Michigander in Mass

Expanding T's ridership
December 30, 2005

IN "WILL Foy Save the T?" (op ed, Dec. 23) Charles D. Chieppo criticized the T's proposed expansion of the Green Line to Somerville and Medford. Citing questionable data, Chieppo implies that transit expansion is a luxury we can't afford. Just the opposite is true: Improved transit is one of the best investments the state can make. A Green Line extension will expand the T's ridership while spurring commercial and residential development that will, in turn, bolster state revenues. Even motorists will benefit by a diversion of commuters from overburdened roadways to rapid transit.

Chieppo would have us believe that this transportation enhancement would come at the expense of existing T service or might cause cuts in state funding for education and health programs. The truth is that the investment in these transit projects has always been factored into the state budget (not the MBTA's).

Instead of erecting false arguments that pit one crucial state investment against another, Governor Romney and other leaders could show real courage by beginning a dialogue about how best to get these transit projects moving.

JOSEPH A. CURTATONE
Mayor
City of Somerville

From: Steve Mulder

Hi all -

A new interactive map has been added to the STEP web site that
explores where the new Green Line stops might be located. The stops
aren't decided yet, but the sooner we start discussing this critical
issue, the better.

Where do you think the stops should be?

http://www.somervillestep.org/map/

steve

State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios and Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone criticized the state Department of Environmental Protection yesterday for proposing to push back the deadline for extending the MBTA's Green Line to Medford by three years and adding new regulations that would allow the state to delay this and other projects an additional three years if needed.

Full story on Boston.com.

A bookstore in Cambridge took a lesson from history and has begun selling big book box indulgencies for folks who may feel a little guilty for not buying from their local, independent bookseller.

Interesting Michigan-related MetaFilter post today: The 1913 Massacre.

Massachusetts DEP extended the deadline for written public comments on the Ozone SIP Transit Commitments, including the Green Line extensions to Somerville and Medford.

The public hearings will still take place on Wednesday, December 21st at DEP, which is located at the center of Downtown Crossing in Boston, at both 10 AM and 6 PM. DEP at One Winter Street is easily reached via either the Red or Orange Lines and is also a short walk from the Green Line at Park.

Additonal comments on the DEP Hearing appear below, but first a few words on the four steps, toward Green Line entitlement, remaining over the next nine months:

Following these important December 21st hearings, DEP will produce a final draft of proposed changes to the State Implementation Plan language and forward that to US EPA for their consideration. Additional steps necessary this year, if the Somerville Green Line is to stay On Track, include incorporation of the project in the next Boston MPO Regional Transportation Plan and designation by the Massachusetts Legislature of a real financial source for transit expansion projects. The SIP is a legal agreement between EPA and Massachusetts derived from the state's "non-attainment" status under the Clean Air Act.

By Federal regulation, SIP transportation projects must take priority over most other projects in the Boston MPO Regional Transportation Plan. Also by Federal regulation, major projects in the Boston MPO Regional Transportation Plan must have real financial sources. Failure on either count would put huge Federal transportation dollars that will otherwise flow to Massachusetts at risk. As a result of Clean Air Act failures, Atlanta's Federal transportation funding was cut-off several years ago. More recently, San Francisco and Baltimore / Washington transportation funding has been put at risk.


To recap, the following steps are needed in the next nine months to keep the Green Line and (other SIP transportation projects) ON TRACK:

1. DEP acceptance of the proposed projects.
HEARINGS December 21st, 2005.
Written comments by January 17th, 2006.

2. EPA acceptance of revised SIP regulations.
Comment period in early 2006.

3. Inclusion in the Boston MPO Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).
Comment period in June 2006.

4. Definition of a state transit expansion funding source.
By date of submittal of MPO RTP to Federal agencies.


With regard to the proposed SIP regulation changes that are now in a critical DEP public comment period, Somerville citizens should also be aware:

1. That EOT and DEP are proposing that there be a three year delay in the Green Line implementation date - moving the deadline from 2011 to 2014. At the very least a realistic and aggressive "critical path" outline should be produced before any delay is accepted.

2. That EOT and DEP have not proposed any mitigation for the possible delay in transit implementation. In the past there has always been an expectation of full environmental mitigation - i.e., temporary corridor air quality improvements - for any delays in meeting the SIP obligations.

3. That the proposed SIP language would allow much easier substitutions for SIP transit projects in the future, as long as they met air quality goals in Boston, Cambridge, Medford or Somerville. The Green Line could be replaced by the Urban Ring, new transit to Harvard's Allston campus or another project.

In the past, the Ozone SIP Transit obligations have always had very strict substitution conditions, requiring proof of "infeasibility", and substitutions have been required to be located in the corridors that would have been served by the original project.


