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Boston North-South Rail Link


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#1 Jack615

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Posted 18 May 2005 - 09:12 AM

Dukakis calls on legislators to save rail link plan
By Statehouse News Service | May 18, 2005
in the Boston Globe

Former governor Michael S. Dukakis pleaded with lawmakers yesterday to preserve the possibility of an underground link between North and South stations in Boston, but a key state senator said the project would halt downtown development and hurt suburban transportation upgrades.

At a hearing on legislation preserving the 1-mile right of way, Dukakis warned lawmakers that the two transportation hubs are nearing capacity and that action is needed to prevent development that may make the project, which would create a seamless Northeast Corridor rail line, impossible in the future.

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#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 19 August 2015 - 09:35 PM

The Boston Globe, 8/19:
 

 

Dukakis, Weld agree on need for rail link

By Shirley Leung. Globe Columnist

 

They’re the ultimate political odd couple. One is a Democrat, the other a Republican, and while they fought bitterly back in their day, these former governors have set aside their differences to go on a quixotic quest.

 

Neither Michael Dukakis nor Bill Weld could get a rail link between North Station and South Station built during his administration, and now they want Charlie Baker to pick up where they left off and back another multibillion-dollar tunnel under Boston.

 

It is, literally, the Big Dig II.  .  .  .

 

Continue here.



#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 19 August 2015 - 09:42 PM

The Boston Globe 8/18:

 

Op-Ed
 

Build the North-South Rail Link

 

By Michael S. Dukakis and William F. Weld

 

We all know that last winter was not a good one for the MBTA. Just when the T should have been performing at its best, it was at its worst — and a lot of people suffered for it. They couldn’t get to work; businesses couldn’t open; hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of work days were lost.

 

We will continue to debate the reasons for the system’s failures, but what we can’t do is permit the T’s abysmal performance to halt further progress on expanding and strengthening our public transportation and regional rail passenger system. If the Massachusetts economy is going to continue to grow and create good jobs for our people, making that system better must be our top priority.

 

One of the most important and cost-effective investments we can make is to connect North and South stations by rail. Permitting this one-mile gap to continue — more than 100 years after a legislative commission first proposed that the two stations be connected — isn’t worthy of a state whose rail and transit system should be the best in the nation.

 

 

Continue.



#4 KevinKorell

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Posted 23 August 2015 - 08:05 PM

And here we are 10 years after the original post above, still talking about it.  Agreed it is needed, just as it was back then.  The success of Philadelphia's Center City tunnel that connected two former termini of the system (Reading Terminal and Suburban Station) should have stimulated Boston to do the same.  

 

Weren't provisions made when the depressed I-93 was built under the surface for a rail box underneath the highway?  Of course it will need substantial reconstruction of both South and North Stations to put some of each terminal's tracks underground to access such a tunnel.  While they may be able to maintain the number of tracks at each station (IIRC there are 10 at North Station and 13 at South Station), the actual construction is going to be quite disruptive as some of those tracks are going to temporarily be lost.



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#5 CNJRoss

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Posted 21 November 2015 - 07:50 AM

The Boston Globe, 11/20:

 

The Argument

Should the state continue to pursue plans for a North-South Rail Link?

 

YES

Tom Treat

Salisbury resident, Massachusetts Sierra Club volunteer leader

 

The North-South Rail Link, a tunnel to connect North Station to South Station, would promote fuel conservation, reduce traffic congestion and stress on the highway infrastructure, boost the economy, reduce air pollution and commute times, increase rail efficiency, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

 

SNIP

 

NO

Frank Conte

Wakefield resident, director of communications at the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University

 

In Massachusetts, bad ideas never die. They are often repackaged by boosters despite outright opposition and prudent skepticism. The North-South Rail Link, a putative “mini-Big Dig,” is one such idea.

Read "The Argument" here.



#6 KevinKorell

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Posted 21 November 2015 - 09:30 AM

While the connection makes perfect sense from a regional point of view, one can see the negative side as well.  Allowing the Downeasters to travel through Boston to New York and beyond would definitely benefit that line, and in fact warrant expansion beyond the current 5 daily round trips and serving other destinations in Maine such as Auburn.  But through Boston Amtrak trains won't benefit Boston, and in fact some of their seats will already be full when they board at South Station, which would turn from a terminal to an intermediate stop.   Likening this to the Big Dig might be a good analogy, but it was originally supposed to be part of the Big Dig as it would have run underneath I-93.   Instead of all the dickering back and forth (as this article illustrates it is still going on), they could have had their link in service several years ago.



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#7 Sloan

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Posted 21 November 2015 - 09:49 AM

Not mentioned is a plan to bypass South Station by mens of the grand junction connection through Cambridge.  The NIMBYs at MIT don't like that concept because they are fearful that rumbling trains will shake buildings and in turn disrupt delicate laboratory experiments.  Mitigation on both railroad and MIT's parts can minimize this problem and the professors undoubtedly know this.

 

But a through train from Brunswick/Portland to North Station and then on to New York via the Inland Route would provide an attractive transportation option especially on the Inland Route which only has the one round trip a day "Late Shore" between Springfield and Worcester.

 

BTW, self-driving cars are not the panaceas their proponents claim.  They still, like an airplane with autopilot, will require a competent  and alert person at the controls in case of technology failure or looney-toon antics of other drivers.  Too, the need remains for expensive highway infrastructure which takes up huge swaths of tax-free land. 

 

See more on the self-driving car myths  (environmentally friendly, cheaper, safer) here:

 

http://minnesota.cbs...-on-light-rail/

 

Sloan


Edited by Sloan, 21 November 2015 - 09:51 AM.


#8 KevinKorell

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Posted 19 April 2016 - 08:36 PM

Column in Boston, MA Globe, 4/15/16:

 


Another tunnel under Boston doesn’t sound crazy to Seth Moulton

 

Seth Moulton does not seem like a crazy man, but the congressman from Salem is telling me something crazy. He thinks Massachusetts should build another multibillion-dollar tunnel under the city.

 

“The back of the envelope math is very compelling,” he told me recently over lunch in Boston.

Column



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#9 KevinKorell

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Posted 23 June 2016 - 07:53 PM

Boston, MA Globe, 6/20/16:

North-South Rail Link would be an investment in core MBTA system, Dukakis says


Gov. Charlie Baker says his top priority for the MBTA is to fix the existing system — not expand it. That priority has been seen as at-odds with new projects, like the North-South Rail Link, which would connect North and South stations.



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#10 KevinKorell

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Posted 02 March 2017 - 12:36 PM

Boston, MA Globe, 3/1/17:

 


 

State asks for bids in $2 million North-South rail link study

 

State transportation officials began soliciting bids Wednesday to study a proposed rail tunnel connecting North and South stations, a long-discussed project that would create an unbroken rail route from Maine to Washington, D.C.

Update to this story.  Welcome to 2017, and we're still just studying.



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