This is a number that's going to startle a lot of people in the legislature, but it's not clear how much the Federal government would pick up. I'm curious how much this would cost if the line only went so far as the two Nashua stops. The state already operates stations for intercity buses; I don't see that as different from taking on a train station at Pheasant Lane Mall, and the City of Nashua has already indicated that they expect to kick in for the second station. I imagine having a commuter stop in town would have a positive impact on property values.
Not nearly as much. The line to Nashua is Class 3 (60 MPH...albeit a little rough-riding) with a recently renewed signal system, and would only need to be uprated to Class 4 with the cab signal + PTC layers added to the signal system. If it's stopping there there'd also be no need to double-track past the state line (although Pheasant Lane would need to be built to support a future DT addon). And only 1 grade crossing + a couple of culverts to upgrade, no bridges. The layover yard would require little permitting nestled inside of active CSX Nashua freight yard...just the trackwork, utilities, and perimeter security + access points. Crown St. already has commuter parking and egresses, so that would also be a cheap one limited to just the platform graft-on and track turnout.
Nashua-Manchester, by contrast, is 4x the mileage, only Class 2 (25 MPH...if it's even that high anymore after decades of Pan Am negligence), unsignalized, single-track, with shot roadbed, lots of bridges and culverts needing repair, and quite a few grade crossings to renew. It would have to be a top-bottom rebuild, plus the permitting for the Manchester layover would be more involved since that freight yard is derelict and 90% unused. I suspect the station costs (and our seeming inability to control them) are a significant portion of the total-project cost bloat, but the ROW costs are definitely very large.
Nashua poke could probably be done with a cost of $50M to state of NH if they kept the Pheasant Lane station costs in-check, and at that rate the available fed funds are likely to cover the lion's share of it. Most of the cost is going to be in Massachusetts where there's more route miles, full double-tracking, more freight interference (Lowell-N. Chelmsford) to square, and equal number of new stations...but also ample self-interest in paying for it. I could easily see the pivot from the ready-made sticker shock shrieks being a phased approach (with Nashua-Manchester phase being obviously non-guaranteed) to neutralize this as a campaign issue for both sides. It's not clear that the study actually crunched numbers for the phased approach, though...anecdotally it seems all-in on Manchester. So remains to be seen whether they have the data to bust it down. Massachusetts sure hopes they do.
