If you like the Big Dig, Mohegan Sun's Got An Idea For You!

Mohegan `suggests' Mass Pike lane closure for Revere casino

Mohegan's tunnel vision

 

Thursday, January 9, 2014

By: Jack Encarnacao 

Mohegan Sun has filed “suggestions” to close a Mass Pike lane and force cars into a single lane approaching the Ted Williams Tunnel to ease its proposed Revere casino’s 
traffic impact, even as it’s 
expected to draw an estimated 
average of more than 5,000 vehicles a day through the tunnel.

 

But a top Boston highway 
expert said the mitigation pro­posal “doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Mohegan’s plan for a Suffolk Downs casino, made public Monday, suggests that removing a lane on I-90 eastbound near Congress Street in South Boston would 
reduce congestion by preventing drivers from slowing traffic by changing lanes — even though that would cut the roadway to just one lane in that area.

 

“It doesn’t strike me that a 
reduction in capacity is going to alleviate congestion,” said traffic expert Jeff Larson of the Mass­achusetts-based Safe Roads Alliance. “It might alleviate congestion in one area. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

 

Mohegan Sun reps said the traffic proposals were in response to a state Department of Transportation request that they believe 
addresses existing traffic issues, beyond any potential casino 
impact.

 

“These were suggestions only,” Mohegan Sun said in a statement. “They are not traffic recommendations relative to anticipated 
resort casino vehicle trips. Our road and infrastructure plans will not only mitigate anticipated 
resort casino visits, but also 
address long-standing local conditions.”

 

However, an application 
attachment states that 44 per–­cent, or more than 5,000 of a projected 12,000 average daily vehicle trips to the casino, will go through the Ted.

 

The plan, prepared by Boston engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, states: “Reduce the I-90 eastbound corridor to one lane east of the Congress Street off-ramp. This would involve a right lane closure with all vehicles
moved to the left lane. It is 
anticipated that this single lane will have a carrying capacity of some 1,350 to 1,500 (vehicles per hour).”

 

MassDOT spokesman Mike Verseckes said, “MassDOT will conduct its own in-house review to analyze and evaluate the plans. The review will determine the full scope of any potential traffic impacts created by this kind of development, and to further 
determine whether these proposals will provide for the mitigation of traffic to the fullest extent possible.”

 

East Boston City Councilor Sal LaMattina said he worries that his neighborhood, which rejected a casino, prompting Suffolk Downs and Mohegan Sun to shift into 
Revere, will still suffer the brunt of traffic impacts if the Revere 
casino is approved.

 

“It’s ridiculous,” LaMattina said. “I don’t think that they should be closing lanes for a casino, and particularly 1-90 eastbound. ... I think it’s unacceptable. I can’t even imagine the city or the state approving something like this.”

 

The Mohegan Sun project still needs approval from the Gaming Commission — which also is weighing a proposal by Wynn Resorts to build a 
casino on a contaminated site in Everett that experts say could be costly and time-consuming to clean up.

 

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/mohegan_suggests_mass_pike_lane_closure_for_revere_casino

 

 

Suffolk Downs and Senator Petrucelli's Bad Memory

Phew! And here I thought Suffolk Downs was going to screw Massachusetts taxpayers for the + $500 million infrastructure cost!

"Petruccelli said his support for a Suffolk Downs casino would come with conditions …one being a commitment from Suffolk Downs to finance a overhaul of the Route 1A corridor from the Sumner/Callahan Tunnels to Copeland Circle in Revere."

 “A local casino would have a major traffic impact…because casinos are among the heaviest traffic generators compared to other possible uses (of Suffolk Downs),” wrote Vitagliano in his study. “Casinos generate constant high traffic volumes from 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.”

 The total cost of the improvements would have a price tag of $420 million according to Vitagliano.

Senator Petrucelli has a memory problem, sad for a man of his youth! He probably doesn't even remember that 'charitable contribution' one of the owners of Suffolk Downs gave him to escape public scrutiny and campaign contribution limits!

...Poor man! I hope his constituents are kind to him and will allow him to retire next election, especially after leaving the + $500 MILLION price tag to Massachusetts taxpayers!

What the heck! Big Dig anyone?

Suffolk Downs proposes to remake Route 1A outside the entrance of new gambling resort

06/08/2012

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

Suffolk Downs proposes to remake Route 1A outside the track’s main entrance by building a northbound “flyover” to carry traffic over the troubled Boardman Street intersection, as well as adding lanes, lights and making other improvements around the track in an effort to address long-standing congestion problems.

Traffic is one of the top concerns raised over a proposal to expand the 77-year-old thoroughbred horse track into a casino resort, by adding hotel rooms, restaurants and amenities and 200,000 square feet of Las Vegas-style casino games.

