TRANSIT: MassDOT eyeing new trains for Boston’s Green Line

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has dog-eared $2.6 million for the planning and design of new trains for Boston’s Green Line, according to the department’s new five-year capital plan, released Thursday. If all goes as planned, MassDOT will deliver the new trains by 2021.

The new trains are just a portion of the $12.4 billion in combined state and federal expenditures outlined in the five-year plan. Roughly one-quarter of that $12.4 billion will go toward the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which operates the train lines and other public services.

Other transit-related projects named in the plan include:

• $254 million for the South Coast Rail project, which would connect Boston with Fall River and New Bedford to the south;

• $200 million for the expansion of South Station to increase the number of train tracks; and

• $252 million for the northward extension of the Silver Line to Chelsea.

While these and other projects are accounted for in the plan, the designated funding will not apply to actual implementation of any new or expanded services.