Last Thursday, Amtrak officials hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for a $583 million project to upgrade and expand its maintenance facilities at the Southampton Yard near Andrew Square in South Boston, and StreetsblogMASS got a tour of the construction work.
Amtrak officials say that the expanded facilities are necessary for Amtrak to support planned service improvements, including new routes through western Massachusetts.
The new facilities will also serve Amtrak's new Airo trainsets, which are due to start arriving in Massachusetts in 2027 to replace the 50-year-old Amfleet coaches.
"As we expand state-supported (Amtrak) service, having more effective operations here in Boston is absolutely necessary. The new fleet serviced here will be used on those new routes," MassDOT rail administrator Meredith Slesinger told StreetsblogMASS at Thursday's event.
Funding for the project comes from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, sometimes referred to as the "bipartisan infrastructure law." Section 22101 of that law authorized five years' worth of direct, multi-billion dollar appropriations to Amtrak to improve passenger rail infrastructure.
That funding has not been affected by the recent government shutdown, Amtrak officials told StreetsblogMASS.
Amtrak is simultaneously upgrading its maintenance facilities in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington.
The building expansion will replace and enclose two former layover tracks immediately east of the existing structure (pictured below).
The new 860-feet-long, 60,000 square-foot addition will include inspection pits, drop tables, sanding systems, and fueling pads for maintenance and inspection work.
Unlike the MBTA's yards, which still exclusively serve diesel-powered trains, the Southampton Yard is electrified with catenary over all of its yard tracks to power the electric Acela and Northeast Regional trains. The current construction project will also replace those overhead power systems.
To prepare for this work, Amtrak first rebuilt another layover yard, near the Fairmount Line tracks, to provide some additional train storage while the center of the yard is under construction.
Amtrak refers to this area as the "Front Yard," and its first four layover tracks were already in use as midday layover for the MBTA's regional rail trains during Thursday's ceremony.
