Not ANOTHER Billion Dollar Tunnel, Please

Emerson College is the latest entity to be opposed to construction of Silver Line phase 3. Tufts Medical Center and a group in Bay Village expressed concerns in 2006. Plus, the Washington Street Corridor Coalition has been vocal in opposing the Silver Line and advocating for light rail service from Park Street to Dudley Square (at least) since the late 1980s.

But, with $1.2 billion burning a hole in its pocket, the MBTA is determined to build a tunnel where no one wants it for a transit route that the people who live near it don't even want. You know something's not right when a coalition of people along the transit route think it sucks.

As many people have pointed out in the past, if the MBTA wants to use a tunnel, why doesn't it use the old Tremont Tunnel? I did a quick search on the tunnel to see if it might have been taken out of use so long ago that it's just too old to use now. Turns out the tunnel was taken out of use in 1961 or 1962, depending on the source. Check out this handy little map. There are also photos of the abandoned tunnel here and here. I bet $1.2 billion would go a long way to restoring a tunnel.

In fact, an old Globe advertising supplement (advertiser and date of publication unknown) states that the "new Silver Line tunnel, mined under the old one, connects to Boston Common and the Green Line at Boylston Street." Somewhere along the way, someone changed his mind and decided to tunnel under Charles Street instead. But let's say that the Tremont tunnel option becomes the favored option again. The entry and exit points to Washington Street and Boylston Station will be taken care of and few people could argue against using a tunnel or digging under a tunnel which had been in use for 60 years. So why bother with the rest?

If residents and businesses along Boylston and Essex Sts are against the tunnel and if other residents and businesses along Washington St. are against this form of service altogether, what are the MBTA's grounds for digging around in places where it isn't wanted? Their "selling point" for years has been a one-seat ride from Dudley to the Airport. But, thanks to the Big Dig, getting to the airport from Fort Hill (which is adjacent to Dudley Square) takes only 15 minutes. Taking the Orange Line to the Blue Line and then the airport shuttle means reaching a terminal from home in 30-40 minutes. It's a lot of transfers, but it's easy and quick. On the other hand, it usually takes 10-15 minutes just to get from Dudley Square to W. Newton Street on an average day. I'd ask a friend for a ride, call a cab, or hitchhike - in that order - before taking the proposed one-seat-ride Silver Line to the airport from Dudley. Besides the indirectness of the route, cramming luggage on those narrow buses with the usual assortment of student backpacks, baby carriages, and briefcases sounds like transit hell.

I suspect the push for connecting Roxbury and Chinatown more directly to the airport and the waterfront is jobs. Not good ones, though; I mean low wage tourist-sector and airport-related jobs. Chelsea and East Boston can only provide so many blue collar workers for the expanding tourist and travel sectors, so officials looked for two other nearby low-income neighborhoods and targeted them for transit "improvements." It was done before in the 1950s and 1960s with the highway and urban renewal projects. Fifty years later state officials are back at it. With the El over Washington Street taken away, officials probably thought these neighborhoods would be eager to see just any ol' thing come rolling down the street. They were wrong!

It's been 20 years since the El was demolished. Let's hear some real options from the MBTA for faster and convenient mass transportation south of downtown.

Comments

"You know something's not right when a coalition of people along the transit route think it sucks."

Guess what. All transit routes have opponents. Every single one.

Greenbrush ring a bell?

Red line to arlington?

[3D]

The WSCC isn't opposed to Washington St being a transit route; that street has been a transit route since the mid-1800s. Reread the first paragraph; they oppose the bus and advocate rail. They aren't opposing the route.

The background issue is that a train line was removed and replaced with a bus line. When the Orange Line over Washington St was going to be torn down in the 1980s, the T said it would replace it with an option that was as good or better. I have yet to meet anyone who's ridden the old train and the new bus who would agree that the Silver Line is as good or better.

As for the new downtown tunnel, the T is probably going to dig that regardless of what anyone who lives or works near it wants. I just think its disingenuous to say it's being built to make getting to the airport easier for people starting in Dudley Sq.

[Bob]

As the blog author pointed out, the Orange Line is much faster and better than anything else around. Same for the Red Line.

Therefore, it makes sense to make as much use as possible of those to lines, rather than building a slow transit line (rail or bus) inbetween the two.

