Grade separate Rt 2 as much as possible through Concord, fix Alewife garage, increase RL service, extend the GL from Union to Porter.
Boom, best of all worlds
Speaking for myself, I’ve taken the commuter rail to Walpole and Uber’d to Gillette to get to a pats game early before. It was fairly easy but slightly annoying as you have to buy the round trip event train ticket (for the ride home after the game) and an additional outbound CR trip + uber fee...
It does look a little funny but the intent would be to run it as a balloon route with the extant Washington st subway extended from Haymarket to Everett, right? That wouldn’t be too far off from the early idea of running the red line as a balloon route utilizing the fairmount line from Mattapan...
Why would there be a need for a new (re-activated) line through the white mountains when there’s already an active one to northern NH and Montreal in the SLR? Since when is there a high enough freight traffic demand from Portland to St Johnsbury to warrant such a costly re-activation?
From a structural standpoint, you really can’t build with stick framing taller than a 4 or 5 over 1. It may only make financial sense to go full steel/concrete framing at a minimum of 20 stories because of scale/usable floor space to make up for the cost. I’m not a developer so I’m not entirely...
Most modern skyscrapers have been simple rectangular boxes. Instead of that the architect has decided to put a signature feature on top of this building which distinguishes it from the run of the mill high rises that are popping up everywhere. I disagree that it makes it look top heavy. It just...
Concrete structures certainly have lifespans, especially since the codes have changed significantly since the tower was built c.1971. Retrofitting the structure to bring it to up-to-date codes can often be complex and cost intensive, especially for a cast-in-place concrete tower such as that...
What would the critics say if this old grain elevator was being proposed today? Does this fit the “working port” vibe that they so often say Portland was, is, and forever should be?
I agree with you on the last part, but I wouldn’t downplay the cost of double tracking through Quincy, which will surely be in the billions. The Cape Main ROW appears to already be wide enough for 3 tracks so adding RL tracks likely won’t be as expensive. I’m bringing this up as a consideration...
You don’t have to eliminate any CR lines, the target goal is to increase frequency to Brockton specifically. Beyond that frequency for the CR can be hourly. Does anyone know what the capacity of the OC line is from Braintree-SS? Bi-directional All day hourly frequency for the other 2 lines may...
I was thinking the same thing actually but didn’t mention it. Red X may be a requirement for this but that would need to be analyzed. In any case, I figured that not all trains would continue past Braintree
I think if the red line’s going past Braintree it has to go to Brockton. That’s where the density is. Would a red line extension to Brockton plus cape main mostly single track through Brockton be a better value than an OC double track project? I’m not sure but it may be worth exploring. I assume...