Silver Line - Phase III / BRT in Boston

Re: Silver Line Phase III

The Silver Line is rather flawed in several ways (At the end of the day it's just a bus through the South End which is not equal service to the old Orange Line route, plus PhaseI and PhaseII have nothing to do with each other, and it's debatable how much ridership there will be from the South End directly to the airport).

However the dirty little secret got the project funded by the feds and actually got something built. In a sense, it was pretty effective (though flawed)...

I am sure this has been mentioned, but why is the city of Boston so bent on using things like rapid bus service instead of extending rail lines which are more dependable and in most cases faster? There are some great proposed maps by some on here.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

I am sure this has been mentioned, but why is the city of Boston so bent on using things like rapid bus service instead of extending rail lines which are more dependable and in most cases faster? There are some great proposed maps by some on here.

The problem is the current federal administration is primarily awarding money to BRT.... you want federal funds for a new light/heavy rail project? Come back next time...
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Who wants to tell the Feds that they're fucking up?

Solutions for the Sunbelt don't work in the hyper-dense conditions of the eastern U.S. Do we buy our clothes in a one-size-fits-all store? Did anyone wear a hospital johnny to work today?

Here's an idea: send Mike Capuano a link to this thread -- he's on the House Transportation Committee. Shouldn't he know what his constituents think about the way their tax dollars are allocated.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Here's an idea: send Mike Capuano a link to this thread -- he's on the House Transportation Committee. Shouldn't he know what his constituents think about the way their tax dollars are allocated.

Capuano is well aware of what his constituents think about this project. And he has publicly belittled these arguments (in addition to flat-out ignoring a request to meet with the Bay Village Neighborhood Association for a discussion on the issue).

Letting Capuano know your thoughts is a great first step -- but don't forget to contact your friends, neighbors, and the local press. Let everyone know what you think about having $2 billion of your money spent for this silly, pointless bus tunnel. This is nothing but a political gift to the unions -- from your own pockets.

With all of the MTBA financial woe stories hitting the papers, I don't understand how this project still largely exists under the radar. This is a travesty.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

MBTA to seek public comment on Silver Line Phase III project

by Scott Kearnan
MySouthEnd.com Contributor
Thursday Sep 18, 2008

This week, the MBTA will begin seeking public comment on the potential impact of the Silver Line Phase III Project, specifically about its possible ramifications on historic properties in neighborhoods like the South End.

The comment period is the next step in moving forward with plans for the MBTA?s ambitious $1.2 billion plan to connect the Silver Line?s two existing portions: Phase I, which currently provides service down the Washington Street corridor from Downtown Crossing to Dudley Square, and Phase II, which reaches the waterfront and airport from South Station.

The connecting project would involve rerouting existing Silver Line traffic and the construction of a mile-long underground tunnel between Charles Street South in Bay Village to Boylston Station at Tremont and Boylston streets downtown. Pending approval of federal funding, construction is currently scheduled to begin in 2011 with the connection expected to be in operation by 2016.

The MBTA has previously announced that it would also prepare an Environmental Impact Review (EIR) by the end of the summer. That document is still being readied for public view and comment, said MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo. He added that the EIR, which addresses issues like traffic construction, groundwater movement, noise and more, is currently in pre-review by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). In 2010, the MBTA will seek 60 percent of the funding for the project from the FTA?s New Starts program; the MBTA will fund the remaining 40 percent.

Locally, the Phase III project recently earned some conditional support from at least one neighborhood-based organization. In a letter dated Aug. 29 and addressed to the FTA, Washington Gateway Main Streets (WGMS) president Guy D. Busa, Jr. expressed that, "This promised direct and efficient connection to the rest of the MBTA system is also important to the MBTA?s South End and Roxbury constituents and to the success of Washington Street businesses in the WGMS district." A copy of the letter was obtained by South End News.

However, Busa also reiterated concerns that the MBTA?s current Phase III plans do not account for WGMS?s own efforts to create a two-way roadway between Herald Street and East Berkeley Street, "as an important traffic circulation improvemene for maintaining and continuing to develop the area." Busa cites previous comment letters to that effect, sent by WGMS on August 6, 2005 and October 30, 2006.

