County.