The Connecticut River Valley has long served as a connection between New York and Eastern Canada and is a critical rail transportation corridor for New England. Some of the earliest north-south railroads in North America connected the cities and towns along the Connecticut River, providing the first rail links between Boston, New York, and Montreal. Different segments of the rail corridor were constructed and owned by different railroad companies, a condition that persists to this day. The Knowledge Corridor describes a cluster of communities between Springfield, Massachusetts, and White River Junction, Vermont, located along I-91 within the Connecticut River Valley. This corridor consists of high-density communities, in addition to a multitude of important cultural, educational, business, and medical facilities. It is an important cultural and economic backbone for New England. Well into the last century, significant levels of both passenger and freight service were offered in the Knowledge Corridor.
The Northern New England Intercity Rail Initiative (NNEIRI), a study to examine the opportunities and impacts of more frequent and higher speed intercity passenger rail service on two major rail corridors known as the Inland Route and the Boston-to-Montreal Route, is being conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTRANS), in collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration.