It is critical that Somerville citizens turn-out once again at the DEP Hearings to keep the Green Line ON TRACK and continue to respect other advocates.

STEP will be providing some suggested speaking points shortly, but Somerville citizens own words have done a remarkable job of advocacy in the past year. If you continue to speak thoughtfully and from your own hearts, we will do just fine. It is important that EOT and DEP hear our thanks for their consideration and our pledge to make the Green Line extensions work superbly for the Somerville community. The Green Line is a major step toward cleaner air and better service.

Somerville has borne an enormous environmental and public health burden from regional commuter trips on the highways and railways through our neighborhoods. We are the only community in the state with over 200,000 vehicle miles traveled per day per square mile. We are the only community in the state with 15,000 diesel train trips per year per square mile. Over 90% of the commuters on I93, Route 28, Route 38 and the six diesel rails cutting through do not live or work in Somerville.

Despite our local grievances and needs, in our past testimony we have been very respectful of the transportation aspirations of the other communities involved, especially those from Jamaica Plain and those in favor of the Red and Blue Line connection. At DEP on Wednesday, December 21st, we need to maintain that practice even as we continue our local advocacy. Somerville and the region should be evolving together toward a healthier transportation system that broadly serves both quality of life and economic opportunity.

Regards, Wig Zamore

**********

THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

BUREAU OF WASTE PREVENTION

DIVISION OF CONSUMER AND TRANSPORTATION PROGRAMS



NOTICE OF EXTENSION OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD


Notice is hereby given that the Department of Environmental Protection, under its authority pursuant to M.G.L. Chapter 111, Sections 142A through 142M, and in conformance with M.G.L. Chapter 30A, will extend the public comment period on amendments to 310 CMR 7.36, Transit System Improvements, from January 3, 2006 to January 17, 2006. The purpose of the public hearing is to solicit comments on proposed amendments to 310 CMR 7.36. The proposed amendments were requested by the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) and include substitute projects for the three remaining transit projects required as air quality mitigation measures for the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project. The proposed amendments also modify the procedures in the regulation to delay and substitute transit projects.



As indicated in a previous notice, public hearings will be conducted to receive public comment, both oral and written, on the proposed regulation.



On: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 10:00 am and

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 6:00 pm

At: Washington Street Conference Center, 2nd Floor, Rooms A, B, & C

Department of Environmental Protection

One Winter Street

Boston, Massachusetts 02108



The public hearing site is wheelchair accessible. This information is available in alternative format upon request by contacting Donald M. Gomes, DEP's ADA coordinator, at (617) 556-1057. TDD Service 1-800-298-2207, One Winter Street, Boston, MA 02108.



Testimony may be presented orally and/or in writing at the public hearing. Following the hearing, written testimony will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. on January 17, 2006. The Department requests that written testimony be submitted electronically via e-mail to: christine.kirby@state.ma.us. Written testimony may also be sent to: Christine Kirby, Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Prevention, One Winter Street, 10th Floor, Boston, MA 02108.



Copies of the regulation and background document will be available for inspection during normal business hours at the Department of Environmental Protection, One Winter Street, Boston, MA. In addition, these documents will be available on DEP's website at: http://www.mass.gov/dep/air/laws/regulati.htm#proposed and

http://www.mass.gov/dep/public/publiche.htm.



By order of the Department.

Robert W. Golledge, Jr., Commissioner

According to eyewitness reports, The Lowell Street bridge looks to be conforming with any Green Line extension plans:

We saw the first of the beams set in place spanning the New Hampshire main Line ('Lowell Line") earlier this evening. I just heard the truck descending Lowell Street out back with two more of the concrete beams. During Q&A this evening at the VNA meeting sponsored by Sen. Patricia Jehlen it was determined that there would, indeed, be sufficient room for 4 tracks under the bridge. The current configuration has a "false abutment" on the south side. This serves no structural purpose and can be removed to facilitate widening of the R-O-W.

What about the Somerville Community Path?

From STEP Member Wig Zamore:

There are three agenda items at next Monday's MBTA Rider Oversight Committee Meeting which relate to the Green Line and Lechmere. General Manager Daniel Grabauskas will attend the meeting.

A public comment period occurs at 4:30 PM to start the meeting, as happens at the ROC every month. There is another public comment period to end the meeting but the GM will be gone and the agenda items will be past.

Although many of us will focus our energy next week on Wednesday's Ozone SIP Transit Commitments Hearings at DEP, it would be nice to have one or two Lechmere Green Line riders available to comment to the ROC.

