Today’s Train Time conversation with Massachusetts State Representative Christina Minicucci ranges widely. We talked about issues that affect the travel choices of people in Rep Minicucci’s district, and in fact pretty much everywhere: frequency, reliability, and cost. We talked about trains, of course, but also about bike and hiking trails and safe streets. These other ways of getting around, as well as the car driving that continues to be part of most Americans’ lives, need to be considered when thinking about getting people onto trains.

Christina Minicucci serves as the State Representative for the 14th Essex District of Massachusetts, which straddles the Merrimack River and includes parts of Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill and North Andover. Christina is a passionate advocate for progressive policy with a focus on food security, education, clean water, and public transportation. Christina can almost always be found participating in community events or enjoying her love of the outdoors.

Transcript

Note: This transcript was created using AI and is imperfect. For purposes of quotation, please check the actual recording! It is time-stamped , which is useful as a guide to finding a point in the recording, but please be aware that the time-stamps may not be a perfect match to the published podcast.

SPEAKERS
Karen Christensen, Christina Minicucci
(times reflect place in final, edited interview/podcast)

Karen Christensen 01:44
Good morning. I’m so pleased to have you with us, Representative Minicucci. Or Christina, if you don’t mind.

Christina Minicucci 01:51
That’s great. Thank you, Karen. Thank you for having me today.

Karen Christensen 01:55
Yeah, it’s Thanksgiving week. It’s a little bit quiet. But it’s of course, it’s the I think this is in the United States, the busiest travel, typically the busiest travel time of the year. So we’re going to talk about travel and transit. And, you know, I thought it would be I would like to hear just a little bit about your district and about the things you’ve seen over the past year and a half or so in terms of people getting around or people not, you know, having a real change in not needing to get around so much.

Christina Minicucci 02:34
Sure. Well, I am from the opposite side of the status view. So in the upper northeast corner, right up on the New Hampshire border. I represent three gateway cities, Lawrence, Mizzou, and in April as well as North Andover, which is a suburb of Boston. We’re about 24 miles from Boston. So a little too far to run unless you’re a marathoner. But close enough that we have a fair number of commuters. Yeah, the three the two of the three cities also sit on route 93. So we do have a fair number of car commuters from there. But North Andover and Hazel also sit on route 495, which is our primary artery into Boston, which if you’re familiar with our and the state, very, very busy, very congested road and isn’t really a direct route to Boston. So for us a commute from hay roll or North Andover by car in the height, you know, when we’re not in COVID times is at least an hour and a half. There have been days with that. It’s taken me two hours. If there were an accident to go 24 miles. Yeah. And one day I came in, I showed up at the statehouse and one of the very few days actually drove my car there 12 times since I’ve been in office. And I said, if I were an elite marathoner, I would have just beat myself for two hours, and I said, an elite marathoner would have beat me today. And so yeah, but usually we’re good hour and a half to Boston. So I personally, since I’ve been in office, I’ve relied very heavily on the commuter rail, even though it’s not the quic

On this episode of Train Time we’re talking to Rep William (Smitty) Pignatelli about his advocacy for new connections for western Massachusetts. Host Karen Christensen explains, “I’m delighted to welcome my own representative, Smitty Pignatelli of Lenox, to Train Time. Rep Pignatelli has been a great advocate for regional equity, in transportation as well as in many other areas. He wants to see rural areas like ours get a fair shake. With all the recent news about the infrastructure bill, we have a lot to talk about, including West-East Rail.” As Rep Pignatelli wrote recently in the Berkshire Edge, “Infrastructure revitalization is critical for regional equity: The goal is not regional equality — it is regional equity, giving Western Mass residents the same diligent action on infrastructure that is the focus at the other end of the state.”

State Representative Wm. Smitty Pignatelli is a lifelong resident of Lenox, Massachusetts and a graduate of the Lenox Public Schools. Smitty, as he prefers to be called, was named after his father’s best friend, William Smith, who was killed during World War II. After graduating from Lenox Memorial High School in 1977, Smitty became a licensed Master Electrician and worked in his family’s electrical contracting business for twenty years. Smitty took over the full operation of the business at the time of his father’s retirement in 1991. Smitty left the family business to his brother Scott, in 1998, when he was offered a position as the Business Development Manager for Lee Bank. While at the bank, he attended Babson College School for Financial Studies, graduating in 2001. Longing to serve the people of his beloved Berkshire District, he decided to leave the bank to pursue his dream of public service and run for higher office. Smitty won the seat of State Representative for the 4th Berkshire District and is currently serving his eighth term in the House of Representatives.

