MassDOT Adds Unpopular Train Layover to Allston I-90 Project in Sudden Reversal

A massive project to realign the I-90 highway in Allston will include a train layover for Amtrak and the MBTA, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced last week, an unexpected reversal after the MassDOT secretary said the layover would not be included in the project in April.

The layover, a temporary holding space for trains, has been overwhelmingly opposed by the project’s stakeholders, including local politicians, residents, transit advocacy groups, and health and environmental nonprofits. During an April meeting with a state advocacy group, Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt pledged that the layover “will go away.”

But Tibbits-Nutt quietly reversed her position in a Wednesday email to a MassDOT email list obtained by The Crimson, saying that the layover would be included in the state’s December 2025 environmental report for the Allston I-90 Multimodal Project.

She did not offer an explanation for the about-face, only saying that the layover was “necessary to achieve the growth in rail service we all desire” and would improve geographic equity, economic growth, and housing construction.

The layover addition could add to the project’s $1.9 billion price tag — even as the financing is already tight — and potentially add hundreds of millions in future decking costs for Harvard, which owns the land and plans to develop buildings over the project’s new train infrastructure.

The announcement sparked immediate backlash from many local officials, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07, Allston-Brighton City Councilor Elizabeth A. “Liz” Breadon, and Allston Civic Association President Anthony P. D’Isidoro, who all reaffirmed their opposition to the inclusion of the layover.

“This decision jeopardizes progress on the Allston Multimodal Project at a critical point in time and, if finalized, will have serious negative environmental impacts on the Allston neighborhood,” Breadon wrote in a statement, saying she was “disappointed.”

Many officials and local advocates also said that the layover would be antithetical to the spirit of the project, which is intended to improve Allston’s urban fabric with new housing, bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and better train service.

“You can’t reconnect communities if there’s a big, dirty, noisy layup yard in the middle,” said Harry Mattison, a member of the I-90 project’s Rail and Transit Working Group.

In an email, Tibbitts-Nutt said the layover was “the best option for the Commonwealth,” but emphasized that the plan was not finalized and subject to revisions. A MassDOT spokesperson wrote in an email that the state welcomes feedback and was open to changes to the project design based on further analysis.

The project will enter a public comment period before construction begins.

The reversal comes as state officials are hoping to build a rail link between Boston and Western Massachusetts, called the “East-West Rail,” and increase the frequency and reach of existing commuter rails. Expanded rail service will mean a need for more holding space for trains while they are not actively in use.

The Monday announcement means Allston will host one of those holding spaces, although some transit advocates believe that Widett Circle — an industrial area near South Station recently bought by the T for the same purpose — would provide sufficient space.

During the April meeting, Tibbitts-Nutt seemed to endorse this argument. “The big thing we’re waiting on now is, we gotta find where that layover space is gonna go for the T,” she said, adding that “we need Widett.”

If the proposal in Allston moves forward, it will be housed on an empty 9X-acre lot enclosed by the Pike and owned entirely by Harvard. The lot will also host a new commuter rail station, called “West Station,” and a new neighborhood featuring housing, lab space, and businesses.

In her email, Tibbitts-Nutt also announced that West Station will contain two express tracks — further upsetting local leaders, who worried that the move indicated that a significant portion of Worcester Line commuter rail trains will skip over West Station.

Jay Flynn, East-West Rail Liaison for the advocacy group Transit Matters, acknowledged the express lanes were a sign of more frequent train service. But, he warned, that’s “more frequent service that isn’t going to stop at West Station.”

“For us, that’s a big no, no,” he said.

He argued that the state had not yet justified adding more layover space in Allston.

“This is very valuable land,” he said. “What’s the best use of that land? Is it to store trains? Or is it to put up housing for two thousand people?”

—Staff writer Jack R. Trapanick can be reached at jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @jackrtrapanick.