Long a champion of commuter rail expansion, ex-governor touts long-planned route at Taunton event

TAUNTON – Former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential nominee Mike Dukakis stepped into the South Coast Rail debate Friday, urging a sparse crowd at the Silver City Galleria to support the long-planned route through Stoughton rather than the new Middleboro alternative that emerged over the summer.

“Pardon the pun, but you’re on the right track,” Dukakis said. “Stick with Stoughton, because that’s the way we’re going to get things done.”



Dukakis criticized what he called “dithering around” from one proposed alternative to another, and questioned MassDOT’s projection in June that costs for the Stoughton route had climbed from $2.2 billion to about $3.4 billion. That projection spurred discussion of limited, diesel-fueled train service through Middleboro, which drew support at public meetings in New Bedford and Fall River last month.



“These cost figures have got to be challenged,” countered Dukakis, who served as governor from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991. Dukakis also called commuter rail through Middleboro “impossible” and said: “It’s going to get in the way of extending rail to the Cape.”



Dukakis, 82, said transportation projects including South Coast Rail through Stoughton, commuter rail from Springfield and rail expansions to Cape Cod should be topping the state’s priority list.



“Folks, it’s getting embarrassing — we can’t get anything done in this area,” he said, referring to South Coast Rail. “There’s no reason for that.”



State Sen. Marc Pacheco — a Taunton Democrat and staunch supporter of the Stoughton route — hosted Friday’s forum, which was held on the Galleria’s first floor in conjunction with Bristol Community College’s Taunton Center.



The Middleboro route has seen growing support in greater New Bedford and Fall River since it was introduced by MassDOT in a June 27 presentation to the MBTA Fiscal Management and Control Board.



Backers led by state Rep. Bill Straus, a Mattapoisett Democrat who chairs the legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee, have said running trains east from Taunton to Middleboro — rather than north to Stoughton — could achieve commuter service to Boston sooner and at a lower cost.



There also was talk Friday, though, about the potential loss of a separate project that has been tied to the Middleboro route.



Joshua Ostroff, interim director of the advocacy coalition Transportation for Massachusetts, told the Taunton gathering that after a Thursday meeting of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, a proposed widening of the I-93 section known as the Southeast Expressway “seems to be off the table.”



MassDOT’s June presentation to the MBTA control board included the potential widening of that section, which stretches from the Braintree split at Route 3 to South Boston and passes the Savin Hill MBTA station in Dorchester. The project also could increase train service through Middleboro, with underground tracks built at the same time.



Jean Fox, South Coast Rail project manager for MassDOT, said Friday that an expressway project only would be needed for full train service through Middleboro, and would not affect the limited service that’s currently being studied. Straus said the expressway proposal has, “no permit or funding or legal connection to the new Middleboro alternative.”



Limited train service through Middleboro could mean two trains a day departing from New Bedford, and two from Fall River. Pacheco said at full build-out, the Stoughton route could handle 20 trains a day.



Pacheco said rushing for limited, “interim” service through Middleboro would not bring the economic and quality-of-life gains that a Stoughton route could provide.



“We’re making a generational investment,” Pacheco said. “You’ve got to do it right.”



Follow Mike Lawrence on Twitter @MikeLawrenceSCT



