Transit-oriented development runs on a grand bargain between private developers and the public sector. A robust public transportation system catalyzes growth, and withdrawing support for transit closes off opportunity. That’s why the current bid to indefinitely shelve the MBTA’s Red Line/Blue Line Connector is so short-sighted: In a bid to save a few million dollars, the state is throwing a cloud over billions in economic development.
The Red Line’s Charles/MGH station looks up the hill at the Blue Line’s Bowdoin terminus, but a half-mile stretch of Cambridge Street in Boston separates the two stations. The Red and Blue Lines are the only two MBTA subway lines that don’t intersect, and as a result, relatively short distances are difficult to bridge. According to Rafael Mares, a staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, commuters traveling from Harvard to Maverick Station at 10 p.m. would spend more time waiting on train platforms than they would spend driving from Cambridge to East Boston.
Comments
Yes Paul it is a wonderful idea, unfortunately there is no money to pay for it. Apparently you don’t ride the T much so let me explain.
Today I rode in on 1 of the Red Line’s soon to be 44 year old trains. At least half of the doors on every car didn’t open. The train jerked so hard every time it started that it was actually painful. I am sure that this train will not make it through the day and will fail shutting down service. In the last couple of years I have had to evacuate 2 of these decrepit trains because they were on fire. The T currently has not ordered or even budgeted for the replacement of these trains. Red Line commuters also experience at least weekly failure of the signal/switching system. Available funds need to go to fixing the T’s massive maintenance backlog not expansion projects.
The Conservation Law Foundation is the MBTA rider’s worst enemy. Their idiotic lawsuits force money away from much needed maintenance to expansion projects that we cant afford. The T is living on borrowed time. Eventually there will be a mass casualty situation caused by lack of maintenance . When this occurs the blood will be on the Conservation Law Foundation’s hands
I partially agree with you, but the Conservation Law Foundation reached those agreements with the state before the Big Dig began. The extensions were part of the project, as were other improvements. Have you noticed the bare rebar sticking out of the concrete at Haymarket and elsewhere.
Due to incompetence and lack of enough money the Big Dig has never been finished. And the costs were piled onto the Turnpike Authority and the MBTA.
The Conservation Law Foundation wants the state to keep it's part of the bargain, even though the legislature and Romney administration passed the buck.
One of the problems we have in this country is accomplishing big things that require cooperation on a broad scale. Part of the problem is that if one political party is for it, then the other party must be against it. Reforming health care and health insurance is only the most obvious example, of late. Mass transportation is another. I moved to Massachusetts in 1973 and one of my earliest political memories is going to hear Michael Dukakis speak at Lynn City Hall. I remember his opening gambit. "Isn't it time to bring the Blue Line to Lynn?" And I've heard it over and over again since then without the Blue Line having moved an inch toward Central Square, Lynn. (paragraph) As long as we separate maintenance from new construction in our minds, we will have a self-created problem. We need both. Clearly there should be a connected and efficient public transit system. Yet, I wish Mr. McMorrow had explained how funnelling the excess capacity of the Blue Line into the overcrowded (and undermaintained) Red Line would not create even more of a problem for riders on both lines while undermining public confidence in our ability to acomplish big things.
The proposed connection would run under Cambridge Street, not Charles Street. http://goo.gl/maps/7jJik
You are so right. Maybe he was confused by the name of the Charles Station, which also on Cambridge Street, or maybe I should say *in* Cambridge Street.
Why not construct a pedestrian tunnel with natural light, moving sidewalks, shops, cafes, etc.? Don't just build another dark subway tunnel.
How about interoperable trains that run on both the Green and Blue lines? There, fixed it for ya. Then you can run service from Park to Maverick. The tunnel probably even already exists.
Imagine if I-93 ended at the Zakim Bridge, and did not connect to I-90 or the Southeast Expressway. Drivers would fume, politicians would act. Why should public transit be different?
I don't get why this is such a big deal to Mr. McMorrow. It's a nicety, but the T is broke and the link would have to be subterranean, a very expensive proposition.
In addition, there's a good deal of exaggeration here. In either direction, you can take the Green Line one stop between Park Street and Government Center. You can also walk two short blocks between Downtown Crossing and State Street. The walk will do you good.