The three major problems are $$$$, (current estimate is 800 million), track congestion on the NEC and on the Greenbush line and/or Stoughton-Easton NIMBY's. The first means it ain't gonna happen any time soon,
not with Greenbush, Big Dig lawsuits, and other issues. It'll be well over
a billion by the time they build it. The track congestion means that they
can't run it on the NEC or Greenbush without building a new track; I
asked the guy who did a lot of the work on the NEC electrification, and
he said a new NEC track for commuter rail outside the catenary
from Attleboro to Forest Hills would be about a billion. That means it
has to go through Stoughton. However, I am not convinced that it
has to use the route they have chosen, along the old alignment in downtown Easton, where there would be many noise and vibration impacts. I think they could actually route it around Stoughton and Easton near the road that runs through the middle of Canton; that's a pretty rural section, and if done right, could serve the people of Easton and Raynham without creating a lot of impacts. It might cost a little more to grade a
new alignment, but it's a reasonably flat area; I don't think it would
cost that much more. At any rate, I think its doable.
