Opinion/Your Turn: Ripping up railroad tracks in Falmouth for bike path makes no sense

I am writing in response to the recent Cape Cod Times article regarding the proposed bike path on the Falmouth Secondary rail line. (March 16) To start off with, the government officials who are proposing the removal of the rail infrastructure in favor of the bike path are among the same cast of characters who have sponsored other similar actions. Namely the removal of the rail line between Falmouth Center and North Falmouth.

Just imagine today if the seasonal Cape Flyer train that runs between Boston and Hyannis also arrived at The Steamship Authority satellite parking area in Falmouth, or even, heaven forbid, pulled into Woods Hole to disgorge its passengers to the ferries! Transportation at its finest I’d say? Responsible, even to say the least? Back then the likes of former Falmouth Select Board member and state Rep. Eric Turkington saw fit to sneak language into a bill that sealed the fate of the existing railroad tracks.

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Fast forward to 2023, my company, Mass Coastal Railroad (MCR) operates the 58.5 miles of railroad known as the Southeast Mass Lines, of which the Falmouth Secondary track is but one segment. In the years since MCR operated the lines, traffic to and from Joint Base Cape Cod, formerly the Massachusetts Military Reservation, has wavered from some to none. In 2022 we moved over 300 railcars per year of solid waste from the Otis transfer station on the base.

In 2023 we are forecasting that car volume to double. Why? One only has to take a look at the Cape Cod Commission’s report done by GEOSYNTEC Consultants in which the municipal solid waste and construction and demolition waste disposal alternatives clearly point out that waste-by-rail is the future. Why again you ask? Because the landfills that have existed in the Northeast are full or at capacity. I am supposing that the Cape Cod Commission’s intent was two-fold. The first is the preservation of the Cape’s ecosystem and, the second is the potential cost to the average citizen and taxpayer going forward. That is not in the mind of the bike path dreamers.

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Sure, put the 3,500-plus truck trips that are saved by the Otis tracks back onto the highways and the fragile canal bridges. In the name of what?

Speaking of that, I find it very curious that the $20 million in federal funds that have been offered by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority is earmarked for transportation needs. In reading the rationale, the proximity of bus stops to the bike trail is reason enough to create bike paths? I’d love to see the study that backed that statement up. Clearly, when considering this path, the local proponents and politicians have overlooked the fact that the 6 miles of rail line would require tens of millions of dollars just to remove the 2 to 3 vertical feet of roadbed that contains coal cinders, arsenic and cyanide from nearly 200 years of rail operations. Of course, they’re not telling the public that, which is disingenuous at best.

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“The Alternative”?

I was presented with a PDF prepared by the Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail, explaining an alternative to relocating the rail infrastructure to Joint Base Cape Cod via a series of tunnels and bridges that begin at just above water level at the Cape Cod Canal. The proposal would be up to 95 vertical feet in depth traveling under and around the location of the proposed Bourne Bridge replacement. Passing directly under the on- and off-ramps to the bridge. This feat in itself labels this “solution” as a civil construction challenge at best, a nightmare and expensive at least. Combine the engineering “feat” above with the construction of 2 miles of railroad (path crosses under a pond), and frankly, I call it impossible to construct.

By the way, this alternative solution shows the track terminating within the Bourne landfill. Obviously, we know what that will do to the waste streams of Sandwich, Mashpee and Falmouth. It will force waste from those towns to be trucked at a significant cost to the taxpayers and would create an increase in the region's carbon footprint.

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In closing, I find it quite interesting that the officials now open to removing the rail line are curiously missing important organizations such as the Secretary of Transportation or the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Rail and Transit Division. In discussion with the rail division officials recently, they have not been contacted in recent history, nor have they waivered on their position to maintain the Falmouth Branch. MCR and MassDOT have previously assented to rail-with-trail on this active rail line. These folks should stop spinning their wheels and concentrate on the big picture.

Additionally, the commercial railroad customer Cavossa Enterprises, which has the federal contract to operate the transfer station at Otis Air National Guard Base, is protected by the United States Surface Transportation Board, 49 U.S.C. 10101-11908. These regulations are in place specifically to protect the railroads but more importantly railroad customers.

P. Christopher Podgurski is president and CEO of Mass Coastal Railroad, which hauls trash off Cape Cod and operates excursions including dinner trains during the tourist season and the Polar Express during the Christmas holiday season.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Opinion: Bourne railroad tracks should not be ripped up for bike trail