We currently have plenty of bus connections between Dudley and Ruggles. But they could be a lot better. Some traffic light priority at the Roxbury Crossing intersection would really speed that up.

Meanwhile, the MBTA systematically eliminated any bus connections between Dudley Square and the red line, most likely due to discrimination and political forces. That needs to be looked at again. A bus could run from Dudley Square to South Station, maybe via Andrew Square --- the same route one takes driving to the Airport. From there, you can take the Silver Line to the airport. If you really want to make that route fast, you can add a bus lane to Melnea Cass, along with traffic light prioritization. There's still plenty of width available in the Melnea Cass right-of-way (originally planned for a freeway).

Or better yet --- just build the rapid-transit "inner ring", which has been kicking around for years.

All of this would be much cheaper and more effective than blindly rebuilding transit lines from 50 years ago. We need to be more creative here, and use the assets we have.

[Bob]

Another BIG missed opportunity for transit improvement is the Fairmont commuter rail line. There's a BIG gap of service between the spokes of the orange line and red line, and this creates a large transit-desert in Boston's most underserved communities --- the Eastern parts of Roxbury, Grove Hall, the entire Blue Hill Ave corridor, much of Mattapan, and large parts of Dorchester as well.

Building a rapid transit corridor through these communities would have far more bang for the dollar than building a trolley on Washington St --- which is at most 1/2 mile from the existing Orange Line.

We could use DMV locomotives to quickly and inexpensively build rapid transit there on existing tracks. Other options could involve additional tracks, D-line type trolleys, etc. And then figure out how to get it into South Station conveniently. This EXISTING rail line is a huge missed opportunity.

[Bob]

Another idea --- improve service for everyone by increasing Orange Line ridership, and train frequencies along with it. This can be done in a number of ways:

1. As mentioned above, speed the bus connections to the Orange Line from Roxbury.

2. Instead of investing in the #39 bus (which gives a one-seat snails ride to Copley Square), build a series of short-haul high-frequency shuttle bus routes in JP that go between Centre St. and the relevant Orange Line stops --- Jackson Square, Stony Brook, Greene St. and Forest Hills. Make the bus-subway transfer free on these routes, if you like. The typical JP resident would use these lines to get downtown, rather than sitting in traffic on the #39 bus. Meanwhile, forget about ever bringing back the trolley tracks on Centre St. The Orange Line is simply faster and better.

3. Extend the Orange Line past Forest Hills all the way to Route 128, in two branches --- one heading toward Needham, and the other continuing through Hyde Park, etc. This has been on the plans for a long time. It's been stopped probably due to prejudice from many people who live out there who were told growing up never to drive into Dudley Square. But hey, Cambridge, Quincy and Dorchester manage to share the Red Line.

4. Similarly, extend the Orange Line in the North. This was blocked too, by Melrose.

5. Forget building a Green Line trolley through Somerville. Instead, the Orange Line should have branched off around North Station to provide transit access to that corridor. It still blows my mind that we're spending all these billions improving a TROLLEY when we could have spent the same on a REAL RAPID TRANSIT system.

[heather]

i live in the south end right near the newton st stop on the silver line. i have to get to the airport tonight and i can adventure into town via the silver line to the orange line at downtown and then to the blue line to the airport, then take the shuttle to the terminal. if the two silver lines were connected, since the silver line at the airpot makes terminal stops, it would be much more convenient for so many people to get to the airport... 2013 baby....

[common sense]

The idea of using the old crumbling tunnel is absurd. The old portal is at the wall abutting the Turnpike. To use this old tunnel, traffic lights would have to be installed on the Pike so that Silver Line vehicles could cuts across the east and westbound lanes hundreds of times each day.
Does that really make sense to anyone who is sane?

[3D]

Did you look at the photos of the tunnel? It's not crumbling any more than tunnels still in use. Plus, when the Silver Line was first proposed, the MBTA suggested using it.

The portal isn't at the wall abutting the MassPike. It's roughly halfway between Tufts Medical and the Pike. If the issue is crossing the Pike, they could either dig under it so the SL crosses before the Pike, or have a new portal open up after the crossing.

"Common sense"? Really, Giselle?

[Aaron]

Outrageous!!! 1.2 Billion is around 227k per linear foot. Vote no on Question #1 Starving the beast is the only way to tame it.