South Coast rail project a priority for Mass. lawmakers

(NECN: Peter Howe, Fall River/New Bedford, Mass.) Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick came to the economically struggling South Coast region Wednesday to throw his weight — and some key political allies’ weight also — behind a billion-dollar commuter-rail connection to Boston. “It matters to anyone who cares about the environment, job security and creation, and the quality of life here in the South Coast region,” the governor said during an appearance at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The $1.4 billion project is due to start construction in 2012 and be up and running by 2016, with 4,700 to 4,900 daily riders. A new state study released Wednesday predicted it would generate over 7,000 construction jobs and 3,500 new permanent jobs. Even before factoring in interest and operating costs, the project would cost more than $2,900 per new rider in construction costs alone, funds many say the cash-strapped commonwealth can ill afford. U.S. Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat whose district includes New Bedford, said, “As long as I am in Congress, my number 1 priority will be in the local area to earmark funds for this project. Earmark funds for this project.” U.S. Representative James McGovern, also a Democrat, whose district includes Fall River, said, “Earmarks aren’t pork. They’re nourishment, in this case.” McGovern said unlike his predecessor, Republican Mitt Romney, Patrick appreciates the importance and value of earmarking federal transportation and rail-construction funds for the South Coast Rail project. Captain Jack Casey, who runs Battleship Cove in Fall River, which would get a new commuter rail stop just a few hundred feet away, said the project would be a powerful “win win” generating both redevelopment on Fall River’s waterfront and also driving conversion of old mill buildings to new affordable homes for people commuting to jobs in Boston. The one thing no one wanted to talk about Wednesday: Exactly which route the state will use to reconnect existing tracks from Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River to the MBTA commuter rail system that goes into Back Bay and South Stations in Boston. One option is a new spur off the Attleboro-Providence line through Norton, a second reactivating an abandoned line south from Stoughton through Easton and the Hockamock Swamp. A third, probably much less likely option, is a connection through Taunton and Lakeville to the existing Middleborough/Lakeville line. Frank joked, “We haven’t picked the route yet, and we were told: Don’t talk about the route. Don’t talk about the route.” Both the Norton and Easton routings face various levels of opposition, and could trigger years of not-in-my-backyard lawsuits if they are chosen from homeowners and business owners alarmed by the air pollution, noise, vibrations, and other impacts of train service. Frank and others said they hope environmentalists will make a big-picture evaluation of the environmental impact of South Coast rail, looking not just at where will new diesel locomotives be rolling through, but how many thousands of cars will be taken off the road and how much economic hope will be brought to a part of the state that suffers from double-digit unemployment. New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang said, “You talk about not in my back yard, all the towns where they are saying not in my back yard already have the train, so it seems to me, let us have the same options for economic development and quality of life as the towns on the line north of Taunton.” Advocates for the project also note that New Bedford and Fall River are now the only big cities within 50 miles of Boston that don’t have commuter-rail access to the city. Frank said, “I believe that within a fairly few years from now, all of us who are here are going to be able to look back with great pride at the launching of one of the most important social, economic, and environmental projects in the history of the commonwealth.”