Newton Mayor Asks MBTA To Update 3 Stations

NEWTON, MA — Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller took a trip to the MBTA offices in Boston Monday to advocate for renovations and accessibility updates at the Auburndale, West Newton and Newtonville MBTA stations.

"We have a lot of opportunity," said Fuller to the MBTA Control Board referencing utilization of the commuter rail and getting congestion off city streets as the city works to update its Washington Street Corridor, "But only if your three stations work."

Fuller said she went to make it clear to the control board that all three stations needed to be accessible and that the platforms should be designed so that Newton have frequent train service in both directions at all times of the day.

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Currently at the stations passengers not only have to face a lot of stairs to get to the tracks, but the way the platforms are set up means that essentially you can only go inbound to Boston in the morning and outbound back to Newton in the late afternoon.

"It clearly makes commuting much more limiting, certainly for reverse commuters," said Fuller in a phone interview.

Newton's ADA Coordinator Jini Fairley told the control board that there hasn't been an accessible update to the rail since the 1960s in Newton.

"We're really, really, really needing this commuter station to allow folks with mobility impairments to come in," she told the board.

"Anywhere from 12 to 20 percent of Newton's population are people with disabilities," said Fairley. "With elders, 1/3 of the population are not able to take very easily these trains. We already fill the trains with able body folks but we still want that population that's not being served."

Add to that development plans near the three stations:

Newton has invested in $500,000 to create special zoning along the Washington Street corridor with plans to add at least 208 units with proposals on the way that may add 1,000 more units.

The commuter rail and MBTA stations are critical to the city's community visioning process, said Fuller and Planning Director Barney Heath.

"We made a strong case for why, both for our current residents and employees, it is critical to have that accessibility and frequent service," she said. "If development occurs along the Washington Street Cooridor how it’s critical to make sure our streets aren’t congested with cars."

Currently, the MBTA's Capital Improvement Plan includes a $20 million to provide accessibility to the Auburndale commuter rail station.

But Newton City Hall learned in the past year that in order to have stations not only accessible and frequent train service the Auburndale, Newton and Newtonville stations should be updated at the same time. The MBTA did a feasibility study that showed a number of alternatives.

The city officials were under the impression that to update one direction of all three stations' platforms it would cost around $55 million over a six year period. That means there's a $35 million funding gap.

Fuller appealed to the MBTA to help bridge that gap - potentially with a public-private partnership- so that the three stations could be worked on.

"During the meeting today we had some potentially good news, which is the $55 million may be able to shrink to $46 million, so the gap may be smaller than we initially understood," she said.

But there's still a funding gap.

"I am hopeful that the MBTA will approve going ahead with the design but we have to wait for the vote," she told Patch adding she expects them to vote on it in the next two weeks.

Fuller said that means there's still time for people to write to the MBTA fiscal management and control board at 10 Park Plaza, Boston MA 02116 and weigh in.

"The city is working closely with our State Sen. Cindy Creem and State Reps Kay Khan and Ruth Balser to encourage the MBTA to invest in the three commuter rail stations here in Newton. We need accessible stations and we need frequent service," said Fuller.

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File Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch