At today's Green Line hearing, the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) announced that it had sent an amendment to the annual status report on the Green Line to DEP, indicatng that an application for federal New Starts funding could mean the project would not be completed by December 2014. Many people from Somerville were there to state this additional delay is…
"Timely completion of the Green Line Extension is vital to achieve the air quality requirements of the Clean Air Act and to comply with the revised SIP. CLF strongly objects to any postponement of this project and urges the Department of Environmental Protection (âDEPâ) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require the Executive Office of Transportation (âEOTâ) to comply with the…
Your presence, even if you don't speak, will make a difference and tell the state that Somerville demands the Green Line as promised! Learn more about the hearing.
As you may have heard we have hit a few bumps in the road with the Green Line and the Orange Line. Our Governor and his Executive Office of Transportation have suddenly suggested that the Federal government âmight pick upâ half the tab for the Green Line, with the possibility of an additional two year delay. And it is unclear how the Assembly Square Orange Line T-stop will be Federally reviewed, though the money is available, or if there is the will to open it before 2013.
But we can get over these potholes with a concerted effort at critical meetings in Somerville and Boston, next Tuesday and Thursday, September 4th and 6th. The first meeting will focus on Assembly Square (IKEA and Assembly Square Drive), the second will take up the State Implementation Plan transit commitments (including Green Line progress). The only hitch is, we need help again from everyone willing to pitch in. No experience required, just a little heart.
From the Hartford Courant:
“All Aboard: Cities Bringing Back Streetcars”
Streetcars need to be reintroduced in Connecticut, and not just for nostalgia’s sake or touristy window-dressing.
Recent revivals of cutesy, historic trolley lines, where antique streetcars rumble down pedestrian malls and past historic Main Street architecture, have been successful far beyond what their supporters imagined. Cities around the world, but increasingly in North America, are rediscovering streetcars – the smaller railcars that often share streets with cars and buses – to be cheap, efficient and highly practical people movers.
Somerville News: "Keeping the Green Line on track" "There are few issues about which Somerville residents are more united, or care more deeply, than the need to improve our city's environment, economy and quality of life by building out the Green Line and adding a new Orange Line station at Assembly Square."
Gov. Patrick wants to delay the Green Line extensions in order to try to get federal funding from the New Starts program. If you want to learn more about New Starts, check out this "Introduction to New Starts" from the Federal Transit Administation.
Somerville Journal: “Aldermen ready to fight for Green Line extension”
Somerville Journal: “Somerville-Medford delegation braced for fight on Green Line”
Somerville News: “Governor may backtrack on Green Line commitment”
Continue reading for excerpts from the articles.
This story's not going away because Somerville's not going away! Boston Globe: "Green Line backtracking generates ire" Tom Champion, a spokesman for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, said that if the Conservation Law Foundation sued over the matter, the city would join in. Boston Now: "Billion Dollar Buses: Green Line setback gives boost to controversial bus project"