You can get a lot done with your laptop and knowledgeable staff.

The Red Line would run through the neighborhoods in the Edmondson Avenue corridor of the 41st District.

A Sun editorial yesterday indicated that the tunnel under Cooks Lane is a potential target for cost savings.

Cooks Lane is only two lanes wide on each side, and in many places it’s just one lane because of residential parking. Several years ago, we worked with the community to have the line run underground instead of on the surface.

I asked the General Assembly’s budget staff to find out the status of the tunnel.

The Mass Transit Administration replied:

“We’ve not yet started to consider cost savings for Red Line, so I can’t confirm or deny [whether Cooks Lane tunnel will be impacted]. Eliminating either tunnel or otherwise changing an aspect of the project that would change the environmental or community impacts [and] would require” [approval from two federal agencies]. “This could delay construction by several years.”

On behalf of my 41st District colleagues, I shared this information with the neighborhood president, assuring him that “We will do our best to keep the tunnel in the plans if the line goes through Cooks Lane.”

All politics and tunneling are local.