State Agrees to Design Link between Red and Blue lines

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State Agrees to Design Link between Red and Blue lines

Deal is struck on transit suit



By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | November 30, 2006

State officials reversed course yesterday and agreed to design a $264 million tunnel connecting the MBTA's Blue and Red Line subways as part of a lawsuit settlement over the state's list of planned public transit projects.

The controversial tunnel, which would link the Blue Line's Government Center station with the Red Line's Charles/MGH station, was pulled last year from the list of transit projects designed to offset pollution from the Big Dig, prompting the lawsuit from the Conservation Law Foundation, which accused the state of reneging on promised projects. The state agreed to complete the final design, expected to cost $30 million, but did not promise to build the connector.

The settlement also essentially kills a proposal to return trolleys to the Arborway in Jamaica Plain. Instead, the state promised to explore possible improvements to existing public transit in that neighborhood. The controversial plan to return Green Line service has been repeatedly put off by both the city and the MBTA, which called it unbuildable.

The agreement guarantees that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will complete major projects that were already on the list, including extending the Green Line to Medford and Somerville, adding 1,000 parking spaces at commuter rail stations, and overhauling the Fairmount commuter rail line, which runs through three neighborhoods where many residents depend on mass transit: Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury.

The agreement also calls for completion of the Greenbush commuter rail line, which is set to open next year, and of the ongoing modernization and platform lengthening on the Blue Line to accommodate six-car trains, which have been delayed for three years in a dispute with the manufacturer of 94 new cars.

Under the settlement, if any project is delayed, the state is required to come up with an alternative that produces more improvements in air quality than the promised project. Also, substitute projects must be built in the same towns and cities where the original projects were proposed.

"We felt very strongly about the commitments we made," said Andrew Gottlieb, chief of the Office for Commonwealth Development. "I don't think it would have been appropriate for us to leave this hanging. I can't imagine a subsequent administration coming up with a better set of projects. This makes it clear to the incoming administration what needs to happen."

Phil Warburg, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, said he was pleased with the settlement, which forces the state to include funding for all the projects in its construction plan and, for the first time, sets interim and final deadlines. It also calls for more public participation in planning and construction of the projects.

"It was a guessing game as to just how far behind the Commonwealth had fallen," Warburg said. "Now we will have some very specific mileposts that can be used to hold the Commonwealth accountable and to ensure real progress."

The deal appears to finally end years of uncertainty and controversy.

The Conservation Law Foundation first received the transit commitments from the state in 1990, when it threatened to sue to stop the $14.6 billion Big Dig tunnel and highway project. The foundation and state continued to battle as the project list was revised. State officials said the new projects they pledged last year would double the air quality gains and be more cost effective. The foundation had recently been sparring with the Commonwealth over air quality statistics that would have been a vital part of the lawsuit and which both sides say would have been a time-consuming and expensive issue to resolve.

The agreement is contingent on the US Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces the federal Clean Air Act, approving the state's revised transit plan. Once it is approved, foundation officials said, they will formally drop the lawsuit.

But US Representative Michael E. Capuano, Democrat of Somerville, said yesterday he was worried by the fine print, which allows the Executive Office of Transportation to propose substitute projects for the Fairmount and Green Line improvements.

"If this is actually as it reads, it leaves a humongous back door for EOT, and EOT has a long history on the Big Dig mitigation projects of taking that back door," he said. "I absolutely guarantee that they will take it again. Maybe I'm misreading it, but the plain English reading of it certainly raises a huge question that I plan on taking up with everybody, especially the EPA. I hope I'm wrong."

Under the settlement, design for the Red Line-Blue Line connector is scheduled to be complete by 2011. State officials have said the 0.4-mile project -- linking East Boston, Revere, Winthrop, and Lynn with the MBTA's central subway line -- was too costly and unnecessary with the completion of Silver Line bus service from South Station to Logan International Airport.

The state also faces pressure from Partners HealthCare and its affiliate, Massachusetts General Hospital, which had also threatened to sue the state for not building the Red Line-Blue Line connector. The suit has not been filed.

Officials at Partners, among the state's largest employers, said the connector would be a vital link for more than 19,000 hospital employees.

"MGH gets more patients from Revere than any other community, and it has more employees from Revere than any other community," said Thomas P. Glynn, chief operating officer of Partners, which built a satellite clinic in Revere and additional facilities at MGH after the connector was promised.

