Grafe, Jerome (DEP) 

From: John Walkey Oawalkey@hotmail.com] 

Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 12:17 PM 

To: Grafe, Jerome (DEP); Fichter, Katherine (DOT) 

Subject: Red-Blue Connector 

Dear Commissioner Kimmell: 

I write to you in regards to the proposal to remove the Red Line-Blue Line Connector from the State Implementation 

Plan. As an East Boston resident I am among those who were told many years ago that in return for the disruption and 

added local traffic of the Big Dig tunnels there would be projects that would mitigate the situation. Being able to connect 

directly from the Blue Line to the Red Line at Charles/MGH is a huge advantage over entering into the congested morass 

of Downtown Crossing via various transfers. This would also open up the real estate market of communities along the 

Blue Line to employees in the Kendall Square area, which would benefit our local economies. 

As a transit advocate I am among those who believe that a robust and efficient network of public transit is critical for the 

economic well being of our state and region. Kendall Square is an exemplar of this concept. As they have built out 

laboratory and office space along with retail and residential, the amount of vehicle traffic has actually gone down. This is 

because of the wealth of transportation options in the area. But that growth is limited by the inefficiencies of and lack of 

investment in our transit infrastructure. As mentioned above, this connector would relieve some of the existing burdens 

in the central connecting stations of downtown by allowing Red Line riders to get out to the airport without having to go 

through downtown and for North Shore residents to make their way across the Charles, likewise, without having to go 

through downtown Boston.' 

Finally as a lifelong North Shore resident and a car owner, it is painfully apparent that the State has failed to come up 

with a solution for access to the North Shore from Boston. Ever since the failure of the Northeast Expressway project to 

put a highway through Rumney Marsh and Lynn (which is a good thing that it was stopped) we have lived with open 

access surface roads whose capacities were reached somewhere in the middle of the last century. Routes 1, 1A and 107 

cannot handle the passage of so many cars from Boston up to the northeast. The best solution is to invest in our transit 

system and provide an option for commuters beyond the inadequate array of transportation solutions they currently 

have. An integral part of that will be the Red-Blue Connector. 

As proposals such as hotels, casinos and more move forward on Route 1A, along with all the accompanying traffic and 

overloaded roads, we will reach a critical point and solutions will be needed. The Red-Blue Connector should be designed 

and ready to roll for when that time comes. Removing this project is short-sighted. Not only that, it is also in violation of 

the promise that the state made to residents many years ago. It makes no sense to throw out the Red-Blue Connector 

project. Please consider the impact of a weakened, overburdened transit system on the choice that many drivers make 

everyday. If you had to choose between driving and using an inadequate, unreliable system that does not allow you to 

efficiently get to where you need to go, which would you choose? The more we can improve the MBTA system with 

things like the Red-Blue Connector, the more attractive it becomes to people who leave their cars at home and take the 

T. That is what we want to see for our environment, for our communities and for our economy. And ultimately it was 

what we were promised. 

Thank you for your consideration, 

~John Walkey 

63 Putnam Street #1 

East Boston, MA 02128 

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