“Somerville leaders protest transit plan”
Excerpts from the article….
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State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios and Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone criticized the state Department of Environmental Protection yesterday for proposing to push back the deadline for extending the MBTA’s Green Line to Medford by three years and adding new regulations that would allow the state to delay this and other projects an additional three years if needed.
”An additional three years . . . is not acceptable,” Barrios, who represents Somerville, said at a public hearing yesterday.
Cutatone sais the prospect of such delays would create an intolerable level of uncertainty about the region’s future transportation resources, environment, and quality of life.
Barrios and Curtatone, along with Philip Warburg, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, said the proposals, which would push back completion of the Green Line extension from 2011 to 2014, would weaken the state’s obligation to build the transit projects it promised to offset the pollution and congestion expected from the $14.6 billion Big Dig.
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The environmental agency’s endorsement would allow the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to extend the Green Line to West Medford and to Union Square in Somerville by 2014, add stations and improve service on the Fairmount commuter-rail line by 2011, and add at least 1,000 parking spaces at commuter-rail stations by 2011.
Two other projects have been left out: restoring trolley service on the Arborway Line in Jamaica Plain and building a subway link between the T’s Red and Blue lines near Charles/MGH station.