Mass Coastal Railroad (MC) Discussion

On the Watuppa the Colonial Beverage warehouse is still there with two tracks. It would be great if they could convince them to go back to rail. There was talk at one point of rehabbing track a few hundreds yards past the current end just past rt 88. This was to go to the Mid City Annex for delivery of new steel products. The best possibility is scrap, waste or propane in the area of Shawmut Ave in New Bedford. That is the only area without serious NIMBY issues.

More history: BCLR GP9's 1705 & 1706 were removed from the Watuppa Branch today by Mass Coastal. They are headed to Hyannis for evaluation (my guess).
The 1701 is still roosting in its nest up in Medfield/Millis.

Apparently STB rejected Mass Coastal's purchase proposal of the Millis line due to its uncertain status: https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... /51978.pdf

So 1701 continues to work on its tan on January 3, 2024....

Looks like they opened a can of worms.

So what happens now? Does Bay Colony simply give up and abandon the track? Resolve the issues with their existing authorization? I bet Mass Coastal is surprised!

Sadly, I think Millis will be abandoned.

Some news on the rail trail front:

From 9/23 (not sure if already posted)
'A dogfight.' Waste disposal owner vows fight in Bourne bike path dispute
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news ... 931219007/

From 1/8/24
Two Upper Cape towns now want to build bike path next to rail tracks. But Bourne doesn't.
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news ... 032076007/

The "save the trail" logo has a picture of the canal railroad bridge. That implies they want all the rails on the cape to be ripped up, including on the bridge.

$70M extra for a 6.5 mile bike path. Maybe they need to get their costs under control. Or they will "lose the federal funding"

Oh and military needs are unimportant, they can just locate all the military bases in the south and we can redevelop joint base cape cod for all the asylum seekers. They will have a convenient bike path they can use to get to Boston. It's not like we need to do anything about Iran, Houtis, Russians, North Koreans or Chinese, they would never ever dare to attack Americans and have never attacked us in the past.

National Guard has stated that they will only support the trail effort if it doesn’t impede their rail access to Joint Base Cape Cod. If not, they will oppose any removal of the tracks. This is dated last October but I’m unsure as to whether or not it was posted in here.

Also the rail-trail money is supposedly administered by the CCRTA, which you would expect to be pro-rail since they sponsor the Cape Flyer. Instead they decline to comment.

The CCRTA headed by Tom Cahir who portrays himself as pro rail with the Cape Flyer has put his full support behind the Bourne Rail Trail group in its agenda to remove the Falmouth Secondary Rail line. He has really gone off the deep end thinking that MassDOT / Federal government / JBCC National Guard / Mass Coastal RR / Cavossa Disposal would go along with that. Hey by the way Tom in case you have been asleep at the switch, MassDOT has been rehabilitating the Falmouth Secondary / Otis Industrial track since 2018 with continued work going forward, along with granting Cavossa a IRAP grant for expanded operations at the Otis UCCRTS . The Federal STB would never approve that abandonment application if it ever came to be.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news ... 2245055007

How can these Powers That Be, past and present, be so myopic about the value of rail to Falmouth?

Tom Cahir is a long time fickle pickle preferring to go where ever the bucks and greatest related power are heading. Obviously he must feel that off the hallowed waters off Falmouth ,Treks and tourists s beat the hell out of trash and trains in August..

Looking forward to seeing Tom Cahir / Bourne Rail trail group / Bourne Select board eat crow when MassDOT phase 1 of the Bourne Rail with trail construction starts in 2025, while further rehabilitation work continues on the Falmouth line. They actually will have to see it under construction to believe it as they all are in an alternate reality about the active rehabilitated Falmouth RR line and its purpose.