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All aboard: green light for Greenbush
(The following article by Jeanne M. Rideout was posted on the Hingham Journal website on September 25.)
HINGHAM, Mass. -- After a seven-month delay and a full review, the MBTA is resuming construction of the 17-mile Greenbush commuter rail line through Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset and Scituate.
Gov. Mitt Romney signed off on the decision Monday, and members of the MBTA Board of Directors, responding to a telephone poll, unanimously agreed to resume the $479 million project.
Trains are due to roll in the spring of 2006, with the immediate commencement of construction, according to MBTA General Manager Michael Mulhern. Construction of a tunnel underneath Hingham center will begin next spring.
But is the commuter rail project truly on track this time?
"For proponents of Greenbush, this is certainly good news. But, as a wise man once said, it's not over till it's over," said state Rep. Frank Hynes, a long-time Greenbush supporter.
The Marshfeld Democrat said rail proponents should be "cautiously optimistic" the project is going forward, but noted that Romney's is the fifth administration in 20 years to thoroughly review the project and give it the go ahead.
Greenbush advocates basked in the green glow radiating from Beacon Hill.
Mulhern said he has a "higher degree of confidence" in the project after completing the review process. The design process, which Mulhern said never ceased, is "nearing 100 percent completion," he said.
"We're building a project that's going to last 100 years," Mulhern said during the press conference at the authority's headquarters in Boston. "There is a renewed, if not new, dedication of the place that public transportation plays in our overall policy."
Mulhern and state Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas said the nearly eight-month break was important so they "could look the public in the eye" and defend the project. Douglas Foy, Romney's chief of Commonwealth Development, supported the announcement and said he was "delighted by the decision."
Citing reasons for the continuation, officials said the project fits in with Romney's "smart growth" agenda as a "critical" vehicle of transportation for South Shore residents, and there is no suitable alternative. Grabauskas said the project is also too important to the state's economic development to abandon. And project overseers have already incurred $100 million in non-recoverable costs, he said.
"We are a go for Greenbush," said State Transportation Office spokesman Jon Carlisle following Governor Romney's announcement The decision was unanimous one by the MBTA Board, a first in the controversial project's long history, he said.
"The MBTA board as well as the governor have a degree of comfort with the project after reviewing it in an exhaustive fashion," said Carlisle. The decision took into consideration the legal commitment made in conjunction with the central artery to build the Greenbush line, as well as the more than $100 million in costs already invested in the project, he said.
When the moratorium halted work on the rail line in February, Carlisle noted transportation planners continued to man the Weymouth Landing office during the hiatus.
"Work should start up again in the next few weeks," said Carlisle. "By the springtime, you can expect to see about 100 working on the corridor, 150 by the next summer."
Carlisle said revenue service on the Greenbush line should begin in the first half of 2006.
Friday, September 26, 2003
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