Direct ramps from Route 2 (or 495) and a parking garage would greatly improve Littleton/495, I wish they had followed through with those 90s plans.
My understanding is that improved bike/ped has been under construction over the winter; certainly segments of Foster have been shut intermittently for work. I believe that MassDOT is building a 10' shared path between Taylor & Balsam, while town of Littleton is starting planning for a phase 2, working from the other end to extend it's sidewalk network from where it ends at Tahattawan to join up. Unfortunately I don't believe the town is currently planning on continuing the path or other bike infrastructure - last I've heard it was planned as sidewalk & shared street.
See the difference between the proposed plan as of January 2021; this was Phase 1 (North) of a 2 phase plan. This was on the Spring Warrant but was pulled bc MBTA communities act regulations hadn't been promulgated yet, and no one knew if this would comply.
www.bostonglobe.com
That's the crossing 400 ft. adjacent to Abington station, and it was an inbound so the train only moved 400 ft. very slowly before colliding. Not a quiet crossing, either, so it got the full horn show. Gates stay down at this crossing when the train is at the station because there's no DTMF switch for engineer override, so it's a somewhat notorious crossing in town for gate-evaders as drivers get a false sense of confidence with the 2-minutes-down gates thinking they have all the time in the world to cheat. Even very slow trains have poor stopping distance, and this one crumpled the driver's side door leading to an immediate fatality.Commuter rail train crashes into vehicle in Abington, police say - The Boston Globe
MBTA Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan said a preliminary investigation indicates the crossing gates were in a down position and the “safety warning system was fully engaged."
www.boston25news.com
itemlive.com
I have to imagine they'd at least go as far as (South) Salem, hopefully Beverly. At that distance I think it should be possible to run BEMUs the remaining distance without stopping to charge.
That’s what I’d hope for too. If the Salem tunnel can’t fit wires (which I believe it can’t), would it just be easier to transfer to battery power at South Salem instead, so it doesn’t have to go to battery, then back to wires from Salem-Beverly?
Hamilton-Wenham and Manchester, though Somerville-Chelsea would be un-wired. Just finish the damn job if we're proposing to do that much.
The whole Eastern Route is cleared for Plate E (15'9") freights, with actual clearance of the Salem Tunnel somewhat more than that. It will pose no issues.
That's just bizarre. Beverly-Rockport is 17 miles (Newburyport is similar), 34 miles is well within the range of nearly all but the smallest BEMUs. If we're doing BEMUs that's likely the optimal option.
That's because the layover yards at Rockport and Newburyport will not have battery charging stations, only the existing HEP plug-in power for the lights and HVAC which isn't nearly adequate for traction battery charging. That's different from the other proposed BEMU lines, which will have outer charging stations at Readville station and Readville layover for the Fairmount+Stoughton Lines and Worcester layover for the Worcester Line. The Rockburyport BEMU's will need enough charging slack to get back after considerable idle time laying over, with the nearest wired yard being the very small proposed Castle Hill facility in South Salem in a low-battery emergency. So the options are:
I'm not sure either of these options are necessary though. The shortest common "normal operation" BEMU range I've seen is 50 miles, and ranges of 75 mi or more are hardly uncommon at this point. It really seems like that should be enough to do the Rockport-Beverly round trip entirely on battery. Either I'm underestimating how much battery they need as slack and to be used while idle, or they're working with old and/or poorly chosen BEMU range numbers for their planning.
1) Cold weather
The BEMU range figures published are usually way, way below what the batteries can technically do. The Class 777 operated by Merseyrail in the UK has a nominal range of 34 miles, but in a test it did 84.
But best practice it to do layovers at a charging facility. MBTA plan for Newburyport/Rockport does not do that. They are asking for stacked performance degradation, and trains dying on their first inbound run on cold winter mornings.
At lower frequencies and longer distances, and especially if they can charge while en-route rather than at dedicated charging stations, BEMUs are more economical than straight EMUs and electrification, and they don't (usually) have significant performance downsides either. Once you get past Beverly the economics is definitely favorable. The world is changing, that's how it goes.