As post-Dig transit projects stall, lawsuit looms

The state will not make court-ordered deadlines on a half-dozen transit projects promised as a condition for building the Big Dig, inviting a lawsuit that could force the projects to be built on a strict schedule.

Three other Big Dig-linked projects the state is required to build -- extending the Green Line through Somerville, building a connection between the Red and Blue lines in Boston, and establishing rail service between Boston and T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island -- have not been funded or actively pursued, the Conservation Law Foundation says.

"The state found the money to spend $15 billion for the Big Dig. There should have been a parallel effort to find money for the transit piece of the puzzle," said Philip Warburg, president of the foundation. "The state has to be held accountable."

State officials acknowledged that several projects will be late, in some cases for reasons beyond their control, such as a delay in the delivery of subway cars. But they say some need to be revisited to determine whether they are really worth doing.

"We have presented achievable schedules . . . for the short-term projects and have established an open and public process to examine the long-term projects," said state Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas. "This will be a comprehensive and inclusive process every step of the way."

The commitments were made in 1990 in a deal that cleared the way for the $14.6 billion Big Dig. The rationale was that improving the transit system would give motorists an alternative to the new underground highway system, thus reducing air pollution. The state already missed one round of deadlines on the transit projects in the late 1990s and was ordered by a judge to meet a new set of target dates.

One deadline -- to restore trolley service on the Arborway line in Jamaica Plain by the end of 2000 -- has already come and gone. The state will miss the next deadline, to complete a draft environmental impact report on the Urban Ring circumferential transit line around Boston, by Nov. 30, as well as Dec. 31 deadlines to provide Silver Line bus service to Logan Airport, extend all Blue Line station platforms for six-car trains, and modernize signals and buy 18 new cars for the Orange Line.

The state also appears unlikely to secure federal funding for the proposed underground Silver Line bus tunnel linking Roxbury and South Station, which it is required to have in place by next year.

Attorneys for the Conservation Law Foundation plan to sue Governor Mitt Romney and multiple state agencies, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in federal court on Jan. 3 -- after the November and December deadlines have formally been missed -- alleging violations of the Clean Air Act.

If successful, the suit could lead to a judge ordering the state to build all the projects on a strict schedule.

Warburg said the state has dragged its feet on the short-term projects, such as modernizing the Blue and Orange lines, and refused to lay out a plan for funding the longer-range projects, such as extending the Green Line through Somerville to West Medford.

There has been "no transparency" by the T or the Executive Office of Transportation on the status of projects or reasons for delays, he said.

Although the total costs of the transit projects exceeds $5.4 billion, Warburg said that outlay would still be a fraction of the cost of the Big Dig.

Equally important, said Carrie Schneider, an attorney for the foundation, was that the state entered into a legally binding agreement to undertake the projects.

"The Big Dig would not have gone forward without these requirements," she said. "This wasn't just a nice idea afterwards."

Douglas Foy, Romney's secretary for Commonwealth Development, declined to answer questions about the state's progress on the transit projects. Foy is former president of the Conservation Law Foundation, and helped put together the 1990 pact forcing the state to commit to the projects.

Jon Carlisle, spokesman for the Executive Office of Transportation, said there was a hitch in the delivery of Blue Line cars that pushed that modernization project back by at least a year. In addition, he said, the T was going to retrofit old Blue Line cars to satisfy the requirement for 18 new Orange Line cars, but after spending $1 million concluded that it would be too costly.

As for Silver Line service to the airport, Carlisle said that hinges on the delivery by mid-2005 of so-called "dual mode" buses, which would convert from electric power to compressed natural gas in their trips to Logan.

The state continues to lobby for federal funds for the Silver Line downtown tunnel linking Roxbury and South Station, Carlisle said, and the draft environmental impact report on the Urban Ring will be a few months late as final revisions are done.

The Arborway trolley restoration, the Green Line extension, and the Red-Blue connector should be reexamined, Grabauskas said in a Sept. 2 letter to Robert Golledge, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, which is responsible for enforcing the transit commitments. The state would like to explore whether other transit projects provide equal or better clean air benefits, Grabauskas wrote.

Anthony Flint can be reached at flint@globe.com.