Finally, Mass. South Coast passenger trains again!
An MBTA train heads toward Boston from its New Bedford station.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
The MBTA’s South Coast Rail is finally providing service between Boston, Fall River and New Bedford. As people get used to it, it will take more and more cars off the roads over the next few years and will help trigger economic development and housing construction in the two cities, which could sorely use it.
The South Coast had passenger-train service until the ‘50s, when America’s excessive dependence on cars, compounded by the start of the Interstate Highway System and a generalized government neglect of public transportation, led to its demise. Now it’s catchup.
But the $1 billion South Coast project has taken decades to get done, largely because of short-sighted nimbyism.
Consider that the construction took much longer and cost a lot more because local foes fought the most direct route, which would have involved carefully cutting through a swamp via an old rail-line route that was used until the ‘50s. Opponents cited rare turtles and salamanders. But it stretches credulity that a rail line (much narrower than a highway) would have posed much of a problem to these creatures if a proposed trestle bridge and other adjustments had been made to the swamp route to protect wildlife.
Of course, multilane roads do far, far more damage to wildlife, via vehicles running them over, air pollution, runoff from oil, gasoline and other vehicle liquids, and global warming, than trains do. And having to go in a zigzag route added 20 minutes to the South Shore to Boston trip, making it less competitive with cars.
It’s no secret that it has become outrageously easy in litigious America for small groups to block big projects for years, although they are manifestly in the general public interest. You can never please everyone. Government needs boosted eminent-domain and other powers to move faster.
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Speaking of traffic, a study has confirmed what I have long suspected: Our ever-increasing traffic density can be blamed in part on the popularity in America of huge, gas-guzzling SUVs, in addition to a growing population, lousy public transit, and sprawl development.
Researchers looking at traffic in Minneapolis-St. Paul found that SUV popularity reduced the capacity of highway lanes by 9.5 percent between 1995 and 2019.
Further, while SUV drivers perceive themselves to be safer than in less, er, formidable vehicles, they are big killers of the pedestrians and people in small cars they crash into. One might also note SUV’s high profiles combined with blinding LED headlights serve to blind drivers coming from the opposite direction.
Whatever! Americans love big cars and go deep into debt to drive them. For that matter, they like big in general when they can afford it – including huge houses.