WORCESTER, Mass. — The state’s work of extending passenger rail service from Boston to the Berkshires continues.

Director Andy Koziol defines the West-East Rail as an intercity passenger rail service which is going to bring connectivity from Western Mass communities like Pittsfield and Springfield to Worcester and Boston.

Koziol is going on his fifth month in the role with MassDOT and said there’s a lot of work being done to connect different communities across the Commonwealth.

He said the first largely funded project is the Inland Route Early Actions Grant which received more than $100 million from the Federal Railroad Administration.

“There's several projects underway in support of West East Rail and somewhere in the planning phases such as a service development plan that will look at the service needs and capital needs all the way from Boston to Albany," Koziol said. "And there's near-term action such as the Inland Route, which we recently received a federal grant to have track work between Worcester and Springfield. And once that track work is complete, we can start two daily roundtrips from Boston to Worcester to Springfield, and then down to New Haven.”

The state’s Rail & Transit Division is set to begin designing track work between Worcester and Springfield this summer, constructing the tracks by 2027, with the goal of new trains operating twice daily between Boston and New Haven through Springfield by 2029.

The statewide vision for intercity passenger rail is being called Compass Rail.

Koziol said this will not only be good for passenger service, but freight trains as well.

“CSX has a huge role in the project being the owners of the rail corridor Worcester out to Albany and they've been a great partner advancing these early projects and we really are appreciative of their participation and partnership," Koziol said. "We've recently worked with CSX to develop a service model, which is really the basis for a lot of the work that we're going to be doing. And as we move forward with these track work improvements, I think we're going to see benefits both that will allow passenger rail, but also be benefits to the freight rail as it offers additional capacity in the corridor.”

Other projects currently being funded by the state include planning a design for a new station in Palmer, Mass. and for track capacity improvements in the Pittsfield area.

Koziol said connecting out to Pittsfield is subject to the Federal Railroad Administration and there is no timeline in place yet, saying like with anything in rail, things take time.