BOSTON’S MISSING LINK
IT WASN’T LONG AFTER North Station and South Station were completed in the 1890s, just a mile apart, that city leaders were looking for a way to connect the two. Proponents are still working to make it happen.
The absence of a connection creates problems for Amtrak and MBTA riders. It limits job opportunities for area residents, making a commute between the south and north sides of Boston impractical. Amtrak’s Downeaster, which originates in Maine and stops in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is disconnected from the rest of the national network. A traveler looking to continue on the Northeast Corridor, or take the Lake Shore Limited west, needs a taxi, Uber, Lyft, or two subway trains to get from one station to the other. It often takes 30 minutes.
Amtrak and MBTA operations also suffer. Service and repairs on Downeaster trains take place at Amtrak’s Southampton Street Yard, near South Station, requiring a long, roundabout move from North Station. The MBTA’s situation is reversed. Its heavy maintenance facility is in Somerville, close to North Station, forcing it to shuttle equipment operating out of South Station.
As early as 1909, discussions began about a tunnel to connect the two stations. Five years later, the Boston City Planning Board recommended building a tunnel including a midpoint station. The board wanted the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to take over all railroads and streetcar lines within the city and operate them under a terminal company. The Metropolitan Improvements Commission dismissed the idea as “prohibitive at the present time.” Public ownership of transit lines wouldn’t begin until 1947.
In the early 1970s, when plans were first floated to bury I-93 in a tunnel under downtown Boston, then- Gov. Francis Sargent saw an opportunity to include an $80 million rail connection within the highway tunnel, saying that “it merits the most serious consideration.” The next governor was Michael Dukakis, who took up the cause and, at 88, still chairs a working group to advocate for the tunnel.
“Here’s a project that makes all kinds of sense, that is pro-environment in a dramatic way,” he tells Trains. A 2003 draft environmental study concluded that a four-track tunnel would take 54,000 cars off the road. Dukakis says it would be more like 60,000 today.
As governor, he included the rail tunnel in the original plan for the I-93 project, but in 1987 President Ronald Reagan vetoed federal funding, objecting to the rail portion. To save the Big Dig, the rail tunnel was jettisoned. The 2003 environmental study brought the effort back to life, but Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts at that time, ordered work on the project suspended.
But along with Dukakis, the North-South Rail Link still has many friends, including former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, area mayors, and the Massachusetts Sierra Club. These advocates have brought the need for the rail link back to the front page. The Boston Globe and WBUR both published opinion pieces in favor of it.
Cost estimates vary and are a bone of contention. A 2017 Harvard study put the price at $5.9 billion. An MBTA study published the following year placed the cost at between $12.3 billion and $21.5 billion. Dukakis and others dispute the higher figure. But with recent inflation in construction labor and materials costs, a new, independent estimate will be needed.
Current Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has shown little enthusiasm for the rail tunnel. “I wish I could tell you that there was hope,” laments Dukakis. “We can’t seem to get Charlie Baker to get serious about it.”