Last chance to Save the Green Line Extension!

This is it.  With the Green Line Extension (GLX) Project facing a steep budgetary shortfall, MassDOT has been looking for ways to trim costs, including eliminating part or all of the proposed Somerville Community Path Extension (CPX) between Lowell St and Lechmere.

THANK YOU to those of you who have attended and spoken out at meetings, written to elected officials, and fought hard to preserve the Green Line Extension (GLX) and Community Path Extension (CPX).GLX

However, the fight is not over.

There will be a meeting this Monday, May 9 at 1:00 PM of the MassDOT Board of Directors and MBTA Fiscal & Management Control Board (key decision makers on the GLX) at the State Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza in Boston.

At this meeting, the Mass DOT / MBTA Boards will consider recommendations for GLX & CPX cost reductions, budget and schedule.  We need you to express continued support to ensure that the whole project is built – both GLX branches, to Union Square and Route 16 – and the Community Path Extension is completed in its entirety.  This is a project that the community has been fighting for for decades.  The Green Line Extension and Community Path Extension will address a lack of transit access for East Somerville and Medford and air quality issues affecting the region.  We need this project to make biking as a means of transportation more accessible, not less.  The community path must be kept off of the street,

 

to bring people biking further away from exposure to highway pollution.  The volume of people who bike to Alewife and Davis Square T stations is evidence that the Community Path will bring value added to the entire project – value that is jeopardized if the Path design is degraded to a form that is not safe or comfortable for people to ride.

The Friends of the Community Path have come up with an alternative CPX design that is within the budget for the path and meets the most important desired criteria.  DEMAND that the state to listen to the voices of the community.

 The Mayors of Somerville and Cambridge are pledging $75 million to help ensure the project continues, though they should not have had to and it still might not be enough.  Let your voice be heard.

MBTA and MassDOT Board Meeting
Monday, May 9th, 1pm
State Transportation Building,
10 Park Plaza, Boston

Public Comment will begin at 1pm

You can read more about the meeting and project by going to the Somerville STEP website.  

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