State Emphasizes Commitment to Green Line, But Funding is Tight

In an email sent late Monday afternoon, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and MBTA acknowledged public concerns about the future of the Green Line extension project and said the state remains committed to the effort.

The email, however, acknowledged funding is a major obstacle for completing the project, which at the moment is expected to cost $1 billion.

On the one hand, the state is relying on funding from the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program to pay for the Green Line extension.

On the other hand, the MBTA must prove its "fundamental financial health" to successfully acquire New Starts funding, and that's "a threshold which will be difficult for the MBTA to meet," according to the email.

Earlier this month, MassDOT and the MBTA announced the schedule for building the Green Line extension, previously slated for completion in 2015 (and legally required to be complete by the end of 2014), was .

Questions and answers

In a series of questions and answers, Monday's email sought to affirm the state's commitment to seeing the project through.

"Can you explain the additional delay to me?" asks one question.

The answer: "MassDOT and the MBTA have developed the new schedule because the Green Line Extension project has reached a significant milestone: the transition from planning to design. Being at that inflection point provides us with a fundamental better and deeper understanding of the challenges and risks involved in the project than was previously available to us."

Another question, asked and answered in the email: "Have MassDOT and the MBTA decided to shelve work on the Green Line Extension project for the moment?"

Answer: "No, definitely not."

Steering Group
The email also announced they have "called for the creation of a small Steering Group to consider ways to improve the schedule." The steering group will first meet in September, the email says. It did not say who would serve on the steering group.

You can read the full email from MassDOT and the MBTA here.