Public comment and project info

A couple weeks ago, I was fortunate (I think) enough to attend my first public meeting for a major transportation project. The meeting in question was an information session about the Green Line Extension that was held at Somerville High School. The presentation was given by the Executive Office of Transportation, which is the state agency responsible for transit expansion projects. The Green Line Extension is the long overdue expansion of the light rail Green Line beyond Lechmere station into East Somerville and Medford. I thought the presentation was very well done and this is a project that will directly benefit a large number of currently underserved metro Boston residents while improving local and regional air quality. The tracks will follow the existing right of way of the Lowell and Fitchburg commuter rail lines and provide an additional seven stations to the Green Line in these communities.

It must be stated that I did not hear a single comment that was entirely negative about the project. Most every politician and resident that stood before the group commented on how happy they were this project would be getting done. (As a follow on to the Big Dig, the state is legally obligated to complete this project by 2014 in order to mitigate the environmental air quality effects of that highway expansion.) However, starting with the politicians, every person who spoke complained about the location of a maintenance facility in yard 8, adjacent to the Brickbottom station. It took a while to find out what about this they were against, but the basic argument was that this facility would hinder the economic development of this area for perpetuity. I don't want to discount legitimate concerns, but having driven through this neighborhood, it is currently an industrial area adjacent to a rail yard. Nowhere else in the project could a maintenance facility be housed and one is certainly required if this project is going to be successful. What amazed me most was the ridiculous analogies people (almost exclusively Brickbottom residents) would draw to show their opposition to this facility. One person said that "Developers don't like to build near three things: Nuclear power plants, chemical waste dumps, and maintenance facilities!" Another compared this project decision to the decision to send an elevated Interstate 93 through East Somerville.

I must say that I understand concern about a major project in your neighborhood. However, looking at the big picture, they can only be thankful for such a development. As I mentioned, this area is almost completely industrial and is one of the poorest parts of the city. Having access to reliable public transit will result in economic dividends on an order of magnitude greater than what will be lost by the location of a much needed maintenance facility.

Green Line Extension - www.mass.gov/greenlineextension

Other MBTA and Transit Documents
Capital Investment Program - 5 year plan outlining transportation needs and detailing planned investments. Interesting to skim through if you want to learn more about the financials of the MBTA

Program for Mass Transit - Long range plan for expanding and preserving transit infrastructure

Stimulus funded transit projects

Fitchburg Commuter Rail Improvement - Very near to my heart, this project would improve travel time and reliability on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail line primarily by improving the tracks to allow train speeds of up to 80 mph.

KO Prime

KO Prime - 90 Tremont St (Beacon Hill, Park St)

The inaugural progressBoston food post! Unfortunately, it's been a little too busy to post lately, but last night's dinner was certainly worthy of the effort. As part of Restaurant Week, Ann and I were joined by a couple of my friends, John and Danielle, at KO Prime. Centrally located near both Park St and Downtown Crossing, it was our first time eating there and I must say I was impressed.

I would describe it as a chic, upscale steakhouse. There's a nice bar area by the entrance with the usual modern fixtures. The staff was very friendly and accomodating. It's probably the fanciest restaurant I've been to in Boston, with a premium placed on presentation. The dinnerware was all oversized and sparkling white. The soup was poured from a pitcher into a bowl containing a garnish in the middle.

I ordered the Market Greens Salad for my appetizer and of course the 10 ounce Grilled Skirt Steak for the entree. I must say the special menu was not the most extensive with only two choices for appetizer and entree. However, it is a steakhouse so you pretty much know what you're going to get. The dressing for the salad was really too strong. However, the steak was probably the best I've had in Boston. It was three thin slices stacked on top of each other over a potato puree with an onion marmalade on top. The marmalade added a lot of flavor that was nicely balanced by the potato. By the time I got to the last piece, I had used the marmalade, but that was no problem. The flavor of the steak really came through and it was very good with a hint of pepper. For dessert, the only option was Grilled Cornmeal Pound Cake with Fruit Compote. I though the Pound Cake was very nice but thought the fruit was too candied and too strong. I'm not a big fan of mixing in fruit with my dessert (though I love fresh fruit salads) so you might not want to take my word on it. The wine list was extensive and expensive, but we were able to settle on a very nice Cabernet from Mendoza, Argentina for $40.

I was a big fan and am very glad we decided to go for Restaurant Week. That said, the price of the regular menu is certainly very hard to justify except for the most important occasions.

U2 in Somerville!

So I wasn't planning on making a post about this, but the buzz of Boston for the last week has been U2's "surprise" show at a local club. Luckily for us, that venue was the 899 seat Somerville Theater right down the street! Unfortunately it was impossible to get tickets, but two of my roommates and I headed down to the square to check out the scene. One thing that was really cool was that JP Lick's was doing U2 specials and had some pretty clever names. Apparently the police were preparing for 10,000, but there were only about 200 people hanging out. It was nice that someone had speakers in their window over the square and were playing the live broadcast though.

Tale of Two Forms of Transit

As you may remember from my earlier post, Friday evening was the first time I got to ride the Acela from Boston to New York's Penn Station. Overall, the ride was about what I expected. The train was clean and very comfortable, a bit of an upgrade over the Amtrak Regional trains I've ridden in the past. We literally flew from Boston to Providence, with houses and woods going by so fast it almost made you dizzy to look at them. After that it got dark so it was harder to tell, but we were moving disappointingly slow, especially when we had to crawl through Mystic and New London. All told the trip took the scheduled 3 hours and 37 minutes and we stepped off in the middle of the city. It was comfortable so I was able to read and get a little nap in. Here are a couple pictures of the train at South Station.

