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Coalition Introduced To Expand MBTA Service To Minority Areas

A coalition working toward a more equal distribution of MBTA coverage was introduced yesterday at the State House.

The coalition, called “On the Move: Greater Boston Transportation Justice Coalition,” includes 40 signatories from grass root community, environmental and public health organizations.

The coalition’s platform is a response to the 25-year-old Regional Transportation Plan that the coalition believes insufficiently allocated funding for public transportation in low-income and minority communities.

“It’s a pattern we call transit injustice and transit racism,” said Penn Loh, executive director of Alternatives for Community and Environment.

Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester are three of the most densely populated and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the Greater Boston area, but these areas do not receive adequate public transportation, Loh said.

In addition to presenting its platform, the coalition called on acting Gov. Jane Swift to answer its three immediate demands. The group’s demands were to add light rail replacement service on Washington Street, as well as 100 clean fuel buses, to the Regional Transportation Plan, and to expand the Metropolitan Planning Organization to include seats for members who represent lower-income and minority communities.

“We participated in their [the MPO] process in good faith,” said Khalida Smalls, coordinator of the T Riders Union. “They ignored our priorities. We are sick and tired of being ignored. Other communities are not treated this way.”

Smalls said the push for a light rail is in response to the inadequacy of the number 49 bus, which currently serves between downtown Boston and its peripheral towns. This is the only bus that serves that area and downtown, and it does not have space for the large number of people who need it.

“April 30 marks the 15th anniversary of the shut down of the elevated orange line on Washington Street,” said Bob Terrell, executive director of the Washington Street Corridor Coalition. “By putting rail for Washington Street back into the Regional Transportation Plan, Swift would be taking the first step in restoring decent, adequate transportation to the Washington Street corridor.”

Ben Geffen, a transportation associate at Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, said the clean fuel buses are needed to mitigate the effects of air pollution and curb lung cancer in children. He added that increased pollution could be a cause of pediatric asthma cases doubling in Boston.

The coalition is also trying to change the MPO by getting representation from community members who are most affected by the daily mass transit problems that face the city.

“We are literally sick and tired of waiting in the snow for the public transit system,” Loh said. “We are outraged that the state is spending billions on the Big Dig while neglecting mass transit projects.”

The staff attorney at Alternatives for Community and Environment, John Rumpler, said the MPO could possibly be infringing upon federal civil rights law, because of the racism exhibited in ignoring minority neighborhoods’ transportation woes.

The MPO must submit a new RTP by Friday to the Federal Transit Administration for re-certification, according to the coalition’s press release. The coalition believes the MPO has not taken the proposed corrective environmental measures in its new RTP and could possibly lose its re-certification. Without proper certification, the state may lose all funding for future transportation needs.

“We hope Gov. Jane Swift will take steps to intervene on our behalf before the state submits a Regional Transportation Plan that is unlawful and unjust,” Smalls said.

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