Crazy Transit Pitches

Any sky-high transportation solution that isn't zeppelins is trash. I want a one way ticket from South Station Tower to the Empire State Building!
 
Just brainstorming while shopping at Wegmans in Westwood: Assume the Orange Line extended down to the 128 station (thats the crazy part). Without cannibalizing University Ave, is there any good way to turn University Station into a legit Transit Oriented Development?

There’s plenty of open land available, even after everything gets built up, since there’s plenty of parking. You can’t really eat into the Wegmans lot too much (its the one part of the lots that fills up reliably, for obvious reasons), but you could build out the shops adjacent to the main road. Then, maybe a skybridge or two over the road, to connect an Orange Line station (ideally built just a tad closer to the shopping than the Commuter Rail station) to the shops/apartments.
 
I suppose that you could build on the parking lots and redevelop the eastern side of University Ave to get more density, but the area seems boxed in.

If you're extending the Orange Line it's better to extend it through West Roxbury to Dedham because there is a corridor of malls and big box stores you could redevelop that are not necessarily currently near transit, while Westwood has the commuter rail station you could simply improve frequencies on.
 
Proposition Joe said:
I suppose that you could build on the parking lots and redevelop the eastern side of University Ave to get more density, but the area seems boxed in.

If you're extending the Orange Line it's better to extend it through West Roxbury to Dedham because there is a corridor of malls and big box stores you could redevelop that are not necessarily currently near transit, while Westwood has the commuter rail station you could simply improve frequencies on.
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Crazy Transit Pitches! We'll do both!
 
Proposition Joe said:
I suppose that you could build on the parking lots and redevelop the eastern side of University Ave to get more density, but the area seems boxed in.

If you're extending the Orange Line it's better to extend it through West Roxbury to Dedham because there is a corridor of malls and big box stores you could redevelop that are not necessarily currently near transit, while Westwood has the commuter rail station you could simply improve frequencies on.
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How do you get to Dedham with the Orange through WRox? The old ROW is built over. Unless you're going to hard-turn elevate it over the VFW Pky and the Boston-Prov Hwy...
 
I still think the best option is to complete the NSRL and increase commuter rail frequency's to rapid transit like levels. Also revise the 40b program to incentivise development around commuter rail stations. Add in some sort of congestion pricing along and inside of 128 to convince people to use the system more often. Also create a suburban ring commuter rail line along 128. The suburban commuter rail line could connect to all of the 128 offices in Waltham, Burlington, Woburn, Braintree, Needham, etc. It could start in Salem and use an unused row out to 128.
 
This is a highway crazy pitch: Build a giant (oddly-shaped) rotary on top of the Braintree split, and use that as an intermediary for all three exits next to it (or at least Burgin and Granite).
 
Would short turns at Back Bay be able to free up slots in South Station to accommodate the (extra) express trains that RI wants? Can Back Bay even do short turns?
 
^ I'm skeptical but I don't know for sure.

You might be able to send some trains south at the Channel and then down the Fairmont line thought...
 
What is the minimal turn around time at South Station? It seems to me that it should be pretty quick for passengers to debark, the operator to walk to the other end, and a brakeman to conduct the required brake test. I'd think any given track could handle three trains per hour, does that sound about right? If so, then how many trains per hour does South Station handle during peak? I find it hard to believe that they are actually at capacity for more than occasional brief periods throughout the day.
 
Here’s a different idea:

https://www.siemens.com/global/en/h.../road-solutions/electromobility/ehighway.html

Siemens is currently building out a system of catenary wires for trucks equipped with a new style of pantograph, sort of a middle ground between traditional semis and proper trains.

So, my crazy pitch is to use this for trucks around the city, particularly in the more industrial areas or areas that still have their trackless trolleys (I’d suggest more, but I know a lot of people don’t like how the catenary wires look). Possibly some of the highways, too, like in Siemens’ design here. The MBTA could basically license out the right to use their lines, for a source of revenue. The vehicles would need to be either hybrid or have good sized batteries, for times when they hop offf the wires, possibly to go down side streets.

Assuming for the moment that we had enough of these in residential areas, imagine if, say, your garbage truck or UPS truck was an electric vehicle, running silently, instead of a noisy and smelly diesel (though you cant avoid the garbe smell!).
 
I feel like we live in a time where we should be removing wires and not adding more. It's more prevalent in the suburbs. There are so many places that would be so much more pleasant without wires stretching from every structure everywhere you look. I know this is more for highways but just saying.
 
mcus29 said:
I feel like we live in a time where we should be removing wires and not adding more. It's more prevalent in the suburbs. There are so many places that would be so much more pleasant without wires stretching from every structure everywhere you look. I know this is more for highways but just saying.
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Never understood the hate for wires, but, even in this day and age we can barely do internet/TV over wireless (and it is much worse than over say fiberoptics), that I doubt you will see wires go anytime soon. Even cell sites need a ton of fiber back haul to work.
 
There's a lot of beauty to see up in the sky but gets ruined by wires, that's all.
 
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