Potential MBTA Southern NH Service

I believe it was said in another thread that the T would pay to go to Pheasant Lane Mall.

BandA wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:59 pm It would be a bad look for the MBTA to refuse service to NH if NHDOT was willing to pay for it. Plus, Boston Surface Railroad already has a proposal You could make a case that MA should subsidize most of the operating costs to the state line, i.e. South Nashua to Lowell.

That was the part of the article that I did not buy at all, there is simply no way that if NH pays for Commuter Rail the MBTA wouldn't run it, and Massachusetts will subsidize the line south of the border (Tyngsborough - Boston). While NH will subsidize the line from Nashua to Manchester, along with the 4 planned stations, which are South Nashua, Nashua, Bedford/MHT, and Manchester.

So far, in the two proposals to bring passenger rail to Southern N.H., the MBTA plans show no in Merrimack, while Amtrak plans do, as seen here, https://www.amtrakconnectsus.com/maps/b ... r-concord/
Would this mean that Amtrak would stop at Merrimack and not MBTA (which would be strange), or is it possible that the MBTA will adapt a station stop into its plan sometime in the future?

Could be that both the commuter and intercity approaches get pitched. There’s a heck of a lot of money in the FRA side of the IIJA for intercity projects so I’d imagine they’d pitch the Amtrak idea also. I’m a little less familiar with the transit/commuter rail portions of the bill but it sounds like the FTA got a bunch of money for transit and commuter rail projects as well. So maybe you pursue both a commuter and regional intercity approach and see which one gets approved for funding and which one is going to have the best cost benefit given the present workplace changes with Covid.

Anything new on this proposition so far? Discussions within NH legislatures about it?

I have a question about HB1432 (http://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status ... px?id=1391).
once it is released by the committee, what happens next? is it voted on by the legislature?
- Thanks

The committee normally makes a recommendation (commonly Inexpedient to Legislate or Ought To Pass). At some point, depending on the leadership's view of it, it comes up to vote. If the House passes it, it goes to the Senate. So far this year, almost everything the GOP leadership wants has been passed. Neither of my local reps have voted against their leadership even once.

Lets hope this ends up being one of those things they want that won't pass, the whole agenda against passenger trains is easily the dumbest thing the Republicans have going on, and that's really saying something. Even if the bill passes, what are alternate ways this could be paid for? if there even are any.

1) A gofundme page.
2) A connected group, such as real estate developers or government contractors or political group or a vendor like Keolis pays.
3) Just start a pilot service, it is probably cheaper than doing studies.
4) License a private company to provide the service "at no additional cost" (cough Boston Surface Railroad )
5) Pass some state tort immunity law, allowing freight carriers to provide service with no consequences if it goes boom.

But, as the Plaistown layover/extension hearings revealed to me, there are a good many NH residents who are in fact afraid of riding on a train, lest they have to share space with people they've been taught to fear.

The Plaistow Debacle was because Plaistow Residents did not want Diesel Locomotives to idle in a yard near their houses. We already know that this project won't end up the same as the Plaistow proposal because Manchester Aldermen have approved a layover yard location for it. I am sure that most NH residents have no problem with sharing a space with others and the ones that do should (and probably will be) ignored because its so obvious that its a very weak argument against rail. The only thing that stands in the way of this project (as of yet) is HB1432 which republican representatives of NH support, we will have to wait until March 10 to see how that bill ends up, it would obviously be much preferable to see it killed.

First of all I HATE POLITICS and this is not the proper forum for political posts. However the republican representatives of NH have been elected in a democratic process by the people of NH. I assume by your posts that you are a resident of NH so you should contact your representative to express your opinion.

Mod Note: Just a friendly reminder, we're done with the libel politics here.

Whatever comes next, we aren't likely to hear anymore about this until March 10, which will probably be the day that decides if Commuter Rail will reach NH or not.

Today HB 1432 is due out of committee, according to The General Court of New Hampshire site, its current status is "REPORT FILED"
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_St ... &inflect=2