"I think we'll try to work with the state and make our best case," he said.

State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, who represents portions of Somerville that will benefit from the Green Line extension, said the agreement promises better service to commuters, who in January will get hit by the third T fare increase in seven years.

Somerville, one the nation's most densely populated communities, is currently served by just one stop, on the Red Line. The Green Line extension could add stations at Union Square, Brickbottom, and College Avenue near Tufts University.

"The extraordinary increases in subway fares are making it increasingly costly to ride mass transit," Barrios said. "This smart investment of tax dollars will increase ridership and hopefully make it less necessary in the future to raise fares."

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.
? Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
 
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why wouldn't the blue line connector go from Bowdoin to Charles/MGH?
 
Because they are closing Bowdoin Station. The map is just trying to show that it won't include a Bowdoin. In reality the trains will go through the station but not stop.
 
...

and whats the rationale behind closing down Bowdoin?
 
Lowest ridership of the entire system. It already closes at 6pm, and isn't open on Sundays, or something to that affect.
 
A new entrance to Government Center station will be just a few hundred feet from Bowdoin. The Bowdoin platform can't be easily extended to handle six-car trains.
 
...

by that rationale, we'd have to shut down one station every year (there'll always be a station with the title of "lowest ridership in the entire system". Once connected to MGH, ridership can only increase. But removing it right from the start only serves to make T access less convenient... not moreso. A quick glance at the map shows any plebian that removing Bowdoin only serves to alienate Govt Center and Park Street from Charles MGH, and leaves a large section of city with no nearby T access. Again, its this problem of transportation access at the fringes instead of at the heart where its most useful.
 
Bowdoin station is in an entirely non-residential area, and for many years has been open only weekdays, only until 6 pm. I don't think it's a big loss once the new Government Center entrance opens.

If I were to add a new station between GC and Charles, I'd put it at Charles River Plaza instead.
 
Great, now all that's left to do to the blue line is send it across the river to Kendall, Inman, Harvard, Mt. Auburn and on through Watertown and Waltham. It could even keep its color designation since it would follow the River! O yah, and extend it north to Salem. I would guess at a 3190 date for the completion of those projects, just around the corner! :lol:
 
Dang, the CLF should have written the 3190 date into the settlement.

justin
 
Ron Newman said:
Bowdoin station is in an entirely non-residential area

I'm sure that thousands of people in Beacon Hill, especially those who live on Bowdoin St would disagree with you.
 
Roxxma said:
I'm sure that thousands of people in Beacon Hill, especially those who live on Bowdoin St would disagree with you.
The station's presently useful to those folks mostly if they want to go to East Boston or the airport. Not much demand for that.

BUT as soon as the Blue Line's connected to the Red at MGH/Charles, Bowdoin station will be useful for getting to Harvard Square, Kendall/MIT, Central, Davis and points beyond. Turnstile revenues at Bowdoin will increase dramatically.

It's short-sighted to close this station. Another MBTA mistake.
 
People, we are also forgetting that because of the size and shape of Bowdoin the platforms can't be lengthened for the 6 car trains.
 
The average distance between stations in the Paris Metro is 562m. The distance between Charles and GC is less then that, especially if, as I'd hope, the Charles/MGH blue line station has a secondary entrance on the eastern end near MGH. Moreover, the Bowdoin platform flares out towards the west, so you can't really extend it in that direction either for very long before getting under property.

justin
 
justin said:
The average distance between stations in the Paris Metro is 562m.
That sounds about right. Half a kilometer is about a third of a mile.

The distance between Charles and GC is less then that
Sure enough, but it seems a long way; the surroundings are boring. It's one of those places where closely spaced stations make sense.
 
I really think the new* western entrance to GC will make Bowdoin unnecessary. Bowdoin won't close until that opens. Once it does, let's see if ablarc and Roxxma still disagree with me.

Again, if you want an intermediate station, isn't the shopping plaza (Whole Foods / CVS) a better place for it?

* my understanding is that the 'new' entrance will really be the re-emergence of a long-closed old entrance to Scollay station
 
Ron Newman said:
if you want an intermediate station, isn't the shopping plaza (Whole Foods / CVS) a better place for it?
Yeah.
 

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