Association for Public Transportation, Inc.

Discussion of Magazine Beach/ Beacon Park Railroad Bridge Area.

Marilyn Wellons and Robert La Trémouille, Cambridge residents, spoke about the proposed Urban Ring busway at the Charles River crossing. They feel this MBTA (i.e. federal) money potentially is being ‘stolen' for use as an urban ring highway. They look on this as feeding into Memorial Drive, converting it into a highway. The City of Cambridge is the only entity putting this together with other seemingly unrelated projects into one package. They, as members of Friends of the White Geese, are trying to stop this.

Barry Andelman: Dan Grabauskas, Secretary of Transportation and Construction, is open to having issues of this kind aired.

Marilyn: This [secret package] seems like a renewal of the Inner Belt.

Fred: We want to concentrate on where our issues intersect.

2. Officers' Reports.

A. Fred Moore, President.  At the Regional Transportation Advisory Council (RTAC) meeting today, Senator Havern was discussing funding. Forward funding of the T is not adequate, but it is a step forward. The Commonwealth still will have to provide supplemental money for capital projects.  In today's Globe, there was an article about the Mass. Turnpike Authority idea about a monorail to the western suburbs. At the RTAC meeting, Fred commented on the subject: Nowhere in the world does a monorail exceed 35 m.p.h. On the other hand, to have a maglev, you need cheap electricity. Again, re a highway median location: This becomes a highway-oriented transit project. People are not going to walk to this type of location.

B. Romin Koebel, Vice President.  We are now members of Move Massachusetts. Parcel 6 of the Central Artery Project, near Haymarket Square: Romin went on a site visit and presentation. There was another meeting on the same day as our previous APT Board meeting. At this meeting there was a presentation on the Bulfinch Triangle at Canal St. In attendance was Buzz Constable of Transit Realty, which is the privatized version of the T's Real Estate Dept.

Reconnaissance Studies. These are generic questions that could be couched in specific projects, for example our proposal for a Hingham Square non-parking railroad station. We could advance this as a way of having CTPS, the Central Transportation Planning Staff, study it. But the proposal would have to be very well circumscribed.We have to contact one of these towns: Newburyport, Plymouth or Hingham to see if there is some receptivity to such a station location.  Regarding the Wharf District Advisory Committee, Fred asked that we drop hints about the proposal for the Central Artery Streetcar.

Fred: With a limited number of transit activists on board, we cannot attack too many projects at one time. We have to concentrate on do-able projects. And we have to devote ourselves to one project. Perhaps we could get behind Herb Pence's proposed Central Artery Streetcar by pushing a reconnaissance study.

C. Barry Andelman, APT Liaison to the MBTA.

(1) Barry has been calling our members and contacting new people about either becoming members or becoming more active members.

(2) Will APT be a member of the T's new Rider Oversight Committee? Barry is going to contact the T people about this question.

(3) There was a discussion of the T's Capital Investment Plan, about which a series of official meetings are currently in progress.

(4) The T's Erik Scheier contacted Barry. If we are interested, they would appreciate input about ways they can save money. Items proposed needn't be large projects. Romin, Barry A., John Hostage and Barry Steinberg are going to be on an APT committee to look at these sort of things. We could also e-mail information about this sort of thing to Barry Andelman.

3. Framework for Advocacy. Fred. Principles:

A. We want public outreach: This is what APT does.

B. Operations liaison.

C. Working with planning agencies. Everything we do is to be subsumed in one of these three categories.

4. Meetings.  Upcoming must-attend meetings: Barry S. and Romin: Move Mass. Barry A.: The next C.I.P. meeting.  Romin: The Mayor's task force on completion of the Central Artery.

5. Annual Meeting Planning.Fred: What details are needed? We need this information for the January meeting.

6. The meeting adjourned 8:08 p.m.