BostonUrbEx wrote:If this gets built, it will be detrimental to every planned project in the pipeline. It will be pointed to as a reason not to invest in transit. The state's credibility will be severely damaged when people see the poor ridership and final cost of construction.
Which is why you'll see the Army Corps recommendations abandoned entirely. Eliminate electrification and the swamp causeway, and SCR will become much more cost-sustainable, all while providing the T with more backers outside of 128, which it sorely needs right now. I think there are better uses for the money, but unfortunately, politics is a thing, and satisfying an extremely vocal part of the state that's currently unserved by the T by building a reasonable, cost-controlled extension will ultimately be beneficial in the long run as far as improving the T's image to the whiners outside of Boston.
I wish it wasn't necessary, but we're not New York, and so far, Boston and the state at large have yet to see any leadership with the stones to tell everyone outside 495 to quit bitching about spending money on the T because Boston and Cambridge are the economic life-forces of a state that would otherwise look like southern Michigan without them. What's good for Boston is good for the state, and it's a shame that more people aren't made aware of that, because right now Boston desperately needs all of those major T improvements. Maybe SCR will get them to shut up long enough to push the other improvements through.
Besides, I think people will be too busy talking about the crush-loads that the GLX will be sustaining from opening day (while any real estate within a mile of it doubles in value overnight) to care about SCR.