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The Rail Link is the Best Solution

Commentary by Brad Bellows

The Tab’s feature "On the road to gridlock" (Jan. 23, 1996) is to be commended for recognizing the increasing severity of highway congestion across our region, and for correctly noting both its structural roots in the suburban sprawl of the past generation and its grave implications for our prosperity and quality of life as we move into the next century.

After decades of highway expansion, it has become obvious to most thoughtful observers that building more roads will never solve this problem. Environmental and cost issues aside. bigger highways simply encourage more traffic, until congestion reaches equilibrium at a higher level. Clearly we need a strategy which will enhance accessibility across the region in a way which will help us to grow, without hurting the environment or compromising our quality of life.

What are our options? Bus service, while extremely valuable, depends on uncongested roads to be effective. The proposed Urban Ring, running from Chelsea to Dorchester. is too limited in scope to make more than a very small dent in a regional problem. Certainly it promises scant relief to the person sitting in gridlock on 128 cited in your article.

The North-South Rail Link is the one initiative with the reach, the carrying capacity, and the cost-effectiveness to address the congestion crisis we confront. The great virtue c f this project is that it allows us to achieve enormous transportation benefits by making better use of a resource we already own— the commuter rail system. This extensive system. which serves more than 100 communities from Cape Ann to Worcester. to Providence, and soon Plymouth. is presently hobbled by the one-mile gap between North and South stations

Operating as two separate systems rather than a single unified network northside locations are inaccessible from the south and vice versa forcing tens of thousands of commuters into their cars and 'limiting opportunities for employers and employees alike. Incomplete connectivity with the transit system and poor downtown distribution also limit access to many areas of the downtown. fueling suburban sprawl and increasing pressure on Route 128 and its feeder roads.

Building the Rail Link will allow all commuter and intercity trains to run through Boston seamlessly and conveniently, giving everyone on the system direct access to every other station, to all subway lines. and to Amtrak's high-speed rail service to New York, which will open in 1998. The Rail Link will transform our commuter rail lines into a world-class regional rail system second to none, giving a large boost to our regional competitiveness. According to the Boston Globe, property values began rising along the planned Greenbush commuter rail line within weeks of the projects final approval.

Because the Rail Link provides benefits not just within Route 128 but for the entire New England region, it is far more likely to receive funding support than projects of more narrow focus. For the cost of a one mile link, we leverage the value of hundreds of miles of existing infrastructure, with no cost to the environment. We give tens of thousands of commuters a convenient alternative to the thousands of hours now wasted annually behind the wheel. and we relieve highway congestion for those who still need to drive. We open up northern New England to economic growth, and we set in motion an environmentally benign model of growth which can carry us well into the next century.

For these reasons, the Rail Link has garnered support unprecedented in its breadth and diversity encompassing environmental, labor and business groups. who often agree on little else, as well as thousands of thoughtful citizens across the Commonwealth.

Brad Bellows an architect in Cambridge is a founding member of the Citizens' Transportation Action Campaign (CTAC), a member of the Governor's Rail Link Task Force, and chair of the Conceptual Design Committee of the North-South Rail Link Citizen’s Advisory Committee.