The New Hampshire commuter rail boondoggle (or just ‘rail’) has a long history on these pages. There is very little about it we have not explored. Traffic fits that profile. Before you can ride a train, you need to get to it. That’s a problem for Nashua but they are forging ahead anyway. Start with a 5.2 Million dollar hit.
That’s the opening ‘best guess’ of the cost to build one train station somewhere in Nashua. That doesn’t include other costs, none of which were supposed to be borne by taxpayers if the original PR on the (Boston Surface Railroad) plan was to be believed.
It has long been my belief that this private-public partnership to bring for-profit commuter rail is a new spin on the old scam. In this version, you get buy-in on infrastructure up front that will lead to a full-blown buy-out by taxpayers when it makes no profit.
Without a federal grant or loan in sight, Nashua taxpayers are already on the hook.
Taxpayers paid for (yet) another report. They are paying for a rail consultant from Los Angeles. Nashua spent 1.4 million on the property. We “want to turn into a park” but it’s perfect for a rails stop. Translation: If we don’t get rail we can always turn it into a park.
Add 5 million dollars to that and guess what happens when for-profit rail becomes no-profit rail? “Well, we can’t just abandon all this infrastructure investment.”
We can before we make it.
You Mentioned Something About Traffic?
It’s a trap. A trap within a trap. One of the “motivations” for boondoggle rail in Nashua, and up the Capitol Corridor, it to address traffic. Too much traffic on Route 93 (and Route 3). Cars, pollution, congestion, blah, blah, blah.
No one seems to care about how many or how far cars need to go to get to the rail station. In Nashua, that’s a problem. No matter where they put their train station, traffic will be a nightmare.
Today’s Union Leader reports that in addition to the 25 Crown Street property we’ve mentioned in past posts, there is a 44-acre site in South Nashua. Neither solves the congestion issues.
“…local traffic impacts associated with a future train station must be considered, explaining there is already a lot of traffic congestion in the region.
“The Daniel Webster Highway can’t handle anymore. Exit one can’t handle anymore,” she said, adding it is difficult to imagine motorists converging on Crown Street.
It’s more convenient and less time consuming to drive yourself down to Massachusetts. Your car, your route, your time.
The Progressive solution is to make you drive into Nashua. Sit in traffic. Then pay (for yourself or your family) to get on a train that may not go exactly where you want.
That’s great news for Lyft and Uber. Not so much for taxpayers, motorists, people who need to live and work in these parts of the city.
But don’t worry, Nashua has a solution for the upfront spending. Make surrounding towns buy-in on the Gate-City rent-to-own rail boondoggle.
“This can’t be a Nashua-only scenario,” said Michon, adding neighboring communities such as Hudson, Hollis, Merrimack and Litchfield would all be served by a future train station in Nashua.
I don’t recall begging Nashua to build a train station. But this call for regional back-stopping sounds a lot like a plan from earlier in the decade. Democrats considered raising taxes on businesses up and down the Capital Corridor to charge them for a rail line they didn’t even want either.
Same scam, different year.