Following Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles’ decision, the state’s environmental secretary has given approval to the MBTA’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Red Line/Blue Line connector project. The DEIR alone will not complete the required environmental studies, however, and the MBTA must now submit a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR).
Considerable discussion has surrounded the question of whether the state should finally establish a connection between the MBTA Blue Line and the Red Line’s Charles/MGH station—a move that would significantly streamline travel for Chelsea residents heading to that destination. Over the past year, transportation officials have presented the Red Line/Blue Line project at numerous community meetings, soliciting input from residents and others who would be affected. Community response to the proposed Blue Line expansion to the Red Line has been largely positive overall.
The primary issues raised by attendees centered on potential street closures, traffic impacts, and disruptions from construction in the surrounding neighborhoods. According to MBTA officials, should the project receive approval, a thorough traffic study would be conducted before any construction or street closures were implemented.
Connecting these two lines would resolve a longstanding gap in the MBTA’s rapid transit system—they remain the only two lines that do not currently intersect. Running approximately seven miles from Bowdoin Station in downtown Boston to Wonderland Station in Revere, the Blue Line is the system’s shortest. The proposed project would extend the Blue Line roughly 1,500 feet beneath Cambridge Street to establish a connection with Charles/MGH Station on the Red Line.
For Chelsea residents commuting to Cambridge jobs or appointments at Mass General via Blue Line stops, the Red Line/Blue Line Connector represented a critical MBTA initiative promised to the neighborhood. The Romney administration initially attempted to abandon this commitment, which had been made to the city in exchange for its support of the Big Dig. Only after the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) filed suit did the state reconsider. In 2006, while Romney remained governor, his administration reversed course and executed an agreement to advance long-standing projects including the Red/Blue Connector, establish interim deadlines for existing initiatives, and strengthen public participation and oversight mechanisms.
The CLF’s March 2005 lawsuit against the Commonwealth alleged that the state had fallen substantially short on numerous transit projects promised to communities to mitigate increased traffic and pollution resulting from the Big Dig. Under the resulting settlement, the Commonwealth is obligated to develop a final design for the Red-Blue connector, which would link the Blue Line at Government Center to the Red Line’s Charles/MGH station. With $29 million allocated for subway tunnel design, the MBTA and Department of Transportation have recently convened another meeting of the project working group for the connector.