New Hampshire Is Failing At Rail
The 2015/2016 New Hampshire state budget is being finalized, in weeks the final version will be voted on and later become law. One of the proposals being considered in the senate is to remove $4.0 million dollars from the NH Rail Transit Authority for "engineering and planning" work to be done for it's proposed commuter rail service from Boston to Concord. This cut in appropriations this will save money for a project and idea that is seriously flawed. And the reason that it is flawed is that New Hampshire lacks a coherent strategy and direction with respect to the railroads in this state. Anyone that knows anything about rail knows that the profits in this industry come from moving freight not passengers. The strategy should be to invest in the freight operations; improve the infrastructure and then leverage this to create a passenger rail network. Both Maine and Vermont are doing this--investing in freight infrastructure and then letting companies like Amtrak develop