Recent content by Balerion

I don't really know what thread is most appropriate for this, but the TransitMatters executive director is leaving for Toole Design. https://transitmatters.org/blog/media-statement-announces-leadership-transition

What's the value proposition here as compared to taking a regular LIRR train into the city and transferring? Amtrak would express past most stops, but they'd also be stuck with having to change out the locomotive. Is that even a net positive on travel time?

You may be mixing up the school bus bill and the bus lane bill, which are separate pieces of legislation.

I don't think it would be easy to scapegoat Eng at this point. The shutdowns have been high-profile and the successes of them have been trumpeted. If there are serious service cuts because of a budget shortfall, there will be enough people screaming about it that Eng will not take the blame for...

In the MBTA house podcast, they recently did an interview with MBTA Chief Engineer Sam Zhou. He was asked about some upcoming projects and he talked about raising the speed limit on the Braintree Branch to 50mph. Interestingly, he also said they are doing work to raise the speed limit on a...

It looks like the bus lane violation bill for MBTA buses and other RTA buses has passed both chambers: https://legiscan.com/MA/bill/S2884/2023 The school bus violation bill that allows districts/towns to equip buses to detect failure-to-stop appears to have made it out of committee in the...

Well, I guess this is the other shoe dropping regarding the Newtonville platform length news. It's good to see the MBTA looking at :30 service on the Worcester Line (though it's not clear to me exactly what that means in terms of the multiple service patterns that already exist on the line)...

Eng did say this: https://commonwealthbeacon.org/transportation/eng-says-mbta-becoming-more-and-more-reliable/

It's tough when even the guy in favor of the NSRL can only articulate secondary benefits of the project (e.g. Salem-to-South Shore travel) and not the main purpose of it (speed & frequency of service).

Feds Commit More Funding For Springfield Passenger Rail Improvements

It's seemed to me for a while now that the only way forward, politically speaking, is to find a way to get a short extension to Nashua done. Once it's real, in New Hampshire, and gains popularity, it may be possible to get the political capital for an extension to Manchester.

According to the MBTA speed restrictions tracker, six restrictions between Community and Sullivan have been lifted, including a few at the stations themselves. The Orange Line is now slow-zone free between Community College and Mass Ave. This is showing up in TransitMatters data tool as well...

The MBTA's slow zone tracker indicates that as of yesterday, eight slow zones on the Red Line have been removed. Essentially, every speed restriction between Park and Andrew has been removed. There are still speed restrictions between Andrew and JFK/UMass, but this segment of track is also...

Somewhere along the line, I came under the impression that the turning radius at the Heath St curve is too tight for the Type 10s. Is my impression wrong?

The core Red Line closure was previously announced, but the post-8:45pm closure from JFK-Ashmont is new. Any theories as to what that's about? There hadn't been any scheduled work for the Ashmont Branch, since the October 2023 shutdown removed all slow zones. For the Orange Line, the May 28 -...