Feds Rule In Sudbury Rail Line Case, Opponents Say 'We Still Can Prevail'

SUDBURY, MA — For the second time in 2022, a federal agency that oversees rail lines across the nation has made a ruling over a piece of defunct railway that cuts through Sudbury — and the ruling could be a setback for local residents who want control over what happens with the corridor.

The federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) Monday denied a petition from a group of residents and business owners aligned under the Protect Sudbury group to declare the rail line as "abandoned." Such a ruling could help landowners adjacent to the line reclaim pieces of the land, according to Protect Sudbury.

By retaking the land, the group could realize its goal of halting an in-progress Eversource project to bury electrical lines under the rail corridor, and the eventual paving of the corridor to become a new piece of the Mass Central Rail Trail.

But Protect Sudbury says the STB decision is not a setback because the group is pursuing a separate case in state Land Court. In that matter, the group will ask the court to invalidate a late 1970s transfer of the corridor from the Boston and Maine Corp. railroad to the MBTA. The purpose of that transfer was to build a commuter rail line, but the MBTA never did.

"We still can prevail in this matter," Protect Sudbury President Ray Phillips said Monday.

Time may not be on the side of the group. Eversource has already started a project to bury transmission lines through Sudbury and Hudson after Protect Sudbury lost previous legal battles in the state Supreme Court and in front of the state Energy Facilities Siting Board.

The Land Court has assigned the case to the "average" or "A" track, which means it could be up to a year before the case goes to trial, according to court rules. And the court might send the issued back to the Surface Transportation Board again, adding more time to the process.

"If landowners are successful in invalidating the taking and establishing that they hold reversionary rights, the [STB] would be willing to address the status of the line," the board said this week.

In a message to supporters, Phillips said he believes the Land Court could ask the STB to make a ruling.

"The Land Court is not likely to dismiss our case out of hand claiming that there are jurisdictional issues (federal vs state) that must first be settled. If we have a legitimate case to make in Land Court (and we do) and if the Land Court wants clarity on the status (active or abandoned) of the MBTA right-of-way," Phillips wrote.

Within a year, a substantial portion of work on the Eversource project could be done, with the project set to be totally done by October 2024, according to the utility.

The STB in February ruled that Protect Sudbury did not have standing in front of the board because the group did not have an interest in operating or owning a railway.

Phillips has previously said the group is mainly opposed to the burying of electric infrastructure under the rail line, fearing it's a public health issue. Proponents of the trail portion say the Mass Central Rail Trail piece is the opponents' main motivation.

"This has always been about the rail trail, they've just not been honest about admitting it,"Andrew Fischer, an attorney working on behalf of groups in favor of the rail trail, previously told Sudbury Patch.

When complete, the 104-mile Mass Central Rail Trail will create a non-motorized link from Boston to Northampton. A key section of the trail is complete from Wayland at the Sudbury line east to near Waltham. The Sudbury section would provide a link to some complete portions in Hudson, and the Assabet River Rail Trail to Marlborough. The Sudbury section would also intersect with the 25-mile, north-south Bruce Freeman Rail Trail; a 4.4-mile section of that trail north to Concord from Route 20 will start construction in 2023.