TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Just another money grab for the hardworking taxpayers of this dysfunctional state. Vote em all OUT !!. Time to leave this state.

Transportation and climate initiatives are not only interstate issues but also intrastate issues. Therefore efforts need to include multimodal transportation and in particular passenger rail within Connecticut and between New England and Quebec with connections to states west.

Consider the issues of pollution generated as a result of driving out of state. The pollution is not only from automobile/truck exhausts but also from the debris caused by auto/truck braking.

I believe the greatest crisis facing humankind is climate change. All life as we know it is in danger. Every effort must be made to reduce GHG ASAP! Ignorance and greed and fear of change lead some to ignore the reality of the climate crisis. Please do all in your power to improve our transportation system.

BS attempt to force us to bow down to climate change religion. No warming in 15 years!
All to reduce temperatures by less than 1 degree!!!!
Why not just get everyone to plant 1 tree each??? Because you can’t control the planet into submission and control.
Wake up people. BTW what about India and China? What good is it to Control us if the biggest polluters won’t comply?

Moved out of Massachusetts in 2014, after having been born, raised and educated in the Bay State. It is disheartening to see the constant money grab by this governor, aided and abetted by a Legislature who seems to care not a whit for the working people of Mass. This money grab of TCI is nothing more than financial insurance to keep the cadre of overpaid state politicos in place. It is only when you finally move away and look at Mass. from afar that you realize that your state government has been systematically breaking the working classes, and ALL classes with the constant siphoning of money to keep the politically connected in place. IT HAS TO END !! Governor Baker originally ran on a fiscally conservative platform but `has turned into a tax happy politician. Governor....YOUR CITIZENS CANNOT PAY ANYMORE !! So glad I moved to South , as I just could not afford to stay in Massachusetts !! KILL THE TCI !!

Sustainable Tourism Opportunity
One of the few threads of commonality among the northeast states is their interest, investment, and dependence on tourism. The state of New York is developing a world-class sustainable tourism product called The Empire State Trail where the Governor and his DOT partners are building 400 mile bike and pedestrian trail. All because the Erie Canal Trail brings in over $250 million a year. Every year. More such places are needed.
The longest rail trail in the northeast is contained totally in the small state of Massachusetts. A state with a highly dense population that is either near this trail—or is in a community with a developing rail trail that is connecting directly with this region’s signature trail. The Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) is 104 miles from Boston to Northampton.
There is also another long trail terminating in Northampton. The New Haven to Northampton Canal Greenway Trail. 84 miles long. Every few years, there is what is called a Golden Spike Event, a conference about the developing MCRT and the tie-in to the New Haven to Northampton Canal Grenway. In July 2018, that event, GS2018 was held at Northampton. Here’s a link to the conference booklet produced for the event. Here’s a link to all the presentations—town by town from the event.·
This trail is highly marketable to families originating from either Boston or NYC to go for a week’s vacation and then take the train back to their home city. This will be the greenest vacation opportunity imaginable. Attached is an infographic that quantified the usage and $$/ of that one trail.
More details about the MCRT
• Around the same time that NY began to buildout the Empire State Trail, Governor Baker in Mass became a big fan of multi-use trails. He created the Governor’s Trails Team. An internal, inter-agency working group was formed and they’ve done a lot to develop the network here. In fact, the Governor and other top level staff have been in high profile ribbon-cuttings and ground breakings—all over the state.
• This past week another ½ mile opened in Ware under the stewardship of a visionary land trust. East Quabbin Land Trust is both a linear thinking and a rectangular thinking land trust. While saving forests, farms and open space parcels in their service area, they also have acquired and developed over 4 miles of the of MCRT and have renovated 4 former railroad bridges into being safe for families on this trail alignment.
• Another six miles opened in Weston and Wayland two weeks ago.
• The MCRT now has over fifty miles open with over 80 miles in a protected ownership status. This is a tipping point.
• Mass DOT hired a consultant this winter who began a detailed look at the missing gaps from Berlin to the west side of Belchertown where the Norwottuck section of the MCRT terminates at Warren Wright Road.
• The study looked at three primary issues.
1. Who owns the land.
2. What are the physical impediments [like missing bridges and sold-off corridor]
3. What are the work arounds to piece together the missing gaps. This study is about to be released.
• And here is the biggest, high altitude, take-home. Building an end-to-end, community-long, multi-use path like this transforms the place to be greener and more sustainable. It also leads to more sustainable businesses in a community. Local businesses. It has been said that the indicator species of life in a downtown is the number of bikes and pedestrians you see. If you don’t see many, it is because the community is too auto centric and the down won’t prosper. Having the trail there will start to transform the community. It will also become a place where neglected, forlorn, blighted residential properties near the trail become attractive places for millennials to purchase, renovate and launch a renaissance in a neighborhood that probably needs a new breath of interest.

Our Transportation Future (OTF) is a coalition of local, state, regional, and national environmental, health, scientific, transportation, and business organizations committed to modernizing transportation across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. We are sending the attached letters to the Governors of the TCI states and Mayor Bowser in support of the important work that you are your colleagues are doing at the intersection of transportation and the environment. This letter is signed by 59 organizations from across the TCI states. We ask that you please share this letter electronically with your colleagues who are part of the TCI process, as well as any others who may be interested in reading it.