🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul29.140845.23350@eff.org> rita@eff.org (Rita Marie Rouvalis) writes:
>In article <Bs4n4K.C8K@world.std.com> adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) writes:
>
>>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?
>
>	What is this assertion based on?  The South Shore desperately
>needs the commuter rail.  Braintree's garage is full every weekday
>morning at about 8:15 am (I've never seen Alewife more than 3/4's full
>during the week).  
>

I think it's a question of ridership volume.  The MBTA predicts that, at
its peak, the Worcester line will handle 2,500 riders a day.  I don't know
what the potential ridership of a re-built Watertown line would be, but
presumably it's a lot higher than 2,500, which would, according to the
club, make it a better place to spend scarce dollars.  

And the Sierra Club (to which my phone call for a better explanation has
so far gone un-returned) presumably isn't looking at another issue: will
transit users who live in MBTA communities essentially be providing a
subsidy to those who don't?  I don't know about the South Shore, but none
of the western towns to benefit from the Worcester line will be
incorporated into the MBTA district, which means they won't have to pay an
annual subsidy to the T like MBTA towns (the exception is Ashland, which
is already in the T district, but which looks likely to get a cap put on
its assessment so it won't pay more if it gets a station). 

-- 
Adam Gaffin
Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass.
adamg@world.std.com
Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461.