vjohn N/itagliano 

19 Seymour S^ee t 

WintUp, M A 02152 

January 10, 2005 

The Honorable Daniel A. Grabauskas, Secretary 

Executive Office of Transportation 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts 

10 Park Plaza-Suite 3170 

Boston, Massachusetts 02116 

Mr. Robert W. Golledge, Jr., Commissioner 

Department of Environmental Protection 

Executive Office of Environmental Affairs 

One Winter Street 

Boston, Massachusetts 02108 

Subject: MBTA Blue Line-Red Line Connection Status 

Dear Secretary Grabauskas and Commissioner Golledge: 

Having served as both Transportation Commissioner for the City of Boston and as a Massachusetts Port 

Authority board member I want to express my grave concern about your recent public comments 

concerning the proposed MBTA Blue Line connection to the Red Line at Charles Station which infer that 

the status of this crucial transit improvement project is under review. When the Big Dig was evolving 

through its formulaic stages a major concern was that this impressive project would not be an incentive 

for increasing regional automobile dependency so that a number of important transit mitigation 

measures were designed to complement the projects highway improvement aspects. These transit 

upgrades were considered to be so crucial that they were incorporated into the legally binding 1990 

Memorandum of Understanding between EOTC, MHD and CLF in order to provide public assurance of 

the Big Digs long term regional traffic and air quality benefits. 

Of the transit commitments included in the 1990 MOU none was more important that the proposed direct 

connection between the MBTA Blue Line and Red Line at Charles Station. This project would greatly 

enhance transit access to the Massachusetts General Hospital for all of the Blue Line communities 

including East Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop, Revere, Lynn and others. Presently residents of these 

municipalities who wish to use the Blue Line to utilize Mass. General must walk half a mile after 

disembarking at the Bowdoin station, a particularly harsh disincentive for the infirm. The Blue Line-Red 

Line connection would also provide significantly improved transit service between these north shore 

communities and the many important destinations in Cambridge. 

Another major benefit of the Blue Line-Red Line connection would be much better transit service to 

Logan Airport from the residential communities northwest of Boston. Red Line passengers from these 

areas must traverse through Park Street Station, the MBTAs most congested station, on their way to 

Logan. The same is true for the many business passengers from Cambridge also bound for Logan. Both of 

these constituencies would realize a vastly improved transit link to Logan with the Blue Line-Red Line 

connection. It is essential to note here that, contrary to certain published accounts, the new MBTA Silver 

Line service is not a competitive substitute for the Blue-Red connection but rather a fine complement. 
The Silver Lines direct connection to Logan serves only certain Boston origin/destinations without 

addressing the northwest communities and Cambridge mentioned herein. 

It is also important to note the significant benefit the Blue Line-Red Line connection would provide in the 

form of congestion relief at Park Street Station which suffers from an absence of the kind of primary 

system redundancy inherent in the Blue Line-Red Line connection, an important consideration in light of 

contemporary security concerns. 

In summary I strongly urge you to immediately initiate a design/build program for the MBTA Blue LineRed Line connection project to assure its completion by the original 2010 deadline obligated by the 1990 

MOU. 

Sincerely, 

John Vitagliano 
JohN YiTAql'lANO 

19 SEyMouR STREET 

WiNThRop, MA 02192 

January 11, 2006 

Christine Kirby 

Department of Environmental Protection 

Bureau of Waste Management 

One Winter Street 

Boston, MA 02108 

Subject: Proposed Amendment to 310 CMR 7.36 to Eliminate Blue Line-Red Line Connection 

Dear Ms. Kirby: 

Having served as both Transportation Commissioner for the City of Boston and as a Massachusetts Port 

Authority board member I want to express my strong opposition to the proposed amendment to 310 

CMR 7.36 which would eliminate the MBTA Blue Line connection to the Red Line at Charles Station, a 

public promise that was made in 1990 and which I was directly involved in. When the Big Dig was 

evolving through its formulaic stages a major concern was that this impressive project should not be an 

incentive for increasing regional automobile dependency, so a number of important transit mitigation 

measures were designed to complement the project's highway improvement aspects. These transit 

upgrades were considered to be so crucial that they were incorporated into the legally binding 1990 

Memorandum of Understanding between EOTC, MHD and CLF in order to provide public assurance of 

the Big Dig's long term regional traffic and air quality benefits. 

