BrandeisRoberts wrote:I don't know whether people here have already read this, but I thought this was a really interesting take on some of the political machinations behind the MBCR vs Keolis drama.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/1 ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
To me, the idea of a new facility in Readville (and moving the MBCR offices to Roxbury) reeks of good old-fashioned palm greasing, and it was refreshing to see that I'm not the only one who thinks this.
I'm all for a new CR maintenance facility Southside, but it should be MBTA-owned and in a much more centralized location than down past Readville. Beacon Park and Widett Circle are perfect candidates and are much more convenient to the CR's future ridership growth Southside (Worcester, Back Bay, potentially the Seaport, and especially the Old Colony Lines) than a facility serving only Fairmount, Franklin and the NEC would be.
I also totally fail to see what, if anything, would be gained by moving the head offices for the most distinctively suburb-oriented of the T's services to Roxbury, again, other than appeasing the political powers-that-be.
They have enough space at Widett to do a full-size facility and get all the storage they need if they land-swap the Boston Food Market elsewhere in addition to the cold storage warehouse they're trying to move now. Then there's still the city tow lot that can be easily moved for still more storage space. Hell, there's enough there that Readville Yard 2 arguably wouldn't be needed at all and the entire southside can get consolidated into one massive "TransitTown" home base at Widett/Southampton/Cabot. They can move the Fairmount layover berths onto the mainline ROW on those
extra yard tracks or rent a little space in the underutilized CSX yard, then land-swap Yard 2 for residential/commercial redevelopment as an extension of Wolcott Sq. and recoup the cost of the Widett land acquisition. Wouldn't need to use any Beacon Park easements, which would generate more tax revenue for the state for each additional acre that Harvard can redevelop. And they'd still have massive Readville Yard 5 to play with for all their unforeseen 50-year expansion needs.
These are additional reasons why the S&S land acquisition makes so little sense. In addition to being an operationally awkward place to go and a complete waste of the greater acreage of unused Readville space the T already owns, why would they want to chew up so much of MBCR's funding commitment squaring all the strings attached with the town of Dedham, EIS'ing around the Neponset Reservation, and CSX with the interference around their yard? It's a misplacement of leverage where downtown has all the strategic juice. The city and BRA would have a vested interest in the Food Market land swap, as well as any unused Readville considerations the T might be willing to put on the table as collateral for help securing 100% of the Widett land. Why dilute all that deal-making juice with this crappy site the city has zero interest in after Menino and the BRA tried and failed to get it redeveloped, and why complicate it all by letting Dedham take its pound of flesh (dealing with them proved a nightmare for the Menino-led redevelopment plan for the site and helped ensure its demise). Yes, Widett's more expensive land acquisition than a sparsely utilized warehouse on the outskirts...but the S&S site is going to chew up its share of nagging costs just trying to secure it and be far inferior on operating costs projected over multiple decades. If they need the facility, make it a facility that's a top-notch use of resources for the long haul...not because it's an easy grab whose deficiencies can be sorted out later. That's one reason why they're wise to go all-in on the cold storage warehouse land-swap at Widett instead of plowing forward on the Beacon Park storage easement...the ops superiority is so hands-down better they much prefer doing it right over doing it cheap/easy. This is no different.
Hell, Readville Yard 5 would be an outstanding site too given its turning loop and equal access to the NEC, Franklin, and Fairmount. Sure, the Dedham abutters are going to be a royal PITA...but Dedham was a royal PITA on the last S&S redevelopment proposal and is sure to be again on the S&S plan despite having no taxpayers on that side of the tracks. If you're tangling with them any which way over the same NIMBY-fied issues, at least pick the site that's got the upside most worth your while. A sound fence around the west side of T-owned Yard 5 + associated Dedham payola to keep them quiet is going to cost way less than buying the S&S site, EIS'ing the S&S site, bulldozing and prepping the S&S site, the CSX payola for the yard access, and the same Dedham payola. The T has a vested interest in getting MBCR to put more of that $65M into the maintenance facility itself rather than lose that much overhead just on land/access acquisition prerequisites.