Crazy Transit Pitches

My borderline crazy pitch: Extending the B line down Commonwealth Ave to Newton Center. Mostly crazy due to the NIMBY reaction.
 
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RandomWalk said:
My borderline crazy pitch: Extending the C line down Commonwealth Ave to Newton Center. Mostly crazy due to the NIMBY reaction.
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Comm Ave or Beacon Street? You can certainly send the C-Line trains to Comm Ave via the connection on Chestnut Hill Ave. But I think of Newton Center as being on Beacon Street, not Comm Ave. Why not just extend on Beacon for this NIMBY infuriating idea?
 
There's a mile of insufficient density between BC and Newton Center, and the latter is already well served by the D. Streetcar service on that part of Comm Ave ended in 1930, and bus service in 1976.

A one-stop extension of the B to the west side of BC would be plausible, though the dorms are concentrated nearer Lake Street.
 
The EGE said:
A one-stop extension of the B to the west side of BC would be plausible, though the dorms are concentrated nearer Lake Street.
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That's something I've always included on my fantasy maps. If they wanted to, they could build a station along Linden Ln to ensure that basically the entire campus is within 10 minutes walking from the Green Line.

But it would probably need to be entirely funded by BC, so if they don't feel like it then it's not happening.
 
My logic is that it could be tied to an MBTA Communities Act upzoning along Comm Ave. Get a modern take on the row of interwar brick apartment buildings.

Like I said, crazy pitch…
 
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The tracks to Newburyport are unfortunately long gone, but by what I see, you could run a Fitchburg-Lowell-Haverhill service.
 
BOS2BON said:
Has anyone here taken a look at CR service along the Merrimack River (E-W from Lowell to Lawrence/Haverhill or Newburyport)?
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MEVA bus #24 does Lowell-Lawrence every 30 minutes, making 4 intermediate stops with 40-minute travel time. MEVA bus #11 does Lawrence-Haverhill-Newburyport hourly, making 6 intermediate stops with 1-hour travel time. If there was any demand for such a service, we'd see it in anomalously high bus ridership statistics and by a push for further bus enhancements. I don't think either route is bursting at the seams.
CheapLeak said:
The tracks to Newburyport are unfortunately long gone, but by what I see, you could run a Fitchburg-Lowell-Haverhill service.
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Painfully slow and indirect trip. In 1946, Boston & Maine's New York-Portland State of Maine did Ayer-Lowell in 33 minutes with no intermediate stops, and Lowell-Lawrence in 33 minutes with no intermediate stops. Fitchburg-Ayer on CR is 18 minutes, and Ballardvale-Haverhill on CR is 35 minutes. A pretty unappetizing slog overall, especially since you'd probably be sticking a couple of intermediate stops on the Stony Brook Branch between Ayer and North Chelmsford and 1 intermediate in Tewksbury on the Lowell Branch between Lowell and Andover. It doesn't help that the rail routes aren't as direct as the highways. 495 does Lowell-Lawrence in 4 fewer miles than the rails, and 495+2 does Fitchburg-Lowell in 3 fewer miles than the rails. If there's a market for Gateway City-linking commuter service, it's something you try with a coach bus on the highways not Commuter Rail.
 
CheapLeak said:
The tracks to Newburyport are unfortunately long gone, but by what I see, you could run a Fitchburg-Lowell-Haverhill service.
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I'm aware, at least they will end up as some nice rail trails. But this is CRAZY TRANSIT pitches thread....let a man dream 😭😭😭
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
MEVA bus #24 does Lowell-Lawrence every 30 minutes, making 4 intermediate stops with 40-minute travel time. MEVA bus #11 does Lawrence-Haverhill-Newburyport hourly, making 6 intermediate stops with 1-hour travel time. If there was any demand for such a service, we'd see it in anomalously high bus ridership statistics and by a push for further bus enhancements. I don't think either route is bursting at the seams.

Painfully slow and indirect trip. In 1946, Boston & Maine's New York-Portland State of Maine did Ayer-Lowell in 33 minutes with no intermediate stops, and Lowell-Lawrence in 33 minutes with no intermediate stops. Fitchburg-Ayer on CR is 18 minutes, and Ballardvale-Haverhill on CR is 35 minutes. A pretty unappetizing slog overall, especially since you'd probably be sticking a couple of intermediate stops on the Stony Brook Branch between Ayer and North Chelmsford and 1 intermediate in Tewksbury on the Lowell Branch between Lowell and Andover. It doesn't help that the rail routes aren't as direct as the highways. 495 does Lowell-Lawrence in 4 fewer miles than the rails, and 495+2 does Fitchburg-Lowell in 3 fewer miles than the rails. If there's a market for Gateway City-linking commuter service, it's something you try with a coach bus on the highways not Commuter Rail.
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I've been happy with the improvements MEVA has been making over the past couple of years. But yeah I agree with you, the demand isn't quite there yet. As nice as it would be to be able to hop on a train and head to the beach, I don't think this juice is worth the squeeze so to speak. I didn't realize that the Lowell-Lawrence trip was that big of a difference between the historic rail route vs 495.
 
BOS2BON said:
I didn't realize that the Lowell-Lawrence trip was that big of a difference between the historic rail route vs 495.
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The most direct historic rail route between Lowell-Lawrence was the Boston & Lowell's Lowell & Lawrence route, which tracked closer to where 495 is today (the 495/93 cloverleaf interchange is built right on top of the ROW). But that got abandoned by B&M as redundant 90 years ago, and its ROW is mostly obliterated by new development. The Lowell Branch + Western Route is about 2.5 miles longer than the L&L and has sharper curves, but it carried more overall traffic so it was kept.
 
The Merrimack Corridor and its historical east-west ROWs always look super enticing for an unconventional rail proposal. And maybe in some relatively distant future, where Lawrence-Haverhill and Lowell are both bigger cities, there could be something. But as F-Line points out, the region just doesn't seem to be there yet. And it's worth noting that the Lowell <> Ballardvale connection looks enticing, but it's actually super indirect -- over 14 miles between Lowell and Lawrence, for what is less than 9.5 miles as the crow flies. I'd have to go back and look at the distances and speeds -- and retest Google Maps' travel time estimates with traffic -- but my recollection is that traffic would have to be pretty bad for rail along that route to be competitive.
 
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