Passenger Rail in New Hampshire

Since I was young, I've been traveling to New England to visit my uncle – and later his family – who lives in Nashua, N.H. My first train ride outside of Buffalo's Metro Rail light-rail line was on such a trip, as we headed down to Boston to tour the Freedom Trail and other historic places in downtown Boston. While we were there, we rode the MBTA's Blue Line subway. On a later vacation, my first commuter rail trip was on the MBTA's Lowell Line – the closest rail connection from Nashua to Boston. Later on, Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited took me and my aunt from the Buffalo-Depew station to Worchester on another visit and back home again – another first for me, marking my first intercity train experience. On other trips, we rode the Conway Scenic Railway and the Mount Washington Cog Railway in the state's north country region.

Suffice it to say, the passenger rail operations in New England were fundamental to my earliest interest in railroading. Each time I went, though, I asked my uncle and others why we couldn't just take the train right from Nashua to Boston? After all, I discovered fairly early on – via fold-up maps and gazetteers, the much more difficult precursor to today's internet mapping applications – that the same rail line that hosted the Lowell Line continued north, not only to Nashua but continuing on to the state's largest city of Manchester and it's capital, Concord. Indeed, just a few years before I began travelling to Nashua, the Boston & Maine Railroad still operated its Minute-Man trains on the route, offering multiple daily departures geared toward commuters and tourists (see timetable below).

After the Boston & Maine was acquired by Guilford Transportation in 1983, the service was curtailed from Concord to Lowell, as the MBTA acquired the route between there and Boston's North Station. From then until now, the line north of Lowell has only hosted Guilford – now known as Pan Am Railways – freight trains.

However, in recent weeks, significant momentum is emerging to restore passenger service on the route. On February 6, the New Hampshire Executive Council – which gives final executive approval to pressing state matters as a constitutional check on the governor's authority – voted to approve a $3.6 million feasibility study on resuming passenger rail operations.

While a study of a potential service hardly represents a firm decision to ultimately further the project, the Council's vote represents a significant shift in the state's attitude towards passenger rail. Just last year, the Council – then comprised of different members who either retired or were voted out of those positions in last November's elections – prevented the same feasibility study to move forward. Other passenger initiatives regarding the corridor – even an extension only as far as single station across the state line from Massachusetts in South Nashua – have never received committed state funding.

Just eight days later, the Nashua city board of aldermen approved a $1.4 million property purchase on Crown Street (see map below) where a new passenger rail station would be located. The local funds will be matched with $6.5 million in federal investment through the Congestion Management & Air Quality (CMAQ) program as well as $280,000 in highway toll credits through the state's Department of Transportation.


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The twin decisions demonstrate a new found interest and commitment by state and local leaders in New Hampshire to at least explore the possibility of passenger rail options in New Hampshire's most heavily-populated and economically important corridor.

Of course, the study's findings may yet convince those same leaders that the requisite levels of investment necessary to support service don't match the state's priorities, a reality Pan Am Railways President David Fink articulated quite reasonably in a recent editorial. An agreement with Pan Am would be paramount to the project, along with important decisions on station locations, service frequency, equipment and a service operator. None of these aspects will be arrived at quickly or inexpensively. Moreover, the state's longstanding resistance to developing passenger rail between Concord, Nashua and Lowell begs some substantial hesitancy.

Nonetheless, by agreeing to undertake a feasibility study and acquiring a potential station location, a foothold has been established for intercity and passenger rail through New Hampshire's Merrimack Valley for the first time in more than 30 years.