World Cup matches kick off in just 22 days in Foxborough. With the eyes of the world about to be focused on Boston, though, the city and the state are still squabbling over small details, including whether to close off a block of traffic near South Station to help ensure the safety of foreign visitors boarding trains bound for games.
If this is a power squabble, work it out. Disagreements happen, but dysfunction on display this summer would be a reputational embarrassment. A fan missing a train and arriving late to a game would be a bummer. A visitor getting hit by one of our notorious drivers would be a tragedy.
Closing Summer Street between South Station and Fort Point to accommodate an expected crush of fans heading to one of the seven World Cup games in Foxborough seems like a sensible move. The T is anticipating some 20,000 fans gathering at South Station to take trains to Gillette Stadium. The MBTA is asking to temporarily shut down Summer Street for up to 10 hours each game day to make space for those fans. (And space for locals going about their business.)
The dustup is the latest planning snafu between different cities, agencies, and committee organizers squabbling over logistics, territory, and costs. The last-minute scrambling has revived longstanding doubts about the Commonwealth’s ability to stage world‑class events.
With regards to Summer Street, the city and the T had previously agreed to close a portion for two of the World Cup matches. Now, Phil Eng, MBTA general manager, is asking for a closure for all seven games in the name of public safety.
With the clock ticking ever closer to kickoff, Eng sent a letter last week to Boston officials “as notice that the MBTA intends to acquire the temporary right to occupy this portion of Summer Street.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said that’s not the way things get done around here.
“The City opposes this inappropriate use of eminent domain to bypass the permitting process for roadways under local jurisdiction, and we urge the Commonwealth to withdraw the filing while plans are being reviewed,” a spokesperson for Wu’s administration said in a statement.
According to the T and the city, discussions over World Cup preparations are happening regularly. So there should still be time to hammer out an agreement.
“I really don’t know how we got here. This is a major international event, this should’ve been sorted out a long time ago,” Liz Breadon, City Council president, told a Globe reporter.
The city is proposing alternatives, including using Dewey Square and the Rose Kennedy Greenway Station as staging areas for passengers. The T said that would complicate security screenings and would create logjams at crosswalks.
The city says 10 hours of closure, which doesn’t include time to set up and remove barriers, is unreasonable. The T says a set schedule would help public messaging, informing people with specifics on when to avoid the area or seek alternate routes.
There has got to be some way to resolve this. Maybe Summer Street doesn’t need to be closed for 10 hours, maybe it’s just a few hours only before the games, but if you’re going to host an international party, be a good host. This is one of the many prices to be paid.
We’ve seen the dress rehearsal. In March, France and Brazil played at Gillette. Some 2,600 fans used the train service from Boston. That didn’t go so well. At the T’s most recent board of directors meeting on April 30, Erika Mazza, the agency’s chief enterprise development officer, said pedestrians trying to pass through on the sidewalk didn’t have space and emergency access to the station was compromised.
For the World Cup, the T is expecting crowds at South Station nearly eight times as large. Even if only half of those anticipated fans show up, that’s still a big bottleneck of people, many of whom won’t speak English, are unfamiliar with our trains, and will no doubt be in a jubilant, celebratory mood and not hyperfocused on the perils of walking among Boston drivers.
Yes, traffic will be a nightmare near South Station for a few days due to any street closures. But odds are, traffic would be even worse if fans were overflowing into the streets.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
