Draft:Capitol Corridor (New Hampshire)

Capitol Corridor (New Hampshire)

Former Manchester, New Hampshire, station site
Overview
Service type	Intercity rail and/or commuter rail
Status	Canceled
Locale	New Hampshire, Massachusetts
Current operator(s)	MBTA Commuter Rail (proposed), Amtrak (proposed)
Route
Termini	North Station, Concord, New Hampshire

This page is about a canceled rail service in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. For the active Amtrak service in California, see Capitol Corridor.

The Capitol Corridor was a proposed commuter rail (or intercity rail) service aimed at connecting Boston, Massachusetts, with Concord, New Hampshire, via Nashua and Manchester. The project sought to revive passenger rail service along a key corridor in southern New Hampshire, which had not seen regular passenger rail operations since the mid-20th century. Advocates of the Capitol Corridor envisioned the rail line as a means to reduce traffic congestion on Interstate 93, boost economic development, and provide a sustainable transit option. Despite initial planning efforts, the project faced financial, political, and logistical hurdles, ultimately leading to its stagnation by the early 2020s.

While the restoration of passenger rail on the Boston-Concord route had been proposed since the late 20th century, the first formal iteration of the Capitol Corridor project emerged in 2010, with a proposal for a 73-mile rail corridor that would run from Boston to Concord, stopping in Nashua, Manchester, and potentially Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Funding was a major challenge, and although federal grants and public-private partnerships were explored, the projected cost of $300 million to $400 million became a sticking point. Various alignments and service models were considered, including a phased approach that would prioritize service to Nashua and Manchester before expanding further north.

During the 2010s, the vision for Capitol Corridor service would fluctuate between either being planned as a MBTA Commuter Rail extension of the Lowell Line or a state-sponsored intercity Amtrak route; the project was relatively supported in cities such as a Manchester and Nashua but heavily opposed by rural constituencies. Due to the uncertainty of service delivery, planning for the Capitol Corridor was often disorganized (especially when identifying governance and funding sources), with multiple corridor studies being conducted by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation up until the early 2020s.

As of 2024, plans for the Capitol Corridor has been indefinitely postponed. Planning has not progressed beyond conceptual studies.

Background

Early history

The Boston and Lowell Railroad started freight operations in 1835, with traffic from the Lowell mills to the Boston port. Demand for the express passenger service exceeded expectations, and in 1842 local service was added as well. The line north of Lowell was first owned by the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad, which was chartered in 1844. Trackage was completed as far as Wells River, Vermont, in 1853. The Boston & Maine Railroad (B&M) acquired the railroad in 1895. The line served as the route for Boston to Montreal service during the Golden Age of Rail (roughly 1880 to 1940). The Ambassador, the train from Boston's North Station to Montreal, ran through Concord, New Hampshire, along this line until 1966. This line, along with the New Englander, via Concord, White River Junction, Montpelier, ran through the northwestern section of Vermont prior to entering Quebec, Canada. The Alouette and Red Wing trains travelled to Montreal via Concord, Plymouth, Wells River and Newport in northeastern Vermont prior to entering Quebec. (The route via Wells River, St. Johnsbury and Newport was the more direct route of the two itineraries.) For this itinerary the Montreal route was marketed as an Air-line railroad. B&M passenger service to Boston on the line was shortened from Concord, New Hampshire to Lowell in 1967.

MBTA Commuter Rail service connecting Concord, Manchester and Nashua from the Lowell Line used to exist in New Hampshire until subsidies were ceased in 1967. The service came back in 1980 for a quick 13 month return, but the program grant was cut by the Reagan administration in 1981, and commuter rail service has remained not available since then.

Restoration planning

For the early development of the Capitol Corridor rail project, various milestones shaped its trajectory. Initial discussions began in the early 2000s, driven by increasing concerns about congestion on highways between Boston and Southern New Hampshire. The project gained momentum with the formation of the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority (NHRTA) in 2007, an administrative agency attached to NHDOT, designed to manage rail expansion across the state. This body facilitated several feasibility studies to evaluate potential routes and ridership.

In October 2010, the NHRTA received grants in the amount of $2.24 million from the Federal Railroad Administration and $1.9 million from the Federal Transit Administration to study and plan the Capitol Corridor, marking the first time that the two federal agencies committed to work jointly on a planning grant. This funding was part of the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Grant Program.

The MBTA acquired trackage rights from Pan Am in May 2011 as part of a larger transaction. Early in 2013, the NHDOT, working in concert with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, started a 21-month Capitol Corridor Alternatives Analysis with support and funding from the FRA and FTA. The Study evaluated a diverse set of rail and bus options for improving connectivity in the corridor by leveraging existing transportation infrastructure and integrating transportation and land use planning. The project was estimated to cost $246 million in a 2014 NHDOT report. Extending service to NH was projected to provide an expected 34 trains a day to Nashua and 16 a day to Manchester, connecting commuters from Nashua to Boston as low as 54 minutes and commuters from Manchester to Boston in as low as 1 hour and 25 minutes with 3,120 passengers a day.

