Keep the Trains

I'm completely on board (get it! train reference) with the Mary Baker Eaton and the Masked Preservationist campaign to blast the MBTA and elected officials with messages of support for the commuter rail (specifically the weekened commuter rail line.) Please click on one of the links and follow the directions.

The train service to Newburyport is pathetic, but at least it's there. I do like the city and chamber's plan to use the train as a source of tourists (i.e. business) but more personally, my family is able to get by on one car because the train is available to us. We should be empowering all people to drive less, not more.

All Aboard

Read this on the always very interesting SEED email list.

Sounds like a great idea to me. It pertains directly to a point Ed Cameron made in his blog a week or so ago and less directly to an earlier post that I had--we need to incorporate the MBTA station into the downtown and, in this case, other attractions.

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Parker River National Wildlife Refuge Access Project
Tuesday, October 16, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
6 Plum Island Turnpike, Newburyport
(enter off Ocean Ave/Rolf's Lane)
http://parkerriver. fws.gov

The Essex National Heritage Commission (ENHC) invites you to
participte in a public input meeting regarding the Parker River
National Wildlife Refuge Access Project, a planning effort to develop
a network of safe on- and off-road connections for pedestrians and
cyclists between the Newburyport MBTA commuter rail station and the
wildlife refuge and its visitor center. The project scope includes an
assessment of bicycle and pedestrian access in the vicinity of the
Route 1 traffic circle and redeveloping the former City Branch rail
corridor as part of the Clipper City Rail Trail. The project area
encompasses a portion of the Coastal Trails Network, an emerging 30-
mile system of walking and biking trails linking the communities of
Amesbury, Newbury, Newburyport and Salisbury. www.coastaltrails. org

For more information, call Bill Steelman at ENHC at 978-740-0444.