(The Boston Globe published the following editorial on April 9.)
BOSTON — People on the South Shore understand that improvements in the transportation system require commuters to reduce their reliance on Route 3 and the Southeast Expressway. That is why 64 percent of those in a poll sponsored by the regional Chamber of Commerce favor the restoration of commuter rail service through Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, and Cohasset to the Greenbush section of Scituate. The state should follow through on its commitment to restore the service despite an increased price tag.
The cost has ballooned to $470 million from $215 million a decade ago, largely because of mitigation measures designed to reduce opposition. But the tunnels under town centers and other project amenities would provide lasting benefits to the affected communities, and when the cost is spread over 30 years, as it would be under the state financing plan, the project is affordable.
The South Shore is struggling to cope with the explosion in growth that followed the construction of the expressway and Route 3 in the late 1950s. Abandonment of the Old Colony rail lines at the time was a grave error. And though growth has slowed in communities immediately on the Greenbush line, huge population increases over the last decade in towns farther south have worsened congestion. In the Chamber of Commerce survey, 82 percent of the respondents said they had problems getting to and from Boston, compared with 59 percent in a similar survey taken in 1995.
While 55 percent of respondents in the survey said they commute to Boston, 19 percent work in Quincy, 7 percent in Braintree, and 6 percent each in Weymouth and Hingham. Suburb-to-suburb travel, an increasing feature of life in outlying communities, would be enhanced by a rail alternative.
The state restored service to inland communities south of Boston in 1997. Ridership has exceeded expectations. Communities north and west of the city have never lost their commuter rail. Coastal communities along the South Shore should not be an exception to a regionwide transportation policy that provides an alternative to highway use.
The Romney administration has delayed work on the project for six months while permit and construction issues are sorted out. It is also reexamining transportation projects left undone by previous administrations to determine which are most cost-effective.
Car ownership is nearly ubiquitous in the suburbs, and it might have been cheaper just to widen or build new roads than to keep the commuter rail system going. Massachusetts chose a different path 30 years ago, emphasizing the protection of communities and rail improvements over the construction of congestion-generating highways. That is the right policy for Massachusetts. The Greenbush rail line needs to be rebuilt and reopened.