The effort to provide passenger rail service between Western Massachusetts and Boston is getting another jolt of federal funding.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation secured a nearly $37 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, which will help cover track, signal and infrastructure improvements at Springfield Union Station, Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced Tuesday.
“This money is essential to providing safe and efficient rail service between Western, Central, and Eastern Massachusetts and connecting our regional economies in Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, and Boston,” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey said in a statement.
The investment “will increase rail capacity and reduce congestion, further paving the way for future West-East Rail service and enhancing north-south service,” Healey’s office said.
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The new funding will help officials finish design efforts for the “Springfield Area Track Reconfiguration Project,” with the aim of eliminating a “rail chokepoint” in western Massachusetts and western New England, Healey’s office said.
The project involves modernizing track and signal systems, as well as upgrading rail facilities and rehabbing station platforms.
MassDOT last year won $108 in federal grant funding for the West-East Rail project, intended for train corridor improvements between Worcester and Springfield.
Healey’s office on Tuesday touted other new federal grants that will bolster Massachusetts’s freight rail train network, including an $8.9 million award that will partially be used for environmental and safety infrastructure improvements along the Pioneer Valley Road Railroad that spans from Holyoke to Westfield.
There’s also a $21.6 million grant for a New England tri-state rail safety and upgrade project, as well as a $19 million grant that Healey’s office said involves facility and track improvements for the Providence and Worcester Railroad.
