The state, with no fanfare, has set aside tens of millions of dollars to launch an innovative train service on a dormant rail line between a pair of the city’s most vital neighborhoods: the Seaport District and the Back Bay.
The service should be ready to go in just two years, the planning done without any of the drawn-out permitting processes or neighborhood histrionics that impede so much progress in Boston.
The solution comes in the form of a skinny stretch of barren rail that runs from the South Bay Rail Yard into the South Boston Waterfront, known as Track 61. The project has been quietly placed on a fast track because the state already owns the track after buying a bunch of rail lines from the freight operator CSX in 2009. Manufacturers, meanwhile, are rolling out a more affordable rail car, known as a diesel multiple unit, or DMU, that cities across the country are eager to try.
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Poor Track 61 hasn’t mattered much to anyone for a few decades. Its real heyday was nearly a century ago. Back then, the line was humming with freight cars carrying goods to and from the cargo ships that docked in the Port of Boston. But after World War II, the port began to shrink, and freight lines fell dormant as companies shipped by truck.
The state is activating one section of Track 61, between the convention center and the South Bay Rail Yard off the Southeast Expressway.
The plans require the state to build a 300-foot stretch of rail connecting Track 61 to the existing system, so passengers will have a seamless ride to Back Bay Station. Eventually, the state can also run a separate route from Track 61 into South Station.
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Secretary Davey said the fare on the new, yet-to-be-named MBTA-operated rail line would probably be similar to that for a T ride, about $2.
