Coming down the track, a Four Corners upgrade

Danah Tench begins every workday with a vexing decision -- how to get to work. The lifelong Four Corners resident calculates how to get out of the huge section of Boston where T maps show no Red, Orange, Green, or Blue lines.

Tench must choose between a few different bus and subway routes to get from Dorchester to downtown, sometimes driving part of the way. Getting downtown usually takes her an hour, longer than many suburban commuter rail trips.

As Tench meanders her way downtown, meanwhile, the commuter rail speeds through Four Corners -- and some of Boston's densest, poorest neighborhoods -- without stopping.

That's going to change.

The commuter rail will stop in Four Corners and other neighborhoods by 2011, according to a recent settlement between the Conservation Law Foundation and the state that forces a deadline for the first time. Four new stations that have been discussed for years will finally be built on the little-used Fairmount Line, which starts in Hyde Park and currently stops only once in Mattapan and once in Dorchester.

While the Romney administration supported the project, proponents complained about delays and lack of funding. The settlement forces the state to fund most of its 1990 transit commitments and the Fairmount Line. Transit advocates say the new line, dubbed the Indigo Line, will be a model for expanding service for outlying urban riders and freeing up seats on crowded bus es and trains, all without creating tracks or tunnels.

"The ultimate vision is to transform this into a rapid transit line with more frequent service," said Carrie Russell , a Conservation Law Foundation staff attorney. "The most important thing is to get people on the train, to get people to use it. This can provide equal access for underserved people."

The T is already spending $37 million rebuilding the Morton Street and Uphams Corner stations. With the new stations and planned improvements that will make the trains go faster, the total price tag is a projected $110 million.

The only funds released for the new stations so far have been for designing the new Four Corners station, which could be finished by early 2010. The idea of possibly cutting three-quarters of her commuting time left Tench searching for words.

"Wow, rapid transit at Four Corners . . .," she said in an interview. "That would be an incredible savings of time. . .It's really challenging to take the bus every day."

North Allston-Brighton, which once had three rail stations and the A Line trolley, also sees commuter trains fly by without stopping, and Harvard University and the city of Boston support a new commuter rail station in that neighborhood, although the city has not endorsed a site.

Vineet Gupta , Boston's transportation planning director, said stopping the commuter rail in Allston-Brighton would be cost-effective.

"Everybody is interested in seeing something happen there, and while it's in its infancy we're confident a design will emerge," Gupta said.

Harvard has proposed a West Station on its Allston Landing South rail yard, near its Allston campus (where Harvard plans a massive expansion). The university has no "hard plans" and is awaiting a state Executive Office of Transportation analysis, said Kevin Casey , director of government relations. The station could be tied to the proposed Urban Ring, a circumferential transit route that would link seven communities with the T's rapid transit lines and the booming Longwood medical area.

But mass transit advocate Charlie Vasiliades, a lifelong Brighton resident, said residents prefer a more central Brighton station, located where the old Brighton station stood near Market Street, near the current New Balance headquarters. That site offers better bus connections and room for parking, he said.

"Allston Landing would be convenient for Harvard, not for residents," he said.

State Senator Steven A. Tolman , a Brighton resident and former railroad worker, said an Allston-Brighton station "makes all the economic sense in the world." Tolman bristled at the notion that commuters from Worcester or Framingham would complain about a longer journey.

"Actually, with Harvard's plans for Allston, people might enjoy the opportunity to get off in Allston-Brighton," he said.

The Fairmount Line, which is only 9 miles long, could also stop in Allston if the city's Fast Track Rapid Rail proposal is realized. Instead of going to South Station, trains would do a U-turn and head to Back Bay, Fenway's Yawkey station (which the T plans on reconstructing), and Allston-Brighton. The extended line would connect residents with Longwood's hospitals and colleges.

The next incarnation of the Fairmount Line, which once had 12 stops, will fill the gap between the Orange and Red lines, said Dennis DiZoglio , the T's deputy general manager of development. Many residents don't even know about the line, he said. Trains run only hourly during off-peak times and don't run on weekends.

"People forget it's there," DiZoglio said. "Maybe they perceived it as just a suburban service."

More signs outside the stations and electronic boards announcing the next train will help, he said.

Empty trains that travel to Hyde Park during off-peak hours for storage could stop along the way, he said. Stopping the Providence/Stoughton and Franklin lines could be studied, but must be weighed against adding time to long trips, he said.

Along with Four Corners (near Washington Street and Geneva Avenue), stations will be built at Newmarket (near the South Bay shopping center), Talbot Avenue (near Codman Square) and Blue Hill Avenue (north of Mattapan Square). Each station will cost $8 million to $10 million, he said.

The new stations will help revitalize their neighborhoods, said Jeanne Dubois , the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation's executive director. The organization is part of the Fairmount/Indigo Coalition, which spent years pushing for the project. Several community development corporations have been buying property along the line and plan on building affordable, transit-oriented housing, she said.

Marvin Martin , director of the Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, said the stations will lead to more development and jobs, but warned about gentrification.

"This will help all of us as long as it's done right," he said. "What we don't want to happen is gentrification, where the folks fighting to make the neighborhood better have to move out. But overall this should definitely help."