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Back Bay so badly needs to be more porous. At minimum, the exit-only stairs to the F/W platform (west side of Dartmouth) and the OL and NEC platforms (on Columbus) should all be renovated into full bidirectional headhouses so that all platforms have multiple entrances. It would be worth...

Something that I missed when it happened: on September 1, 2024, MeVa (Merrimack Valley RTA) moved their hub from downtown Lawrence to Lawrence station. It's further from the downtown area, but closer to some of the mill redevelopments, and it provides much better connection to commuter rail than...

Notes on the March 24 schedules: Across the system, train numbers have changed. Saturday and Sunday trains now have the same numbers (finally!). Weekend trains are now generally 5YXX (where Y is the first digit of weekday trains) and weekday short turns are now 1YXX. Y is counterclockwise...

The majority of meets south of Braintree are at Brockton, East Taunton, and Myricks. There are a handful of meets at Braintree, at the siding just west of Middleborough, and at the siding between Montello and Bridgewater. On the branches, there are a few meets at the siding north of New Bedford...

Some numbers and facts: 16 weekday RT between East Taunton and Boston, up from the current 14 between M/L and Boston A handful of weekday trains don't have connecting shuttles: one early-morning train from each terminal, an AM peak Fall River inbound, and a PM outbound to each terminal. Fall...

This is fantastic analysis! I hadn't considered those power line ROWs, but they're an interesting idea, especially for shorter-distance lines where speed isn't as critical. They do have some steep grades, and certainly wouldn't be suitable for mainline rail, but light rail might be doable.

Does anyone know the purpose/history of this mystery bridge in Sullivan Square? It dates to the 1950s underpass construction; as you can see in the historic aerial, it was not part of the Orange Line or the Sullivan Square station footbridge, and I don't think it was part of the old overpass...

Yeah, this is not intended to be a particularly serious proposal, though there definitely is a need for additional suburban and circumferential services. Simply getting local bus service between suburbs would be a great start, and perhaps a good use case for the sort of smaller automated buses...

Don't tell me you've forgotten about the boom lift that lives in Courthouse station and never goes anywhere else!

So You Want To Build A Route 128 Transit Line A circumferential transit line using 128 is one of those ideas that pops up every so often. There's currently almost no circumferential service beyond ~5 miles from downtown Boston, even in the densest areas. There used to be - streetcar lines and...

Worth noting that's a construction manager at risk contract. it's not something the T has done much of before, but they seem to be trying it more - the Riverside and Innerbelt carhouse mods for Type 10s and North Quincy operations control center are both using that method as well.

I stand by what I said last time this came up - reusing the Fellsway Line ROW simply doesn't pencil out. It's a difficult and expensive proposition, to serve a relatively small suburb with little opportunity for major densification, with little if any speed difference versus vastly cheaper...

Muni Metro (not an acronym) runs fully automatic in the subway with a CBTC system. Operators only control the doors. On the surface, there is no train protection; like the B/C/E, it mostly follows traffic lights using dedicated signal heads. There are a few surface interlockings with signals...

Looks like the MBTA is working on plans for a turnback track in Reading to allow higher frequency on the line: https://www.readingrecap.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MBTA-Turnback-SB.pdf It would allow 30-minute all-day headways to Reading - alternating Reading and Haverhill trains - which...

This looks like a revival of the light rail plans from the 90s. It's never going to get anywhere. Six miles of completely new ROW, including a substantial river crossing, and three miles of new construction along the Connector alignment. Replaces 10 pretty straight miles of route with 18 curvy...

The T apparently posted, and then immediately retracted, an opening date for the Wellesley Square mini-highs...

I assume they will operate NS - Fan Pier - Drydock - Fan Pier - NS. Despite the title of the article, this just sounds like an extension of the existing route to Drydock.

You didn't specify a neighborhood - are you talking about this line west of Lake Quinsigamond? If so, that's the Worcester and Shrewsbury Railroad, which was a narrow-gauge steam line from 1873 to 1900, and a streetcar line from 1896 to 1933. (Both were in use for 4 years.)

Of course they updated it just hours after I made the graph! I'll start updating my graph with that symbology.