James Capaldi, head of the state Department of Transportation, hopes to see construction begin in Warwick in 2006.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 3, 2004

BY BRUCE LANDIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Despite complications, the state's plan to extend rail passenger service down the west side of Narragansett Bay is coming together, the state's top transportation official said yesterday.

James Capaldi, director of the Department of Transportation, said he hopes the project will bring rail service to Warwick, at the station planned near T.F. Green Airport, and to another new station planned for Wickford Junction, sometime in 2007.

He said he hopes to see service start with about eight trips per day to Warwick.

Among other goals, the plan is intended to create an "intermodal" transportation center in Warwick, with the railroad station and a parking garage connected to the airport with a people mover. It would accommodate travelers arriving and departing in cars, trains, airplanes and buses.

Governor Carcieri said the project will cost about $265 million, with the money coming from both the state and federal governments; the breakdown remains unclear.

In recent months, a series of developments moved the project forward or, if not causing actual setbacks, at least clarified what must be done, Capaldi said. He said he hopes to have a clear proposal to take to the governor next month.

Capaldi said he hopes to see construction start in Warwick during 2006, and in Wickford early the next year.

Capaldi said the state had assumed for years that the trains would stop on the existing two tracks, which together make up the main rail line from Boston to Providence, New York and Washington, D.C. But about six months ago, a new Amtrak president, David L. Gunn, decided that any new stations must have sidings for trains to stop on, to get them off the main tracks.

"That caught us by surprise," Capaldi said, and the DOT spent the next several months dealing with the new requirement. He said the sidings have to be 2 to 2 1/2 miles long, because Amtrak wants trains to be able to pull off onto them at 80 mph, to keep the main line as clear as possible.

But about a week and a half ago, he said, his agency and Amtrak agreed on a solution that will involve building only one siding in Warwick rather than two. Amtrak agreed on using an additional track already being built as part of the state's ongoing freight rail project to serve Quonset Point, he said.

He said that a key factor determining when service can begin is the 2 1/2-year lead time needed to obtain the switches for the junctions between the sidings and the main tracks.

The project will mean four tracks in Warwick: the two main tracks that Amtrak uses now, the freight line which will double as one siding, and a siding that must be built. Capaldi estimated the cost of the sidings at $50 million, and said it's unclear how the cost would be split between the state and federal governments. For comparison, $50 million is about half what the state expects to pay for a new Sakonnet River Bridge -- itself a major, though not the biggest, current state highway project.

Complicating the railroad situation is the continuing election-year deadlock between the House, Senate and President Bush over how much to budget for transportation. That leaves unclear how much Rhode Island and other states will get in federal transportation aid during the next six years. Congress will resume its session after Labor Day.

Capaldi said another change in plans will probably mean rail service south of Providence will initially be operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority alone rather than with Amtrak. The MBTA now operates the commuter rail service from Providence to Boston that Capaldi wants to extend south.

The MBTA service wouldn't extend south of Wickford, limiting the regional impact of the Warwick transportation center, Capaldi said. That would change when Amtrak begins using the stations, something Capaldi said Amtrak is committed to do.

However, he said, the majority of the market the stations will serve wants to travel north, toward Boston, the direction the MBTA serves.

Capaldi said, meanwhile, that the project passed another milestone Friday, when the General Assembly approved a series of bond issues that will be voted on in November. Some of that money will contribute to the rail project, he said.