🚀 go-pugleaf

I recently went to a hearing the MBTA had about the Watertown line. A number
of people (including me, sorry, Spike!) argued against returning the
trolley service, in large part because of the traffic issue. It's not just
the loss of parking spaces, though.  Washington Street has become a major
thoroughfare, and there's just no way you can squeeze both LRVs and cars
through Brighton Center (unlike Cambridge Street, which was designed to
allow a set of tracks like the ones on Comm. Ave.)  Then there's the
problem of people (including my wife), bikes and cars forever getting into
accidents from slipping on the traicks.

One proposal somebody raised: extend the trackless trolley line from
Watertown Square, which not only would solve the diesel problem but
provide better access to Harvard Square.

But there's another issue, which the Sierra Club has started looking at. 
Does it really make sense to spend $250 million to restore commuter rail
to the South Shore, or even $50 million to extend it to Worcester when so
few people will use it?  Why not use that money for improving mass transit
where people would actually take advantage of it?
-- 
Adam Gaffin
Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass.
adamg@world.std.com
Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461.