Prioritizing Rail Expansion in New England

New England rail activist Kenny Uong talked about some New England rail lines that should be built. The proposals are not bad in theory, and remind me of longstanding advocate demands, but in practice, the prioritization is all wrong. In truth, further investment in regional rail in New England – by which I mean RegionalBahn-style service to small towns like Westerly and Manchester, not core commuter rail service in Boston to be turned into an S-Bahn – is a waste of money in the current situation. Activists and railfans like closing gaps in the network of the service that exists but isn’t used, such as the outer tails of commuter rail in Rhode Island and Connecticut, but in truth it cannot be expected to have meaningful ridership until there’s better intercity rail, and in some cases it can even be counterproductive through lading high-speed tracks with slower traffic. This is not an attack on Kenny, who did good advocacy for better buses and rail in his home region of Los Angeles as…