Last week's news that the MBTA's general manager Michael Mulhern has embraced a community-led plan to reinvigorate the long-neglected Fairmount Line is welcome news here in Dorchester. Our elected officials at all levels should work to secure the necessary funding to make much needed improvements to the line as soon as possible.

For years, the Fairmount Line has stood for all that is wrong about mass transit in the city. The commuter rail line slices through the heart of Mattapan and Dorchester, through densely populated sections like Four Corners. And yet, instead of stopping for passengers, the trains have plowed on by, obliging us to board crowded buses for a slow, frustrating ride in traffic that seems to get worse by the day.

The only two stops in Dorchester- at Morton Street and Uphams Corner- are notoriously unkempt, unmarked and uninviting, all factors that have dragged ridership numbers way down.

The proposed upgrades to the Fairmount Line will change all of that, according to Mulhern, by making the current stations more user friendly. More importantly, Mulhern proposes the construction of four new Dorchester stops- at Talbot Ave., Blue Hill Ave., Four Corners, and Columbia Road. The new stops will give Dorchester residents a great alternative to the bus, speed their trip into town and back and open up new employment and shopping options to the neighborhood. It could also ease congestion on our streets by taking a few buses off the road.

The MBTA's commitment to a new and improved Fairmount Line, in tandem with next year's scheduled rehabilitation of four Dorchester Red Line stations, marks an important departure from previous T administrations, whose gross neglect of our transit system smacked of outright discrimination. We applaud the wise decision of Mr. Mulhern and his staff, who have acknowledged the mistakes of their predecessors and pledged to do something meaningful to correct it. Mulhern has already committed to provide up to $35 million- half of the expected pricetag- to move the project ahead. We hope that our elected officials will work expeditiously to identify other funding sources to make this project happen as soon as possible.

-Ed Forry

Action Needed to Avoid Another Tragedy

The news that a young Dorchester woman was shot dead as a result of a Boston police officer discharging his weapon at a fleeing automobile on Sunday morning is truly a tragedy.

News reports say the shooting happened after one officer had been struck by a motorist off Quincy Street. Police say the driver was fleeing from a traffic stop in Uphams Corner, after having run a red light. The early reports suggest the officer's partner opened fire on the car as it headed away from the scene.

As a result of the police officer's use of deadly force, an innocent life was lost: the woman was a passenger in the back seat of the car, and the police officer evidently fired at the car, shooting out the rear window as it went past.

Police Commissioner Paul Evans responded quickly to the incident, proposing new, tougher policies to prohibit police from using deadly force against an automobile. The policy, however, must be agreed to by the police union, which claims that Evans "has opened the city to a crminal element that will utilize motor vehicle to commit various crimes." The union says "officers would no longer have the ability to stop this element."

No one can support the reckless actions of the driver who was fleeing the police. And there is no way to know just what went through the police officer's mind when his partner was struck by the car.

But it's harder still to find justification for opening fire on the car as it moved away with multiple people in the vehicle. There's a myriad of things that can happen in such a police response, and almost none of them are good. A young citizens' life was lost Sunday morning, and that's the tragedy.

-E.F.