Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne recalled bringing her 8-year-old daughter to testify for cleaner air at a GLX community meeting in 2005.
“She asked me that night when she’d get to ride the train. We know the answer now: when you’re 26,” Ballantyne said.
She thanked community leaders, governors across the decades, federal and state lawmakers who advocated for funding and former Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone. Another former Somerville mayor, Mike Capuano, had a new $250 million vehicle maintenance facility at the end of the Green Line dedicated to him earlier on Monday.
Leaders from all levels of government said the extension’s opening is a step toward making public transportation more accessible and toward the state’s carbon neutrality goals.
“We must look to our future with planning for all as our guide, we must come to see public transit as a necessary public good like education or roads. We must envision a world class public transit system that will advance the commonwealth’s economic competitiveness, social prosperity and climate action agenda,” Ballantyne said.