Smitty was first elected to the Lenox Planning Board in 1987 and served on that board for five years. In 1992, he was elected to the Board of Selectmen, and was elected Chairman on four different occasions, serving until May of 2003. Smitty also served from 1995-1999 as a Berkshire County Commissioner including two years as Chairman of the board. With over 30 years of public service experience, Smitty has also been involved in many local associations. He is a member of the Berkshire County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, a past board member of the Berkshire County Arc, the Board of Directors of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, the Berkshire County Red Cross and is a former President of the Lenox Historical Society.

Note: This transcript was created using AI and is imperfect. For purposes of quotation, please check the actual recording! It is time-stamped , which is useful as a guide to finding a point in the recording, but the time-stamps are not a perfect match to the podcast because we have added an introduction and done some editing.

Tue, 11/30 11:24AM • 21:30

SPEAKERS
Karen Christensen, Smitty Pignatelli

Smitty Pignatelli 01:50
Good morning. Pleasure to be here with you.

Karen Christensen 01:53
Terrific. Train Time, has, you know, ranged far and wide. But this feels really like bringing it back home talking about, you know, the part of Massachusetts that that you and I both know, and love. You for much longer because I think you were born here.

Smitty Pignatelli 02:11
Yep. Born and raised. My father was born and raised. So in fact, my grandfather immig

On this episode of Train Time, Tom Sexton, NE Regional Director for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, explains the growing movement to combine passenger rail service and multi-use trails. While many people think that trails mean no trains, the reality is that the two forms of transportation work well together, and offer benefits to both rail service providers and to the walkers and cyclists who enjoy the expanding network of trails. Examples abound, and Tom points out ways this design approach could be applied more widely on existing and new or restored rail lines.

Transcript

Note: This transcript was created using AI and is imperfect. For purposes of quotation, please check the actual recording! It is time-stamped , which is useful as a guide to finding a point in the recording, but please be aware that the time-stamps may not be a perfect match to the published podcast.

SPEAKERS: Tom Sexton, Karen Christensen; recorded Tue, 11/9/21 11:14AM • 24:36

Karen Christensen 01:43
Tom, good morning. How are you?

Tom Sexton 01:45
I’m well, thank you.

Karen Christensen 01:47
Glad we could do this. Although I must admit, I think back to the time when you came to Great Barrington, we were live at St. James place with people all around the room. This is a little bit different.

Tom Sexton 02:01
Yeah, I’m I’m intrigued. I haven’t done one of these quite in this in this matter before.

Karen Christensen 02:07
But it gives us a chance to talk about something that’s actually important, interesting and surprising. to a larger audience. I remember when you came to Great Barrington and spoke about rails with trails, how surprised and energized people were, by the end of that, because it was like, their eyes were wide open, they’d never thought of it. So that’s, that’s what, why don’t you tell us, I think the thing that’s better known as rails to trails, and this is, of course, train time, we’re talking about Rails most of the time, so. But you bring it a different perspective on rails and trails.

Tom Sexton 02:57
Yes, most people think of rail trails, that’s the, you know, that’s the product when you’re all done developing a corridor and, and the actual trail part of it. But rails with trails are a subset of, of the, the 24,000 miles of rail trails, we have in the United States, and we’re finding that many more rails with trails are coming online. And overall, it’s really smart to share rights of way these corridors, these linear corridors, they’re harder to create every year, because there’s more stakeholders. United States, the planet is getting denser, it’s hard to just draw a line on a map and say, we’re going to go from A to B. And we’ll work it out on the way that was easy. When across the Great Plains, and you didn’t have to relocate people in other services and go under or over. And now, it’s, it’s a different story. So to look at totally, we need to share rights of way these these corridors with with each other, it doesn’t matter if it’s a highway, or utility, or a railroad, it’s r