The Herald reports (from a press release no doubt) that the Sierra Club is planning to launch a three-month campaign to bring about a North-South Station rail link. (See the Club’s site). An uninterrupted train ride through the city would be nice, but from an environmental point of view, I can’t think of anything more frivolous. As it is, there is not much train travel from Vermont and Maine - and even the relatively popular Downeaster between Portland and Boston is mainly that, a regional train. Maine residents are likely to fly going to New York or DC. Commuter rail schedules are already geared toward shuttling workers in and out of the city, so other obstacles stand in the way of northern suburb to southern suburb transit. And then, there is the sheer expense of an underground rail tunnel. Those resources should be directed to areas where less money can bring more substantial reduction of pollution and more comprehensive improvement in transportation infrastrcuture. If the Sierra Club were really interested in getting cars off the road, they’d be lobbying for an urban ring subway instead of fretting over the aesthetics of intercity train travel.
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