In December, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted to give approval for a feasibility study centered around extending the MBTA Orange Line into the Roslindale Village Commuter Rail Stop.

This is an initial step, and not the first time the state, the city or the MBTA has looked at extending the Orange Line into Rozzie Square. The feasibility study will take up $100,000 and would have the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) look at how much it would cost to extend to Roslindale, ridership impacts, environmental impacts, possible funding sources and regional equity. The report would be due by June 26 of this year.

The resolve (H 3733) was filed by State Rep. Bill MacGregor, but State Sen. Michael Rush has been introducing versions of the proposal since at least 2021. MacGregor has also pushed for a new station for the Needham Line near the West Roxbury High School around the VFW, since that area is underserved by even the Commuter Rail.

In Boston’s transportation plan, Go Boston 2030 (now Go Boston 2030 ReVisioned) there was talk and investigation into an Orange Line Exenstion to Roslindale as far back as 2017. At the time, the project’s cost was estimated to be about $300 million, just to go to Roslindale – https://tinyurl.com/3tar9nj9

TransitMatters proposed scraping the Needham Commuter Rail Line entirely and making the whole route an Orange Line rapid transit line – https://tinyurl.com/3h4w5ynh – though the group only estimated a cost of $285 million for the Rozzie extension and $96 million to get to the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, in 2020. That’s below the Go Boston estimate of $300 million just for the extension in Rozzie. According to the State House News Service, a Boston Transportation Study put that cost at $500 million, again back in 2017.

In fact, planning maps from the 1960s showed pushing the Orange Line into Needham was the plan all along, extending into West Roxbury and Needham along the Commuter Rail right-of-way.

And this plan just to extend the Orange Line into Roslindale has been resurfacing for years now. It has broad popularity, as shown by the Go Boston 2030 plan documents as well as past community meetings held by WalkUP Roslindale – https://tinyurl.com/mr3w8xj7

However, cost seems to be the major barrier, and its estimates have significantly risen since 2017. According to Google Maps, the distance between the stations is 1.3 miles. Half the track for the commuter rail is double track, but it joins while passing Peter’s Hill at the Arnold Arboretum.

The average cost per mile of surface rail was about $118 million (according to a 2021 article from Construction Dive – https://tinyurl.com/ymsm2mne) even to just build half-a-mile of new track to allow for two trains – be they Orange Line or Commuter Rail – to pass each other. So that’s $59 million for the new rails, plus all the work to make the station accessible (as we learned through the Fairmount Line’s construction, commuter rail stock and rapid transit stock have entrances at different heights), the costs for a third rail, and a new switch.

Speaking of the Fairmount Line, it should be noted that it is becoming a rapid transit line with electric battery trains offering service, hopefully, every half hour when they come into operation in a few years and operating on existing commuter rail infrastructure.

Just something to consider for the Needham Line.