(The following story by Paula J. Owen appeared on the Worcester Telegram website on March 13, 2010.)
FITCHBURG, Mass. — Improvements by Pan Am Southern to the rail route from Mechanicville, N.Y., to Ayer in the last year have increased capacity and speeds on the line and have the company looking at further opportunities in New England, including the Fitchburg area.
Norfolk Southern Railway Co. transferred $140 million in cash and property to a joint venture with Pan Am Railways to improve the 155-mile rail route referred to as the Patriot Corridor.
The project — approved one year ago — includes $87.5 million spent over three years on capital improvements, including terminal expansions and track and signal upgrades, said Rudy Husband, director of public relations for Norfolk Southern Corp. in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
On Wednesday, Mr. Husband met with members of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce interested in learning how the improvements will affect the area and what opportunities will arise for area businesses
“We are getting people to think about opportunities in the Route 2 corridor and beginning a dialogue with economic specialists and shippers doing business in that area to take a look at what we are doing to develop more business for Pan Am Southern to maximize our opportunities not only in Massachusetts, but throughout New England,” said Mr. Husband.
Richard E. Quinlan, member services and special projects manager for the chamber, said area businesses are very interested in the project.
“We’re extremely excited about what is coming,” said Mr. Quinlan.
“It’s an opportunity for businesses to come to the area and utilize the freight system with better efficiency than it had, and in a lot of cases, less expensively. The bottom line is, we see expanded transportation capacities for goods around the country in large quantities and that is one of the things we are able to use to promote new businesses to come in.”
Mr. Husband said in the last year significant upgrades to the railway have been made including replacing about 71 miles of rail between Fitchburg and Mechanicville, and installing 123,000 crossties and improving rail bed gravel the entire length of the rail.
“As a consequence of all of that work, we were able to restore speeds of a maximum of 40 miles per hour and 30 miles per hour on curves,” he said.
He said speed restrictions based on former track conditions were 10 to 25 miles per hour.
“A trip from Deerfield to Mechanicville, for example, would take a whole day,” he said. “Now we can take a train and pick up cars and bring them back all in a 12-hour shift.”
Weight capacities on the railway will also be increased from 263,000 to 286,000 pounds.
In addition to track work, an $8 million intermodal terminal opened in Ayer, and two new trains between Chicago and Ayer were added, he said.
“Work will continue into 2010 on the track, bridges and signals,” he said. “We’re also constructing a $40 million joint intermodal automotive terminal combination in Mechanicville.”