(The following story by Eric Moskowitz appeared on the Boston Globe website on August 9, 2010.)
BOSTON, Mass. — The commuter rail has been Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray’s signature issue since he took office as a Worcester city councilor more than a decade ago. He has pushed for more frequent, more reliable, and more extensive service as a boon for his hometown and the state, and as a way to broaden his appeal in suburbs and exurbs beyond Boston.
Murray has lobbied for WiFi on all coaches, served as the Patrick administration’s point man on a $100 million deal to buy freight tracks from CSX to expand commuter rail, and championed an extension to New Bedford and Fall River that could cost $2 billion.
But his chief rail concern — promoted in stump speeches, forums, and letter-writing campaigns — has been adding round trips between Worcester and Boston.
For years that meant more trains between Worcester’s Union Station and South Station, on the line that passes through Framingham, Wellesley, and Newton. But since June, with the campaign warming up, Murray has been saying that up to half of those new trains could cross the Charles River, stop in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, and end at North Station.
The catch? Murray has been telling constituents and the media that those trains could run by 2012. But the state has not yet studied whether such serv ice could be worthwhile, and had until recently not even talked with Cambridge officials about the possibility, despite the prospect of interrupting traffic on Mass. Ave. and other streets several times a day to let trains pass.
“We think it’s important that there be as many connections between the East and Central Mass. as possible, and this is one distinct possibility we think is worth pursuing,’’ Murray said in an interview, reiterating that Worcester trains may stop in Cambridge and run to North Station in two years. “The sooner the better.’’
Such notions surprised Cambridge officials and those interested in a twisting freight link known as the Grand Junction, an 8-mile route from Allston to Chelsea that crosses the Charles River below the BU Bridge.
That crossing was one of many components to the CSX deal. It is also part of the preferred path advanced by the state and supported by local communities to carry the Urban Ring — an outer loop to connect the radial spokes of the MBTA’s core rapid-transit system — before the state put the brakes on that project last year for lack of funding.
Representatives from Boston, Cambridge, and several local institutions still meet periodically with the state about the Urban Ring, to push for incremental work and protect the route’s right-of-way. When they met again last month, some were concerned about Murray’s proposal, which they feared might take away part of the route for the Urban Ring. A Department of Transportation planner reassured them that the commuter rail idea was just an idea.
“It’s not something that’s being actively planned,’’ said Scott Hamwey, a state transportation planner, at the July 13 meeting of the Urban Ring Citizens Advisory Committee.
“Let me understand this. The lieutenant governor was quoted in the newspaper [all but announcing] times of when trains are going to run,’’ said Kelley Brown, senior planner for MIT, which straddles the rail corridor. “That’s not a real project?’’
“I wouldn’t say it’s not a real project,’’ Hamwey said, but “we’re not actively pursuing that right now. There’s a lot of work that would be needed in order to make that happen.’’
On the MBTA forum at Railroad.net, a site for those who know the difference between an MP36PH-3C and an MP36PH-3S locomotive, Murray’s proposal raised eyebrows; it was greeted as an enthusiastic but impractical campaign pledge pulled from the ether. “Thanks, Tim, for giving us something to post about,’’ a user with the handle jaymac wrote. “That’s never going to be a viable routing,’’ added another named F-line to Dudley via Park.
But the MBTA is working on it, at Murray’s request. General manager Richard A. Davey said the T plans to spend a few million dollars over the next 12 to 18 months to improve the Grand Junction from freight to passenger standards, replacing railroad ties, adding gates at street crossings, and installing a signal system to allow faster travel.
The state will also begin studying whether ridership demands would make the new spur worthwhile and conduct a public process, Davey said.
“We don’t want to run trains that have no demand,’’ said Davey. “On the other hand, as the lieutenant governor has said, we didn’t purchase this asset not to use it.’’
Negotiating with CSX, the state put down $10 million last fall and $40 million more in June when it closed on half of the deal, involving extensive rail rights in Southeastern Massachusetts as well as the Grand Junction. The state plans to pay another $50 million — and acquire track rights from Worcester to Framingham — after CSX relocates its rail-to-truck shipping hub from Boston to Worcester and the state rebuilds a series of bridges in Western Massachusetts to accommodate double-stacked freight trains.
That would mean less freight traffic on local commuter routes, allowing more trains between Worcester and South Station — except the Boston station’s 13 bays are already at capacity, a problem the state hopes to remedy with a plan to relocate the US Postal Service from its home near South Station. Running trains to North Station instead would allow additional Worcester service to begin sooner.
That would please Murray and many suburban commuters, but it may not be best for the T or riders of its ailing bus and subway system, said Brian Kane, budget and policy analyst for the MBTA Advisory Board.
“I think a lot more study needs to take place,’’ Kane said. “There probably are places that very scarce transportation dollars could be better spent than on running commuter rail trains through Cambridge to North Station.’’