MBTA, MassDOT launch study to extend Somerville service
Community Content
The MBTA and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation recently announced the launch of the Silver Line Extension Alternatives Analysis to assess the feasibility, utility, and cost of various alignment and service frequency options for extending Silver Line service to Everett, Somerville, Cambridge and Boston.
“We’re excited to collaborate with MassDOT on this analysis of Silver Line service,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “Studying the extension of the Silver Line to Everett and beyond is a key objective of Focus40 and an important step in improving service to essential workers and transit-critical populations that live far from the Orange and Blue Lines and rely on bus service to get to work and other destinations.”
If former MassDOT Director Stephanie Pollack needed a guinea pig for exciting transportation experiments, Everett was willing to be the test subject, and Mayor Carlo DeMaria and Pollack forged a partnership over the last six years that brought about such exciting pilot programs that have now spread across the region.
Former MassDOT Director Stephanie Pollack with Mayor Carlo DeMaria last October in Everett Square at the kick-off of Re-Imagining Broadway.
Pollack, who focused in on Everett early six years ago due to the City’s willingness to lead and pay for initiatives, announced last week that she was leaving MassDOT to become Deputy Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration under new President Joe Biden. Leaving a state Republican Administration for a federal Democratic Administration, Pollack left her job in Massachusetts on Tuesday, but was not forgotten in Everett.
Though long-awaited, the study to examine an extension of the Silver Line from Chelsea to Everett – and on into Charlestown, Somerville and Cambridge – has kicked off and will make final recommendations within 18 months.
“We’re excited to collaborate with MassDOT on this analysis of Silver Line service,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “Studying the extension of the Silver Line to Everett and beyond is a key objective of Focus40 and an important step in improving service to essential workers and transit-critical populations that live far from the Orange and Blue Lines and rely on bus service to get to work and other destinations.”