Arborway Restoration

[lexicon506]

I'm surprised no one caught this. It's nice to see that they haven't given up yet, the MBTA really needs to stop going back on their promises.

February 13, 2007
Arborway Committee Sues Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Restore E-branch of the Green Line to Forest Hills

The Arborway Committee today filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court to compel the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (State) to restore E-branch Green Line service beyond Heath Street to the Arborway at Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain. The Arborway project was one of the original "Big Dig" transit commitments, which the state promised to complete as part of the overall central artery project. In December, in one of its final acts, however, the Romney administration killed the Arborway project despite efforts by transit advocates to advance the project. This suit names the Executive Office of Transportation, the Department of Public Works, and the Conservation Law Foundation as co-defendants.

Citing Arborway restoration as an "environmental justice" project, Arborway Committee Chair Franklyn Salimbene, said, "The decision by the Romney administration to cancel the project is unconscionable. Jamaica Plain is on the 'top 10 list' of neighborhoods with the highest asthma rates in the entire state. Restoring Green Line service is the only viable way of improving public transit and thereby improving air quality in Jamaica Plain. Route 39 bus service has been, is, and promises to continue to be both ineffective and unhealthful."

David White, Chair of Jamaica Plain Citizens for Clean Air, said, "In view of the poor level of air quality in Suffolk County, particularly regarding carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Arborway Green Line restoration offers far better air benefits for Jamaica Plain than CNG and retrofitted diesel bus service." Buses produce point-of-service pollution in the form of ozone and small particulate matter, both from combustion of fossil fuel and from tire rubber and roadway debris.

According to Dr. Srdjan Nedeljkovic of Brigham and Women's Hospital, "Short-term exposure to these particles can lead to irritation of the respiratory tract, causing coughing, chest tightness, choking, wheezing, and decreased lung function."

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services lists Jamaica Plain as suffering 105 asthma hospitalizations per 1000 population among residents of all ages. Among children under five years old, according to the Boston Public Health Commission (PHC) figures, the rate of asthma hospitalizations in Jamaica Plain is higher than in many other Boston neighborhoods at almost 10 per 1000. PHC figures also show that asthma rates are increasing most dramatically in Boston's Latino community, the greatest concentration of which lives in the Hyde Square area of Jamaica Plain, according to the 2000 US census.

From a transit perspective, the current #39 bus service, which was substituted for the Green Line in 1986, has experienced significant erosion in ridership. Latest MBTA statistics indicate that since 1997, daily ridership has fallen by 5000, from approximately 19,000 a day to 14,000. Since the inception of the substitute service in 1986, the #39 bus has lost 50% of its ridership.

John Kyper, Transportation Chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club, said, "The remarkable fact is that while #39 ridership has fallen precipitously, during the same period combined Orange Line daily ridership at Jamaica Plain's four stations has remained flat at approximately 23,000. This loss of public transit ridership has a negative impact both on the health of Jamaica Plain residents and on the health of MBTA revenues. It couldn't be much worse."

Gibran Rivera , a member of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council and a 2005 candidate for Boston City Council who carried the Hyde Square area, said, "A return of Green Line service to Jamaica Plain and to the Hyde Square area in particular would represent a boon to local merchants. It would promote Hyde Square as Boston's 'Latin Quarter' while connecting the neighborhood to the central subway system."

 

[lexicon506]

February 13, 2007
NNN interviews Franklyn Salimbene on Arborway restoration lawsuit

Chris Lovett of Boston's Neighborhood Network News (NNN) interviewed Arborway Committee chair Franklyn Salimbene recently on the committee's lawsuit to enforce the binding agreement mandating Arborway Green Line restoration.

http://199.233.98.16/Lovett_Salimbene_Interview_small.avi

All of this is from the Arborway Committee website: http://www.arborway.net/lrv/

 

[PaulC]

Feds officially kill trolleys?

http://www.jamaicaplaingazette.com/node/2971

Feds officially kill trolleys
By John Ruch August 28, 2008


Lawsuit and bus fixes still pending

Plans to restore the Arborway Line trolley service through Jamaica Plain officially died July 31, when the federal government quietly approved new state regulations that kill the idea.

