Greenbush Project

• Project Description
• Environmental Impact Report
• Greenbush FAQ 

Project Description

The Greenbush Project will restore commuter rail service on the 18-mile long Greenbush rail line through the towns of Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, and Scituate, Massachusetts. The Greenbush Line will provide needed additional transportation capacity and an attractive new commuting option between Boston and the South Shore. The Project will help to alleviate the severe highway and rapid transit congestion in this area as well as address the currently inequitable distribution of commuter rail service. In conjunction with the existing Red Line and Commuter Boat services, the Greenbush Line is required to meet the Commonwealth's commitments under clean-air and highway-mitigation mandates. The Greenbush Line will also free up parking spaces at the Braintree and Quincy Red Line station garages by diverting some Red Line riders from the South Shore to commuter rail. These spaces will then be available for use by commuters from other parts of the region. Construction began in 2003 and service is expected to start in Mid-2007.

This project has been under consideration for a significant period of time. The many questions raised regarding environmental impacts, ridership estimates, and costs have been analyzed by experts in these areas, including staff at the MBTA, consultants to the MBTA, as well as independent agencies and organizations. The Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) on the project thoroughly addresses these issues and was approved by the Secretary of Environmental Affairs in August 2001. The MBTA is aware that a project as large as Greenbush comes with impacts, but we are committed to working with communities and residents along the corridor to avoid, minimize, or mitigate these impacts to the greatest extent possible. The MBTA has concluded Mitigation Agreements addressing issues of local concern with each of the five towns along the Greenbush Line.

The environmental review conducted by the MBTA was very extensive. This analysis determined that diesel commuter rail on the Greenbush Line was the most effective and most cost-effective solution to the transportation problem on the South Shore. For example, the so-called "Super-boat" alternative (a combination of improved boats with buses and other improvements) was found to cost 50% more to build and 400% more to operate than commuter rail. A total of twenty-five different alternatives were evaluated including various combinations of boats, busses, busways, trains (electric and diesel), light rail trolleys, trackless trolleys, HOV lane extensions, and a bikeway. Commuter rail, Red Line, and monorail extensions along Route 3 were also studied, however, in addition to having higher construction costs than the Greenbush Line, the Route 3 alternatives do not serve the Greenbush corridor market area. Route 3 services would therefore not meet the goal of reducing automobile dependency by providing transit service near to where commuters live. The Quincy and Hingham boats were included in the analysis of existing services to the Greenbush corridor included in the FEIR. The FEIR also analyzed the potential of feeder bus services to the existing boat terminals and determined that they would be ineffective as most boat riders would continue to drive to the boat rather than drive to take a bus to get to the boat.

The MBTA has carefully evaluated the potential for impacts from the project on the various water supply sources near the line and determined that there will be no adverse impacts. Railroads run along and near water supply reservoirs and wells in numerous locations throughout Massachusetts without problems. On the Greenbush Line storm water drainage systems have been carefully designed to avoid any potential contamination of water supplies, rivers, or wetlands. At the overnight train layover facility in Scituate, electrical "plug-in" systems will be provided so that the trains will not have to idle overnight. The tracks are being built on the existing railbed to minimize impacts to wetlands and other resources and to minimize the need for land takings.

The MBTA is aware of the large number of historic resources along the Greenbush Line. Each of these areas flourished and grew during the century that the Greenbush Line operated before passenger service ended in 1959. The MBTA has conducted an exhaustive review of the nature of these resources and the potential impacts to them from the project. Substantial mitigation will be provided in the form of underpasses, plantings and other aesthetic treatments, and funding of historic preservation projects.

The MBTA carefully examined the air quality impacts of the project using the latest standards and conditions. The proposed diesel commuter rail service will improve regional air quality by diverting automobile commuters to trains and thus significantly reducing the number of automobile miles traveled. The project will result in substantial net reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons. While the project will result in net increases of certain other emissions (particulates and nitrogen oxides) these increases are comparable to or smaller than the net increases for the boat alternatives and are not significant on either a local or regional scale. Concerns have been expressed about the health impacts of diesel train emissions on people who live close to the Greenbush Line. These concerns are unfounded. The concentration of pollutants from locomotive exhaust along the line from trains passing are insignificant compared to the ambient levels of these pollutants from other sources such as power plants, trucks, boats, residential oil burners, and airplanes. The US Environmental Protection Agency has reported that diesel railroad operations do not result in local violations of air quality standards even in large railroad yards where emission concentrations are highest.

The MBTA has documented that commuter rail projects do not encourage sprawl, rather they discourage sprawl by reinforcing the economic vitality of downtown Boston, the employment hub of the region. Commuter rail further encourages transit-oriented development patterns by decreasing automobile dependency. The South Shore/Old Colony region of Massachusetts was growing rapidly long before the commuter rail lines started operation - commuter rail is a response to this development, not the cause of it.

