LYNN – The City Council adopted a resolution on June 17 to reaffirm the council’s commitment to make Lynn a more prosperous, transportable city, inspired by the city’s students.
According to a recent survey conducted by Thurgood Marshall Middle School eighth graders in Lynn, 97% of the 324 respondents were in favor of better transportation service, and 91% were in favor of a Blue Line extension.
Councilor-At-Large Brian LaPierre introduced the resolution to explore and extend transportation services connecting Lynn to the larger Boston area, in response to the students’ survey.
The Blue Line currently ends in Revere, leaving Lynn residents dependent upon often expensive and infrequent transportation services to access Boston, a limit to economic opportunity and competitiveness for the community.
This engenders, as the City Council noted in the resolution, “unfair expenses on working families.”
Lynn City Council called upon the MBTA, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and the Massachusetts State Legislature to prioritize the extension of the Blue Line to Lynn and beyond, as well as to respond to demands for funding and for technical improvements of the commuter rail.
This is a “long-overdue project,” responding to the public need for more accessible, affordable, and reliable public transportation from Lynn to the larger Boston area, the City Council concluded.
LaPierre said this resolution “reaffirmed our support” for the city of Lynn’s transportation priorities.
He said the council was working with U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton’s office at the federal level and with state delegation, such as Sen. Brendan Crighton, who is also the chair of transportation, and former mayor Thomas McGee, who is the chair of the MBTA board.
LaPierre said that he, McGee, and Phillip Eng, who is the general manager and CEO of the MBTA, visited the eighth graders’ classroom to speak to the students. “The kids made a presentation to the MBTA board about the value of investing in the Blue Line Extension, how it’s going to help our economy, how it’s going to help people with their jobs, and how it will decrease traffic.”
“That was fun. It was interesting and it went well,” LaPierre said.
