General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Perfect example of political cover for killing a reasonable transit solution. BHA Bus lanes are not perfect (connect to Columbus Ave damnit!), but trying to propose a brand new tunnel with massive logistical hurdles such as alignment and southern yard space is just laughable.
 
Yeah wow that's really bad. Full map below from UHub


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HenryAlan said:
This map belongs in the Crazy Transit Pitches thread. It isn't remotely something worthy of discussion or ink in the local press.
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It doesn't even belong in Crazy Transit Pitches, the posts in that thread are generally ideas that is earnest and beneficial but political and financial realities preclude the dream. Proposals that the poster knows is a pipe dream but genuinely believe in the idea if enacted.

The lack of effort to even correct the errors of the AI slop shows reinforces the whole thing is just a distraction. Delay current planning with this "idea". And even if the idea somehow grain real traction, excepting the scenario that idea gets reworked by serious people (which would suddenly the proponents will suddenly will not support it), will crash into reality of time, cost, and operational issues will kill it.

You know what extra frustrating thing in following this development? The Facebook comments and downvoted Reddit comments. Facebook comments seem to be more positive than usual to this idea (not universally, but definitely more than usual despite you can still find the typical comments on transit with certain backgrounds if you check their profile). Of course, the guy who is always skeptical of transit ideas on Reddit suddenly really like this idea. Kinda hard to try to look outside the "echo chamber" when it looks like nobody argue from earnest positions.
 
Just looking at that monstrosity again. If anyone in any real job let something like that see the light of day they'd be summarily fired. It's so, so bad. Even in their district, even on the exact line they're advocating for, there are no stops between Ruggles and Forest Hills. It's just slop, shame on them.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
www.wbur.org

Boston councilors’ push to extend Orange Line lacks 'seriousness,' transit advocates say

Transit advocates are taking aim at a proposal from two Boston city councilors to extend the Orange Line from Ruggles Station to Mattapan Square, saying their plan isn't "serious."
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org

TransitMatters is not amused with Councillors Culpepper's and Worrell's Orange Line deke.
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Makes you feel better about any gaffe that you committed.

Damn. That was brutal. And hopefully kills the proposal.
 
A weird thing in the Spilling the T Podcast. Two people from the MBTA Climate Policy and Planning Team were being interviewed. They suggest that one reason we shouldn't put up new catenary wires is because of sea level rise and coastal flooding? Or something? I don't know what they could be referring to here. By the time sea level rise is taking out overhead catenary, we've got bigger problems. It would be wild if the Climate Policy Team were some of the people pushing against electrifying our commuter rail lines. jfc.

At about 27:30
 
ritchiew said:
A weird thing in the Spilling the T Podcast. Two people from the MBTA Climate Policy and Planning Team were being interviewed. They suggest that one reason we shouldn't put up new catenary wires is because of sea level rise and coastal flooding? Or something? I don't know what they could be referring to here. By the time sea level rise is taking out overhead catenary, we've got bigger problems. It would be wild if the Climate Policy Team were some of the people pushing against electrifying our commuter rail lines. jfc.

At about 27:30
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The talking points don't make any practical sense. There are no proposed substations in flood-prone areas, and that's the only thing other than the roughly one-every-6-mile circuit breaker stations that's actually at near-ground level in an electrification system (big-whoop...raise the circuit-breaker cabinets 3 feet off the ground like many other systems in flood-prone areas do). But the same points about coastal flooding were hammered in the Board decarbonization presentation at the end of March that slagged off hard on electrifying anything, so this is all being immaculately synced from the top-down.

Eng and his top deputies are anti-electrification zealots, and they're directing everyone in the agency to coordinate their talking points. The agency is poisoned with this through-and-through, and it's not going to get better until there's a new Administration in charge. Expect a lot of seemingly unrelated people in the agency to sprout the same coordinated bullshit on this subject.
 
The very same talking points also works against battery-charging stations that are inevitably needed for battery charging trains, unless of course the plan is to just keep using diesels. Which is quite likely - it's quite possible Fairmount is being set up to fail with its enormous cost blowout, and the locomotive order for 10 battery locomotives also comes with 10 diesel locomotives and the option for 50 diesel locomotives attached. It's hard to not see the 10 battery locomotives as political cover to order 60 diesel locomotives.

If you walk over to the newly built North Cambridge battery-electric bus garage (elevation 13 feet above sea level), their transformers are clearly grounded mounted:

North_Cambridge_bus_garage_construction_progress_November_2025_5.jpg
 
4300th said:
The very same talking points also works against battery-charging stations that are inevitably needed for battery charging trains, unless of course the plan is to just keep using diesels. Which is quite likely - it's quite possible Fairmount is being set up to fail with its enormous cost blowout, and the locomotive order for 10 battery locomotives also comes with 10 diesel locomotives and the option for 50 diesel locomotives attached. It's hard to not see the 10 battery locomotives as political cover to order 60 diesel locomotives.

If you walk over to the newly built North Cambridge battery-electric bus garage (elevation 13 feet above sea level), their transformers are clearly grounded mounted:

North_Cambridge_bus_garage_construction_progress_November_2025_5.jpg
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Also it just makes no sense on its face. If the problem is substations and electrical equipment, BEMUs also need that. If you're worried about the overhead wires, frankly if there's that much flooding there are probably bigger concerns.