The last hope for trolley restoration advocates is a still-pending lawsuit that would force the restoration.

Meanwhile, the state Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) is reportedly still working on plans to improve the Route 39 bus service that replaced the trolleys on the JP end of the Green Line. That process is already nine months past a deadline required by another lawsuit.

?There?s going to be further civic engagement,? EOT spokesperson Adam Hurtubise told the Gazette. But the EOT could not specify any kind of schedule for the process.

?We are certainly committed to ensuring that a vibrant public process go forward,? said CLF President Philip Warburg in a Gazette interview. ?We are expecting [EOT] to keep the ball moving on this one.?

Until 1985, Green Line trolleys ran down S. Huntington Avenue and Centre and South streets between Heath Street and Forest Hills. The last of the old trolley tracks were paved over this year. A 1990 lawsuit by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) required restoration of the trolley service as part of air-quality mitigations for the Big Dig.

The MBTA ran a trolley restoration planning process for several years with a community advisory committee called the Arborway Rail Restoration Project Advisory Committee. But it was always clear that the state was going along with the project grudgingly.

In 2003, the state announced that it would simply rewrite environmental regulations to get out of restoring the service. The new regulations replace the air-quality benefits of trolleys with new parking lots and commuter rail improvements elsewhere. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved that change last month in a long-expected technical decision.

In 2005, the CLF sued the state again to require trolley restoration and other transit projects. But the then-pending regulatory change made that case shaky. In a 2006 lawsuit settlement, the CLF allowed the state to kill trolley restoration, while requiring a public process to think of transit improvements in the ?Arborway corridor.? The settlement does not require the state to actually carry out any improvements.

That decision inspired the local pro-trolley Arborway Coalition to sue the CLF and the state in 2007, alleging that the state was breaching its 1990 contract with the CLF by killing trolley restoration.

Franklyn Salimbene, head of the Arborway Coalition, said the lawsuit is still pending and unaffected by the EPA?s decision.

?The lawsuit is not premised on the regulation,? Salimbene said. ?That [regulatory change] in no way, in our view, affects the obligation of the state to restore Arborway service.?

Meanwhile, the EOT last year began a public process of recommending Route 39 improvements. The process is intended to meet the requirements of the 2006 CLF lawsuit settlement. However, there is debate about whether a bus-focused process meets the legal language. Clearly, the process has violated the agreement?s deadline of wrapping up by November, 2007. The last public meeting was held six months ago.

At that meeting, held in February in JP, state transit officials presented a variety of proposed Route 39 improvements, including removing many bus stops and making significant streetscape changes. Trolley and bus advocates alike generally spoke favorably of the EOT ideas, while expressing concern at the lack of a budget and timeline.

EOT officials indicated they wanted to move quickly. They proposed forming a citizens advisory committee (CAC) within a couple of months to review the proposals. But that did not happen. There have been no further public meetings.

?We are in the process of developing the advisory group. It has not been formed,? said EOT spokesperson Klark Jessen in an e-mail to the Gazette. ?The time frame on that and scheduling of public hearings [are] still to be determined.?

Warburg, state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and state Rep. Jeffrey S?nchez all told the Gazette that they have heard from EOT officials in recent weeks about preparations to form the CAC.

?I want to make sure it?s representative of the entire route,? Wilkerson said, noting that the Route 39 runs beyond JP all the way to Back Bay Station.

?We?re waiting,? S?nchez said.

In its decision approving the regulatory change, the EPA also noted the lawsuit settlement and its requirement of an Arborway improvement process. ?EPA encourages all parties involved to fully implement this agreement,? the decision says.

 

[ablarc]

^ Sound and fury signifying nothing.

Smoke and mirrors.

Shell game.

 

[J6P]

The roadway is not wide enough for the trolley. The CNG busses will likely be claimed to mitigate the pollution on their own.

As a resident of JP I would hope they do not return, merely for practical reasons. Centre St. is no wide enough for the traffic it handles now.

