Governor Charlie Baker is not committed to following through with the Green Line extension if it will run significantly over budget, he said on Boston Public Radio Thursday.
"I am a supporter of this project. I am not a supporter of it if it's going to cost 3 billion dollars," he said.
The Green Line extension project is slated to include 4.5 miles of additional track, six new stations through the cities of Somerville, Cambridge, and Medford, new Green Line trains, and the relocation of Lechmere Station. The original cost estimate, as of December 2014, for the upgrade was about $1.9 billion, $1 billion of which would come from a federal grant. It is now estimated the project will cost $2.7 to $3 billion.
Baker is having his new Fiscal and Management Control Board and the MBTA work to analyze the existing budget and determine what went wrong.
"I think a lot of people in Massachusetts would question whether or not, in fact, we should spend $3 billion on four miles. It's not even below ground. There's something about this that's not right," Baker continued.
Baker said he hoped to have a "complete answer" from the MBTA and the control board on the cost overruns by Thanksgiving.
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