Gov. Maura Healey slammed President Donald Trump’s administration Thursday for participating in “political theater” after a federal transportation official advised the White Home was contemplating taking up the state-owned South Station to deal with safety.
Healey railed towards remarks made by Deputy Director of Transportation Steven Bradbury at an occasion in South Station Wednesday, the identical day the Trump administration introduced plans to take administration of Union Station in Washington away from Amtrak.
The primary-term Democrat from Arlington stated what the Trump administration is doing in Washington, “and now threatening to do at South Station, is outrageous, wrong, and has nothing to do with transportation or public safety.”
“It’s more political theater, more political power grabs from Donald Trump. We don’t need or want his interference here. We’re not going to let the guy who went bankrupt six times take over our train stations,” Healey stated in a press release.
At an occasion in Boston Wednesday to unveil Amtrak’s new Acela trains, Bradbury pointed at South Station as a possible goal of the Trump administration.
“Here in South Boston, we need to address the cleanliness, the crime, the safety, and security of the station for the rail workers, for the passengers, because the people of Boston deserve that,” Bradbury stated.
The MBTA, a public state company, owns and controls South Station, together with its governing physique, operations, upkeep, and capital enhancements, based on the transit company.
Different Democrats in Boston additionally blasted again at Bradbury.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu stated “this is not a game of authoritarian monopoly.”
“This is a government with laws and a constitution that clearly shows who is in control of what. South Station is not the property of the federal government, and there’s no legal way for anything like that to happen,” Wu stated at an unrelated occasion Thursday.
Josh Kraft, a Democrat working for mayor of Boston, stated the town ought to deal with points at Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue and homelessness, two areas that “would eradicate some of the issues that are going on in South Station.”
“If I was mayor, I would make sure it wouldn’t happen, because I would make sure that South Station would be a crown jewel for every resident and everybody coming into the city, the way it should be,” Kraft stated at an unrelated occasion Thursday.
Again in Washington, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy introduced the takeover of Union Station alongside Amtrak President Roger Harris at Washington’s major transportation hub throughout the launch of an up to date model of the rail service’s Acela practice.
Not like South Station, the federal authorities owns Union Station.
Duffy stated the station has “fallen into disrepair” when it needs to be a “point of pride” for the District of Columbia. He stated the Republican administration’s transfer would assist beautify the landmark in a cheap manner and was consistent with Trump’s imaginative and prescient.
“He wants Union Station to be beautiful again. He wants transit to be safe again. And he wants our nation’s capital to be great again. And today is part of that,” Duffy stated.
Supplies from the Related Press had been used on this report.
