Times appears to miss mark

I was surprised to see, on the front page of this week's East Boston Times, a story with the headline "Red-Blue Line connector appears to be on the fast track." While I have been hoping for years that the state would extend the Blue Line past Bowdoin to the Red Line's Charles/MGH station, recent media coverage has reached the opposite conclusion than that of the Times.

On July 23, Noah Bierman -- the Globe's transportation beat reporter -- wrote a story that said:

The state set aside $29 million last week to design a subway tunnel under downtown Boston that planners concede they cannot afford to build -- either now or any time in the next two decades.

The story goes on to say:

Even many of the project’s key supporters, who lent a political boost to a settlement three years ago, have become a little less ardent, noting that the economy is forcing tough decisions.

and

In the end, the sides did not agree to actually build the project, only that the state would complete design and engineering by 2011.

and

The 20-year planning document approved preliminarily last week sets aside no money to build the tunnel through 2030.

A Globe editorial on Aug. 16 said:

While the state slashes health programs amid plunging revenues, it expects to spend $29 million to design a connection downtown between the Red Line and the Blue Line - never mind that the money to build the $300 million project won’t come through anytime soon.

The Times story, however, says that the project "is on the fast track," noting that "the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction held another meeting of a project working group..." There is no indication of who was at the meeting and not a single person is quoted in the story. In fact, there is no attribution ("according to") in the story at all.

Maybe the Times has an inside scoop on the project, but I'm afraid that's not the case.