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  1. O

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos I know that's functionally why the S-curve is there, but I guess the part I don't understand is why they didn't dig a tunnel the full width required to accommodate the tracks without an S-curve. I think the whole right of way is offset from Tremont...
  2. O

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos Nice pic. It's interesting they still have lights on that far down the tunnel. Does anyone know why they laid the tracks with those S-curves at Boylston? Was it to avoid existing building foundations or other land (like the crazy curves to avoid the...
  3. O

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos Need is such a subjective concept. :) The T could definitely stand to significantly beef up its network, mostly by adding entirely new lines. The fact that there are no rapid crosstown routes to avoid the saturated GC-Park-DTX-State hub is really...
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    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos Ugh. What about any one of the rapid transit lines that sees more riders than the entire commuter rail network combined? You'd think 'quick wins' like Blue to Charles/MGH, Blue to Lynn, Orange to West Roxbury might be up there. Or, you know...
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    Bizarre Highway Numbering Conventions

    I-238 is derived from the route's old CA-238 designation and has nothing to do with traditional Interstate route number conventions. Another doozy: NY with all of its orphaned I-x78 routes when I-78 was truncated to NJ. I've often thought that the split I-290/I-395 designations never made any...
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    Photo of the Day, Boston Style: Part VI (2013)

    I don't think there's any regulation, but I believe somewhere along the line they studied it and determined that for visibility purposes having the lights overhead is safer. My guess is it works well for the most part in Boston (and Paris) since the driving speeds are usually lower. In some...
  7. O

    Logan Airport Flights and Airlines Discussion

    Unfortunate given the seemingly ever-growing ties between Boston and Spain, but certainly justified given how terrible everything is over there. A lot of the premium Oneworld BOS-MAD traffic flows through LHR anyway so not necessarily the end of the world from an alliance perspective.
  8. O

    Logan Airport Flights and Airlines Discussion

    Those would be wasted marketing dollars. The physical location of BOS is horrifically far out of the way for Europe-South America traffic flows.
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    Reasonable Transit Pitches

    But short-turning alone isn't going to fix everything. Addressing the old mechanical lights from BU Central to Packards and the ridiculous station spacing from Packards to Kenmore would need to happen in conjunction with the Packards-Warren rebuild for truly meaningful relief on the line.
  10. O

    Logan Airport Flights and Airlines Discussion

    Thanks, I was actually looking for O&D and didn't have any luck so settled on total passengers. It's certainly true for hubs like ATL, DFW, IAH and CLT that their international numbers tend to get skewed because of connections, but I have to think the main driver behind PHL's depressed O&D...
  11. O

    Logan Airport Flights and Airlines Discussion

    Considering it's only a smidgen smaller than BOS and its northern market area has significant overlap with EWR and JFK, PHL isn't anything to sneeze at. Along with EWR, PHL is the only other airport in the Northeast that serves as a seamless, omnidirectional domestic and international hub...
  12. O

    Road Construction Materials

    We also spend half as much on infrastructure as most of Western Europe which is more of an uphill battle than the fact that we have around twice as much snow.
  13. O

    Road Construction Materials

    That seems pretty accurate, given our roads turn to crap much faster than most anything in Europe. ;) I'm pretty sure they tend to use some sort of stone/concrete base beneath a top coat of asphalt that is easily twice as thick as what we have in the US.
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    Uniform color cabs

    ^ Oh, believe me, I know Massachusetts is far too parochial to consider the concept, but in a normal world where the region's largest and most important city should actually control the goings on in its vicinity, that's what would happen. :)
  15. O

    Uniform color cabs

    Madrid's taxis are unmistakeable and they use a predominantly white scheme: I'm also partial to the taxis in Barcelona - much, much classier than NYC. Streamlining the whole taxi system is just one of the reasons why we need a metropolitan-level government encompassing everything inside and...
  16. O

    Logan Airport Flights and Airlines Discussion

    I struggle to believe FLL-Europe or FLL-Canada could be larger than FLL-Latin America. Condor has seasonal FLL-FRA and I'm sure Norweigan's new services will be very seasonal as well (reduced or suspended service in the off-season). Air Transat, Canjet, and Sunwing are all seasonal, while...
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    Logan Airport Flights and Airlines Discussion

    FLL still remains a largely domestic gateway to South Florida. The international capacity Spirit and JetBlue have added to Latin America from there is still a pittance compared to the juggernaut that is AA at MIA. For awhile, though, I believe FLL was pretty underutilized while MIA had gate...
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    Road Construction Materials

    If I'm not mistaken, most of the Autobahn is actually asphalt overlaying a very thick concrete foundation (something like 2-3x thicker than what they do here in the US). The key to their superior roads is the stronger foundation they invest in; it's relatively cheap to relay asphalt, especially...
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    The Orange Line Thread

    The capital plan references Chinatown-Oak Grove as the segment that will be upgraded. It does mention upgrades made to the Green Line on Haymarket-North Station when they did the huge rebuild, bu no mention of the Orange Line.
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    Why is Dartmouth St so wide?

    I've always thought it is so odd how few river crossings we have compared to other cities like London or Paris, for example. Granted, that area is the widest part of the Charles, but still not like we're talking about bridging the Bosphorus. I wonder how different things would have turned out...

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