 

[ablarc]

The roadway is not wide enough for the trolley.

Have they narrowed it since the trolleys last ran there?

 

[Arborway]

The old PCC cars were 100" wide. The modern LRVs (Boeing, Kinki and Breda) are 104", while the Neoplan 60' and NABI 40' buses are 102" wide.

I think the biggest problem with Centre St. is you have a ton of traffic using it each day, but there hasn't been a traffic study done in many, many years to find out where these people are coming from, and where they're going.

I believe it was Davis square where one was conducted that determined 1/3 of all cars were just circling, looking for a place to park. I wouldn't be surprised if Centre was being used primarily as a thru-street to other areas, with much of the gridlock contributing very little to local businesses.

If it turns out that a sizable percentage of cars are just using Centre as a shortcut, then bringing back the E line makes a lot of sense. It would help negate the effects of Induced Demand brought about (at least partially) by the removal of light rail vehicles.

 

[ablarc]

There are PCCs kicking around waiting to be bought. Equip them with A/C and run them to Arborway. Btw, European PCCs were narrower still.

Or commission a new, narrower car; they're quite narrow throughout Europe.

 

[Arborway]

Initial restoration studies earlier in the decade found the dimensions of the existing cars are fine, as long as parking enforcement is actually carried out.

 

[czsz]

Or commission a new, narrower car; they're quite narrow throughout Europe.

Does Europe not have an equivalent of the ADA?

 

[jass]

Does Europe not have an equivalent of the ADA?

They do. And unlike here, they actually can make 100% low floor buses and trolleys. I still dont get why our Bredas have stairs in the middle when the ones in europe are flat all the way

 

[cden4]

It's funny, the main argument I've heard against restoring the line is that the trolleys will cause traffic congestion. That's interesting, because isn't it all those cars that make the 39 bus so unreliable?

It's amazing to me that people will fight against transit because the transit will cause congestion. Isn't the main point that the transit will REDUCE congestion by providing alternatives to driving?

 

[Arborway]

It's amazing to me that people will fight against transit because the transit will cause congestion. Isn't the main point that the transit will REDUCE congestion by providing alternatives to driving?

Yes, but nonsensical, circular logic is the hallmark of the anti-restoration crowd. It doesn't matter if it's worked in other cities, it doesn't matter if it makes sense from a logical standpoint if it doesn't place rubber-tired vehicles first. A certain segment of the driving class view rails as a threat to their lifestyle. A bus lumbering along behind them is no big deal, but when rails are laid down for a train it is seen as a kind of infringement on their realm. The city is "taking" something from them.

 

[ablarc]

A certain segment of the driving class view rails as a threat to their lifestyle. A bus lumbering along behind them is no big deal, but when rails are laid down for a train it is seen as a kind of infringement on their realm.

SSC.

 

[armpitsOFmight]

After discussing the Arborway Restoration with a few of my neighbors who lived in JP since the early 70's, I'm glad the trolley line wasn't restored. All three of them bitched and complained about double parked cars/trucks blocking the trolleys throughout the day. The 39 is the better option because it is just as fast and can go around these annoying obstacles.

 

[Shepard]

Why would anyone take the 39 when as you've suggested on other threads the OL should be handling all the transit down that corridor? At least be internally consistent in your trolling. Is that too much to ask?

 

[armpitsOFmight]

My trolling is consistent, I never said the 39 should be eliminated.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

To be fair he said the opposite, that it should be expanded to true BRT.

 

[armpitsOFmight]

^^Thanks Van. Actually, I stated that it should be turned into quasi-BRT. There isn't enough room on Centre, South, and S. Huntington to give the bus its own lane unless we eliminated parking spaces. Huntington Ave is the only area where it could be true BRT since the buses could have their own separate lane.

 

[Ron Newman]

There would be plenty of room for trolleys here if you move the car traffic off Centre and South Streets. Put the private cars on Lamartine Street and the Jamaicaway/Arborway instead, and reserve Centre and South Streets for public transit.