NB/FR Commuter Rail Fed Funding Passed Over

From the New Bedford Standard Times today. Mitt just doesn't like the Southcoast, huh?

State balks at rail funding opportunity
By DAVID KIBBE, Standard-Times staff writer

BOSTON -- U.S. Rep. Barney Frank accused the Romney administration of showing no interest in acquiring federal funding for a commuter rail extension to SouthCoast, despite the administration's repeated assertions that half the cost must be paid by the federal government.
Frank said Douglas Foy, the administration's chief of commonwealth development, declined his offer this week to seek federal money from a "new starts" commuter rail fund or to seek an earmark of federal transportation money for the rail project.

(Darnit, my dog ate the rest of the article so please take a look at it there)

I think it's not that the T doesn't want to do it, it's that they've already committed to Green Line to West Medford, Blue line to Lynn, and to the Greenbush
line. The FTA has serious doubts about the T's ability
to cover all this debt. I don't think the T wants to take
on any more obligations at this point. Plus, there's the
natural reluctance of the feds to give out any more
$$$ to Boston in the post big-dig era....