FALL RIVER - Routing commuter trains through Attleboro, Norton and Taunton remains an option as the state studies ways to bring rail service to the South Coast.

The state Executive Office of Transportation Wednesday released five alternative routes for trains to connect the Fall River and New Bedford area with Boston and the Attleboro route is on the list for further study.

The state said it narrowed its options after a year of reviewing ideas presented by the public, but local activists and legislators said they saw little new in the list. They said the options being considered by the state are basically the same ones that have been on the table for 15 years.

"They haven't narrowed the field one single bit," said Heather Graf, an opponent of bringing the trains through Norton and Attleboro.

"I haven't seen any progress," state Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, said. "I don't get real excited about seeing alternatives I saw years ago." But project manager Kristina Egan said her group collected 65 suggestions from the public during the course of several hearings. That list has been narrowed to the five best options, she said.

The list includes the Attleboro route, one through Stoughton, another through Middleboro, a combined Attleboro-Middleboro alternative and a proposal to provide express bus services instead of trains.

She said the combined Attleboro-Middleboro route and the bus option are new to the process.

Fall River and New Bedford officials said they strongly reject the bus option.

"We're not here to talk about buses. We're looking for modern, state-of-the-art rail," New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang said.

Several years ago, the state selected the Stoughton route as the best way to go, but a federally-mandated environmental report expired, so the state must study all the routes again.

The Attleboro proposal has been the subject of intense opposition locally because it would cut across several streets in Taunton and Norton, which officials say would create a dangerous situation and bring motor vehicle traffic to a halt several times a day.

The route also would go through the environmentally-sensitive Chartley Pond in Norton and come close to residential neighborhoods in Attleboro before hooking up with an existing Attleboro to Boston rail line.

There would be no local stops on the Attleboro route to the South Coast.

The combined Attleboro-Middleboro route, which the state is calling a hybrid, would send three trains per day through Middleboro and three through Attleboro-Norton. Egan said the option is new and would require less infrastructure work than sending all the trains on one route. She said the state will begin an in-depth environmental study and release a draft report in one year and final report in 2010.

Graf said her group of opponents will continue to monitor and oppose the project.

Elected officials from Fall River and New Bedford were hopeful and skeptical at the same time Wednesday.

They praised Gov. Deval Patrick for being the first governor to take the rail project seriously. "No governor has committed as many resources in a short period of time as this governor," Fall River Mayor Robert Correia said.

However, they also said they have been promised rail service by all the governors dating back 20 years and nothing has happened yet.

Montigny said then Gov. William Weld pledged in 1992 he would build a rail line and if the trains were not up and running by 1997 the senator could sue him.

Correia said he believes the project will eventually get done, but a lot of people do not.

"I don't meet a lot of people in the general public who believe it will happen in their lifetime," he said.

Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen said the Patrick administration is firmly committed to the project and will put $17 million into preparing for construction.

"Measure us by what we do, not by what we say," he told the audience.

JIM HAND covers politics for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0399 or at jhand@thesunchronicle.com.