Wishful Thinking? New MBTA Maps Include Silver Line Connector

Today at 11 a.m., the MBTA will reveal brand new system maps to replace the old, outdated ones scattered throughout subway stations across the system. The new maps will include crucial updates—the E Line, for instance, hasn't gone to Forest Hills since 1985—as well as new features, like the routes of key bus lines, including the 1, the 22, the 39, the 57, and the 66. It's about time. Some of the system maps in T stations haven't been replaced since 1967, making them hilarious artifacts that show buildings that were never built and subway lines that no longer exist. (One map reportedly still shows the A Line, which went to Watertown until 1969.)

But the new maps might not be much better. As seen at the right, a new system map shows "the new Silver Line Connector to South Station from Washington Street," which, the astute among you might point out, does not exist.

The last we heard, the MBTA had ditched its ambitions to dig a giant hole underneath the Common, and had opted for a more modest Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) connection between New England Tufts Medical Center and South Station. The BRT project was slated to cost a mere $100 million, as opposed to $2.1 billion for the "little dig" under the Common, and was to be subsidized by federal stimulus money. Of course, nothing has been built yet, and the BRT is not expected to go into operation until 2012. (Although, see update below.)

Is including the Silver Line connector on the new map a case of wishful thinking? Is this a folly we're going to be laughing about in 2015 while we're still going from Chinatown to South Station by foot?

Update: According to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, "The Silver Line connector opens next month." News to us.