Committee sues to restore Green Line to Forest Hills

Banner Staff

The Arborway Committee earlier this week filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court to compel the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to restore service on the E branch of the Green Line beyond Heath Street to the Arborway at Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain. The Arborway project was one of the original Big Dig transit commitments, which the state promised to complete as part of the overall Central Artery project.

The committee is a volunteer group of residents and merchants in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood that advocates for quality public transit in the urban environment. One of the chief objectives of the committee is the restoration of Green Line service to Jamaica Plain.

In December, the administration of former Gov. Mitt Romney put the Arborway project to rest despite efforts by transit advocates to advance the project. This suit names two state agencies — the Executive Office of Transportation and Department of Public Works — and the Conservation Law Foundation as co-defendants.

“The decision by the Romney administration to cancel the project [was] unconscionable,” said Arborway Committee Chair Franklyn Salimbene. “Jamaica Plain is on the ‘top 10 list’ of neighborhoods with the highest asthma rates in the entire state. Restoring Green Line service is the only viable way of improving public transit and thereby improving air quality in Jamaica Plain. Route 39 bus service has been, is and promises to continue to be both ineffective and unhealthful.”

According to statistics from the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Jamaica Plain suffers 105 asthma hospitalizations per 1,000 among residents of all ages. Among children under five years old, according to Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) figures, the rate of asthma hospitalizations in Jamaica Plain is higher than in many other Boston neighborhoods, which are at about 10 per 1000.

BPHC figures also show that asthma rates are increasing most dramatically in Boston’s Latino community, the greatest concentration of which lives in the Hyde Square area of Jamaica Plain, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

The current number 39 bus service, substituted for the Green Line in 1986, has experienced a significant decline in ridership. MBTA statistics show that since 1997, daily ridership on the 39 has fallen by roughly 5,000 passengers, from approximately 19,000 to 14,000. Since the inception of the substitute service in 1986, the 39 has lost 50 percent of its ridership.

“The remarkable fact is that while 39 ridership has fallen precipitously, during the same period combined Orange Line daily ridership at Jamaica Plain’s four stations has remained flat at approximately 23,000,” said John Kyper, transportation chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. “This loss of public transit ridership has a negative impact both on the health of Jamaica Plain residents and on the health of MBTA revenues. It couldn’t be much worse.”