Replacement of the Allston viaduct and realignment of the Massachusetts Turnpike would open up 85 acres of land for development, but plans for a new transit station have been pushed back to as late as 2040. Courtesy photo

The bombshell news that a large public transit hub in Allston planned as part of the Massachusetts Turnpike’s realignment won’t be completed until as late as 2040 is prompting calls for new funding sources to fast-track the project.

The MBTA’s West Station has been billed as a crucial new link in Greater Boston’s beleaguered transportation network. The $95 million project would expand commuter rail and bus service in the fast-developing Allston neighborhood and provide potential rail service to booming East Cambridge via the little-used Grand Junction Line.

The long-planned Turnpike realignment also would open up 85 acres of developable land and air rights south of Soldiers Field Road. Delaying the transit station construction is a recipe for gridlock and economic stagnation, neighborhood activists and business representatives say.

“Metro Boston is growing at a rapid pace,” said James Aloisi, a consultant and former state transportation secretary. “We’re producing 75 percent of the state’s jobs and 80 percent of its GDP. The idea that we’d jeopardize that by failing to add (public) transportation on a blank slate development upfront is mind-boggling. Everyone who drives into the inner core knows we’re choking on congestion.”

Members of a neighborhood task force that’s been advising MassDOT on the project were taken aback by the latest timeline, which was outlined in a draft environmental impact report this month.

“We were promised a much more robust intermodal connection,” said Galen Mook, a spokesman for the People’s Pike coalition. “What we’re seeing at the onset of their planning is they’re just building a highway. We see that not only as a missed opportunity, but almost bad faith for what a Department of Transportation stands for.”

A MassDOT spokesman said the need for West Station hasn’t been confirmed.

“Before new jobs and new residents arrive in the immediate vicinity of a future station, travel demand for the proposed West Station is unknown. Data collected for the (draft environmental impact report) indicate that the station is not needed to mitigate the traffic impacts of the Interchange Improvement Project,” spokesman Patrick Marvin said in an email.

The Turnpike realignment project, scheduled to be completed by 2025, will contain pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvement, including rebuilding of the Franklin Street pedestrian and bike bridge, Marvin noted.

Former Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014 announced the state was close to a deal to pay for West Station with contributions from Boston University and Harvard University. The financing package fell apart after BU withdrew a potential $8.3 million contribution to the then-$25-million project, according to a 2015 Boston Globe report.

BU has not had further negotiations with MassDOT, BU spokesman Colin Riley said this week.

Harvard stands to benefit from the project after spending $144.3 million in 2015 and 2016 to complete its acquisition of 66 acres of former CSX Transportation rail yards next to the toll plaza. The university is currently doing environmental remediation to prepare the site for undisclosed development plans.

“Harvard agreed to contribute a third of the costs of the station back in 2014 and now looks forward to continuing discussions through the comment period and beyond about implementation and timing of an element that is essential to serving long-term regional development,” Harvard spokesman Kevin Casey said via email this week.

Should Toll Revenues Support Station?

One potential additional source of funding for West Station is to leverage Massachusetts Turnpike toll revenues, said Rick Dimino, CEO of the nonprofit transportation group A Better City. There’s just one problem: the arrangement is forbidden under the state’s current transportation funding formula.

The state in 1997 created a separate metropolitan highway system consisting of the section of the Turnpike east of the Weston tolls, the airport tunnels and highways built during the Big Dig. By law, tolls collected on each of those sections go to operation and maintenance of the same section. It’s time to drop that restriction, Dimino said.

Tolls collected in the metropolitan highway system totaled $214 million in 2016, according to a MassDOT report. With legislative approval, those revenues could be used to support a bond paying for West Station, Dimino said.

“Relative to travel times and what people are feeling as to significant time loss and keeping our economy in Cambridge and Boston accessible, West Station should be happening as soon as possible,” he said.

Transit Stops As Development Catalysts

In recent years, Somerville’s Assembly Row and New Balance’s Boston Landing megaprojects have illustrated the power of public transit as a job creator and development catalyst.

Developer Federal Realty Investment Trust chipped in $15 million toward a new MBTA Orange Line station that opened at its Assembly Row complex in 2014. The new transit stop factored into Partners Healthcare’s decision to move over 4,000 employees to a 825,000-square-foot build-to-suit headquarters steps from the platform.

New Balance paid $20 million for a new MBTA commuter rail station on the Framingham-Worcester line, and credited the station with attracting office tenants such as Global Atlantic Financial Group, which is relocating from Southborough to Boston Landing.

The station has added to the appeal of the neighborhood for transit-oriented development. Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. has proposed a 1,010-unit multifamily development at its nearby Everett Street property. The Michaels Organization is seeking city approvals for 261 apartments at 40 Rugg Road. And City Realty Group has briefed neighborhood groups on plans for a 350-unit residential complex at 350 Cambridge St., said Jason Desrosier, manager of community building and engagement for the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation.

Neighborhood residents had counted on West Station providing quick commutes to downtown Boston as an alternative to the Green Line and three existing bus routes, Desrosier said.

“We’re using the Seaport as our cautionary tale,” he said. “They laid out the street grids and transit was an afterthought, and now it’s really hard to provide transit to the Seaport. We want them to provide transit first.”