MA: Boston and MBTA remain at odds over World Cup street closure with two weeks to go

With two weeks until the World Cup, the MBTA and the city of Boston remain at odds over closing a busy downtown street on match days

The MBTA, a state agency, insists that it must shut down a stretch of Summer Street on seven World Cup match days to safely accommodate as many as 20,000 ticket holders taking the train from South Station to the matches in Foxborough.

The city has resisted the plan, warning of significant backups emanating from the South Station area into other parts of Downtown Boston. It maintains that a less disruptive option is possible.

But with or without Mayor Michelle Wu’s approval, the MBTA and state officials have signaled they plan to proceed and could use eminent domain to take control of the city-owned street on match days.

Phillip Eng, the MBTA general manager and interim state transportation secretary, said Thursday that while he has not reached a compromise with the city, he is confident the situation will be resolved without exerting that power.

“We’re not looking to do that; we’re looking to resolve this. That has always been the intention,” Eng said Thursday during a meeting of the MBTA Board of Directors.

On match days, the MBTA will run 14 express commuter rail trains from South Station to Foxborough, leaving every 15 minutes. It is a far more ambitious operation than the agency’s service to New England Patriots games, when it runs one train from Boston and one from Providence.

Closing about 800 feet of Summer Street, between Atlantic Avenue and Dorchester Avenue, is “imperative” to the MBTA’s matchday transportation plan, Eng wrote in a letter to city officials earlier this month. He said it was necessary for keeping pedestrians, workers and others in the area safe, and came at the “strong recommendation of the Massachusetts State Police and the MBTA’s public safety personnel, as well as numerous public safety organizations.”

Eng said the T plans to take over that portion of the street, including the sidewalks, for 10 hours each of the seven match days.

City officials assert a complete closure of Summer Street is unnecessary and have called the use of eminent domain an “inappropriate” attempt to bypass the typical permitting process.

“Boston’s transportation and public safety agencies have extensive experience managing major events of comparable scale, and the City has proposed alternatives to meet the safety and security needs of the World Cup while preserving access to this area for residents, visitors and local commuters,” a city spokesperson said in a statement. “Full closure of a major route into the City for multiple entire workdays should be undertaken only as a last resort, and the City will continue working toward a resolution.”

The city has proposed setting up the security screening outside South Station and along Dorchester Avenue, and establishing staging areas for fans on portions of Dewey Square and the Rose Kennedy Greenway across from the station.

A full closure of Summer Street would cause significant congestion on Atlantic Avenue and surrounding streets, with backups spreading into other areas of Downtown Boston, city officials contend. They also believe the state used outdated data to model traffic for the street closure and that the plan does not accurately reflect how drivers would likely navigate detours.

“We have different balancing needs, and I certainly understand the city’s concerns for local traffic,” Eng said Thursday.

A city spokesperson said it was “too early to tell” if the shutdown of Summer Street would lead to additional street closures.

According to Eng, the city has already said it would allow the MBTA to take over the street for two matches, on Saturday, June 13, and Friday, June 19.

But the T has the same security concerns for the five other match days, he said.

If the agency receives a permit to occupy Summer Street on those days, it would withdraw its notice to take the street by eminent domain, Eng said.

During the March friendly soccer match between Brazil and France, which the MBTA used to test its World Cup transportation plan, officials realized the sidewalk alone could not accommodate the expected crowds during the tournament itself. With significantly fewer riders — the MBTA sold about 3,000 train tickets to the friendly match — crowds still wound up in the street.

In Foxborough, the queuing area for fans to board the train back to Boston is roughly 133,000 square feet, Rod Brooks, a senior advisor to Eng, said Thursday.

To put that in perspective, a football field is 57,600 square feet.

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