On the way back Sunday, we rode the Bolt Bus, which is a new low-cost subsidiary of Greyhound that operates in the Northeast corridor. I wanted to take this bus as an upgrade over the other low cost carriers, namely MegaBus and the Chinatown carriers. It costs about $3-5 more than these other carriers and offers wifi. More importantly, the seats were definitely more comfortable and roomy than the buses I've taken in the past. My main issue with taking the bus is that even with relatively comfortable seats I still get car sick and can't relax as well because your life is basically in the hands of a driver you may or may not want to trust with your life. Fortunately our Bolt Bus driver, aka Ving Rhames with a goatee, wasn't trying to set the land speed record from NY to Boston like some Fung Wah drivers I've ridden with. However, he was maneuvering our 60 foot bus like a sports car through Manhattan and heavy interstate traffic. Let's just say my view of all of this from directly behind the driver did not do a lot to ease my mind. In any event we left New York at 5:30 and despite the heavy traffic, made it to Boston only 15 minutes after our scheduled 9:45 arrival time.

In case you're still reading, here are some Acela fun facts I learned from Extreme Trains (I may be the only person who has ever seen this show)
- each Acela engine is called a power car and generates 6000 horsepower (compared to 4000 for an average engine)
- although capable of speeds up to 200 mph, 150 mph is the highest speed attained by the Acela and occurs in southern MA and RI
- when going around curves at speeds greater than 60 mph, the cars tilt into the curve to cancel the effects of centripetal forces
- each Acela train set costs $25 million and there are only 20 in existence

Gas Tax & Transportation Reform

So I came across the website describing Governor Patrick's transportation reform plans. It's actually a well designed, informative website. I feel more confident that real steps will be taken to reform the agencies and not just glue them together into some huge inefficient mess. Also, all of the key rail projects are listed in there, including the Fitchburg Commuter Rail improvement project. As this is the line that I ride and sometimes struggle with every weekday, it would be great to see some real improvements. More details on their plans here.

Acela

So my girlfriend and I are going down to New York this weekend and we are going to be traveling in style: on the Acela Express. I'm excited because I'm a big fan of train travel and this is my first time on America's only high speed rail line. I must admit the 3 hour 37 minute travel time from Boston to New York is a little disappointing for a high speed train, but from what I've heard and read, it should be a very comfortable trip. I really hope that with the $8 billion of stimulus geared towards improving and expanding high speed rail in this country, we can make the simple improvements necessary to increase speeds and cut down travel times along the Northeast corridor. The Boston to Washington DC line has the potential to showcase the potential for true high speed rail in this country. In any event, I'll have to take some pictures and share my experience when we get back.

Gas Tax

So I haven't been doing a great job making posts here, but I'll try and do a better job going forward.

If you pay attention to MA news at all, by now you've probably heard about Governor Deval Patrick's proposed gas tax and statewide transportation reform. You can read an article summarizing it here. The proposal would raise the current gas tax by 19 cents per gallon, making the highest in the country. This additional revenue would be used to improve roads and bridges as well as expand the rails and other public transit. In addition, the transit agencies would all be brought under one roof, bringing further cost savings through efficiencies and reform.

I am optimistically in favor of this proposal. After all, I am comfortable calling myself an envrionmentalist and I strongly support efforts to incentivize sustainable, public transit oriented growth. I feel this is the best way to improve our quality of life and limit the effects of global warming and other pollution. However, do I think he went too far by giving us the highest gas tax in the country and indexing it to the cost of inflation? Probably. Will negotiations with the legislature bring this amount down? Hopefully.

Here's why. A gas tax in itself is not the best way to battle climate change or promote sustainable growth. It only affects one sector of our energy usage. Also, the people who will proportionately be affected most by it are precisely the people who can least afford it. Much of Massachusetts' poor live in areas poorly serviced by public transportation, not to mention small business owners who rely on their vehicles for their livelihood. A carbon cap and trade system would be much more effective at driving sustainable growth and could spread the costs more across society and efficiently towards the worst polluters. If we just need to generate the additional revenue (and we do!), I would propose a smaller inflation indexed gas tax hike combined with a broadening of the sales tax. There is a lot of room to close loopholes in the sales tax or even increase it by a percentage point or two. This would generate at least as steady a revenue source as a gas tax and would broaden the base of people paying into it.

Finally, I think the Patrick administration is missing another opportunity to make some serious transportation reform by ignoring the addition of new tolls on highways leading in and out of Boston. This would generate revenue from the drivers who actually benefit from the improved roadways and give people a more direct choice if they want to commute into the city. Since most of the MBTA commuter rail lines follow a major highway, people could either choose to pay the fare to ride the train and support public transit, or pay the toll to drive in on the highway. Obviously there would be costs associated with operating tolls, but they would certianly pay for themselves and then some. Also, carpool lanes should be expanded on 93 and 90, maybe even Rtes 1 and 2. The current system of lanes is a joke. Traveling into the city on 93 from the north you get maybe 3 miles of carpool lane that restrict you from getting off at certain exits. If we were to make one lane in each direction inside 128 carpool only, it would provide a real incentive for people to carpool. In addition, it might allow express buses to get you into the city faster than traveling alone, providing another incentive to leave your car at home.

I'm generally in favor of the Patrick administration's proposed gas tax, but I think more comprehensive reform is possible and would do more to achieve Deval's stated goals.