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So, follow-up: what sort of HSR service (at least as fast as Acela) would make sense for Portland-Boston-Beyond?

If we ever got around to building the NSRL, would it make sense to extend the Acela to north of Boston? If so, how far?

India has denser and poorer populations.

I’m extremely close, myself! Feels good, especially for those of us that locked in back in 2020. I’ve been thinking about the typical NIMBYism against multifamily housing (and I’m not immune, but I’m also trying to save a school from being converted into apartments), and I can’t help but think...

I was thinking about the Central Artery, and a fun alternate history idea came to mind: what if the planners of the 20s-50s had an ounce of foresight and built it underground? The 1950s would be a great time for a project like that, and, while I’m sure it would have been more expensive than the...

in the spirit of a sandbox thread: the entire interstate system (and rt 3 down to the canal) in Massachusetts has been turned into a big-dig style network of tunnels. What do you do with the land freed up?

My wife used to go to that church any time she had a reason to go to Mass during the work week. I never had the chance to go myself, but its sad to see it gutted.

My understanding is that there was opposition to expanded service because there are concerns about the Cape becoming just a bedroom community for Boston.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t the Cape locals made it clear they don’t want improved rail on the Cape? My understanding is that they don’t want commuter rail level transit.

You’re not going to get a suburban public transit system of any sort without the upgrades to those bridges. They’re complete bottlenecks, and unless you think the Cape can do just fine with degrading connections to the rest of the state, they’re essential.

Its not quite 1x a month, but if there was more regular service, there’s loads of recreational destinations that people could use it for. Boston area people could take it to Six Flags, Western MA residents could take it for a Sox, Celtics, or Bruins game.

We could always just annex Canada, but maybe that proposal belongs in crazy transit pitches. … Ok, reasonable transit pitches.

When I was in college, I took the lakeshore limited to/from Springfield or Pittsfield from/to Boston all the time. So, people from Western MA who have reason to be in Boston. Anyway, you could say that it shaves an equivalent amount of time off the overall CHI-BOS route, but the savings is...

As someone born and raised out there, I agree wholeheartedly. On the other hand… getting, say, a State Street to relocate from Boston to a city inside 495 seems to be a much easier lift than to Springfield.

I agree they’re being too aggressive, but maybe they’ll offer a less enticing program with a longer window afterward. Say, 50% tax break, no affordability requirements, and another few years to get started. That said, getting the older, smaller buildings converted first is probably much easier...

Yup, exactly what I was thinking about. I just picked SMR’s because they seem like an easier tech to reach. Its too bad there’s no MA cities of appreciable size on the Northeast Corridor until Boston itself. My idea of relocating some finance companies to Brockton would work so much better if...

Graphene production sounds good to me. Maybe nuclear-related tech, too. SMR’s could use some large factories.

Perhaps. But maybe there just needs to be a kickstart of something new in these outlying cities.

So true. Almost all the c-suite at my wife’s company live around Back Bay, so they think nothing of RTO - for them, its all plus. Now, granted, my wife makes more than the workers at Dunkin, but its still obnoxious. And I do think that we have a great opportunity to stimulate growth in our...

I agree that congestion pricing or analogues could scare people away. I’d toss that under the bus in a heartbeat, myself. I’m not sure about regional rail as a solution to this particular issue, however.