By Bill Forry

A City Hall transportation plan released last week called the revitalization of the MBTA's Fairmount commuter rail line a "top priority" for the Menino administration, adding further momentum to plans to revitalize the underused stretch of track. The MBTA hopes to add up to four new station stops on the Fairmount Line over the next five years.

Right now, the line slices through large parts of Mattapan and Dorchester on its way from Readville to South Station, but makes only two stops in the neighborhood, at Uphams Corner and Morton Street. Critics of the current service say that it forces thousands of transit-dependent people in some of Dorchester's densest sections to board slower, smokier buses. Last year, a grassroots campaign pushing for more access to the Fairmount Line won the attention of the MBTA's general manager Michael Mulhern, who has pledged to make the Fairmount Line modernization a priority.

This week, Mulhern told the Reporter that the City Hall report is the latest in a series of positive reactions to the MBTA plan from state and city leaders. Mulhern says that the project- which he estimates could eclipse $80 million over the next three to five years- has already won approval from the T's board of directors for the first $35 million expenditure. That money, Mulhern says, will go to spruce up two existing stations in Uphams Corner and Morton Street. Mulhern says that while that work is begun, hopefully by next year, he will attempt to locate the additional funding to build new stops at Blue Hill Ave. near Mattapan Sq., Talbot Ave., and Four Corners.

"We're making progress," Mulhern told the Reporter. "The Fairmount project is piquing interest from a whole collection of public officials, including Mayor Menino, whose support is always welcome."

Mulhern said the Romney administration, including Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas, looks favorably on the Fairmount revamp, too, especially because it fits into their newly articulated "fix it first" policy.

"They look at it as a prime project for reinvestment in an area that relies on public transportation heavily," says Mulhern.

The MBTA board is expected to approve a project engineering consultant, Edwards and Kelcey, at a scheduled meeting in May, Mulhern said. The firm will be responsible for mapping out plans for the whole project, including new station stops on the line and bringing the project to 30 percent design. Community meetings could begin as early as this summer, Mulhern said, and will be loosely modeled on the current Red Line rehabilitation advisory groups.

"I'm putting a real emphasis on getting started with the existing two stations, because that will really jump-start the whole thing," says Mulhern. "And while we work on the additional funding, we will continue to collaborate with the community on where the exact locations of the new stations should be."

In one variation between the city and the MBTA, the Boston Transportation Department's report recommends that a Fairmount Line stop be added at Nemarket near South Bay Mall, something the MBTA has previously not supported. However, this week Mulhern told the Reporter that a South Bay stop could still be "on the table."

"We're not closing the door on anything. We will do due diligence on that and then it's a question of which investments make the most sense."

"The strategy we're using is to build momentum on the project and as it becomes a success, it gets easier to move it forward," Mulhern says.

The city's report, entitled The Public Transportation and Regional Connections report, compiled by the Boston Transportation Department, also endorses a series of other improvements to Dorchester roadways and public transit lines. In one section, the report singles out the Dorchester section of the Southeast Expressway for criticism. The report says that the state Highway Department should lengthen the HOV "Zipper Lane" to begin closer to Southampton Street to avoid the traffic bottleneck near the Morrissey Boulevard-Columbia Road exit. The congestion leads to further cut-through traffic into Dorchester and South Boston.

Vineet Gupta, director of planning for the Transportation Department, says that the city hopes steps will be made to move the expressway traffic "more efficiently."

"From a strategic point of view, the city wants to keep regional traffic on the highway. The better the expressway moves, the less chance there is of traffic going onto residential streets. To make the zipper lane more effective, it needs to be extended further to Southampton Street."

Still, improving and expanding the Fairmount Line, Gupta says, is "clearly one of the top priorities" for the Menino administration moving forward.

"Clearly, the area between the Orange and Red lines is under-served by public transportation. What the Fairmount does is provide access for jobs in the downtown area as well as in the Back Bay," says Gupta.

"The city has always supported this concept for a number of reasons, but especially in these times of cost effectiveness because it's an existing right-of-way. For a relatively small amount of money we can get good public transportation access for more people."

Gupta says that the city and MBTA have already begun sharing resources to prepare for the Fairmount project, particularly around the siting of the new stations.Gupta says the city will push for a Newmarket stop near South Bay because, "We want to support access for the jobs located in that part of the city."

 Back to Reporter Home Page