MBTA proposes a Red Line / Blue Line connector

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) has proposed linking the Red Line at Charles Street with the Blue Line at Bowdoin Street. This would connect the only two lines in the subway system that don’t link – the Red Line and Green Line link at Park Street, the Blue Line and Green Line link at Government Center, the Blue Line and Orange Line link at State Street, and the Green Line and Orange Line link at North Station and Lechmere.

The MBTA would run a tunnel underneath Charles Street from the Charles / MGH Red Line stop to a rehabilitated Bowdoin Street Blue Line stop or would close that station and have the train run directly to Government Center. The Bowdoin stop is only open on weekdays, as is, and only from 6 AM – 6 PM, or so, as it is.

The MBTA is not proposing this as an act of generosity or kindness; it is required to build the connector as part of the “Big Dig” project. The idea is that the newly-submerged Central Artery would only increase the number of people who drove into and around the city, so an expanded and improved public transportation system needed to be built, as well, to help other commuters as well as to offer an alternative to driving.

The connector would benefit several groups of people:

* residents of Somerville and Cambridge who travel from Davis Square, Porter Square, Harvard Square, Central Square, and Kenmore Square who work at Mass General Hospital or the Mass Eye & Ear Infirmary or at Government Center;

* residents of East Boston who travel to those same hospitals as well as to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University;

* Cambridge and Somerville residents and commuters traveling to Boston Logan Airport;

* Beacon Hill residents who are traveling to and from Cambridge and Somerville or to and from the airport.

An underground Blue Line storage facility would be built near Charles Street, giving the MBTA a second location for unused cars, making coordination of schedules and routes easier.

What hasn’t been decided is the method of construction – would they dig a big hole down the middle of Charles Street, put in the subway rails, then cover it up, or would they bore a big tunnel underground while life continued above, oblivious to what was happening, below?

Shop owners and residents on and near Charles Street would probably flip their last wigs if the T went with Option 1. The area is just coming what was an almost-decade long renovation of Charles Street. Many stores are just now recovering from that mess. To ask them to put up with another three years of construction (and to see all the new curb-cuts, brickwork, and landscaping destroyed) may be too much to ask.

The next meeting to discuss the project is on December 14 from 4 – 6 PM in the ‘Amenities Room’ at 73 Tremont Street.

MBTA Red Line / Blue Line Connector proposal

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4. Call Councilor President Mike Ross, STAT!
5. What color is / why is the Prudential Center in Boston lit up in December 2009