Patriot Ledger 3/25 Op-Ed: Tunnel Vision

Thought this was a very interesting piece:

COMMENTARY: TRANSPORTATION: Tunnel vision: A costly precedent in rail expansion

By DAVID A. MITTELL JR.

Sometime I’ll have to check what the weather was on June 30, 1959. There ought to have been storm clouds on the horizon, for that day in June was the last day the faltering New Haven Railroad ran passenger trains to Greenbush, to Plymouth Center and to the grand red brick station on Elm Street in Middleboro. (The last time I drove by the old Middleboro station about 10 years ago, it was still standing, but it wasn’t used when service to Middleboro was restored in 1997.)

Snip per OV Click here for the remainder of the article

A note about one item in the article - the mysterious fire at the Neponset River Bridge from what I've heard was due to a locomotive being towed in a freight train which brakes set on, which caused overheating and sparks which ignited the bridge. This is one thing Whitey Bulger can't be blamed for.

Jon

The article is so right. And here is an example of what the Greenbush line has done.

As many know, project to expand rail service to Worcester. The towns that would be impacted, are clearly holding their hands out to receive funds for projects ( like the Big Dig of Framingham ). I've posted a press release from the Board of Selectmen in Ashland about expanding Worcester service to 20 to demonstrate the problem Greenbush has caused.

http://www.ashlandmass.com/board_of_sel ... 060316.pdf

Which is why I posted the Op-Ed piece. Blackmail, ranson, extortion, whatever. There is an article in a recent Cohasset Mariner where
they are complaining about the design/color of the signal bungalows!
Hingham was up to no good again in regards to fencing. It never ends.

D

Those two towns should have never gotten away with the tunnel projects. The state should have said the train is coming and that’s final. Easier said than done, BUT a tunnel, com’ on folks its a town vs. state; I guess the saying holds true that if you whine long enough, you'll get what you want. Seems to me the state just got sick of the complaining and agreed to do what the NIMBYS wanted just to shut them up. I also feel the Greenbush extension was a waste of time and the money spent, they could have used the money else where that would have benefited the state and the MBTA.

If you lived in any of the "seacoast" towns on the South Shore (Marshfield, Scituate, Cohassett, Hingham, Hull, Norwell, Weymouth and Braintree) and had to drive to Beantown on the, "choked" [gridlock, at times!] Routes 3, 3A and 228, YOU would be screaming for commuter rail service!

They HAD commuter rail service with the New Haven Railroad and they were BULLSHIRT when the bankrupt NH was refused another operating subsidy by the State in 1959. I know, I was 16 years old and my dad then had to drive (carpool?) to Boston with my uncle on the new "bloodbath" Southeast Distressway!
Nobody was used to driving on a "super highway" to Boston and the number of multiple, serious , [even fatal] accidents were an everyday occurrence!

Even today, mass transportation experts agree that the closing of the Old Colony Division to the South Shore was a horrible miskake. A subsidy of a single million dollars would have kept the trains running. Look at the billions of dollars in transit subsidies that are spent today.

All officials on the South Shore agree on one thing,.......the trains will be "packed" from day one on.

Paul

PS - I agree there was no need for "tunnels" in Weymouth and Hingham. I watched and rode trains with "at grade level crossings" in both towns and there was never a problem. It was just a way of life. Trains ran from 1845 to 1959, with steam engines for a very long part of that time, up to 1950, no less!

The use of "Historic Districts" to control how you can use your property is nothing but creeping socialism, an attempt by elite intellectual snobs who think they are better than everyone else to dictate how their neighbors runs their lives. Depending on the time period you are trying to re-create, the presence of paved streets, automobile traffic, and utility poles are likely to be the most significant detracting factor from "historic" accuracy in most communities, not what color the structures are painted. Saying that an area is "historic" and you have to paint your structures a particular color selected by a historical commission, or that you cannot put up a new building, or use window air conditioners, is a total and complete joke when you have 2006 model year automobiles parked out in front.

Perhaps steam locomotives are needed to make the rail operation consistent with the rest of the historic areas? Once you allow this kind of foolishness to control projects, there is no limit to how much of the taxpayers' money you can squander.