What's New (Or Not) With Arborway?

I am probably asking a fairly moot question, but has there been any change except more negative posturing over Arborway Restoration? I think that AGAIN this is being stonewalled and supressed by officials that just want it to go away. I can't say I'm surprised.

Not to beat a dead horse, but, how the heck is it possible for the state and city of Boston to simply ignore the law and two DEP rulings and get away with it? I mean this analitically, ergo: How is the state not in contempt of their own laws? How is the city not in contempt by its stonewalling and dodging? Who other than the CLF has standing to bring a lawsuit against the state and city to force action on this matter? Does Mass. have "soverign immunity" as the RI gov't does (The state can not be wrong and a citizen only has limited recourse to sue the state. This is similar to (and based on the fact that) a head of state "soverign" cannot be held responsible for most actions)?? I think that this thing has gotten way out of line and something major needs to be done simply to make the state honor its committments.

I would honestly be mad about this even if it had noting to do with railroading simply because of the contempt of these so-callled officials in regards to the law. Is there anything to be done?

-Alan

Well, simple fact is that pretty much every governmental entity with any role in this (MBTA, City of Boston, EOT, MassHighway, etc.) is opposed to the project, plus a vocal part of the area's population, so, you can expect it'll take a lot of force to overcome that bureaucratic intertia.

It is not going to ever happen unless forced by a lawsuit. There are much better places to spend that transit money, frankly. The MBTA is in the process of dismantling the remaining stations right now, according to the Boston Globe. It is also fixing all the maps to show that the service is no longer there.

MBTA erases vestiges of old Arborway StationBy Lucas Wall, Globe Staff | August 29, 2005

The Arborway section of the MBTA's Green Line, where trolleys stopped running nearly 20 years ago, is finally about to disappear.

The T is quietly erasing part of its history -- and acknowledging political reality -- with a $900,000 project to replace all 600 transit system maps posted in stations and another update of maps depicting the individual lines.

Some riders interviewed along the Green Line last week were puzzled why the abandoned section has remained on the charts.

''Why do they need to show the suspended service that's been gone for so long?" Cashmere Ryan of Jamaica Plain asked while awaiting a trolley at Park Street Station next to one of the outdated maps. ''It's weird, but it's so hard to change things in Boston."

Better Transit Without Trolleys, a Jamaica Plain group opposed to restoring the Arborway service, said the T is making progress by putting up information that won't mislead people into thinking the route still exists.

''It's about time that the maps reflect the service out there," said Paul Schimek, a founder of the antitrolley group. ''You don't want to confuse passengers."

Since Dec. 27, 1985, when the last E branch trolley served Forest Hills Station on the Arborway, a debate has been raging in Jamaica Plain about whether to restore service south of Heath Street. In 1990, the state committed to restarting the route as part of commitments to improve mass transit while the Big Dig upgraded Boston's major highways. But over the years, several studies came out questioning the feasibility. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority backed off the idea, and in May the state announced that it would seek to kill the project in favor of other transit improvements.

Throughout the years, one thing has stayed constant: The line remained on most T maps in some fashion.

At Copley Station, four system maps on the wall near the outbound platform all show the E branch of the Green Line running to Forest Hills Station, connecting there with the Orange Line. Another group of four maps illustrating the Green Line in detail contains a dotted line for part of the E route and the notation, ''Streetcar service is temporarily suspended between Heath Street and Arborway." Similar signs are posted in numerous stations and trains.

In addition to displaying the ghost of the 14-stop Arborway segment, many maps in T stations don't show the Silver Line ''rapid bus" that began running in 2002. They also display four stations on the Green Line's B branch that were eliminated last year.

The T's general manager, Daniel Grabauskas, ordered the replacements earlier this month after describing outdated, incorrect signage as one of his biggest irritations since taking over in May. Workers have modified about one-third of the 600 ''spider maps" that illustrate the Blue, Green, Red, Orange, and Silver lines plus commuter-rail and ferry routes.

Remaining system maps should be updated within the next month, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. Crews will then frame the maps and install a plastic cover over them to prevent vandalism. That nine-month phase of work also includes replacing outdated maps of individual lines in stations and inside trains.

It costs $40 to produce each large decal depicting the current transit system, Pesaturo said. Most of the project's $900,000 cost is for labor and the covers.

Ellen McKeever, who moved to Boston from Philadelphia last year and lives near the E Line trolley stop at Mission Park, said the T shouldn't forget it has more cleanup to do along the former route. Tracks remain in the streets, and some stations appear active.

''Once I was waiting at Forest Hills for the Green Line because it's not just the map -- the sign's still up, the benches are still there," McKeever said. ''The stops are still there and they look very much alive."

Lucas Wall can be reached at [email protected].

© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

Well, I just took a look at CLF's website and it is definitely suing the T over Arborway, but it was a joint suit to get the T to honor both Arborway and Medford Hillside extensions, so I imagine that the suit would need to be refiled since the T seems to finally have relented on the Medford front.

The thing I find interesting is that they are intending to sue in federal court. Maybe the Fed will be able to put a stop to the political logjam of Boston and Mass. politics and get the state to honor their committments without delay.

Sadly, this is going to be continuing for quite a while at this point as the courst are notoriously slow.

