NEW BEDFORD — Gov. Charlie Baker's plan to pursue South Coast Rail via Middleboro, relegating the previously planned Stoughton route to "Phase 2," has some state and local officials wondering if the shorter rides promised by the Stoughton route will ever come to pass.

It's also drawing attention in Middleboro and Lakeville, because the plan would dramatically alter the use of the Middleborough/Lakeville station, either by closing the existing station and moving it, or by making it a spur that would require passengers to change trains farther north, possibly in Bridgewater.

State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, a longtime opponent of the Middleboro route because it bypasses most of Taunton, said he would have no problem with the change if it carried some kind of guarantee that the Stoughton route would get done. But it doesn't.

Asked if he thinks Baker would prefer never to send commuter rail through Stoughton, he said, "Oh, I think so. I mean, I wish, if that was the case, that the administration would say that."

The document that describes the change is called the Notice of Project Change. It calls for trains heading north from Fall River and New Bedford to turn east at East Taunton, then swing north along existing tracks in Middleboro, without going to the Middleborough/Lakeville station.

Pacheco said doing the project in phases will cost taxpayers even more than doing just the Stoughton route, because of extra construction and environmental permits. He said that between East Taunton and Middleboro, the tracks run near cold-water ponds, which he called "almost as big a deal as the Hockomock Swamp."

A debate over cost

The state has not released a separate cost estimate for the extra work, and Massachusetts Department of Transportation spokesman Patrick Marvin said Friday he did not have that information. The Notice of Project Change shows a price of $1.1 billion for the Middleboro route, but that price includes part of the work necessary for the Stoughton route, which is estimated at $3.3 billion.

Proponents also say the Middleboro route could open about four years sooner, in 2024.

The new plan calls for the East Taunton station to be farther south than it would have been under the Stoughton plan, but Pacheco said DOT won't tell him exactly where, so he cannot be sure it won't end up in Berkley. Either way, he maintains that without a station in downtown Taunton, the Middleboro route unfairly isolates one of the three Southeastern Massachusetts cities not served by commuter rail.

"It basically cuts Taunton out of the equation, in terms of having it be relevant, practical service," he said.

The ride to New Bedford from South Station would take 95 to 100 minutes with the Middleboro route, and 77 minutes on the Stoughton route.

With regard to the fate of the existing Middleborough/Lakeville station, State Rep. Keiko Orrall, R-Lakeville, said she believes the state is leaning toward keeping the station open, and that with forthcoming scheduling information, she may be able to identify a way to eliminate the need to change trains.

"There's no way I would support moving that station or closing that station. No way," she said.

A significant amount of housing has been built around the station entrance, which is in Lakeville, since the station opened in 1997, and the housing density is higher than allowed elsewhere in town. New commercial development along adjacent Route 105 continues to this day.

Orrall does support Baker's choice to prioritize the Middleboro route. In fact, she thinks it's time to forget about Stoughton. The opposition from some communities along that route means getting it approved is "years and years and years away from ever happening," she said.

"And I don't think it will ever happen," she said.

A train bypassing a station?

Marvin of DOT said he was not aware of any preference for keeping the station open. Nor has the potential location of the station been finalized, if it were to be moved, he said.

The document indicates the station would be moved north or west of Pilgrim Junction, which is the place in Middleboro where the tracks turn west, just above the Middleborough/Lakeville station. A dot marked "potential new station" on a map in the Notice of Project Change is near the freight rail yard in Middleboro.

Miriam "Mitzi" Hollenbeck, chairwoman of the Lakeville Board of Selectmen, said the board will discuss the plan at its next meeting and hopes to meet with Orrall. Until then, she did not have enough information to comment further, she said.

Middleboro Selectman Allin Frawley said he and his board never heard from the state before the plan was released. He said has been repeatedly calling Rep. Bill Straus, D-Mattapoisett, chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, to ask for information, "and he never even had the courtesy to call me back."

In response, Straus said in an e-mail to The Standard-Times that he was involved in time-sensitive discussions with the administration involving the Notice of Project Change and is not one of the three Middleboro state representatives, and therefore, "I did not feel it productive to [South Coast Rail's] advancement to speak directly with him."

"He has been free to write and share his views with my staff during his phone calls," Straus said.

Frawley, asked if he would like to see the Middleborough/Lakeville station moved to the downtown Middleboro rail yard, said he doesn't know what effect that would have on the town, and he doesn't want to "pull the rug out from under Lakeville."

"In Middleboro, we don't do that to our neighbors. We don't screw our neighbors to profit our own," he said.

"It's a regional rail. Let's have a regional discussion," he said.

Baker's plan appears to mirror the major points of a DOT e-mail that shocked legislators in January and was later retracted as "factually inaccurate" by DOT's deputy administrator for rail, James Eng.

At the time, Steve Smith, a retired regional planning director who was involved in South Coast Rail discussions until mid 2015, said the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority may have inflated the Stoughton cost to avoid paying for that route. The MBTA and DOT were working together on the project until November, when DOT assumed full oversight.

"It struck me that they were trying to make the Stoughton route infeasible — make it look infeasible, so they could look at the Middleboro line," said Smith, formerly director of the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD).

When the Baker administration finally unveiled the plan Wednesday, Straus, a onetime ardent supporter of the Stoughton route, said the governor deserves credit for pushing for a change that will restore rail service to the South Coast sooner and at one-third the cost, with fewer permit hassles.

Follow Jennette Barnes on Twitter @jbarnesnews.