"The plans for Silver Line Phase II that have been presented to WGMS to date do not appear to recognize this important improvement," said Busa in the letter. "WGMS feels that this oversight at this stage is not insurmountable and will insist that it be a part of the final Silver Line Phase III planning and design efforts."

Pesaturo said the MBTA will publish the present documents on historic properties impact on its website this week, on the Silver Line Phase III Project page. Comments will be accepted until Friday, Oct. 10.

LINK
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Jiminy Cricket ... seriously, I thought this had all been done by now?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Jiminy Cricket ... seriously, I thought this had all been done by now?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Moe, Hey Curley, Hey Larry -- let's go build a bus tunnel --- yuck, yuck, yuck!
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/e..._ts_unchecked_expansion_and_its_consequences/

The T's unchecked expansion and its consequences
By Charles Chieppo | October 12, 2008

WITH THE turnpike's budget woes making headlines and the Patrick administration going about the painful work of identifying what could be $1 billion in emergency budget cuts, it seems increasingly difficult to find a state agency that can pay its bills.

But the Commonwealth and turnpike are downright flush compared with the MBTA. The governor has vowed to take on the T's bloated pension system as part of his response to the budget crisis, but in the short term the MBTA can't even come up with the money to fund retroactive raises mandated by a recent arbitrator's decision.

If, as Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then you have to wonder about the state's transit policy over the past quarter century.

Unchecked expansion has bankrupted the MBTA, but plans to extend commuter rail service to New Bedford and Fall River move forward. The Commonwealth is slated to pay for the portion of the estimated $1.4 billion in construction costs not picked up by the federal government and the T is on the hook for the expected $21 million annual operating loss.

Even more eye-opening is a one-mile tunnel in Boston that would connect the section of the Silver Line that runs between downtown and Dudley Station with the portion running between South Station and Logan Airport.

As with the New Bedford/Fall River line, the MBTA would absorb the project's $5.5 million annual operating loss. Unlike South Coast rail, the T is also expected to foot the construction bill for phase III of the Silver Line.

Even if the feds pick up 60 percent of the estimated $1.1 billion tab, the project would add about $30 million to the staggering $363 million the MBTA pays in annual debt service - about what it collects in fares. It could also be the last straw for the T's reeling finances, just when the Commonwealth's own budget woes make it least able to help.

Silver Line III is one of the last projects the MBTA is required to build and operate to mitigate the environmental impact of additional vehicle traffic accommodated by the Big Dig. Capital and planning costs for those projects account for about 40 percent of the T's massive $8.2 billion debt and their operating subsidies are responsible for another chunk.

If anything, projections probably underestimate the impact Silver Line III would have on the MBTA's battered bottom line. Tunneling through a densely developed urban area filled with historic structures and existing highway and transit tunnels - all near the part of the city built on fill - is a recipe for uncontrolled costs.

Excluding inflation, the less-complicated South Station-to-Logan portion of the Silver Line was 67 percent overbudget. A similar result would boost the tab for Silver Line III to about $1.8 billion.

What we get in return is like a case study in the dangers of setting policy by decree. The project would attract only about 15,000 new riders to transit, a fraction of the 1.2 million who take the T each workday. That breaks down to more than $79,000 per new rider; $132,000 if the project experiences the same cost overruns as the previous leg of the Silver Line.

Far from fouling the air with vehicle emissions, the numbers actually suggest that an unusually high percentage of the riders Silver Line III would attract are currently walking. The daily reduction in vehicle miles traveled would amount to between five and ten trips from the Route 128 area to downtown. The drop in carbon monoxide emissions would be miniscule.

Depressing as they are, the projections probably overstate project benefits. In 1993, the Commonwealth estimated Silver Line III would attract only about half as many new transit riders. Experience teaches that the earlier estimates, often developed before political pressure is exerted to sell a project, tend to be closer to actual results.

Investing in transit is not by definition a bad idea, but failing to provide a way to pay for the investment is. That failure has landed the MBTA in a deep financial hole. State transportation policymakers should recognize that the first step toward getting out of it is to stop doing the things that got the T there in the first place.

Charles Chieppo is the principal of Chieppo Strategies, a public-policy writing and advocacy firm. He was a member of the MBTA Blue Ribbon Committee on Forward Funding.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Just when I think I've read the most damming indictment of the Silver Line, another one comes up out of nowhere.

