BOSTON –— The economic benefits of linking Boston’s North and South stations would far outweigh the costs of the project and would be a better use of taxpayer dollars than simply expanding South Station as a stopgap to relieve congestion, according to a study released on Monday.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., requested the study that compares a $4 billion plan to expand South Station with the projected $8 billion price tag of the North-South rail link.
“Since both projects solve the same problem, we asked for the first study simply comparing the two. The results are startling,” Moulton said in a statement. “While both relieve congestion at South Station, that’s where the similarities end. Expanding South Station would be obsolete in 25 years and do almost nothing to relieve road congestion. In contrast, The Link would last 100 years and return $31 billion in benefits by revolutionizing transportation across the Commonwealth and getting 86 million people out of their cars and into trains that are easier and faster.”
The Rail Link plan calls for building a 130-foot-deep, 2.9-mile tunnel between the stations and would include an extension to Back Bay Station and connections with MBTA commuter train routes as well as Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
Currently MBTA commuter rail service is disjointed into separate corridors: Those radiating north and west out of North Station, and those radiating south and west from South Station. The same issue requires Amtrak Downeaster passengers to trek from North Station to South Station if they want to continue their trips by rail to destinations such as New York City and Washington, D.C.
The Rail Link project would enable faster and more frequent commuter rail service that would blanket the Boston area, permit Amtrak to run seamlessly from Maine to New York and beyond, and boost the proposed East-West Amtrak service linking Boston with Western Massachusetts. It also would enable transfers to every Boston subway line.
Expanding South Station would bring net benefits of $3 billion, while the Rail Link plan would create $23 billion in net benefits, the study concluded. Among them: Expanded commuter service would enable the addition of 220,000 housing units outside the core of Boston, which has been plagued by high real estate prices and unaffordable rents.
Moulton says the Rail Link is the single most important transportation project in Massachusetts. Linking the stations in Boston has been talked about in one form or another for more than a century. And Moulton points out that construction on a link was postponed due to the outbreak of World War I.
“Until we build the Rail Link, we won’t just be stuck in traffic, we’ll be stuck in the past,” he said. “The question is no longer ‘Can we afford to build the link?’ but ‘Can we afford not to?’”
The study, available online, was undertaken by the Harvard Kennedy School.
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