As Massachusetts Environmental Affairs Secretary Robert Durand prepared last week to decide on the fate of a new rail line that would connect Boston to Fall River and New Bedford – and cut through the state’s largest protected wetland on the way – residents of the two destination cities and those in the towns along the route have conflicting hopes for the outcome.
The situation of the communities pitted against each other was perhaps an unavoidable consequence of regional transportation planning. People in Fall River and New Bedford say they need a rail line to Boston, and it’s not fair that they don’t have one. Up north, people in the towns of Easton, Stoughton, Raynham, Norton and Bridgewater say they are being railroaded.
The commuter rail route proposed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority would be a $600 million project and is targeted for completion in 2008. The proposed line would be built on an existing railway bed last used in 1958 that cuts through the Hockomock Swamp, a 6,000-acre wetland that is home to more than a dozen rare or endangered species.
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Durand’s office said he would issue his decision on the MBTA’s Final Environmental Impact Report last Friday or tomorrow (Tuesday). At the time that this report was written, Durand was widely expected to give the controversial project the go-ahead.
"I think he’ll approve it. He’ll probably call for a few supplemental studies, but I think he’ll approve the final environmental impact report in the end. I don’t see any reason not to," said Roland Hebert, transportation planning manager with the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District. The group does economic and transportation planning for Southeastern Massachusetts.
Kyla Bennett, director of the New England office of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an association opposed to the proposed rail line through the Hockomock Swamp, agreed.
"It’s just a rubber stamp," said Bennett about Durand’s awaited decision.
The project is key for Fall River and New Bedford – two former mill cities in Southeastern Massachusetts that don’t have rail connection to the hub city of Boston. Business and government leaders have been unable to spur economic growth in those cities in recent decades, despite the fact that they are the fifth and sixth largest cities in Massachusetts respectively, based on population.
Leaders in those cities say a commuter rail line to Boston would be a crucial piece of the puzzle in resurrecting their cities – helping to attract a middle class to the city and to create jobs. Massachusetts’ decision earlier this year to delay commuter rail access to their cities until 2008 stirred anger among local leaders, and at least temporarily derailed economic development initiatives tied to the project.
"We hope that the secretary approves this finally and allows the project to begin construction phasing. It’s a question of fairness. New Bedford and Fall River are the only cities in Massachusetts that don’t have commuter rail service," said Hebert.
But environmentalists and residents of the towns along the line have united to fight building the railroad. They say the trains will bring noise, vibration and pollution that will lower property values and disturb the delicate ecosystem of the Hockomock Swamp. Residents of Easton also say the rail line would pose a threat to the town’s aquifer, which rests below the Hockomock Swamp and supplies the town with water.
In its final report to Durand, the MBTA said the route through the swamp is the only feasible alternative for the connection between Boston and Fall River and New Bedford. Leaders in the cities concur.
"It’s unfortunate that the train has to go through some areas to get down here. But it’s the only possible route for the trains, and that was clearly proven. Either it comes by way of Stoughton, or New Bedford and Fall River don’t get any service. These people already have their service," said Hebert.
People in the towns to the north say it is just not so.
"We wholeheartedly disagree with that. In fact we believe the MBTA has deliberately misrepresented information in order to reach that conclusion," said Martha White, assistant town administrator in Easton. "You’d be hard-pressed to find a more damaging alternative than going through the habitat of 17 state listed endangered species."
Even if Durand gives the MBTA the go-ahead, the transportation agency still has to obtain dozens of permits from the state and local towns before construction can start. People in those towns have asserted they will not give the permits. Some say they will take the matter to court.
"I think there’s an intense political pressure on Durand. I’m concerned that we’re going to do the politically correct thing instead of the correct thing," said Jim Sullivan, an Easton resident and a leader of Citizens Against Rail Extension, a group formed to fight the rail line through their towns.