The track has promised to commit $40 million to improve roads and intersections around the site. The $30 million to $35 million Route 1A project is the centerpiece of Suffolk Downs’s traffic plan. Other improvements would be the subject of negotiations with local communities.

Suffolk Downs expects that its $1 billion resort, when complete, would generate between 10,000 and 15,000 car trips a day. Route 1A, which often backs up at the morning and evening rush, carries about 60,000 cars a day past the main entrance to Suffolk Downs, according to R. David Black, senior project manager at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., of Boston, the track’s traffic consultant.

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/06/08/suffolk-downs-proposes-remake-route-outside-the-entrance-new-gambling-resort/pW683IkAIYN1o4iU5CG7TI/story.html?comments=all#readerComm

Maryland should not fall again for gambling’s siren song

Substitute Massachusetts, in the articles below and our future is clearly revealed.

Fanciful revenue projections, fairy tale job creation claims, streets paved with Fools' Gold, and the public swoons.

Problems solved with phony promises instead of sound fiscal solutions and transparent discussion.

P.T. Barnum was right! Pity those suckers fill Beacon Hill.

For additional editorial comments -

Maryland lawmakers addicted to gambling

Maryland should not fall again for gambling’s siren song
By Editorial Board,
Published: April 3
The Washington Post

THE PROMISE of slot machine gambling was so wildly oversold to Maryland voters, who approved it three years ago, that it’s a wonder the General Assembly in Annapolis is not targeted daily by protesters demanding to know what happened to the money.

Originally, state budget analysts predicted that slots revenue would yield $76 million for education in fiscal 2011, and nearly $500 million in the current fiscal year. The actual take last year was scarcely two-thirds the amount projected and will probably be less than a fifth the amount forecast for this year.

Even after the scheduled opening this summer of what will be the biggest gambling parlor in Maryland, and one of the biggest in the United States — a 4,750-slot-machine colossus in Anne Arundel County — officials say the state’s take from gambling over the next five years will be 12 percent less than expected: a shortfall of some $475 million.

So Maryland residents can be forgiven if they’re skeptical about the hype surrounding the latest supposed windfall, from a proposed expansion of gambling now under consideration by state lawmakers. Under a bill that sailed through the state Senate last week, voters would be asked to approve a sixth casino — this one in Prince George’s County — as well as table games, such as blackjack and roulette, for all gambling venues in the state. And just in case all that doesn’t translate into sufficiently fat profits for the casino operators, Maryland would also sweeten the pot by cutting its share of the proceeds by more than 20 percent.

We have long opposed gaming in Maryland because of the social ills that accompany it, such as gambling addiction, and because it is often tantamount to a voluntary tax on the poor and the vulnerable. In a time of economic stress, those arguments seem stronger than ever.

But it seems equally valid to oppose an expansion of gambling on the basis of the fraudulent assurances with which slots were sold originally. Why be fooled twice?

Perhaps with that in mind, a growing number of lawmakers in Prince George’s are coming around to the view that, if there is to be a casino in their county, it should be one whose victims — er, customers — are mostly well-heeled fun-seekers from the District, Virginia and farther-flung locales.

That is central to the proposal pushed by Rushern L. Baker III (D), the Prince George’s county executive, who wants a $1 billion gambling palace built at National Harbor, the shopping, hotel and residential development just south of the Beltway. A casino of that scale and glitz — Las Vegas on the Potomac — built at private expense in a venue that already attracts many out-of-towners, would not draw most of its clientele from Prince George’s. Or so the argument goes.

Mr. Baker, a longtime opponent of gambling, flipped under intense pressure from the state Senate president, Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert). Mr. Miller wants a casino in Prince George’s and says, outrageously, that without one the county will not get the funds it needs to build a new hospital, which Mr. Baker badly wants.

Perhaps Mr. Baker sees his proposal as the least bad option available to him — that if Prince George’s must have a casino to satisfy a political force majeure, it should at least be a first-class facility that preys primarily on out-of-staters, not locals.

Fine. But this time voters should not be fooled into thinking that an expansion of gambling is a good idea, let alone a panacea for Maryland’s perennial problems in balancing its budget and funding its schools.

More on this issue from PostOpinions:

The Post’s View: Gambling fever gone wild in Maryland
The Post’s View: Remember the pot of gold that gambling promised?
The Post’s View: A casino-for-hospital deal is a sucker bet

“mad at every level”

Grab a seat and watch the unfolding of backroom deals and political corruption crafted on Beacon Hill to subsidize the Kraft/Wynn deal in Foxborough at the expense of Massachusetts taxpayers.

Transportation heads: Gillette rail plan through Walpole 'not a focus'.
By Veronica Hamlett and Dave Eisenstadter
Walpole Times


WALPOLE — The MBTA is still mum on any plans to increase commuter rail service to Foxboro via Medfield and Walpole.

