To fill in a point that is skirted around in the article: This is the shortest rail route, by far, for moving equipment between North and South station.  It is the line that runs through the middle of Cambridge, crossing Mass Ave at Vassar Street and tunneling beneat the MIT Neuroscience building at Main Street, crossing Broadway next to Galileo Galilei way.

Ms. Johnson might have told readers, many of whom probably would not know, that the current Charles River rail bridge between Allston and Cambridge, built at the same time as the current BU Bridge, replaced the original rail bridge that opened in 1856, when the river was mostly mudflats. The Grand Junction was merged into the East Boston Freight in 1862, and the Boston & Albany bought that line in 1869--remaining as the owner and operator of the rail bridge for about a century, until the era of railroad bankrupcies from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. The rail bridge has space for two tracks, but one on them was removed in the late 1970s. In the last few years, the few trains using the bridge have been moving at very slow speeds, probably no more than 10 mph, indicating that structural weakness has long been recognized. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another, larger and more antique rail bridge that Ms. Johnson might have mentioned is in Haverhill, crossing the Merrimack River. Opened in 1919, it is the main rail link between eastern Massachusetts and northern New England, used by Amtrak, MBTA and Pan American (successor to the Boston & Maine, which built the bridge). In 2011, the Obama administration refused to allocate funds to replace the Haverhill bridge, providing only $10 million for temporary repairs. Despite fanfare over so-called "high-speed" rail, the Obama administration has actually provided no more than minimal support for ordinary, generally useful rail infrastructure. [ Mike LaBella, $10 million can't replace railroad bridge, Haverhill Eagle-Tribune, December 15, 2011, at http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x818655764/-10M-cant-replace-railroad-bridge ]

There used to be a couple of other options to move equipment from the North Station side back and forth with the South Station side.  One was the rail line that ran from Framingham to Lowell, a line that cross North side lines at both South Sudbury and West Concord while a bit further out other lines connected the Framingham line with the Fitchburg line at Marlborough via the Central MA (Weston-Sudbury-Berlin) line as well as still another that connected the Framingham/Marlborough rail area to Berlin and Clinton, again without having to go all the way to Worcester.  Finally, there was another street line that connected North Station and South Station via Commercial St. and Atlantic Avenue.

It's a pity we have only recently realized how important our rail lines and infrastructure really are.  All too often we've closed the lines, ripped up the tracks, or put roads or condos over too many of the lines.  Before we rip up any more tracks, particularly in our urban areas, such as Allston or Somerville to build massive, technology-of-the-day things like biotech parks or yet even more shopping malls, we should keep in mind how much we, in reality, depend on rail transport, and even things such as this almost forgotten bridge over the Charles.

By the way, maybe after we fix up this bridge, Mass. Bay Commuter Rail and the MBTA could paint the thing in some attractive way so people will realize it's not abandoned after all?