To get east-west rail service, we need to make it Boston’s ‘idea’

Date: 3/20/2019

If you search for a history of the Big Dig, the first thing that pops up is a narrative on the MassDOT site explaining the reasons behind the massive construction job.     

MassDOT noted, “Boston, Massachusetts had a world-class traffic problem called the Central Artery. The Central Artery was an elevated highway running through the center of downtown. When it opened in 1959, the Central Artery carried about 75,000 vehicles a day. In the early 1990s it carried upwards of 200,000 making it one of the most congested highways in the United States.    

“Traffic crawled for more than 10 hours each day. The accident rate on the Central Artery was four times the national average. The two tunnels between downtown Boston and East Boston/Logan Airport had the same issue. Without major improvements, Boston expected a traffic jam for up to 16 hours a day by 2010. The annual cost to motorists from this congestion was an estimated $500 million. Costs included a high accident rate, wasted fuel from traffic, and late deliveries.”

And from the identification of that problem came a project that took from 1982 to 2007 to complete.

What made it happen? Political will, pure and simple. Elected officials saw the economic development of the Boston area and its future were being compromised by an outdated road. It didn’t seem to matter over the course of time that other infrastructure issues in the Commonwealth were being delayed because of the resources being made available to make the Central Artery project a reality.

The governors involved and the legislatures involved had determined this was the priority and they made it happen.

The question struck me as I was sitting through the MassDOT presentation of East-West passenger rail: is there was enough political will that would make this infrastructure improvement possible?

Over and over in the presentation it was made clear the two alternatives for the tracks – either use the existing tracks owned by CSX by buying right of ways or building a new track in the Massachusetts Turnpike corridor – have their drawbacks. The CSX line is full of curves that would inhibit the speed of a commuter line. The turnpike route has some steep grades that would affect travel time as well.

No one talked about cost – always a bad sign.

It’s been made clear to me there are people in the greater Boston area who now realize the popularity of the area is presenting a real set of problems. Housing costs are soaring out of control, which affects the desirability of the region. That condition will affect employers looking to recruit people. Despite the Central Artery rehab, traffic is absolutely terrible in Boston.

I think the only way we are ever going to get the political support we need to make rail happen is to make the project sound as if it will benefit the eastern part of the state much more than the western part of the state.

We have to make believe it’s their idea, somehow.

I’m sure this can be done as I’d bet you lunch the bulk of the people who live in the Boston area have no idea that we want commuter rail service. Let’s be honest, most of them have no idea of what lies west of Worcester, much less be aware of our concerns.

To make commuter rail progress past the report stage, we have to get the politicians in greater Boston to sell the idea to their constituents. I think that someone who might be seeking an affordable house or relief from a long commute in a car may just be interested.

What’s your flavor?

I’m always interested in how companies renew their brands. It seems every time I go into the supermarket there is some sort of special flavor of Oreo cookies being touted, for example.

Now I’m just fine with the standard flavor and with double stuff. Last year there were five special flavors released: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, Pistachio Crème, Strawberry Shortcake, Rocky Road and Peppermint Bark.

Somehow I missed all of those. I think that might have been a good thing.

I did not miss the new M&M    flavors. There are three of them –  a manageable number –  and the M&M folks want us to buy all three, try them and then vote on-line for the favorite. This sounded like an interesting challenge.

All three of them were riffs on the standard peanut M&M: English Toffee, Thai Cocoanut and Jalapeno.

I invited the staff here at Reminder Publishing Headquarters for World Domination to try all and to cast their vote.

The winner, hands down, was English Toffee. Aside from my boss Fran Smith, no one really cared for the Jalapeno. Fran does like his food on the spicy side.

Now, I’ll be curious to see if the world at large agrees. What would you have picked?