In the midst of a $161 million budget and the possibility of increasing fares and reducing services, Transportation Secretary Richard Davey and MBTA acting general manager Jonathan Davis said at a Wicked Local editorial board meeting last Friday that their focus is on current projects and contracts, even though customers are calling for more.

“The MBTA has a problem that every company in America would want in that customers want more of us but we can’t deliver,” Davey said. “People want more or expanded service.”

The MBTA is working on securing a new contract for its current commuter rail services. Its contract with Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail expires in June. Davis said the MBTA could entertain talks with a private entity willing to expand service.

“Thinking of longer term projects, perhaps we could give the opportunity to whoever the service provider is to invest their own capital and experience,” he said.

The Green Line extension to Tufts University and a South Coast rail line will continue as planned, as both are state obligations as part of the Big Dig, but neither will be paid for by the MBTA, according to Davis.

Worcester-based law firm Mirick O’Connell drafted a proposal for regular rail service from Boston to Foxboro on the Franklin line through Medfield and Walpole. The pilot program would still operate at a deficit of $1.4 million.

Local legislators are trying to prevent said expansion by amending the state budget. The senate passed an amendment last Friday 31-3 prohibiting the MBTA from expanding capital projects that would operate at a fiscal deficit. It also requires the MBTA to do a cost analysis study for any and all rail service expansion and to not proceed if the results come back unprofitable.

“This is an extremely important issue to Walpole and for the Commonwealth as a whole,” Sen. Jim Timilty (D-Walpole) said in a statement. “I share the concerns of an overwhelming number of constituents who have contacted me for months now, urging that we act appropriately on this matter. This is an issue of fiscal prudence, and it has to happen in a timely manner so that we do not add another generation of debt to our public transportation.”

Davis would not comment on the new legislation, which must now earn House approval.


“We’re committed to the green line and to South Coast rail and will not add to the debt burden the MBTA currently carries,” he said.

The MBTA is considering two proposals with different levels of fare increases and service reductions to close its $161 million budget gap. The first scenario would eliminate 60 bus routes and increase fares by an average of 43 percent. The second eliminates more than 200 bus routes, reduces the length of 11 others and would increase fares by an average of 35 percent.

The second plan eliminates the 34E bus from Walpole to Dedham.

Both plans discontinue all ferry routes, suspend all weekend trains and service after 10 p.m. on commuter rails and eliminate weekend service on the Mattapan line and Green Line E branch.

Neither plan is inevitable, but are instead being proposed to gauge what level of fare increases or service reductions customers are willing to endure, Davis said. The most drastic estimates predict a 17 percent reduction in ridership, or 94 million rides annually.

A series of public hearings are being held to gather feedback about the two proposals, including one in Framingham on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at Town Hall, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Read more: Transportation heads: Gillette rail plan through Walpole 'not a focus' - Walpole, MA - Wicked Local Walpole http://www.wickedlocal.com/walpole/news/x1672347278/Transportation-heads-Gillette-rail-plan-through-Walpole-not-a-focus#ixzz1khAtwi7Q



State Sen. Timilty rails against expanded train service in MetroWest
Senator Timilty talks about plans to expand the rail lines.

By Marc Filippino/Correspondent
Wicked Local Walpole
Posted Dec 23, 2011


WALPOLE — State Senator James Timilty is “mad at every level” at plans for a proposed commuter rail that would run through his home town of Walpole, and is looking to do everything in his power to stop it.

Timilty led a small group of reporters on a walk of the rail line near the South Walpole Post Office on Summer Street Tuesday. Along the way, he ripped the MBTA for its history of debt and questioned its ability to responsibly manage the finances of a proposed commuter rail expansion into Foxborough, Walpole, Medfield and throughout the MetroWest region.

Timilty cited a proposed pilot project’s projected $4 million annual operating loss as a sign that the project is doomed to fail.

“If [the MBTA] were a private sector agency, they’d fire everybody,” Timilty said. “30 percent of their operating budget goes to debt, and they’re thinking of spending upwards of $10 million to activate a line? They have some monumental challenges they need to deal with now.

“We were the first subway in America, and in an urban setting, we’re probably the worst,” he said. “Their systems are old and faulty, and if you’ve ever gone through Park Street, it’s a disaster.”

The controversy began in October when the Westborough-based law firm Mirick O’Connell proposed a pilot commuter rail expansion project, dubbed the 495 Rail Study, that focused on enhancing train service to Foxborough. The pilot program called for utilizing existing rail equipment, while seeing whether a long-term plan was feasible.

Walpole residents were immediately up in arms. Walpole is where the Foxborough spur splits off from the Franklin Line, and residents opposed having to bear the brunt of the constant noise from a high-speed train and the construction that would be associated with building a new rail line and station. Town officials even contacted John Mirick to register their complaints.