Regards, Wig Zamore

**********

MBTA Rider Oversight Committee Meeting


Monday, December 19, 2005

10 Park Plaza, Conference Room 1, 2, and 3

Boston, Massachusetts

4:30 PM to 6:30 PM



Welcome and Call Meeting to Order

Public Comment Period

Acceptance of Minutes of 11/21/05

Manager/Secretary's Report



Report from General Manager Grabauskas

· Vertical Transportation;

· Big Dig Mitigation Project Changes;

· Green Line to Somerville [Lechmere] up and running, but slow - why; and

· Update on Green Line Car Purchases.


Reports of Standing Committees and Discussion

Capital Improvements - K. Wepsic

Marketing Communications & Operations - V. Haddix

Finance - C. Bench

Public Comment Period

Adjournment

Perhaps spurred by the knowledge of a soon (in geologic, er, bureaucratic time)-to-be-expanded Green Line (to West Medford), the MBTA will add 85 trolleys beginning in 2007, it was announced recently.

The Boston Globe had a more in-depth story, some of which is extracted below:

Under the agreement, [trolley manufacturer] Ansaldobreda will receive increasing amounts of the remaining money in the contract only if each trolley is able to meet an increasing ''miles between failures" goal, up to the T's system standard of 9,300 miles. The new deal keeps the one-year warranty on the trolleys.

But Carrie Russell, staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, which has monitored the controversial trolley purchase, said she is still skeptical about the Breda cars.

"The T needs to stop throwing good money after bad investments," she said yesterday.

A year ago, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials called its Breda cars one of the worst purchases in the agency's history and talked of ordering new trolleys from another manufacturer. Despite a derailment problem that had been fixed, the cars were breaking down at three times the normal rate for subway vehicles. Water was getting into the trolleys' coupling systems, air conditioning and heating systems leaked or failed to work, and doors stayed partially open, keeping the trains from moving.

"We bought a lemon," Michael H. Mulhern, then the T's then-general manager, said last December.

Now, of the 185 cars in the Green Line fleet, 55 were scheduled to be retired five years ago but have had to remain in service despite more frequent breakdowns. As a result, the T sometimes has to run fewer than the 136 trolleys it needs during rush hour. The Green Line's lack of low-floor vehicles accessible to the disabled further slows service, because drivers had to get out and use special lifts for passengers in wheelchairs.

T officials said they have spent nearly $750,000 to retrofit and test 10 of the Breda cars to fix problems. So far, officials say, the fixes have worked, with the test cars showing a three-fold improvement in reliability. The T will not recoup that money.

The T plans to spend another $2.4 million to make the Breda cars able to connect with non-Breda cars in the Green Line fleet.

About 40 of the T's 47 existing Bredas are operating on the B branch, and T officials plan to expand their use to the C branch in the next three weeks. Ten of them have already been retrofitted and the others will be. After track repairs and improvements, revamped Bredas will head to the E branch by late fall 2006 and the D branch after that, officials said.

As track work commences on the Green Line, T officials plan to lift speed restrictions at nine locations between now and 2008. Two speed restrictions were lifted yesterday on the D branch near the stops at Brookline Village and Brookline Hills, where recent track work allowed speeds to increase from 10 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour.

THE SOMERVILLE GREEN LINE IS NOT A DONE DEAL YET

IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED BY SOMERVILLE RESIDENTS TO KEEP THE GREEN
LINE EXTENSIONS ON TRACK

Please attend one of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
Public Hearings on Wednesday December 21st and/or send written
comments by January 17th to ensure that the Green Line Extensions move
forward as soon as possible.

Hearings: Wednesday, December 21st at 10 AM or 6 PM
at the DEP Offices, One Winter Street, 2nd Floor, at Downtown Crossing
in Boston.Easily reached by Red & Orange Lines or a short walk from
Green Line at Park.

In May 2005 the state agreed to extend the Green Line along two
branches - one to Union Square and another in the Lowell Line
right-of-way through Somerville to Medford - as part of its Transit
Commitments obligation under the Ozone State Implementation Plan
(SIP). But the Ozone SIP must be formally modified by Massachusetts
DEP to include these projects and then be accepted by US EPA before
they will be on track.

The DEP hearings seek to know if the public supports proposed changes
in the regulations.

Written comments will also be accepted at DEP until January 17th, 2006:

Submit via Email to: christine.kirby@state.ma.us
Send via US Mail to: Christine Kirby, Department of Environmental
Protection, Bureau of Waste Prevention, One Winter Street, 10th Floor,
Boston, MA 02108.

After the DEP Hearings, what happens next in 2006…

• DEP will prepare a final draft of proposed changes to the
State
Implementation Plan and submit it to the US Environmental Protection
Administration (EPA) for their approval.

