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MassDOT still planning for West Station in 2040
By HarryMattison on Tue, 04/24/2018 - 12:22pm
At yesterday's meeting of the MassDOT Board of Directors, MassDOT reiterated its plan to spend $500M to rebuild the Mass Pike in Allston and build a rail yard for midday commuter rail train storage.
New bus and rail transit services are not included in the project's first two phases, but are anticipated for the year 2040. "We have no idea what service will be in 2040" said MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack.
In a comment period that concluded in February, hundreds of businesses, private citizens, and organizations wrote to the State supporting construction of West Station as soon as possible. These supporters include the City of Boston, City of Cambridge, Harvard, Boston University, MIT, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, dozens of elected officials, the Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization (MASCO), and many others.
Also yesterday in Allston, a meeting was held for the proposal to build 1,050 units of new housing at the Stop & Shop site on Everett Street.
See also:
Video of MassDOT Board meeting
MassDOT Presentation
No sign of consensus on West Station
Allston commuter-rail station put on a siding to nowheresville
In Allston, the transit lesson we never learn
Harvard ups financial commitment for West Station, calls for interim train stop in Allston
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Comments
This makes no sense
But it seems to be above Pollack's pay grade. There is no interest from Baker in actually improving Public Transit, just talk.
A pay grade of zero? Pollack is a patronage pick
Baker had a list of major donors to please. Pollack is the Betsy DeVos of Baker's administration. A rich advocate who likes to play transportation planner. Have you ever noticed that all of Pollack's half-baked CLF projects are fully funded in 2018? While everything that isn't a Pollack project has been stripped of funding? And the worst part about it. Baker can't do anything to rectify the situation. He's beholden to a few wealthy donors. Pollack exemplifies why Mass needs cleaner elections.
Stephanie Snow has got-a go
Only a few newsmakers have the umph to bring up Ken Snow when talking about Pollack-o-screamer
Pollack laziness. And we're paying for it
When I heard Pollack tried to school Brian Lang about Singapore, claiming that the lowest density rail stop in Singapore has greater density than any rail stop in Boston, I rolled my eyes. Singapore isn't Manhattan. It's a country with open space, farmland, and suburbs. I grew up in Sembawang, Singapore, a sprawling suburban section of the island with rail access. Its not even close to the density of Downtown Boston. Pollack tried to school Lang on Singapore, because she believes skimming the internet is research. Laziness to the extreme
The service in 2040 will be
The service in 2040 will be whatever service MassDOT decides to create today. Why is Pollack speaking as if she is a neutral observer who has no say as to what the T will be doing, when she is literally the person who the GM of the T reports to?
So Disheartening.
Precisely what I thought.
I listened to the Secretary in that segment. What I heard was her throwing up her hands (which she actually did at the end!) and saying that DOT can't talk about building to accommodate transit until the T establishes transit routes to serve what is built. It sounded as though a chicken and egg problem was being deliberately created.
This sort of thing makes a mockery of the more "unified" approach to transport that the 2009 transport reform legislation (and more recent legislation) was intended to foster. It suggests that we somehow cannot logically come to the conclusion that development on a massive scale in a dense urban environment (and that's what Harvard is and will do there) will require robust public transport.
I don't have time to articulate the myriad other concerns, questions and thoughts I have on this, but I found listening to that 2 minutes or so extremely disheartening. More disheartening still when I think about the tens of thousands of person-hours the public has devoted to giving comment, and when I consider the Secretary's not-so-distant background.
Classic Massachusetts "thinking"
God forbid that we ever design or plan anything. NO! Lets just rip stuff down, put stuff up, and then let somebody else figure it out later! Yeah. Just retrofit it - like the time we ordered a zillion buses AFTER the ADA went into effect and then forced people to sue us to put in the chair lifts that should have been a part of the purchase and design!
But cars
But cars..
Group A: "We represent some
Group A: "We represent some of the most important universities and corporations in the world. Designing a new neighborhood without public transit will be a colossal failure"
Group B: *The sound of spoiled brat drivers crying and throwing a tantrum because they insist on hogging all of the money and property for themselves*
The fact that Baker sided with group B is the most perfect example of drivers being given everything while responsible citizens like public transit users, pedestrians and cyclists get screwed. The only upside is that with no good public transit this new area will have terrible traffic like the Seaport so drivers will only have themselves to thank when they are miserable sitting in traffic.
Isn't Harvard putting up the money to build this station
so the state doesn't have to? Boston Landing was built that way, with money from New Balance.
And BU
(I have checked the links above), but I believe BU signed up to pay part of the cost. And if they didn't, they should.
There is no rational reason
There is no rational reason for Baker to not start planning and building West Station in the near future. It would cost the state practically nothing. But they are happy to blow half a billion dollars on a tiny stretch of highway for spoiled drivers. Republicans hate public transportation and the people who use it. This has been true for decades.
And we invite small children into our gingerbread houses
...
Only the white children.
Only the white children.
You know it's bad
When I agree with you on this.
Heck, I'll even note that the T or MassDOT or whoever doesn't even need to stop trains at the stop when it is completed, at least at first. The station will eventually be needed. Why not build it when the whole transportation infrastructure of the area is being rebuilt.
Yawkey station was built at first to handle fans attending Red Sox games. Now it gets routine service for the people at LMA and BU. If you build it, they will come, and that will help the transportation issues in the region.
Glug Glug Glug . . .
It's not realistic to expect MassDOT to allocate resources toward transit hubs, transit-oriented development, transit, light rail, people on bikes, pedestrians, access to transit, connecting neighborhoods that have been bifurcated by highways, mitigating climate change, modal shift to cleaner transportation options, or any other such frivolities. The agency needs to remain laser-focused on its core mission: the automobile-focused transportation dream of the 1950s.
It took 30 years for a new
It took 30 years for a new stop on the orange line so this is right on par with my "world class city."
30 years?
Did Good Times Emporium propose the Assembly stop back in the 90s?
That's nothin'
I think the red-blue connector and the north-south rail link proposals are so old most of the original planners are dead now.