All of this time, trouble and expense for a slow, bumpy, cramped ride underneath a fast, smooth line that often offers such amenities as breathing room and the ability to walk past a single standing passenger.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ar...e_how_t_plans_to_fund_1b_silver_line_project/

Questions arise how T plans to fund $1b Silver Line project
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | October 14, 2008

With Big Dig construction still fresh in Bostonians' memories, the MBTA is embarking on a 1.1-mile bus tunnel adjacent to the Boston Common that critics are dubbing the "Little Dig" because of its escalating price tag and potential for disruption.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority managers consider the project - a high-speed bus line that bridges the two existing Silver Line routes - a key link in the transit system that will better connect the Back Bay, Roxbury, and other neighborhoods with the emerging South Boston waterfront and Logan International Airport. But it has long been a contentious project, with critics saying it's too disruptive and costly for a bus line, even if it is designed to provide a fast ride that eludes downtown traffic for much of its journey.

The MBTA, which kept the project temporarily on hold, is now pushing forward, recently submitting a third price estimate to the Federal Transit Administration of well over $1 billion and promoting the tunnel to neighborhood groups ahead of a public comment period in the coming months. Among several big-ticket transit projects in the planning stages, it is the closest to getting federal matching dollars, with the T hoping for a final decision in 2010.

But as the T's financial situation grows more dire, questions over paying the state's share - more than half a billion dollars - are growing among neighborhood groups, specialists, and transit advocacy organiza tions.

"The people that rely on the T the most, people of low income and communities of color, would mainly be the ones paying for this project, and they can't afford it," said John Cater, a member of the T Riders Union, which is based in Roxbury.

The T is committed under a state environmental compact to build the third and final piece of the Silver Line, or a replacement urban project, to mitigate the impacts of the Big Dig.

The T estimates the new line, which connects the existing Washington Street route with the one between South Station and the airport, would add about 15,000 more riders a day to the T's existing totals of about 1.3 million. It would also let Green Line and Orange Line riders get to the airport and South Boston with fewer transfers.

Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA, calls the Silver Line Phase III a good transit project, but does not explain how his agency can afford it, other than borrowing more money and hoping for a longer-term fix to the T's budget problems from the state government.

"One of the things that we're required to do is keep advancing the project under the legal obligations. We have, and we've made no secret that debt is one of the drivers of our financial problems and, realistically, this does not make things any better," he said.

The federal government will review over the next few months whether the T can afford its share of the project without cutting service on existing transit lines.

The price has escalated from $750 million a few years ago, to $1.2 billion as of last year. The T says those costs have risen again, but won't release the new estimate it submitted to federal transit officials, saying the numbers are not yet final. Even with what the T hopes is a 60 percent match from the federal government, the agency would be responsible for more than $500 million, in addition to covering all cost overruns.

The T is facing unprecedented financial problems, emptying reserve funds and raising parking rates last week just to pay salaries. Without help from the state, the T has warned of a major fare hike in 2009, in large part because 28 cents of every dollar it spends goes to paying off an $8.1 billion debt load from past expansion projects.

The project garners support among Mayor Thomas M. Menino and organizations like the Urban League and A Better City, a business group that helped advance the Big Dig.

"It's about creating more jobs and connecting people from where they live to where the jobs are going to be created," said Richard A. Dimino, A Better City's president.

Opponents include Emerson College, which could see construction out its front door for five years or more, as well as several neighborhood groups, including Bay Village, where homeowners worry their historic neighborhood could be literally torn apart by the tunneling.

Silver Line Phase III is the only remaining major transit expansion project designed to be paid for by the T. Others in the planning stages will be paid for directly by the state, without adding to the T's debt load.

"The T just flat out doesn't have half a billion dollars," said Paul Regan, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board.

US Representative Michael E. Capuano, the Somerville Democrat who has long championed the project at the federal level, said last week that "funding issues are a major concern. It's an expensive project."

Capuano said the project may have to move "further back in the lane" in favor of expansion with a smaller budget.

"The T hasn't got a nickel," he said. "Never mind $1.2 billion."

