Project History

The restoration of passenger rail service to the South Coast region has been extensively studied for almost twenty years. In 2000, the MBTA completed a Draft Environmental Impact Report that analyzed six alternative routes for providing improved transportation between downtown Boston and the cities of Fall River and New Bedford, ultimately focusing on the three most viable alternatives: (1) extending the existing MBTA Stoughton Line, (2) extending the existing MBTA Middleborough Line, and (3) extending the existing MBTA Attleboro Line. In 2002, the MBTA concluded that an extension of the Stoughton Line was the most practicable and feasible of the alternatives, and received state-level approval from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office to proceed with planning for the South Coast Rail project as an extension of the existing Stoughton Line. The project has not undergone federal environmental review. EOT and the MBTA will initiate the federal and state environmental review process concurrently. This process will allow a full vetting of the issues and provide the public the opportunity to comment on the alternatives. The process will result in a joint EIS/EIR to satisfy both environmental review requirements.