On track to renewal: Station boosts Mattapan
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff | July 18, 2007

With a cane in her hand and a determined look in her eyes, 83-year-old Cornelia Grant steadily weaved through the parking lot of Mattapan's Morton Street Commuter Rail Station yesterday. She took a seat in one of two-dozen chairs in front of the station's elevated platform and took it all in.

There is nothing particularly unique about this station. A digital sign spells out Morton Street and South Station in bright red letters; there are benches for riders and steel canopies to protect them from the rain; there is an all-access walkway to the street. Lights are everywhere.

But to Grant and others from this urban neighborhood tightly packed with three - deckers and a maze of storefronts featuring items from hair braiding to Haitian cuisine, a $6.8 million renovation has sparked elation. Many of the residents are elderly or disabled. Some are lifelong civic leaders who said the project represented a hard-fought victory in a battle to ensure public transportation for all.

"I am thrilled," said Grant, beaming, with one hand on her cane and the other raised toward the sky. "Now, I can walk right from my house and take the train to South Station. I can get to the airport. . . . I am a part of the city."

A host of officials turned out yesterday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the improvements, a signal to some residents that Mattapan will not be a forgotten part of the city.

"This is phenomenal, especially for the elderly and other people who need the train," said 40-year-old Anastasia Jacob while clutching a worn, leather-bound Bible. "We needed something to get our communities united."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas, and local leaders were among many hailing the renovation as key for Mattapan's renewal. Public transit links communities to jobs, housing, and a vital economy, Menino said.

The commuter rail system was unveiled in the 1970s, linking the suburbs to downtown. When the Franklin line opened, the train roared through communities such as Mattapan and Dorchester, but never stopped to pick up passengers. The community fought back, said state Senator Dianne Wilkerson. "You don't get to drive through unless you stop and we get to get on that train, too."

The Morton Street Station, which opened in 1987, was one of four stations created as part of the Fairmount Commuter Rail Line, which serves Boston residents exclusively. Because, however, the Morton station was set back far from the street and maintenance could not keep pace with decay, concerns increased about its safety. The very people who had fought for it were too afraid to use it, and once again a coalition of community leaders fought for changes, Wilkerson said.

"There were no lights. It was dirty. It was the kind of place you went only if you had to," Grant said yesterday. "I would rather drive downtown," said Mary Palmer, 85, whose church, Concord Baptist, is being rebuilt next to the station. "Nobody wanted to come down here," she said.

Until now.

"We see the train as great potential," said Rev. Conley Hughes of Concord Baptist Church.

Snaking 9.2 miles through the city, the Fairmount Commuter Rail Line has a ridership of 1,200 and five stops from South Station through Dorchester and Hyde Park to Readville.

With 200 riders per day, Morton Street is the second Fairmount Line station to be renovated, said MBTA officials. A renovated station in Uphams Corner opened earlier this year.

Community leaders and development corporations have asked that five more stations be built along the line, and the T has so far approved four: Newmarket, Four Corners, Talbot Avenue, and Blue Hill Avenue.