On Dec. 2, in a strongly worded letter to Jody Ray, director of railroad operations for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Rep. Dan Winslow objected to expanded commuter rail service to Foxborough on the grounds that it was a taxpayer giveaway to billionaire casino gambling interests.

Winslow called for a halt to any further discussions or planning until the impacts on surrounding towns of such a service increase could be assessed, and warned, “Not one thin dime of limited public money should be spent for the private benefit of billionaires in a private transaction.”


Timilty objected not only to the Foxborough pilot project, but to the entire notion of explanded commuter rail service in the MetroWest area.

He sees the plan becoming dangerously long-term and compared commuter rail expansion to the problems that plagued the “Big Dig” project in Boston, but on a smaller scale. The pilot project alone would cost an estimated $84 million, with $6 million more annually to operate it, according to the MBTA’s 2010 Foxborough Commuter Feasibility Study Report.

With projected stops in several Norfolk County towns including Medfield, Timilty said the construction would devastate local property values, repel businesses from the area, and damage the overall quality of life.

“The American dream is have control over your own property, and for the state to take it for the greater good, there needs to be a significant cause for that,” Timilty said, referring to the possibility that Massachusetts would acquire land needed for the expansion through eminent domain.

“I have to see what happens to these communities when you have these trains,” he said. “It’s not what we need and it’s not what we can afford.”

Currently in Walpole, freight trains traverse a one-track, north-south rail twice daily. Timilty sees this single track turning into a double track, which would bring the 40-mile-per-hour commuter rail through Walpole 16 times a day, disrupting residential areas and small businesses.

Brickman Group Landscaping is located on Summer Street in Walpole, no more than 25 yards from the tracks.

Kelly Page, an employee at Brickman, said she understands the usefulness of commuter rail, since all Brickman employees must now commute by car. But she also understands the frustration of Walpole citizens. When she was living at home in Northbridge, she said, nearby train traffic disrupted the household several times a day.

“When you have a property right next to a railroad,” she said, “it’s extremely annoying, especially if you have small kids and you’re trying to get them to go to bed at night. My daughter was only five years old when the railroad was going through Northbridge and that was only a couple of times a day.

“It was loud and it shook the entire neighborhood. We had cracks in the walls and cracks in the ceilings and damage to the house, so I can see why residents would not want it.”

Still others are not as stridently opposed to expanding commuter service as Timilty.


“The MBTA has been discussing this for a number of years,” said Paul Matthew, executive director of the 495/MetroWest Partnership, a public-private collaborative that encourages development in the region. Mirick O’Connell brought the 495 Rail Study to Matthew’s group for feedback and regional input while it was being developed.

Matthew said the casino issue raised by Winslow is a red herring. “I think the discussion started long before the casino proposal and will continue long after the casino proposal,” he said. He also said casinos usually attract a more affluent crowd, which is not dependent on public transportation. [but the low wage workers are dependent on less expensive public transportation at great cost to Massachusetts taxpayers]

Matthew said this public discussion is good for the community, since towns such as Walpole will be affected the most. However, he noted the outlines in the pilot program are not permanent, and that it will take decades before the 495 Rail Study is likely to become a reality.

Timilty put it more bluntly.

“It’s a pie in the sky idea,” he said. “If it was built 50 years down the road, it may not have any impact, but right now? Can we afford it? Is it necessary? On both accounts, I offer the most vehement ‘no’ I can get out.”


Read more: State Sen. Timilty rails against expanded train service in MetroWest - Walpole, MA - Wicked Local Walpole http://www.wickedlocal.com/walpole/news/x1980198478/State-Sen-Timilty-rails-against-expanded-train-service-in-MetroWest#ixzz1khBza7Mh

Foxborough: Subsidizing Kraft

So first there's the Pedestrian Bridge to Nowhere promoted by Beacon Hill leadership.....

Or maybe first there was the MBTA Study that would provide Commuter Rail Service to the Foxborough/Kraft/Wynn Slot Barn Complex.

Governor "Slot Barn" who can do little beyond grinning and providing false assurances that nothing has happened behind closed doors even as he conducts business behind closed doors and made some pretty astounding and expensive promises - expensive to Massachusetts taxpayers, while sleeping with the Gambling Industry.

At a time the MBTA is forced to cut services because of the Big Dig burden, we have a carpetbagger running for higher office who will burden us with more debt to reward the wealthy Kraft.

Will we ever learn?

See the bottom of page 151. The preferred option has $84 capital costs and a $4 million operating loss.



http://mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/T_Projects/T_Projects_List/Final%20Foxborough%20Commuter%20Rail%20Report%20(01-Sept-10)%20-%20REPORT%20ONLY.pdf

or

MBTA

Foxborough was moved during those backroom deals. Anyone notice?

I can't wait for these corruption trials!