Plan to extend commuter rail to Foxboro drawing negative response

Plan to extend commuter rail to Foxboro drawing negative response
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

FOXBORO - A plan to extend commuter train service to Foxboro is receiving negative reviews from area officials and citizens who submitted written comments on the proposal.

Mirick O'Connell, a Worcester law firm, sponsored a detailed study of the proposed service last fall that said a pilot program could begin as early as 2013. The study was paid for by the law firm and conducted by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, a transportation consulting company that has done work for the MBTA.

John Mirick, one of the firm's principals, has said the report eventually will be turned over to the T and said local residents were welcome to submit comments.

Mirick did not respond to calls from The Sun Chronicle concerning the status of the study or comments gathered from local officials and residents.

Letters signed by local residents and town officials have been highly critical, however. Comments questioned the lack of consultation between sponsors of the study and local communities and questioned assumptions concerning operating costs and the number of commuters the new trains would attract. One questioned whether the rail proposal is connected to a proposed Foxboro casino project proposed to be built on land owned by the Kraft Group on Route 1.

A Nov. 1 letter to Mirick by Foxboro Town Manager Kevin Paicos said local residents have raised a number of concerns relating to extension of train service "not the least of which was the perception that this study was developed and drafted without consultation with any Foxboro officials."

A letter signed by members of the Walpole Board of Selectmen on Dec. 1 called the study "misleading" and said it appeared to be focused on extending trains from the existing Fairmount Line from Readville to Foxboro rather than restoring service along the Interstate-495 beltway. The selectmen also questioned the report's $1.7 million annual operating cost estimate for a pilot program and cited "discrepancies" in the number of riders estimated in the proposal versus a much smaller number forecast in the 2010 MBTA report.

"To summarize, the Board of Selectmen questions the findings of this study, and believes that its abbreviated and minimal conclusions are not based on any solid foundation," the selectmen wrote.

On Dec. 15, the Walpole Planning Board wrote Mirick saying that its members unanimously oppose an increase in commuter trains. The board was also critical of a possible connection between the rail plan and a casino-resort proposed by Las Vegas hotel and casino mogul Steve Wynn.

"In light of the recent news from Foxboro with the Kraft/Wynn casino proposal as the requirement in the casino bill that gaming facilities must be sited near intra-modal transportation, we are suspicious that there is a relationship between this study and the casino proposal on the Kraft property," the planning board letter said. Both Mirick and the Kraft Group have denied the train study is connected to a proposed casino and that the Kraft Group merely provided "feedback" as part of the I-495 Metrowest Partnership in which both Mirick's lawfirm and the Kraft Group are active participants.

Employees of both Mirick O'Connell and Rand Whitney, one of the components of the Kraft Group listed on the company's web site, sit on the board of The Worcester Regional Research Bureau of which Rand Whitney is listed as a corporate sponsor. The regional think tank issued a report in 2007 questioning the benefits of casino gambling in Worcester.

Rand Whitney was not part of the group at the time of the report said WRRB executive Director Roberta Schaefer.

The 12-page report entitled "Casino Gambling in Worcester: The Case For and Against," concluded that gambling would generate revenue and jobs for the city but would also create negative impacts in the form of pollution, crime and other social problems that would also affect neighboring communities.

Schaefer said the Research Bureau stands by that finding.