City meeting to discuss North-South rail link held Monday evening

BOSTON — A meeting took place Monday evening at Boston City Hall to hear arguments for a plan to connect North and South stations. People who support the plan say it would solve traffic problems in the area.

There have been strong opinions building for some time over a proposed North-South Rail link, which has been stalled for decades. Those who support it believe an underground tunnel connecting the two stations is long overdue to help relieve a major daily obstacle for commuters.

The two stations are about a mile and a half apart but are not connected, which means the Red and Silver lines have no access to North Station, and the Green and Orange lines have no access to South Station.

A small but passionate group gathered outside City Hall ahead of the meeting, advocating that a link between North and South Station would exponentially increase job opportunities and would improve access to housing in places where it’s cheaper.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis, who has been advocating this since the Big Dig, made an appearance to vocalize his opinion.

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"Tolerating a situation where we basically have two commuter rail systems that don't connect, it's crazy," the former governor said. "You're not going to solve traffic problems in this city unless you connect the two stations."

"We need to get this done," said Bob Funke of Roslindale. "We should've when they built the whole damn thing, but some idiot with an eraser came in and blew it."

Those who are against a North-Rail South link pointing to the estimated price tag and the potential of increased operating costs for a transit system that continually finds itself in deficit.

The estimated cost linking North and South stations varies depending on who you ask. Supporters who chimed in during Monday's meeting say federal funding would cover at least 50% of less than $10 billion.

Dukakis and the others who are pushing for the connection have promised that federal transportation funds will play a role in this project.

But some of those who are skeptical have pointed to the Big Dig – what turned out to be the most expensive project in U.S. history. Opponents say they don’t want to go through anything like that again.

A spokesperson for Gov. Charlie Baker also noted that their study suggests the price tag could be as high as $20 billion.

Jarred Johnson, COO of the organization Transitmatters, says the impact of a North-South Rail lInk would reach far outside the city.

"A story I hear a lot is, [a] person who lives in Beverly and Salem might spend more time getting [from] North Station to the Seaport than they do from Beverly and Salem into North Station," Johnson said.

"Boston is divided into two totally different labor markets from middle of city going north and middle of the city going south."

"People who live on the north shore and are trying to get to the south shore have an extra 30 to 40 minute commute," said Benjamin Pignatlli.

Dukakis told Boston 25 News that more than 100 legislators endorse a North-South stations link, and that he believes it would easily remove more than 50,000 cars off the roads daily.

A spokesperson for Gov. Baker pointed to comments he made during last November's gubernatorial debate in which he said he believes there are a number of other ways to solve this problem:

I support doing whatever provides the best opportunity to get people from where they are to where they're trying to go. And we did a big study on this and it suggested that the price tag is somewhere between $15-$20 billion. There are a whole bunch of other ways to solve this problem that we're currently looking at. I think it's important to solve the link problem, I'm just not sure if that's exactly the way I would choose to solve it. - Gov. Charlie Baker

Cox Media Group