But Cambridge residents are concerned about traffic congestion and noise.
Trains would cross six Cambridge roads, including Massachusetts Avenue near MIT, at a rate of about one per hour during nonpeak hours and one-and-a-half trains per hour during peak hours. Gates would close for approximately 60 seconds when trains rumble by.
“How is this type of project different than a highway that brings people in from Worcester and Framingham?” Steven Nutter of Livable Streets Alliance asked before drawing applause. “Commuter rail, while it has some benefits over highways, are not much different than highways and do not benefit the neighborhood.”
Several residents expressed a preference for light rail, including one who suggested extending the Green Line down Grand Junction from the end of the yet—to-be-built Green Line Extension in Somerville.
But MassDOT officials said light rail would require wider tracks, larger road crossings, more trains and less room for the popular multiuse path Cambridge residents hope will be built through Grand Junction.
“Those are the tradeoffs we have to weigh,” Matthew Ciborowski of MassDOT said.
A faction from the community is also sore that the state has shelved the so-called Urban Ring. The proposed $2.4 billion rapid transit bus system would connect Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford and Somerville.
“The fact of the matter is [Grand Junction] would be a relatively inexpensive public transit enhancement,” MassDOT’s Director of Program Development Ned Codd said. “It would require additional commuter rail equipment and locomotives and coaches but the corridor exists, trains run over these tracks and this could be done within the existing, very significant, finance constraints that face the Commonwealth. Whereas the Urban Ring is an entirely new service and a very large project.”
