To: The Rhode Island State House, The Rhode Island State Senate, Governor Gina Raimondo, Sen. John Reed (RI-1), The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate

Stop NECFuture's and the FRA's railway re-routing plan

Tell Senator Jack Reed and the rest of Rhode Island's government officials that this needs to be stopped. The FRA and NEC-Futures are planning to reroute the existing railway that passes through Westerly, Charlestown, and South Kingstown in order to shave a potential 45mins off the NYC-Boston travel time. In doing so, their plan will significantly and negatively impact local wildlife preserves, a large number of local homes and farmland, and wetlands.

Why is this important?

This has been kept secret until very recently and we now have only days to stop this. Follow the link below for more detailed information on the project, including maps of the proposed route, and the effects it will have on the local community and our environment. It's should also be noted that Connecticut's government officials called this plan "dead on arrival" yet Senator Reed thinks this a great idea for "South County" and Rhode Island.
http://charlestowncitizens.org/2016/12/18/christmas-surprise-from-fra/

A quote from the CharlestownCitizens.org article:
"One week before Christmas the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has released their Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to straighten the tracks of the Northeast Corridor over the next several decades. The impacted communities have just 30 days to respond. The FRA estimates the cost of its proposal at nearly $130 billion, plus an additional $2 billion a year to operate. The states will be expected to pay part of this cost.

It is important to note that the plan cannot happen without approval from the state of Rhode Island.

The new path of the rail lines would cut off an estimated 45 minutes of travel time between New York and Boston by straightening out curves that currently exist in the rail lines. Some of this curviness is in Charlestown where the rails were originally built to serve the mill towns or follow natural features. The train currently spends at most about 5 minutes traveling through Charlestown. It’s not known how many minutes or seconds of the upgrade depend on the straightening in Charlestown.

The proposal calls for rerouting the rails through the Grills Preserve in Westerly, rerouting in the Burdickville Rd. Area in Charlestown, cutting straight through the Frances C. Carter Memorial Preserve, then transecting the Amos Green Farm, Columbia Heights, and Kenyon. The new rail lines would rejoin the old rail bed in the Great Swamp Management Area in South Kingstown where a third rail would be added to increase the railroad width by 50%. Wetlands would be filled in Burlingame and the Great Swamp Management Areas. Blasting and trenching would be needed to get through hills and keep the train at a steady elevation. A small area of Narragansett Tribal Land will also likely have wetlands filled in the Indian Cedar Swamp. There would likely be one or more temporary staging areas in the Great Swamp in South Kingstown to facilitate development of a third rail. Public and private property is effected, including many homes along the new rail path that would have to be removed."

Information on the project can also be found at NECFuture.com