Of the transit commitments included in the 1990 MOU none was more important that the proposed direct 

connection between the MBTA Blue Line and Red Line at Charles Station. This project would greatly 

enhance transit access to the Massachusetts General Hospital for all of the Blue Line communities 

including East Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop, Revere, Saugus and others. Presently residents of these 

municipalities who wish to use the Blue Line to utilize Mass. General must walk half a mile after 

disembarking at the Bowdoin station, a particularly harsh disincentive for the infirm. The Blue Line-Red 

Line connection would also provide significantly improved transit service between these north shore 

communities and the many important destinations in Cambridge. 

It is also important to note the significant benefit the Blue Line-Red Line connection would provide to the 

entire MBTA transit system in the form of measurable congestion relief for both the Park Street and 

Government Center Stations which presently must accommodate Blue Line passengers bound for Mass. 

General Hospital and Cambridge. These passengers now must change at Government Center, take the 

Green Line to Park Street and then board the Red Line. By bypassing both of these congested stations the 

Blue Line-Red Line Connection would benefit all MBTA users. 

Finally I've noticed that a large part of the rationale put forward for eliminating the Blue Line-Red Line 

Connection is based on the alleged success of the new Silverline service to Logan Airport, implying that it 

replaces an original proposed benefit of the Blue Line-Red Line Connection. This a classic red herring 

argument because the Blue Line-Red Line Connection was never justified to improve transit access to the 

airport but rather as a major public transit improvement between the major population centers of 

Boston's north shore region and Cambridge and Mass. General Hospital. During my fourteen years as a 
Massport board member and as Boston's Transportation Commissioner the Blue Line-Red Line 

Connection was never proposed as an airport transit access palliative. 

I strongly urge you to categorically reject the recommended elimination of the Blue Line-Red Line 

Connection and instead require that it be completed as originally promised 

Sincerely, 
laftf Sojaton 

+ ^Srt ' ^Wkf r 617-567-9600-617-567-1 

40 William Kelly Square, East Boston J^J 

Distributed FREE of Charge in East Boston and Winthrop-Established in 1937 - December 7, 2005 

BLUE LINE CONNECTOR 

JOHN LYNDS PHOTO 

A train pulls into the Orient Heights stop on the Blue Line. A group, led by the Conservation Law Foundation, 

is fighting the state's decision to abandon plans to construct a connector between the Blue and Red lines. 

Forces connect 

Partners Healthcare joins effort to make sure 

state builds a Blue-Red Line connector 

BY JOHN LYNDS 

john@eastietimes.com 

With the Romney administration 

about to hold a public hearing on 

the state's decision to remove the 

Blue-Red Line Connector from its 

list of Big Dig mitigation projects, 

the Conservation Law Foundation 

(CLF) has gained a new ally in its 

quest to ensure the project gets 

done. 

Partners Healthcare (PHC) has 

joined CLF in a lawsuit against the 

state's highest officials for their failure to build a long-promised public 

transit project thai would greatly 

benefit residents of East Boston, Revere, and other working communities east of Boston, providing them 

with better access to jobs at Charles/ 

MGH and along the Red Line. 

With public hearings set for 

Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 10 a.m. and 

6 p.m. at the Department of Environmental Protection's offices in 

Boston, CLF and now PHC are challenging the Romney administration 

to build a connection between the 

Blue and Red Line MBTA subway 

lines at Charles-MGH station. 

CLF and PHC argue that the project was promised to Eastie residents 

in exchange for their support to build 

the Big Dig. Now, 15 years later, the 

Big Dig is nearly complete and the 

slate is attempting to go back on its 

promise to build the Blue-Red Connector. 

"The commonwealth is penalizing thousands of Mass General 

patients and workers by its decision 

to abandon a vital transit link," said 

CLF President Phil Warburg. "Partners Healthcare is demonstrating 

real civic leadership by taking this 

legal action. Building the Big Dig 

is far from everything the people of 

Greater Boston were promised back 

in 1990. We welcome Partners' suit 

as an important step toward holding 

stale officials accountable." 

The Central Artery-Third Harbor 

Please sec MBTA Page 4 
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