(The Herald News posted the following article by James Finlaw on its website on April 15.)
FALL RIVER, Mass. — If the administration of Gov. Mitt Romney intends to scrap plans to establish a commuter rail link between the city and Boston, as a published report indicated Monday, the governor better be ready for a fight, Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. announced yesterday.”We re going to fight and scrap,” said Lambert. “This is an economic justice issue.”
“I believe the city’s future, the region’s future, depends on rail coming,” he said.
Lambert made the statements Monday afternoon, hours after learning of a story in Monday’s Boston Globe that reported the Romney administration was preparing to dump the state’s long-held plans to extend commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford. The story stated Romney’s administration was going to concentrate instead on enhancing rail service to communities around Boston.
The news did not sit well with Lambert and members of the City Council, who have been promised a commuter rail link with the capital by every governor since William F. Weld. The state has expended millions of dollars over the past 12 years to lay the groundwork for the new rail line, and local officials and lawmakers have touted its arrival as vital to the city s and the region’s continued development.
While he was clearly troubled by the story, Lambert’s reaction to the news was tempered by word from the Romney administration that the story was incorrect. Romney spokesperson Shawn Feddeman said yesterday that the story was inaccurate, and that the administration was still reviewing all transportation projects.
Lambert had not spoken to Romney as of press time, but he said state Secretary of Transportation Daniel A. Grabauskas had assured him the Globe story was incorrect.
Lambert said Grabauskas told him the story was wrong and that “the administration has not made any final decision on commuter rail.”
Lambert said he would take Grabauskas at his word, but at the same time said the city, and communities in the region, would begin marshaling and consolidating their pro-rail forces.
“They’ve motivated us, as a city and a region, not to sit idly back. We’ll do everything we can to educate the administration on the necessity of this project,” said Lambert.
“We’re going to be very forceful and aggressive,” he said.
When asked if he believed the Romney administration had perhaps leaked the story to get an early read on regional reaction to a plan to eliminate the project, Lambert said he was not that cynical. However he did say local officials want to make their dissatisfaction clear.
“If this is a trial balloon, we’re going to pop it right away,” said Lambert.
Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Peter Kortright and Chamber board of directors President John Clifford, registered the business community’s objection to any plans to drop the commuter rail project. Kortright said residents and businesses have already located in the city, and in the region, believing the rail is only a few years away. He said its establishment is key to future growth.
“Improving the transportation infrastructure here … is a very, very central part of our future,” said Kortright.
The angry reaction to the prospect of losing commuter rail was not limited to Fall River. The proposed line would also connect New Bedford to Boston. Lambert he and New Bedford Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. as well as the Chambers of Commerce in both communities, are prepared to join together to “make sure our position is heard loud and clear in Boston.”
City councilors, who have long counted on the rail’s arrival providing an economic boon to the city, reacted to the story with outrage.
Council President Joseph Camara said a move to eliminate the rail project could prove disastrous for the region and would give more credence to the popular local belief that state leaders don’t care about Fall River.
“It’s another prime example of how the elected officials from outside this community have a total lack of respect and disregard for this part of Massachusetts,” said Camara.
Council Vice President Alfredo P. Alves said the loss of commuter rail would “derail the whole economic future of this area.”
“It would be another tragedy, another setback for Fall River. It’s an on-going tradition. It doesn t matter who is in the corner office at the Statehouse, we lose out,” said Alves.
Camara and Councilor William F. Whitty noted the state has spent millions over the years on feasibility studies and construction work aimed at bringing rail service to the area. Lambert said the state has already sunk $50 million into the project, including constructing and rehabilitating boarding areas and railroad bridges in the area.
“Now, to just literally stop it in its tracks, shows wasteful spending,” said Whitty.
Councilor Raymond Hague said that if the governor does eventually attempt to drop the project, the governor would find himself locked in a struggle with legislative delegates and elected officials from across southeastern Massachusetts.
“I think he s going to find out he’s got a tougher foe down here than the Billy Bulger thing. We stick together down here,” said Hague, referencing the difficulty Romney encountered when he tried to remove Bulger as the president of the University of Massachusetts system.
The commuter rail issue dates back decades, and is littered with unfulfilled promises.
A plan to connect the city to Boston via rail began coming into focus in the late 1980s, when local lawmakers first started speaking of the project as a realistic endeavor. By 1992, former Gov. William Weld was promising a railroad link between Fall River and Boston, confidently telling The Herald News, “You heard it here. Sue me if it doesn t happen.”
The years that followed saw more promises from Weld, state officials and lawmakers regarding their commitment to extending rail service to southeastern Massachusetts. The constant refrain was “it’s coming.”
In 1994, U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., called rail transportation “the path for the future” and touted the commuter rail project as an essential economic development tool for Fall River and the region. In 1995, Weld traveled to New Bedford and boldly proclaimed rail service from Boston to Fall River and the Whaling City by 1997.
By the late 90s, it had become clear that construction of the rail line was not imminent. The project had been attacked by residents living in Raynham, Easton, Stoughton who didn t want the line running through their communities. Freetown residents also expressed concerns about the location of potential train stations in their community.
Many residents in the Raynham area claimed the line would be run through environmentally sensitive areas, damaging and destroying wildlife habitats. Concern about the proposed rail line s impact on Raynham’s Hockomock Swamp was one of the major grievances.
The project was also bogged down by disagreements as to how it should be carried out. There was debate as to what route the line should follow. There were also concerns that the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority would not be able to handle the expected $600 million to $650 million cost.
But during the last few years the acrimony and uncertainty surrounding the project seemed to largely dissipate. Former acting Gov. Jane Swift pledged her support to the project in 2001, and in June last year the state Legislature passed a transportation bond bill that included provisions that would allow the state to fund the commuter rail project. The provisions took much of the financial burden off of the MBTA.
The state essentially dismissed concerns about any environmental impacts on Hockomock Swamp last August, when Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Secretary Robert Durand announced the state had approved the MBTA’s plan to build a 2-mile, rail trestle over the swamp. He said the trestle would allow trains to pass over the swamp without damaging its fragile ecosystem.If the project is not cut and remains on schedule, current estimates call for the rail line to be completed by 2007.