Uphams Corner Stop a new beginning for transit dreams

Byline

Community and environmental organizations hailed the grand opening Tuesday of the Uphams Corner station on the Fairmount commuter rail line as a first step in bringing rapid transit to inner-city neighborhoods long underserved by slow bus service.

The ribbon cutting marked the beginning of what advocates and residents envision as the “Indigo Line” — transformation of an underutilized commuter rail line into new service for Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park by creating a series of convenient stations with frequent and affordable service providing a direct trip to downtown Boston. The Fairmount/Indigo Line Coalition, an alliance of community development corporations, environmental organizations and community groups, has long called for the Indigo Line as a way to reconnect the neighborhoods the line passes through with the rest of the city and provide access to jobs.

“The residents who live along the Fairmount Line deserve a quick and simple transit ride into downtown,” said Carrie Russell, staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, a member of the Coalition. “The Uphams Corner stop and all the other stops promised to the residents of Boston are a step in the right direction toward transit equality.”

The Fairmount commuter rail line runs directly through the city of Boston but has failed to serve many of the low-income and minority neighborhoods it passes through. The Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Transportation committed to building at least four new stations along the line and to improve service in 2006 in the settlement of a lawsuit filed by CLF to enforce public transit commitments first promised in 1990 in exchange for the construction of the Big Dig.

The Fairmount/Indigo Line Coalition is a collaborative effort of:  Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation, Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, Project RIGHT, Mattapan Community Development Corporation, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, Greater Bowdoin Geneva Neighborhood Association, City Life/Vida Urbana and Conservation Law Foundation.