Search results

Central Corridor was a good idea proposed too early. There are a number of corridors that would be useful to have regional rail on - moderate-speeds, cheaply operated, ~10 mile stop spacing, service every hour or two, intended for a mix of trips rather than commute-focused. New...

Logan International Airport stops: The airport was named in 1943 for Edward Lawrence Logan, a military officer and politican from South Boston. Among other works, he overaw the organization of the state militia into the Massachusetts National Guard after WWI. There are two Terminal B stops...

Courthouse: Fan Pier was chosen as the site of the federal courthouse in 1991; the station was called Courthouse by the 1994 FEIR. Fan Pier was owned by Anthony Athanas; he planned a large development there in the late 1980s, but the deal collapsed. I have to wonder why the station wasn't named...

Bowdoin: Bowdoin Square is named for governor James Bowdoin Maverick: Maverick Square is named for Samuel Maverick, slave owner and general piece of shit Wood Island: there were originally two Wood Islands - east and west - connected to each other and Noddle Island by marshes. The name appears...

During environmental planning in the 90s, they looked at access either from 20 or 122: The 20 site was chosen: Ridership was estimated as <150 daily riders, of which <20 would be Millbury residents (though those projections substantially underestimated Worcester, Grafton, and Westborough)...

TL;DR: you're never going to see anything longer than two Type 10s on the Green Line. Kenmore: 310 Hynes: 340 Copley: 320 Arlington: 270 Boylston: 230 active, 260 including closed portions Park Street: 320 GC: 280 NB, 300 SB, 340 loop Haymarket: 230 North Station: 390 Science Park: 220 (250...

I don't think a Millbury station would be that useful unless Worcester leans hard into redeveloping the Route 20 corridor. Right now there's not enough density along Route 20 or in East Millbury to get decent walk-up ridership, and a park-and-ride wouldn't have much benefit compared to the...

Prudential: named in 1964 for the then-new Prudential Center. Previously it had been Mechanics after Mechanics Hall, which was demolished to build the Prudential Center. Symphony: named for the adjacent Symphony Hall. Northeastern University: several programs, mostly evening classes, at the YMCA...

Longwood: David Sears II, who developed the Longwood neighborhood, was big into Napoleon. He named the neighborhood after Napoleon's exile home on St. Helena. The station opened prior to Longwood Avenue opening, so it appears to have been named directly after the neighborhood. Brookline Village...

Town meetings have got to be the worst possible way to decide on anything. It's taking the worst of ordinary public meetings - that mostly loud, angry, privileged people show up - and giving them voting power. You miss out on both functional direct democracy and representative democracy.

Fenway gets its own post because of all the footnotes. The (Back Bay) Fens and Fenway were named 1887 while the former was being created from the Muddy River. The naming was actually precipiated by the parkway, as the Parks Commission approved Olmsted's plan to designate the road following the...

I would argue that the Inner Belt shouldn't be the highest priority for that. The southern half is sandwiched between two elevated rail lines and a rail yard, none of which are going away. The northern half is between an elevated rail line and a semi-active freight rail line. Street connections...

Almost all of the Inner Belt area was nothing but rail yards and associated industry until the late 20th century. Basically this entire area: There were a few small residential streets on the south side of Washington, but that's it. Everything else was originally Miller's River, associated...

St. Mary's Street: I'm not sure why the street was named for the biblical Mary - I can't find any record of a church on the street. It was laid out at least as early as 1858. Hawes Street and Kent Street: both streets appear to have taken their names from the English towns St. Paul Street: the...

"Depot" is generally just seen as a synonym for "station" these days. While there are a few locations left with the "X Depot" naming indicating a station village separate from the main village (Charlton Depot comes to mind), the vast majority of people would not know that, and it wouldn't scan...

The station names still need to make sense for riders on the commuter rail, though. The broadness of a station name is related to the broadness of the mode. Station names on a regional mode should be clear to riders across the region - if there's only one station in an municipality, it should...

Blandford Street: unclear about the exact route, but everything Blandford seems to trace back to Blandford Forum in England. Its name apparently comes from being a ford where blay (bleak) fish are found. The town of Blandford, Massachusetts, is named for the ship HMS Blandford, itself presumably...

Some other name changes I agree with (from this thread and others): East Somerville → Brickbottom: Better placemaking; East Somerville also includes a lot that's closer to Sullivan Square. Silver Line Way → Starboard Way (or Pavilion, or something else): anything to make it a useful name World...

Upon further look I found this: https://arlhist.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2003-4-Spread.pdf It notes that some Arlingtons in the US were definitely named for the earl, mostly pre-Civil War. More were named after the war for Arlington Cemetery, which can be conclusively traced to Arlington...

In general, I've soured on naming things after people - morality shifts over time, and most people do both good and bad things. (In particular I hate naming stations in honor of people - unless the name is (or is intended to be) the name of the area, it doesn't give any clue to where it is.)...