Maybe in some edge cases it could legitimately be a problem, and that could be a good application for batteries, but that's using them to bridge discontinuous electrification, an order of magnitude apart in terms of battery capacity and equipment costs.
 
walthamtimes.org

MBTA explores moving a third commuter rail station to Waltham – Waltham Times

The MBTA is seeking funds to build the new station. The proposed station would be built on Jones Road and would replace the Kendal Green commuter rail
walthamtimes.org walthamtimes.org
MBTA spokesperson Maya Bingaman in June confirmed that the agency approved a memorandum of understanding with real estate company BXP Inc., Waltham and Weston to collaboratively search for grants to pay for the project. The MBTA has not committed any of its own money for the project nor committed to constructing it.
Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy brought up construction of a new station at a November City Council meeting, saying it would require other planned improvements in the area to go forward, including lengthening nearby Green Street into a full connector road and upgrades to the Main Street bridge over I-95.
McCarthy expressed confidence that Waltham would get the new station, adding that the construction of a new Jones Road station would allow for more frequent commuter rail service between Waltham and Boston.
BXP has referenced the proposed station in its redevelopment proposals to create mixed-used residential and commercial properties on a nearby Jones Road lot. BXP Vice-President of Development Kier Evans referred to the station as a multimodal transit hub with ties to the nearby Mass Central Rail Trail, calling it “one of the most critical transportation improvements for this region.” Bingaman, the MBTA spokesperson, said the agency is “generally supportive” of the project but noted it still requires a clear funding source and environmental permits.
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I'm glad there's finally some serious discussion about the I-95 infill station on the Fitchburg Line.

People on the MBTA subreddit are very unhappy about this for some reason.
 
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themissinglink said:
walthamtimes.org

MBTA explores moving a third commuter rail station to Waltham – Waltham Times

The MBTA is seeking funds to build the new station. The proposed station would be built on Jones Road and would replace the Kendal Green commuter rail
walthamtimes.org walthamtimes.org

I'm glad there's finally some serious discussion about the I-95 infill station on the Fitchburg Line.

People on the MBTA subreddit are very unhappy about this for some reason.
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I just don't understand who this stop is serving. The walkshed in that area basically serves no one, so it'd be an exclusive park-and-ride station. But the waltham single track basically means that we can't really improve frequencies much more, esp not compared to the worcester line a few miles to the south. And also North Station has a much worse commuter walkshed compared to back bay/south station. So basically anyone who is in that metro-west area who wants to park-n-ride from Rte128 would still have a faster commute just by using Auburndale, driving to alewife and taking the red, or taking the green line. So this is just using another $20-50mm to build a new station to serve 50 passengers a day. The money would be so much better used by double-tracking waltham, rebuilding waltham center, or hell just fixing the newton stops.
 
sneijder said:
I just don't understand who this stop is serving. The walkshed in that area basically serves no one, so it'd be an exclusive park-and-ride station. But the waltham single track basically means that we can't really improve frequencies much more, esp not compared to the worcester line a few miles to the south. And also North Station has a much worse commuter walkshed compared to back bay/south station. So basically anyone who is in that metro-west area who wants to park-n-ride from Rte128 would still have a faster commute just by using Auburndale, driving to alewife and taking the red, or taking the green line. So this is just using another $20-50mm to build a new station to serve 50 passengers a day. The money would be so much better used by double-tracking waltham, rebuilding waltham center, or hell just fixing the newton stops.
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Waltham single track is exactly 1/2 mile long through exactly one station. It's not constraining anything until you try for sub-20 minute frequencies. Which we are a long way from doing. Even :30 minutes bi-directional is completely fine there, and that's pretty much what they're targeting with this + the Kendal Green turnback track.

The Jones Rd. station site has been studied for eons as a replacement for all 3 Weston stops, and projects out to high ridership because the business coalitions want to run shuttle buses to all the adjacent 128 office parks. It's always been pitched as a "multimodal superstation" because of that angle. And it would do quite well on park-and-ride utilization, which is much needed out on that extremely congested quadrant of 128. Some places we desperately do need Pn'R's. This is one of them.
 
sneijder said:
I just don't understand who this stop is serving. The walkshed in that area basically serves no one, so it'd be an exclusive park-and-ride station.
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The Mass Central Rail Trail provides a direct westward connection to this area for pedestrians and cyclists. There are also plans for rail-with-trail alongside the Fitchburg Line to the north, which would provide even more pedestrian/cyclist access to the station. I think there would be a surprising amount of walk-up ridership, especially since Kendall Green (and Silver Hill?) would close if this gets built.
 
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RandomWalk said:
Silver Hill has very affluent patrons that keep it from a decaying relic viewed through the windows of a passing train.
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Not very many of them. It got 11 daily boardings in the 2018 counts, probably little more than that since it came back on the schedule sans Hastings. Town of Weston has truly craptacular sidewalk coverage, so I'd be willing to bet that almost all of its patrons are kiss-and-ride.

Honestly, if you just did a pair of timed US 20 and MA 117 buses to the new superstation while the station is getting boosted with :30 frequencies at the new turnback, you'd tap a much greater swath of Weston by actually hitting the population pockets and what passes for sidewalk buildouts instead of being on sleepy, narrow, poorly-lit, hairpin-turn side streets. The 117 trajectory scooping up all of the ridership from the 3 incumbent stops and then some, and the 20 trajectory hitting the actual Weston village center that neither of the current and former rail routes got anywhere close enough to. Of course, Weston is never in a million years going to fund a bus because buses are for "others", but that would be the duh-logical transit orientation plan with real ridership generation capability over continuing to prop up their boutique stops.
 
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