A whole range of interests and backgrounds were represented, including a number of present and former APT members, often identifying themselves under the rubric of other organizations. For example, Anne McKinnon of the group Transportation Without Trolleys, John Kyper of the Washington Street Corridor Coalition, and Anne Fanton, a former APT Board member.

Dennis DiZoglio: Phase III of the Silver Line [being the undergound portion between South Station and Chinatown via Boylston Station]. It has a high price tag, 60% of which would be borne by the Federal Government. We need a lot of support because the project has a "low" cost effectiveness as a federal "New Starts" project.

Question, from the standpoint of nearby residents: What about the construction at Tremont St., with the street being plated over for a long period of time? At night, trucks proceeding over these plates make a lot of noise.

Q. (Barry M. Steinberg): How valuable is the proposed underground bus loop at Boylston Station, under the Green Line?

A. This could serve as a site for 'platooning' of vehicles, dependent on future travel patterns, many years into the future [Translation: The capability of turning vehicles back, rather than running the entire route].

Q. Steinberg: What about the possibility of a walkway or maybe a moving sidewalk from a simpler, non-turnback Silver Line Boylston Station? Their comment: Excellent question.

Q. Local resident: We have not been informed about what the T is working on in detail, e.g., the relocation of the YMCA.

A. We have met with the Doubletree Hotel and others. This is a major funding problem. There is a responsibility both on the part of the T and consultants for communication with the community.

Q. John Kyper: I think this whole thing would be more efficient as a branch of the Green Line.

A. Light rail does not have the same flexibility five to fifteen years in the future to change the service. This does not preclude the possibility of upgrading it to install light rail.

Q. Tom Palmer, Boston Globe, about the equipment to be used.

A. Trackless trolleys are on order for temporary service. These would be replaced by dual-mode buses, which are due in next year.

Q. Why not South Boston service from Broadway [The street, not the station.]?

A. Dave Carney of the T South Boston Waterfront Advisory Committee has been looking at this for the last year and a half.

Q. (Posited by a T official): How do you make a proposal for a project that is a 'winner' for federal funding?

A. (Shirley Kressel): The environmental justice community is concerned about this. If you use light rail, the cost would be less, but it would impact the Green Line.

Q. What we look at is light rail from Dudley Station with a change at Boylston. The Urban Ring is going to take away a lot of the strain.

Comment made: We want to go from Dudley to Park St. What jobs are there at the airport? This development should be the [promised] substitute for the Orange Line elevated.

Bob Tirrell, Washington St. Corridor Coalition: We would only need six two-car trains to provide the service.

DiZoglio: "Upgrade" to light rail was a poor choice of words on my part. We can do both by combining the issues: Unifying South Boston and Washington St.

Downtown, we have a 60% mode share of workers riding the T. You would not have that ratio if passengers have to transfer. Currently, without good public transit in the area, visitors use chartered buses or private transportation to get where they are going. [Editor's comment: But they are not going to Washington St. They are going to hotels on the Boylston St. Green Line corridor.]

Shirley Kressel: This meeting is being run by the T with the residents in the peanut gallery. Why not a meeting under the auspices of the Washington St. Corridor Coalition, with the T in the audience?

Note: After the meeting was over, Steinberg privately commented to the principals that much of the rationale behind not making the Silver Line light rail, using existing facilities, is what is officially felt to be the limited capacity of the Green Line. Instead of an exorbitant bus loop under and around Boylston Station, why not alleviate the Green Line bottleneck by providing an additional set of double tracks between Park St. and Government Center Station? This also is not cheap, but quite possibly something that ought to be done anyway. Of course, the Blue-Red Connector would also relieve much of the pressure on the Green Line in the area.

An additional comment: With the proposed northern extensions of the Green Line, there would be even more pressure on the Green Line, making the additional track capacity on the Green Line as suggested above more pressing.