Bostonist: One Small Step for Green Line Extension...

Fat City

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:49:58 -0500

The story in the Chronicle (and various sister pubs like the Somerville Journal) had some sloppy reporting by S.H. Bagley. The preliminary station locations were presented to, not by, the Advisory Group by the consultant firm (VHB) that is writing the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Green Line Extension. In fact they have not decided where the Medford branch will end. It may not go as far as the Mystic Valley Parkway, in which case the Hillside station might be the terminus. The location of this stop The Union Square spur was not discussed and there was/is no proposal for a stop at Webster Ave. In fact the state Transportation Bond Bill explicitly contains $600M for the extension, although it widely expected that Federal money will pay a good portion of its cost. But most money in bond bills is never actually spent, and in any case Mass can't issue bonds that it doesn't have the revenue to pay back The project web site you mentioned posted a map with proposed station locations the day after the public meeting: http://tinyurl.com/5zjuvy If anyone cares to learn more about this project, they should also check out this website: http://www.SomevilleSTEP.org

cheap_robv

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:48:39 -0500

Someone from the MA Office of Transportation called me back after I posted this item. The basic gist of our conversation: -- Monday's announcement was just an announcement of what the Advisory Group thinks. (I get the feeling these will be 90% accurate.) -- The real station locations should be known by the time the environmental impact report is released (hopefully September). -- I asked why there was no specific Green Line Extension funds in the the recent $3.5 billion transportation bond bill. The reason is that the bill doesn't specific allocates funds to it, but the State is "promising" to pay for it if Federal funds don't come through. -- I didn't even bother asking whether they believe the T will be operating by 2016... For those who don't know about it, there's a website that is occasionally updated: http://www.greenlineextension.org/

Kerry Skemp

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:41:07 -0500

man, i could be dead by 2016. and somerville ave will still be all ripped up... sigh. what are we going to do with you, union square?