Red Line-Blue Line connection could finally happen, thanks to Amazon

State transportation officials have hired an engineering firm for $50,000 to study the payoff from directly connecting the Red Line and the Blue Line.

Such a connection has been a what-if since at least the Big Dig, which was supposed to produce the link as a byproduct (probably via a 1,500-foot, $750 million tunnel along Cambridge Street). That never happened, and the state essentially gave up.

Why the interest now? Why else—Amazon. The state touted the possibility of the connection as part of the overall bid for Amazon’s second headquarters.

Plus, per the Globe’s Adam Vaccaro, the developer of Suffolk Downs, the shuttered track in East Boston where Amazon would likely build its HQ if it picks Boston, wants the link as well.

The connection would be pretty simple on paper: The Blue Line would be extended from its Bowdoin terminus to the Red Line’s Charles/MGH stop. As it stands now, the two are the only subway lines on the T not directly linked.

• Could the MBTA finally connect the Red and Blue lines? The state is looking into it, again [Globe]
• Boston transportation projects that need to hurry up and arrive [Curbed Boston]
• Boston’s physical landscape: 4 huge decisions that shaped it [Curbed Boston]
• Amazon picks the Boston area as one of 20 finalists to host second headquarters [Curbed Boston]
• Suffolk Downs redevelopment moving forward, possibly toward Amazon [Curbed Boston]