The high cost of Silver Line Phase III is mainly due to tunneling in the heart of a dense city. Designs call for going deep underground, below the Big Dig along Essex Street and under the Green Line at Boylston Street. By comparison, the city of Charlotte, N.C., is proposing a 10.7-mile light rail project that is budgeted for $750 million, about half the cost of Silver Line Phase III.

Andrew Brennan, director of environmental affairs for the MBTA, said designers learned lessons from the Big Dig and will build an additional layer of waterproofing in an attempt to keep the tunnel walls drier.

"We're not saying there will be no leaks," Brennan said. "Certainly, every tunnel has leaks."

This tunnel will have additional controls, like instant notification systems so crews can quickly address leaks, he said.

Even with construction improvements, the legacy of the Big Dig still lurks in public discussion, he said. "It's the 'Little Dig.' It definitely has made it more difficult to build anything," he said.

The controversy surrounding the project goes back several years. In 2004, the Federal Transit Administration rated it as "not recommended" because of questions about how many new riders it would draw.

In 2005, Grabauskas suspended planning on the project, fearing community opposition would doom its chances for federal money. It was resurrected, rerouted to avoid New England Medical Center, and is now on track to begin construction by 2011.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

I can't emphasize how much I dislike this project.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

This project is proof that Boston is broken. It is a project that no one wants, that won't even work, will cost so much money that would be better spent on fixing what we already have, and a project that fails in the very definition of mass transit, that being connecting people to where they want to go. Yet it apparently is mandated by law because the other side (the advocates) just wanted to make the system (state, et all) do more than just build a highway. They fought for better transit but in the end we got the worst of both worlds, a bus tunnel that won't go where people need/want to go and that will not help the city.

But if you complain they will say that too much money has already been spent to stop it....

[at this point the moderator had to walk out of the room and yell obscenities at the top of his voice]
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

This is what happens when someone makes a sweetheart deal with several construction unions in exchange for favors. The project can't be killed, no matter how stupid or budget-less it is, because someone still has to pay out on their part of a corrupt bargain.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

"rail, rail rail!"

Not only is rail impossible politically (street running, lol), but it wouldnt cost any less.

Youd save some bucks on the tunnel from Boylston, but add in the enormous price of rail cars, the tunnel to south station, and track everywhere else.... and I guarantee it would cost more in the end.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

^^ Wouldn't the improvement in functionality and efficiency justify the cost? Deploying a Sun Belt solution in the dense Northeast is nonsensical.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Drop the tunnel to South Station, use the old tunnel to Eliot Norton Park to run a F branch of the green line to Dudley down Washington Street in a reserved ROW.

The Silver Line is part of a botched joke to merge the Piers Transitway with the replacement service for the relocated Orange Line. The MBTA needs to stop trying to link these totally unrelated projects.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Who wants to do this so badly? No one else wants this. If MBTA announce they are going to give up the Silver Line Phase III, no one will campaign to keep it alive unlike Arborway or other projects. If businesses just want to do construction projects, why can't building useful stuff do? How is the MBTA going to raise its half of they money anyway? Take a massive loan and make this a swan song and go belly-up bankruptcy after the ribbon cutting?
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

Drop the tunnel to South Station, use the old tunnel to Eliot Norton Park to run a F branch of the green line to Dudley down Washington Street in a reserved ROW.

The Silver Line is part of a botched joke to merge the Piers Transitway with the replacement service for the relocated Orange Line. The MBTA needs to stop trying to link these totally unrelated projects.
Totally agree.

This is a porkbarrel boondoggle.
 
Re: Silver Line Phase III

I don't see why a worthless city like D.C. can get a 30 mile subway extension to Dulles Airport no problem, and we have this awful silverline.

I would think the practical thing would be to add a branch of the orange line from NE Med Center to Dudley on the south side, and then have another branch on the north running from Community college to chelsea(replacing service in Charlestown). Forget an "F" line... Light Rail is horrible... do we really want more green line???? This could be called the "Yellow Line"(Dudley to Charlestown) and you could double up service in the washington street tunnel(currently insufficient).If this is done, we're talking about maybe 4 miles of additional track.... This is really not that big of a deal. Boston is so compact that building subways here should be fools' work!
 

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