Coalition files FTA complaint vs. MBTA

Coalition files FTA complaint vs. MBTA

A coalition of environmental groups has escalated its longstanding dispute with the MBTA with a formal complaint to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater alleging that the transit agency has violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by disinvesting in transportation in minority communities.

The complaint, filed last week, targets the agency's spending on the Big Dig project, the South Boston transitway and commuter rail projects underway and recently completed in the area.

While the MBTA has spent $537 million on its Old Colony commuter rail line, which opened in 1997, and plans to spend in excess of $600 million on the South Boston Transitway, a four-mile dedicated right-of-way bus line along the waterfront, spending in the inner cities has been minimal, said NAACP Boston Branch president Leonard Alkins.

"When you look at the dollars they have spent just on suburban commuter rail lines," he said, "once again you see that the communities of color are taking a back seat to the suburbs."

The complaint alleges that the MBTA concealed "a pattern of unequal service on the basis of race and income" by not providing information comparing service to different neighborhoods in reports the authority must file with the federal government under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Robert Prince denied there were any disparities in to minority communities.

"Trying to turn the wheel on this stuff is not as easy as it looks, but by no stretch of the imagination are we not putting forward a balanced system," Prince said. "It's difficult because everyone wants it yesterday. But we have well-planned capital investments and we're tweaking the existing system for better service every day."

Alkins and others in the coalition complain that while riders from more affluent communities like Newton and Brookline are assured a one-fare, one-seat connection to downtown, riders from inner city communities are forced to rely on a network of diesel buses that pollute their neighborhoods, require transfers and multiple fares.

"Fifteen years after the elevated Orange Line came down, we still don't have a replacement service," he said. "This wouldn't happen in Brookline or Newton."

The complaint comes after the coalition of activists, which includes the NAACP, the Roxbury Based Alternatives for Communities and Environment and the Conservation Law Foundation, called on the FTA to reconsider a ruling that the MBTA was in compliance with federal laws mandating that it take steps to mitigate pollution from the central artery/third harbor tunnel project.

While the project is expected to increase auto traffic and, therefore, pollution in the area, the state's department of transportation is required to take steps to encourage the use of mass transit and thereby reduce the amount of auto traffic and pollution in the area.

MBTA officials have pointed to the Old Colony line and their fledgling steps to introduce alternative fuel buses in the inner cities. But Alkins and others say the FTA laws mandate that the state apply mitigation in the inner city, as well as in the suburbs.

Activists in the black community have long sought a light rail vehicle, or trolly service, as a replacement for the Orange Line. But instead, the MBTA plans to run a bus line -- that would not have a dedicated right of way -- in the place of the Orange Line.

Currently, passengers travelling from Dudley Station to downtown can take the 49 bus, which runs along Washington Street to Chauncey Street. The route provides no connection to downtown.

MBTA officials allege that the new bus line, dubbed the Silver Line, will eventually provide an underground connection to the subway. By the year 2008, MBTA officials say, the line will connect with the South Boston Transitway and provide riders with a one-fare, one-seat connection to Logan Airport.

Material from the Associated Press

Photo (Robert Prince)