BOSTON — A Peabody-to-Salem trolley service is inching closer to becoming a reality, thanks to an amendment by Sen. Joan B.Lovely (D-Salem) to the ENDURE Act, which was recently passed by the Massachusetts Senate.
The Act allocates $500,000 in capital funds to the project.
Peabody Director of Community Development Curt Bellavance said the funds will allow the city to begin the process of narrowing down the many ideas that have been discussed in connection with the project.
“We’ve been talking about this for a while now and need to test the waters out there to see what type and level of ridership is out there to figure out what kind of program we can run,” he said.
“We will likely bring in a consultant to guide us in setting up a pilot program to test the different scenarios to determine what’s feasible. We have four or five ideas floating around, so by gathering information and data, that will allow us to narrow those down. We need some real-time data to figure out the most viable option for both communities.”
If passed, the act will provide a total of $455 million in relief to communities hard hit by COVID-19.
“During this public-health and economic crisis, I am proud to vote with my Senate colleagues for an economic development bill making critical targeted investments that supports businesses, housing development, and career training across Massachusetts,” Lovely said in a press release. “I am particularly pleased that the Senate adopted my amendments on taxation, transportation, and tourism, which will all benefit the five communities that I represent as well as the Commonwealth as a whole.”
The release went on to say that Lovely’s amendments will “ensure that regional tourism councils receive funding in a timely fashion,” in addition to the trolley project, which she described last December in a press release as a “key link on the North Shore” between downtown Peabody and Salem.
The idea of a trolley service linking the two communities has been kicking around for a while.
In 2018, a $50,000 state-funded feasibility study was conducted on the possibility of establishing a two-mile long shuttle/trolley/bus service. The study identified several options, among them a shuttle bus service using public roadways and a service on or adjacent to the existing freight rail. The study stated that Peabody is the largest community inside Rte. 495 without a direct connection to commuter rail or rapid transit systems.
That study also concluded that the project might cost up to $35 million to build, and, when completed, would attract some 600 weekday riders covering about one-third of the annual operating costs.
“We thought the cost was high,” said Bellevance. “So we believe this money would help us identify how people use public transportation so we can figure out what option works best both in terms of what people want and the overall cost.”
The project is far from a done deal, however.
According to a spokesman from Lovely’s office, the ENDURE Act is currently in a conference committee with the parties hammering out a final version of the bill, which will then be presented to Gov. Charlie Baker. The spokesman said that the money allocated under the amendment is contained in a bond authorization for capital projects and must first be approved by the governor in the next capital plan for transportation, which he expects won’t happen until the spring or early summer of 2021.