• EPA must review and accept the revised SIP regulations. There
will
be a written public comment period in early 2006 although there may
not be a hearing.

• The Green Line Extensions must be included in the next Boston
Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Regional Transportation Plan
(RTP) â€" comments in early Summer 2006.

• A real financing plan must be developed by the Massachusetts
Legislature for the SIP Transit Commitments by date of submittal of
the MPO RTP to Federal agencies in late Summer 2006.

More Ozone SIP Details and Suggested Speaking Points on the Flip Side



MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE OZONE SIP. The Ozone SIP is a set of
state regulations that are also a legal agreement between EPA and
Massachusetts resulting from the state's "non-attainment" status under
the Clean Air Act. This simply means the state is legally committed to
building more public transit to alleviate poor air quality in this
region. The Green Line Extensions will help prevent future
transportation pollution at a level that satisfies the remaining
Transit Commitments. Preventing future air pollution in Somerville
that leads to regional ozone formation is especially appropriate
because we have long been overrun by commuters, and severely
underserved by clean and convenient public transit.

SOMERVILLE'S CONGESTION AND HEALTH BURDENS. With I93, Route 28, Route
38, the five northern commuter rail lines and AMTRAK all passing
through Somerville, we are uniquely burdened. Over 90% of the
travelers on these highways and trains neither live nor work here.
Somerville is the only community in Massachusetts with over 200,000
vehicle miles driven per day per square mile of land area. We are the
only community with 15,000 diesel trains per square mile per year.
Our high heart attack and lung cancer deaths have been a terrible
consequence of the regional commuter burdens imposed on our
neighborhoods. From 1996 through 2000, Somerville had 36% higher lung
cancer and heart attack mortality rates than the state as a whole even
though a 2002 survey showed lower than average smoking rates. Over
these five years Somerville had 145 excess deaths from these two
leading causes. During the same period, we had 25 traffic fatalities
(total), 25 suicides (total) and only two murders. Air pollution from
regional transportation is the most serious public health problem in
Somerville.

SOMERVILLE IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY. With the highest
ratio of multi-family to single family housing in the state, the
second highest concentration of immigrants after Chelsea and roughly
5,000 carless citizens per square mile, healthier transportation would
immediately help many of our residents get to their schools and jobs
more easily. In the longer term it would become the foundation for
new mixed income housing and new economic development opportunities
for our diverse population.

NEW SIP PROJECT DETAILS. DEP has proposed new language which would
make the two Somerville Green Line branches a top transportation
priority and includes both within the regulations. DEP is also
proposing, at the same time, to commit the state to additional
investments in new stations along the Fairmont Commuter Rail Line in
Roxbury, and to build 1000 new parking spaces at MBTA stations (which
may be in the suburbs). The proposed Ozone SIP language would drop
the restoration of the Arborway Green Line to Jamaica Plain and also
the connection of the Red and Blue Lines. We must be very grateful
for and support inclusion of both Green Line Extensions in the revised
Ozone SIP. But we should not undermine the transit aspirations of any
other community.

OTHER NEW SIP DETAILS ARE NOT SO GOOD. The proposed Ozone SIP
language also has two provisions which are not helpful, though we may
be able to live with them. These draft regulations extend the
deadline for completion of the Green Line Extensions from 2011 to 2014
and make it easier for the MBTA to substitute projects for one another
in the future. The new deadline may be more realistic but should be
justified with a schedule that details the major intermediate steps
necessary for project completion. In the past DEP has required
additional environmental mitigation when clean air obligations are
delayed â€" for example, cleaner buses or more shuttle vans for
seniors.
The new substitution provision would allow any transit project
meeting the clean air goals in Boston, Cambridge, Medford or
Somerville to substitute for the proposed projects, including the
Green Line Extensions.

Additional Ozone SIP Transit Commitment details at:
http://www.mass.gov/dep/air/laws/regulati.htm#catht

Visit our website at somervillestep.org for Green Line and
Somerville transportation news.

Karen Molloy
STEP
www.somervillestep.org

Wainwright Bank & Trust Company (Nasdaq: WAIN) provided $3.5 million in financing to the Somerville Housing Group Trust to develop the fourth phase of Union Place, a two acre mixed use development within walking distance of Union Square, Somerville.

Press release: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051209/nef013.html?.v=32

They haven't asked me for any money yet--heck, they don't even seem to have a website yet, which is slightly puzzling in this day and age, but the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy announced today it has secured pledges of $5.3 million toward its endowment fund to support the greenway that is taking shape where the expressway used to run. This is a tenth of the way toward their ultimate goal of $50 million, and is ahead of the schedule the group must make to keep the process of handing control over to them on track.

The full story is on Boston.com.