THE CENTRAL Artery and harbor tunnel project was never, from its inception, just about auto and truck travel. The Conservation Law Foundation is right to insist that the Romney administration live up to commitments to improve the public transit system made as part of the 1991 environmental impact statement approving the project.
Planners for the artery understood that relief from congestion would only be temporary if public transit were not improved as well. Working with foundation lawyers and environmental regulators, they agreed on extensions of commuter rail to distant suburbs and improvements in service for MBTA passengers closer to the city.
Most of the commuter rail work was done in a timely way, although the extension to Greenbush in Scituate is far behind schedule. Improvements to the Red, Blue, and Green lines have been lagging. Green Line service in Jamaica Plain was supposed to be restored in 1996, while the Blue Line connection to the Red Line at Charles Street and the extension of the Green Line to Somerville were to be far into the planning stages by now in preparation for 2010 openings.
Signatures to the 1991 agreement did not require it to be inflexible, however. Other projects could be substituted if they made better transportation sense or produced equal or better environmental benefits. In a 2000 administrative order, the state and the CLF gave new emphasis to the proposed Urban Ring of public transportation around the city and the underground connection of the Silver Line to South Station via Kneeland Street. The goal must be the same, however: to improve public transportation in Boston and its immediate surroundings.
The Romney administration has avoided definitive word on the commitments by stressing a "fix it first" policy to repair the transportation infrastructure. But it does intend to unveil a list of transportation priorities early next year. One promise has already been broken: a commitment that MBTA fares would rise no faster than inflation or the cost of operating an automobile, whichever is lower. The fare increase last year, unsuccessfully opposed by the foundation, was far higher than inflation. Even with the fare increase, the T is too strapped for money to build the projects without new sources of revenue.
Douglas Foy, past president of the Conservation Law Foundation, helped develop the environmental commitments and was a signatory to the 1991 agreement. He is now director of the Office of Commonwealth Development and overall coordinator of state transportation policy. The foundation is threatening to go to court in early January to make the state keep its word. To avoid that, Foy needs to makes sure that the Romney administration and the Legislature provide the resources to foster the balanced transportation policy for which he forcefully advocated.