Railroad Forums
After more than 30 years of waiting, the people of the SouthCoast cities of New Bedford and Fall River are on the cusp of having rail service to Boston sometime next year.
The only problem is, someone forgot to ask them if they wanted it.
On Thursday night, the New Bedford City Council unanimously voted to add a referendum question to ballots in the city for the November 8 general election that will ask residents, “Shall this city be added to the Massachusetts Bay Authority?”
The referendum is part of the process of officially getting MBTA rail service, under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 161A, Section 6. The law requires that the certified votes in the affirmative of becoming an MBTA district must be turned in by January 1 of the year that service is expected to start. Since South Coast Rail is set to launch sometime in 2023, that means New Bedford has until the end of this year to get it done or the rail service couldn’t go into effect until 2024 at the earliest.
The authority may not provide service to a city or town that fails to join the transportation area, unless such city or town was receiving service as of July 1, 2000.Meanwhile, Bourne has been paying their annual MBTA assessments with nothing to show for it...Cape Flyer is technically a CCRTA service I think, which may 'splain why the on-cape stops other than Bourne are allowed. Is Greenfield an MBTA member?
ASSESSMENT FORMULA: As the predecessor to the MBTA, the Boston Metropolitan District was made up of the 14 municipalities: Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Milton, Newton, Revere, Somerville, and Watertown.
The assessment pays for administrative costs and charges incurred by the District. The total assessment is assessed to member municipalities in proportion to their share of the District's total Equalized Valuation.
ADMINISTRATION: The total assessment cannot increase by more than 2½ percent of the prior year's actual assessment. The District is no longer active; it exists only to administer outstanding debt issued prior to the formation of the MBTA. The MBTA pays for the District's debt service costs. When the debt is retired in FY2025, the District will cease to exist, and the District assessment will no longer be a Cherry Sheet assessment item.
FALL RIVER — In a few weeks, citizens in Fall River and New Bedford will vote on whether they’d like their cities to join the MBTA, formally allowing service to begin in fall 2023 when the South Coast Rail project’s first phase is complete.
This vote, to be held during the Nov. 8 regular election, caps a decades-long process to bring South Coast Rail to fruition. It would connect Fall River and New Bedford to the MBTA for the first time, and restore passenger rail service to the two cities for the first time since 1959, when the Old Colony Railroad system stopped its passenger service.
With commuter rail service gone for so long, it’s possible many citizens in the SouthCoast haven’t ridden a passenger train in decades, or maybe have never ridden an MBTA commuter train at all. Before the vote, let’s answer a few questions and compare the potential rail line with different commuting options that are already available.
