jck wrote:Just about any of the other proposed T projects would provide better bang/buck.
Red-Blue line connector.
Silver line phase III
Blue Line to Lynn
Worcester commuter rail improvements
Fitchburg commuter rail improvements
Urban ring
Unfortunately those projects don't have the possibility of sealing Patrick's re-election bid in 2010 like locking up South Coast swing voters can if the project's actually under construction by then. That line about "for 20 years Massachusetts governors have promised the residents of southeast Mass. . ." was the money line in his statement: his re-election campaign promise to those voters. Maybe if Healey/Romney polled a little less-pathetic in metro Boston rapid transit would get some love, but South Coast is one of the few high-density swing voter areas (to the extent that swing still even happens here) left for statewide Democrats to woo.
I think they misquoted the ridership projections...that would be a pretty heavily-patronized line with the most deep long-term ridership growth of probably any CR route since that's where the pop density explosion is headed after South Shore/Greenbush corridor gets tapped out of residential real estate. It's too strategic long-term to not ultimately do, so I don't really mind the sequence it's done in since this one takes a lot more political will and cooperation to pull off than any metro-Boston project. And if you can politically get it approved today when you couldn't yesterday and probably won't tomorrow, you do it. That's how Greenbush happened. And this will do wonders for Fall River/New Bedford's 15-30 year growth. The T is a state agency, so not everything it does (within reason) needs to benefit Boston exclusively. Short of Springfield which isn't regionally practical this is the largest--and last--remaining distinct regional metro area that needs to be permanently tied into the transit system, unless New Hampshire wants to start ponying up its share of funding (ha!). It's also important because you can eventually count on those commuters to support T funding where they once had no reason to do so, and if you see where the population demographics are headed in the next couple decades, couple censuses, and couple redistrictings...it's a full-on southward march of increasing voter clout. That's why you pick your opening and just do it, high cost/disruption and all.
Now, make no mistake...this is the LAST suburban CR project that should ever get prioritization over the metro-Boston rapid transit improvements that have been in perpetual limbo for decades. Seriously...Greenbush and FR/NB were the only big-ticket expansions left with such super-strategic value to the state and T where you could justify greenlighting as soon as the political winds blew favorable. That's it. Everything else needs to fall in line by need and priority. There needs to be a massive push to modernize and extend the rapid transit system after a couple decades of that taking a back seat to the Big Dig and building up MBCR. Make your upgrades to the the heaviest-use CR infrastructure, but prioritize on most-immediate bang-for-buck on inside-128 service. No more all-new lines (sorry, Cape Cod...start pulling your weight year-round), only extend lines past their termini when bang-for-buck is obvious, and if Rhode Island or New Hampshire want more MBCR stops in their jurisdictions make sure they're kicking in appropriate funding to make Mass' bang-for-buck a no-brainer (thinking yes for some of the Providence 'burbs, hell no for tax-poor NH).
