The long delayed 497 million dollar restoration of the Greenbush Commuter Rail line will soon be up and running. T and State officials today celebrated the end of construction on the line. The Greenbush Project will restore commuter rail service on the 18-mile long Greenbush rail line through the towns of Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, and Scituate, Massachusetts.
3 comments:
It's not $497 million, at least according to the Boston Globe.
At last count, this line, which will "serve" 8400 riders a day (MBTA estimate) will cost $508 million.
Even at 10 years, a meet-expenses minimum cost per fare (if every one of the 8400 commuters rode the thing 365 days a year) amounts to $16.58 per ride.
Guess what? The Massachusetts taxpayers will be subsidizing this boondoggle to the hilt, just as has been predicted.
Wonder why your Red Line train keeps breaking down? Commuter rail engines won't start? Orange Line signals failing? Green Line trains failing? Buses late?
The T "deferred" a lot of this maintenance to pay for Greenbush, one of their more brilliant moves.
$500 Million for service to relatively wealthy South Shore communities who didn't all even want the darn thing? I know the project was related to the Big Dig, where common sense plays no part, but surely someone could have stepped back and realized that this was an insane project. How much would it have cost to extend to Green Line or Blue Line north? How much would the urban ring have cost? Or even just bringing service up to levels that would attract more riders throughout the system? The T shouldn't be fawning all over themselves for this waste of money. They should be crawling under a rock in the hope that no one notices.
Testing won't *begin* for 3 months? Rail lines used to get built in that amount of time.
While I'm usually a supporter of rail transportation, the town maps linked from http://www.cbbgreenbush.com/routemap.html show that this line doesn't have stations near several walkable town centers and beach communities (instead opting for large parking lots in former swamps), and will provide infrequent and slow service (like all T commuter rail lines).
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