At a public forum on March 5, 2014, the NHRTA presented preliminary results of the Capitol Corridor Rail and Transit Alternatives Analysis. Included in the presentation was the projection of up to 3,100 daily riders on the Capitol Corridor commuter or intercity rail line, which would mean that the line could top 800,000 passengers annually, compared to 560,000 on Amtrak's popular Downeaster. URS Corporation, the consultant conducting the study, predicted significantly lower ridership for an enhance bus-on-shoulder service, at 1,200 passengers daily. Costs for the bus service would be lower than for rail, but there would be substantially less economic development, according to the preliminary results. Annual operating costs for the rail option on the Capitol Corridor would be in the range of $8–10 million. The analysis recommended several possible services, including commuter rail to Nashua or Manchester or intercity rail to Concord, for further evaluation.

The NHRTA identified various possible revenue streams, including public-private partnerships, to cover future operating costs. Rail service was projected to begin as early as 2020. Despite this, the project was never funded or approved.

Political opposition

Following the 2010 election, some members of the New Hampshire General Court (the state legislature) began efforts to repeal the NHRTA. In January 2011, a bill was introduced into the New Hampshire legislature to end the proposed extension and give up a potential $4.1 million grant into its planning. The new Republican majority in the House passed HB 218, an act to repeal the NHRTA, by a vote of 190-119 in March 2011. Following a promised veto by Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, and a committee recommendation to kill the bill, the Senate passed an amended version of HB 218 in May 2011. The amended bill would maintain the NHRTA, but drastically reduce its responsibilities and powers.

Following a House vote to concur with the bill as amended by the Senate, Gov. Lynch vetoed HB 218 on June 15, 2011, citing support for the project from community and business leaders and the economic development that the project would generate. On January 4, 2012, the Governor's veto was sustained. After the all-Republican Executive Council voted 3-2 against the rail feasibility study in 2012, the newly Democratic-led Council voted 4-1 to go forward with a $3.9 million New Hampshire Capitol Corridor Rail and Transit Alternatives Analysis on February 6, 2013.

MBTA Commuter Rail study

Following the completion of the 2014 study, opponents of the Capitol Corridor would continue efforts to preclude the project. By the late 2010s, NHDOT would not apply for additional funding to move the project forward. By the late 2010s, the NHRTA would prove to be extraneous; constant political opposition and funding issues would hamper all NHRTA rail projects, including the Capitol Corridor. By 2019 the group had ceased to meet, and their website URL had lapsed. Since then, the NHDOT has overseen all rail projects within the state.

Despite project stagnation, support for the Capitol Corridor would persist among cities along the proposed route. Under pressure from constituencies in Manchester and Nashua, the NHDOT would initiate an updated Capitol Corridor study in December 2020 that focused solely on extending the MBTA Lowell Line to Manchester. By this point, discussion of intercity Amtrak service to Concord had largely been omitted from Capitol Corridor planning. A $5.5 million contract was awarded to AECOM for preliminary engineering and design work, environmental and public engagement services, and final design, for the project to extend MBTA commuter rail service to southern New Hampshire. This iteration of the Capital Corridor study was published in 2021 and called for four new Lowell Line stops: South Nashua, Crown Street in Nashua, Bedford, and Manchester.

Optimism for commuter rail would increase within Manchester and Nashua civic leaders; in January of 2022, the Manchester Board of Mayor approved the location for new facilities to house layover trains adjacent to the Manchester Transit Authority facilities. By autumn 2022, the study was being carried out by AECOM and the State of New Hampshire to design and make a financial plan for the project by 2023; Engineering and design work for commuter service to Manchester began in late 2020, and was completed in February 2023. The 2023 version of the study reported an updated project cost of $782 million.

Project cancelation & future uncertainty

In December 2022, the New Hampshire Executive Council voted to cease state funding for an extension of the AECOM study.

Despite the 2021 iteration of the Capital Corridor project being framed as a MBTA extension, the MBTA itself was not involved in the planning process, leading to low support for the extension from the agency itself; this mostly due in part to concerns regarding host railroad agreements. Despite having acquired operational provisions to operate north of Lowell in 2011, CSX Transportation would acquire Pan Am Southern in 2022; arrangements would have to be made with CSX in order to run more passenger trains on the Capital Corridor line. In addition, Amtrak has the right to provide passenger service on freight-owned lines while the host railroad has the right to set the terms for an operating agreement; however, the MBTA, MassDOT, and NHDOT are not eligible to directly utilize these legal provisions. Within Massachusetts, the MBTA owns all its operational trackage, except for the Providence Line south of Providence on the Northeast Corridor, which is owned by Amtrak.

In 2024, the parcels identified by the Manchester Board of Mayor for the proposed commuter rail layover yard were sold to private developers, precluding future use by passenger trains.