The Federal Transit Administration has pledged about $996 million in "New Starts" funding to support extension of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA) Green Line from Cambridge to Somerville and Medford.
MBTA began work on the 4.7-mile extension's right-of-way in March 2013, marking its first major expansion of its LRT ("T") system after years of numerous false starts and political indecision. Federal funding support makes the extension's completion far more likely.
The project, now estimated to cost $2.3 billion would extend the multi-branched Green Line's current common northern terminus at Lechmere Station (Cambridge) north to Somerville and Medford, Mass. , roughly parallel to Interstate 93, including service to Tufts University's Medford campus. The project will include work on two bridges and removal of an existing building pinching existing right-of-way, which already is used by MBTA regional rail service Fitchburg and Lowell lines.
The first portion of the expansion is now scheduled to be completed by 2017, with the full line place in revenue service by 2020, according to local media.
FTA Acting Administrator Therese W. McMillan, in a letter formally approving the agency's support dated Dec. 1, noted in part, "The project cost is reasonable if the MBTA diligently follows its risk and contingency management plans and procedures.''
Massachusetts committed to the Green Line extension in 1990, as a measure to offset the impact of the "Big Dig" highway project redirecting Interstate 95 traffic in downtown Boston. In 2005, the Conservation Law Foundation filed a lawsuit accusing the state of failing to meet its commitment. Throughout the years, critics also accused MBTA and, at times, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation of actively shunning LRT as a transport mode in favor of other options, including road projects and Bus Rapid Transit.
In contrast to such charges, MBTA General Manager Beverly A. Scott said the Green Line extension is "one of the best projects" in the country, adding, "This is not 'build and they shall come,' . . . They are already here."