BOSTON MAYOR Michelle Wu has been in talks with the MBTA over the construction of a new Needham Line commuter rail station, funded by the city.

The discussions were initially connected with a Wu administration plan to move Roxbury’s O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science to the vacant West Roxbury Education Complex, which once housed a high school with grades 7 through 12 before shutting down in 2019, due to the need for significant repairs.

The city has promised a new building for O’Bryant for decades, and the West Roxbury location seemed ideal to proponents of the move. The mayor abandoned the proposal after community outcry, with opponents citing concerns about getting children to the location, which is in the city’s southwest corner.

But amid the O’Bryant debate, city officials were discussing the placement of a new commuter rail stop by the West Roxbury complex, as part of a plan to mitigate some of the transportation issues raised by opponents of the O’Bryant’s move.

Talks with the MBTA continued even as the O’Bryant plan fell apart. Appearing on WBUR and GBH Radio in the last week, Wu said there is a commitment from the T on the new station, though based on a statement from the MBTA, the agreement does not yet appear to be finalized.

“We have had meaningful meetings with the City of Boston regarding a potential city-funded project to build a new commuter rail station in West Roxbury,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. “As a valued partner, we will offer our expertise and support on this effort or any other initiative they are considering.”

New Balance, based in Boston’s Allston-Brighton neighborhood, forked over $20 million for the Boston Landing Station, which opened in 2017 next to the shoemaker’s global headquarters. No estimate has been released for what it would cost to build the station on the Needham Line.

The proposal for a city-funded commuter rail stop, which would be a first in the MBTA’s modern history, stands as the latest example of Wu, a longtime MBTA advocate who campaigned on a fare-free system, seeking to put city resources toward public transit.

Her administration is also deploying the city’s federal dollars to pay for three fare-free bus lines, with a pilot that was set to end this year but extended to 2026, even as Gov. Maura Healey’s administration focuses on reduced MBTA fares for low-income residents. A budget amendment last year also added a Boston seat to the MBTA’s oversight board. 

Separately, in the last year, the city of Boston has built six miles of lanes designated for MBTA buses. Under Wu, the Boston Transportation Department has hired several people dedicated to working on MBTA issues. It’s a change in City Hall’s stance, which Wu recently told reporters had previously been that “anything related to the T was the business of the state and therefore it’s not our problem.”

Jarred Johnson, executive director of the advocacy group TransitMatters, said there is value in adding a stop by the West Roxbury Education Complex. His group has pushed for the city to convert the Needham Line into a subway line, swapping out the purple commuter rail trains for the Orange Line cars.

Having the city pay for the new station is a “neat and innovative idea,” he said in an email. “I do think that with the T’s massive list of maintenance needs, and long deferred expansion and modernization projects, there will definitely need to be more private and municipal support for projects going forward. Even more so when there are new ideas.”

The new station would benefit new apartments and townhomes that have been built nearby, as well as the veterans hospital, which is likely West Roxbury’s largest employer, according to state Rep. Bill MacGregor, who represents the area. Aside from the No. 36 bus, “it’s a transit desert out there,” he said.

As for what will happen to the vacant high school now that the O’Bryant is no longer slated to go there, Wu wants to keep it as a school site. “It has every imaginable athletic facility there, ready to go, it’s in the middle of conservation and green space,” she told GBH during her semi-regular appearance on the radio station.

“We’re not sure exactly what school could fit there or what combination of schools, but that’s something I’m not giving up on,” Wu added.