Search results

I have a vague recollection that at one point it was common that emergency dispatchers would call railroad dispatchers in a situation like this, but I have no idea how that would actually work in practice. I also can't really imagine a railroad ever giving anyone, even emergency vehicles...

It's interesting, though, because "higher capacity rail that can still interact with the streetscape" is really a description of Los Angeles-style light rail. It does make me wonder if there's a world where some of the Comm Ave (or Beacon St, for that matter) crossings are closed, and others...

I'll stop spamming the thread now, but I see that BostonInTransit.com now has full scans of the Plates of the above report, which either they didn't have before, or which I didn't notice. Either way, they are very cool...

Oh shit wait they were proposing the extension to Brighton be at grade. (I think.)

Really makes you wish the 1926 proposal for a subway under Commonwealth had worked out.

For better or worse, the Mattapan Line has been branded as part of the Red Line since the MBTA adopted the Cambridge Seven rebranding in the 1960s. To the T's credit, it's never been shown as contiguous -- there's also been a gap or other visual discontinuity to imply the need to transfer. For...

So what I'm hearing is that, at least in terms of the OCR projects, which do seem broadly comparable, SCR is coming in a bit more expensive than Middleboro/Kingston, at $1.3B for 35 miles, versus $1.2B for ~50 miles. But hardly an order of magnitude difference -- something like $25M per mile vs...

Wow! That's the biggest change to the system map in 20 years. Looking forward to digging in to this!

Looking for a bit of a history lesson here. South Coast Rail has become (very visibly) a long expensive project. Was the same true for previous recent commuter rail expansions? I recall Greenbush going through some birthing pains and delays, but in general it seems like Old Colony Restoration...

Yeah I mean, I have two feelings about this: 1) I love the Red X for its creativity, and I definitely can imagine a strong case for it. It's also definitely not my top priority personally, and I don't think it should block other projects. The ops complexity of it is a double-edged sword, and I...

Cataloguing the "Red X" This post may just end up being a collection of dates and links. If so, so be it. I went looking through the archives to try to find the origination of the "Red X" concept. It actually dates back much further than I thought (and I'm not even completely sure I've found...

Following discussion in this thread, I added an addendum to my post, to describe the Medford Model and the Tremont Model. As part of the addendum, I did some research to find other "Tremont Models" in North America, and, unsurprisingly, there aren't very many: Pittsburgh and Los Angeles both...

When was the last time an extension was studied? It’s always looked tempting to me, but it turns into a pretty lengthy and roundabout journey to Boston. In theory, Milford ought to be the terminus of a commuter rail line that radiates out through Dover and Millis. In practice, those and the...

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...

I understand why they are doing this, but it's definitely a tough situation. Those two are already each high-ridership stops, serving some of the highest density in Boston: Their combined ridership would (I think) put them near the top of the list in terms of Green Line surface branch ridership.

Can't turn 'em into YIMBYs without something to say yes to 🤷‍♂️ All kidding aside, yes this is a project that fails on the current-and-foreseeable political level, regardless of the physical considerations. And like I said: Exploring an idea on a web forum =/= endorsement. And besides --...

Which brings me to the part of this idea that delights me the most: imagining riding a trolley into the Needham Town Forest. The ROW runs along the Forest's southern border, with trails abutting at several points: (I do think service oriented toward the Forest would need to be more frequent...

Yeah, I agree that Medfield + Millis + Medway is a better fit for a commuter rail branch off of Walpole. That would also provide access to jobs in Norwood and Dedham, and, if timed right, could provide access to Patriot Place via transfer. Despite linking Boston and Providence, the Providence...

The other big benefit of trams/streetcars/light rail is that they can go into subways effectively, whereas buses can't. (The Silver Line Transitway and Seattle's formerly BRT subway are the exceptions that prove the rule, IMO.) This sounds like what you are arguing for in the first quote above...

I feel like I'm in a somewhat unusually argumentative mood today, so I will try to keep that in check as I reply. First, in general I do want to say that if the T started breaking ground on an Arborway re-extension tomorrow, I'd be thrilled. Like, it's not that I think it's a bad idea. I...