Arborway Green Line Restoration
News

Press Release
Monday, October 29, 2001

Boston Neighborhood Groups and Merchants Seek Arborway Green Line Service,
Reject MBTA Bus Plan

The Arborway Committee and neighborhood groups in Jamaica Plain, the Back Bay, and Beacon Hill welcome the support of Jamaica Plain merchants in calling for the restoration of Arborway Green Line service. We support the recent petition to Mayor Menino signed by more than 60 Centre and South Street merchants seeking his assistance in restoring the Green Line. We call upon Massachusetts Environmental Secretary Bob Durand to order the MBTA to restore Green Line service along the Arborway branch, which runs from Park Street downtown to the Arborway in Jamaica Plain. Restoring Green Line service, which the MBTA "temporarily suspended" in 1985, would provide the fastest and most convenient link for Jamaica Plain residents to downtown jobs and entertainment. In addition, a direct Green Line connection to Jamaica Plain would act as an incentive to those who live in other parts of the metropolitan area and to tourists to visit the unique attractions that Jamaica Plain offers and to shop along Centre Street and in Hyde Square. Urban neighborhoods and business districts deserve and need quality public transit, but the T has not delivered. In fact, the T intends to abandon the Green Line despite environmental regulations mandating its restoration. Speaking of these MBTA intentions, John Deacon of the Sierra Club said, "The MBTA has for too long ignored the interests of the city and the law on this issue. If the T had expended the amount of time and energy in restoring the line that it has expended in trying to abandon it, the Arborway Line would be a national model of urban public transit."

In place of Green Line service that would operate off-street and out of the line of traffic for a full two-thirds of the route, the MBTA is proposing to operate a large fleet of 60' and 40' buses in street traffic for the entire distance from Jamaica Plain to Park Street. These large noisy buses, operating at intervals of every four minutes during rush hour, would thunder through Copley Square, pass the Public Garden, and encircle the Boston Common along Beacon and Tremont Streets. They would add to the traffic congestion as well as getting caught up in it. Summarizing the views of many, Marty Walz, President of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay said, "We support restoring Arborway Green Line service. Restoration would remove over 400 bus trips daily from the streets of the city as a whole and the Back Bay in particular thereby reducing traffic congestion and promoting a cleaner environment."

Green Line service would promote a cleaner and quieter environment because the Green Line utilizes light rail vehicles, which are quieter than T buses and produce no emissions along the routes they travel. They are attractive and well suited for Arborway service. Said Franklyn Salimbene, Chair of the Arborway Committee, "The only vehicle that is flexible enough to operate along the entire length of the Arborway route is light rail; it can operate in the subway, along Huntington Avenue's segregated right of way, and in the street where necessary. On the other hand, for Arborway service to Park Street, a bus makes no sense."