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Mattapan stops, weekend service and train cars bring rapid transit service to Fairmount Line

Yawu Miller
Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO
Mattapan stops, weekend service and train cars bring rapid transit service to Fairmount Line
State Rep. Russell Holmes announces changes to the Fairmount Line. Looking on are City Councilor Timothy McCarthy, state Transportation Secretary Richard Davey, state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, City Councilor Charles Yancey and Gov. Deval Patrick. (Banner photo)

Gov. Deval Patrick and local elected officials gathered at the site of the planned Blue Hill Avenue stop on the Fairmount line in Mattapan to announce changes that will transform the commuter rail into a rapid transit system and shave as much as 40 minutes off of commute times for area residents.

The MBTA plans to purchase diesel multiple unit rail cars that will allow for more frequency than the large, locomotive-driven commuter rail trains currently running on the line. Fares along the line will be held at $2.10 each way, the same as other rapid transit lines, and commuters will be able to make free transfers to the Red Line or Silver Line once the trains reach South Station.

The line will have weekend service, and commuters will be able to use Charlie Cards on the line.

The changes, along with a new design for the Blue Hill Avenue station that locates a passenger platform between the inbound and outbound tracks, will transform commutes for Mattapan residents, according to state Rep. Russell Holmes.

“It means a one-seat ride that gets us downtown,” he said. “It will save each commuter between half an hour and 40 minutes each way. You’re giving folks back 10 days a year.”

Currently, Mattapan residents commuting to jobs downtown have to choose between boarding a trolley at Mattapan Station and then transferring to a Red Line train, or taking the 31 bus to Forest Hills and boarding the Orange Line.

“I grew up having to make that decision,” Holmes said.

In recent decades the Fairmount Line, which originates in Hyde Park, passed through Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxbury stopping only at Morton Street and Dudley Street.

Over the last seven years, officials at the MBTA have developed plans to turn the Fairmount Line into a rapid transit service, building new stops at Newmarket, Four Corners/Geneva Avenue and Talbot Avenue.

The MBTA has charged riders rapid transit fares on the line, but did not offer free transfers at South Station, and ran the trains at half-hour intervals that made the line less convenient for center city commuters.

With the diesel multiple units —smaller trains, each with its own diesel-electric engine—the MBTA will be able to run smaller trains on the line with greater frequency. The MBTA will buy 30 of the cars for the Fairmount Line and other commuter rail lines, at an estimated cost of $240 million. MBTA officials expect delivery of the first cars in 2018.

The construction of the Mattapan station is expected to begin in 2015 and will be completed in 2017, according to MBTA officials. Earlier plans for the station, which called for platforms on either side of the tracks, met with stiff resistance from abutters who worried that construction of the platforms would necessitate blasting into the rock ledges beside the tracks and possibly compromise the foundation of the homes sited next to the line.

By siting the platform between the inbound and outbound tracks, the MBTA will not have to significantly widen the right of way.

The construction of the new station is expected to spur new development in the area, including the site of the former Cody Ford dealership at the Cummings Highway side of the station. The project will also give Mattpan residents better access to jobs downtown, officials said.

“The Blue Hill Avenue Station will connect our community with downtown and to the rest of the city, increasing greater access to jobs, services and opportunities,” said state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry. “I want to thank the community for their hard work throughout this process. This project will allow Mattapan residents to compete for quality jobs.”

City Councilor Charles Yancey said new station is one of several major improvements to Mattapan, including the new Mattapan Branch Library, the Midred Avenue Community Center and the reconstruction of nearby Almont Park.

MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott said she was “humbled and gratified” to work on the Fairmount Line, a project that has gained national attention.

“I knew about the Fairmount Corridor before I even came here,” she said.