The MBTA is working cooperatively with the towns and the local business communities to plan construction detours and sequencing in a manner that minimizes construction disruptions to the surrounding areas. The MBTA and the contractor will be focusing particular attention on the Weymouth Landing and Hingham Square areas to ensure that the lengthy construction process required to construct underpasses in these areas is accomplished in the least disruptive manner possible. When completed, these underpasses will eliminate the traffic impacts of trains crossing the streets.

The MBTA has also expended considerable effort to design the Greenbush Line in a manner which minimizes the number of grade crossings. The number of public grade crossings has been reduced from 40 to 25 through the construction of new over- and underpasses and the closure of several lightly used and redundant crossings. The number of grade crossings on the Greenbush Line is neither unusually high nor unprecedented. Each of these crossings will be equipped with gates, flashing lights, a bell, and medians to provide the highest level of safety and warning possible. In addition, the MBTA will also provide its railroad safety awareness program to the schools in the towns along the line and to community groups to make children and adults aware of the dangers of ignoring the warnings at crossings and trespassing on the railroad tracks. These warning systems and the safety awareness programs are used throughout the MBTA commuter rail system and have proven very effective at preventing grade crossing accidents. Safety efforts such as these have contributed to a sustained, long-term decline in grade crossing accidents nationwide.

The MBTA has performed extensive analysis of commuter rail operations at South Station and on the Old Colony main line between South Station and Braintree. There is adequate space at South Station to accommodate the proposed Greenbush Line trains. Service on the Old Colony lines to Kingston and Middleborough will continue with only minor schedule adjustments and service will not be reduced when the Greenbush Line starts service. The Greenbush Line project does not preclude the expansion of service to New Bedford and Fall River, nor does it prevent increases in capacity on the other two Old Colony lines. The transportation needs of the redeveloped South Weymouth Naval Air Station property have not yet been determined, but the developer has stated that Greenbush is a necessary component of the air station's transportation plan.

The Greenbush Line is the third branch of the Old Colony commuter rail extension. The Old Colony project was designed to accommodate full service on all three branches to Middleborough, Kingston, and Greenbush. Service will be convenient with 12 round trips each weekday (including 5 trains in each peak commuting period) and 8 on weekends. This level of service is similar to that provided on the Kingston Line, Middleborough Line, and the other 11 lines in the MBTA commuter rail system. The Greenbush Line is expected to carry over 8400 riders each day. Each of the seven new stations are being designed with adequate parking. Each of the stations will be provided with at least 20% more spaces than the projected average parking demand for a total of over 3100 parking spaces (35% greater than the projected average demand). The proposed trains will be modern, quiet, smooth, clean, and attractive, unlike those some may remember from the 1950's. Like the other two Old Colony lines, the Greenbush Line stations will be equipped with fully-accessible raised platforms that eliminate the need to climb stairs to bard the trains.

The Greenbush Line is being constructed using a "design-build" contracting arrangement. This design-build contract was awarded in February 2002 for a firm, lump sum price of $252 million. The design-build contracting method places responsibility for both design and construction quality on a single contractor. This arrangement, combined with the lump-sum, all-inclusive nature of this particular contract, will minimize the potential for change orders and cost growth. While Greenbush is the MBTA's first large-scale use of design-build, design-build has been used successfully on many other large transit projects elsewhere in the United States.

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Environmental Impact Report

The MBTA filed the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the Greenbush Rail Restoration Project on May 22, 2001 (Executive Office of Environmental Affairs number 5840). Following the public comment period, the Secretary of Environmental Affairs issued a Certificate approving the FEIR on August 17, 2002.

In accordance with the preference expressed in the Certificate, the MBTA has selected the "North of Driftway" location for the Greenbush station and layover facility. The arrangement of the station and layover facility was modified from the plan presented in the FEIR to reduce impacts on adjacent residences through discussion and agreement with the Town of Scituate.

The MBTA also set up a Working Group as recommended in the Certificate to consider the feasibility of depressing the railroad so that it crosses under the roads in Weymouth Landing rather than at street level. The Working Group Report issued on November 28, 2001 recommended a variation on the depressed alternative (known as the "Revised Modified Shallow Cut") and the MBTA subsequently entered into agreements with the Towns of Braintree and Weymouth making this alternative part of the Project.

The MBTA has entered into Mitigation Agreements with each of the five towns through which the Greenbush Line passes. The agreements with the Towns of Hingham and Cohasset are included in the FEIR (Chapter 8). The agreements with the Towns of Braintree, Weymouth, and Scituate were signed on December 17, 2001, December 27, 2001, and March 28, 2002 respectively.

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