-A

I hate to be the downer, but this is the final death rattle. Let's all breathe a big sigh and move on; this 18-year old battle is over. I think when the legal dust clears, things will be the same and they'll just start ripping up the track on Centre and South St. Seriously, unless Grabaskus and other important members in the government have "Christmas Carol" type changes of heart, Arborway is dead.

darksun23c wrote:I hate to be the downer, but this is the final death rattle. Let's all breathe a big sigh and move on; this 18-year old battle is over. I think when the legal dust clears, things will be the same and they'll just start ripping up the track on Centre and South St. Seriously, unless Grabaskus and other important members in the government have "Christmas Carol" type changes of heart, Arborway is dead.

Exactly. And if you take a look at a map and look how close the Arborway branch was to the Orange Line, you'll realize how ridiculous the notion of restoring it was. It is as ridiculous as using the Tremont Street Tunnel for the Silver Line, just a few blocks away from the other side of the Orange Line for most of the route.

I hate to be a downer for you, but this is a city. All those areas are dense areas. Just because the orange line is a few blocks away doesn't mean that we shouldn't put transit in. Those are major routes, and both could transition into streetcar service, and have plenty of ridership. Not all of us can or will walk a few blocks to the orange line. If there is ridership, build it. And now, with gas prices going up and up and up, why not build it? It makes far more sense now - we should encourage people to ride transit, and get out of their cars! The T doesn't want to do it because it is hard, and because some crybaby whiners are complaining about it - tough. It's for the greater good. Build it, and people will see how good it is - and heck, the T shouldn't complain that the green line is at capacity - they just don't know how to run it.

ugh.


this rant brought to you by a very busy, very stressed out, very annoyed Justin, who asks for some sanity in this idiotic world. that is all.

All those areas are dense areas. Just because the orange line is a few blocks away doesn't mean that we shouldn't put transit in. Those are major routes, and both could transition into streetcar service, and have plenty of ridership. Not all of us can or will walk a few blocks to the orange line. If there is ridership, build it. And now, with gas prices going up and up and up, why not build it?

Amen to your whole post. If recent events have showed us anything, it's the vital need for a good transportation system, locally and regionally.

I lived on upper Huntington AVE. for a year, and I never would have used the Orange line to get anywere along that corridor. In fact I never traveled onto South Huntington the whole time I was there because I found the 39 bus inconvenient. I'd alway head downtown because catching the trolley was easier.

Do any of these 'better transit without trolley' people REALLY rely on the bus to get around?

That's my rant.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for restoration. I just think it's politically impossible. I mean, there is a big difference between OL and trolley frequency, never mind convience. The trolley provides more direct acess to JP and was, when cut, a vital part of of service there.

But Boston is slow to change when people are all pointed the same way. Now, with every department with anything to do with Arborway restoration against it, it seems impossible. Can a city ignore the transit needs of its citizens? Boston, time and time again, has proved that it can, and will.

If you look at ridership projections for the line, in comparison to the cost, it makes no sense at all. It would yield practically NO new transit riders, it would merely switch them from one mode to another. And it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

There are numerous other potential projects that would yield many more riders with a much better new rider/cost ratio. Cases in point? Blue Line to Salem, commuter rail to fall river/new bedford, silver line phase 3 (yes, silver line phase 3), Green Line to Tufts, commuter rail to the cape... basically anything else you can dream up requires much less capital expenditure per new transit rider.

What exactly do you gain by having the green line rather than buses? inability to move around obstacles? The orange line moves much faster than the green line anyway, the 39 bus to forest hills + OL is often faster than the green line arborway trolley would be

If ARBORWAY had been restored when it was supposed to have, people would be riding it now to beat the current gas prices. The ridership numbers would be up right now, and probably increasing fairly steadaly as they continue to rise. The "Projected Ridership" studies obviously did not take the gas hike into account, probably because $3.00+ /gallon was unthinkable at the time. Actually, it may be $4.00/gal. up there, it's $3.17 "on base."
I wish there was a trolley running from Norwich, CT to SUBASE Groton right now. Better yet, I'd like to be the guy who'd collect those fares!
No, there realy is NO EXCUSE for not restoring ARBORWAY.

Cosmo wrote:No, there realy is NO EXCUSE for not restoring ARBORWAY.

All of your other assumptions about increased ridership would also be true (actually, they would be much more so) with any of the extensions I mentioned. You'd have a lot more new riders per capital dollar with just about ANY other expansion project. You could take the Arborway money and instead spend it on commuter rail to the Cape and have a large ridership, ALL of them new transit riders.

URBAN RING PHASE I
Cost: $100 Million
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 5,500
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: $18,200

URBAN RING PHASE II
Cost: $500 Million
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 15,000
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: $33,300

BLUE LINE TO LYNN
Cost: $357 Million
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 7,900
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: $45,300

URBAN RING PHASE III
Cost: $2.8 Billion
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 54,600
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: $51,300

COMMUTER RAIL TO HYANNIS
Cost: $77.1 Million
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 1000
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: $79,500

SILVER LINE PHASE III
Cost: $951.9 Million
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 4,500
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: $210,600

****** ARBORWAY ******
Cost: $71.9 Million
Net Increase in Transit Ridership: 200
Capital Cost/New Transit Rider: ***$359,400***

'nuff said? I could post even more projects if you want me to further demonstrate the ridiculousness of the Arborway extension.

Perhaps instead of restoring Arborway the way it originally was, how about extend the E line so it serves an area west of street the Arborway Line ran on.