Grafe, Jerome (DEP) 

From: 

Sent: 

To: 

Subject: 

John Leahy [jhnlhy@gmail.com] 

Thursday, September 13, 2012 9:55 PM 

Grafe, Jerome (DEP) 

Re: Response to proposed amendments to 310 CMR 7.36 

Apologies but if you could please utilize the below and disregard my previous email, it would be much 

appreciated as there were several typos in what I first sent. 

Dear Mr. Grafe: 

I was unable to attend either of the public meetings held today, 13 September 2012; as such, please take into 

account this written testimony with respect to the topic of proposed amendments to 310 CMR 7.36, Transit 

System Improvements. 

The proposed amendments are simple, short-sighted solutions to much broader and deeper systemic issues for 

which Boston and environs will be paying a much larger price in the future. Specifically, removing the 

requirement that MassDOT complete the Red-Blue Connector design is counterproductive and condemns the 

core of Boston's rapid transit network - Government Center, Park Street, Downtown Crossing and State Street 

stations - to a guaranteed state of gridlock within a very short amount of time. The hub-and-spoke model relies 

far too heavily on double connections and has left the aforementioned stations choked by passenger demand 

exceeding their operational capabilities. 

Chief among these gridlock-producing transfers is the jog between Government Center and Park Street for 

passengers to move between the Red and Blue Lines. Failing to link the Blue and Red Lines directly at 

Charles/MGH puts an unnecessary burden on the already-overloaded Green Line. The Red-Blue Connector is 

an absolutely essential piece of Boston's rapid transit infrastructure that ought to have been built decades ago. 

Removing the design requirement will most surely push the construction to the bottom of the list of immediate 

transit funding needs. This will have crushing and cascading consequences for the Greater Boston public 

transportation system, which relies so heavily on commuting patterns and traffic flows that are destined for, or 

pass through, one of the four transfer stations. Increasingly severe delays, impossible-to-follow scheduling and 

dangerously crowded platforms are just a few examples of what we can expect to see at Boston's hub stations 

without a Red-Blue Connector. 

Furthermore, a RM^Blue Connector opens many possibilities for extending various lines - most importantly the 

long talked about extension of the Blue Line towards Lynn. The current Downtown transfer station set up 

cannot handle any more traffic above incremental increases they receive from fluctuation in gas prices and other 

externalities which increase transit usage. In addition to streamlining various traffic flows served via double 

connections, linking the Red and Blue Lines would free capacity for more through traffic on all lines. 

The benefits of a Red-Blue Connector are many and can only be realized if we have a design. The pitfalls of not 

proceeding in the near term - or outright removing requirements to design it - are many, and increase 

exponentially over time. The focus should not be about deferring issues until later, but rather on approaching 

difficult topics (such as funding) in a systematic and pragmatic way to do what is best for the entire Greater 

Boston region. 

We owe it to ourselves to have a world-class transit system for the world-class communities in which we live. 

In order to help us achieve this goal and hold MassDOT accountable for stipulations the State made regarding 

the Big Dig, I urge MassDEP to reject the proposed amendment to remove the Red-Blue Connector design 

l 
requirement from 310 CMR 7.36. 

Sincerely, 

John Leahy 

Brighton, MA 

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 9:47 PM, John Leahy <ihnlhv@gmail.com> wrote: 

Dear Mr. Grafe: 

I was unable to attend either of the public meetings held today, 13 September 2012; as such, please take into 

account this written testimony with respect to the topic of proposed amendments to 310 CMR 7.36, Transit 

System Improvements.. 

The proposed amendments are simple, short-sighted solutions to much broader and deeper systemic issuse for 

which Boston and environs will be paying a much larger price in the future. Specifically, removing the 

requirement that MassDOT complete the Red-Blue Connector design is counterproductive and condemns the 

core of Boston's rapid transit network - Government Center, Park Street, Downtown Crossing and State Street 

stations - to a guaranteed state of gridlock within a very short amount of time. The hub-and-spoke model relies 

far too heavily on double connections and has left the aforementioned stations choked by passenger demand 

exceeding their operational capabilities. 

Chief among these gridlock-producing transfers is the jog between Government Center and Park Street for 

passengers to move between the Red and Blue Lines. Failing to link the Blue and Red Lines directly at 

Charles/MGH puts an unnecessary burden on the already-overloaded Green Line. The Red-Blue Connector is 

an absolutely essential piece of Boston's rapid transit infrastructure that ought to have been built decades ago. 

Removing the design requirement will most surely push the construction to the bottom of the list of immediate 

transit funding needs. This will have crushing and cascading consequences for the Greater Boston public 

transportation system, which relies so heavily on commuting patterns and traffic flows that are destined for, or 

pass through, one of the four transfer stations. Increasingly severe delays, impossible-to-follow scheduling and 

dangerously crowded platforms are just a few examples of what we can expect to see at Boston's hub stations 

without a Red-Blue Connector. 

Furthermore, a Red-Blue Connector opens many possibilities for extending various lines - most importantly the 

long talked about extension of the Blue Line towards Lynn. The current Downtown transfer station set up 

cannot handle any more traffic above incremental increases they receive from fluxuations in gas prices and 

other externalities which increase transit usage. In addition to streamlining various traffic flows served via 

double connections, linking the Red and Blue Lines would free capacity for more through traffic on all lines. 

The benefits of a Red-Blue Connector are many and can only be realized if we have a design. The pitfalls of 

not proceeding in the near term - or outright removing requirements to design it - are many, and increase 

exponentially over time. The focus should not be about deferring issues until later, but rather on approaching 

difficult topics (such as funding) in a systematic and pragmatic way to do what is best for the entire Greater 

Boston region. 

We owe it to ourselves to have a world-class transit system for the world-class communities in which we live. 

In order to help us achieve this goal and hold MassDOT accountable for stipulations the State made regarding 

the Big Dig, I urge MassDEP to reject the proposed amendment to remove the Red-Blue Connector design 

requirement from 310 CMR 7.36. 

Sincerely, 

2 
John Leahy 

Brighton, MA