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    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    So, uh, a thought... the T runs cab cars for a reason, and as such there isn't exactly a plethora of wyes or balloons tracks across the system. How exactly do they plan on turning this around at the end of the lines? My understanding is that can't be considered a cab car, so is restricted to...
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    Reasonable Transit Pitches

    While I'm aware of the EU mandate to separate train operations from track, I also must confess unfamiliarity with how that actually works on the continent- I didn't think its quite as fragmentary as the UK? I could swear the times I've taken trains in those countries I was always on DB or NS, or...
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    Reasonable Transit Pitches

    I don't know if theres a better place for this, but are folks aware of any studies on the effect of common ticketing in Britain? Ie, there you can buy a single ticket between any two station pairs, regardless of the operator - You can buy a ticket from an random suburban commuter station like...
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    Multi-Family Zoning Requirements for MBTA Communities

    I do think the basic thesis of rail service should equal walk up densities anywhere so served is sound, but it also doesn't need to be a full statewide map. I think there's a middle ground between a statewide map and the MBTA communities model, where we can also alleviate some municipal concerns...
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    South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

    Here's a different render, and a snippet from the original presentations about how the ground level would interact. I believe the plan left it open to whether it'd be all-hotel or mixed residential, but if I recall correctly the skypark is meant to be a shared amenity between the two buildings...
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    Residential/Retail Development | 2400 Mass Ave | Cambridge

    Just dropping the architects profile for this project, mostly because it contains these fascinating 3D printed massing models for various options they considered. https://www.mergearchitects.com/projects/2400-mass-ave-mixed-use/
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    Housing (Supply Crisis & Public Policy)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/business/massachusetts-housing-bill-seasonal-communities.html NYT piece about housing shortages in Berkshire County and the potential of workforce housing in seasonal communities - we usually don't talk about far Western Mass, but apparently the vacancy rates...
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    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    My informed guess would be a lease of the RoW to a telco - the MBTA FOR project installed either 96/288F and 3 conduits for the MBTA's own use, and optionally 3 to be leased to commercial operators. My understanding is that due to construction costs, the 3 commercial ducts were omitted from the...
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    Multi-Family Zoning Requirements for MBTA Communities

    I mean... that is kinda what Ch40A and 40B are for? 40A contains the restrictions on what towns are and aren't allowed to restrict via zoning, and is what the MBTA Communities Act amended to create the MBTA districts, and while it by itself didn't do much, it at least settled the question that...
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    Water Transportation in and around Boston

    https://whav.net/2025/11/05/maine-firm-wins-bid-to-build-three-ferry-boats-for-haverhill-to-newburyport-service/
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    MBTA "Transformation" (Green Line, Red Line, & Orange Line Transformation Projects)

    So out of sheer curiosity, I fed the same base picture into ChatGPT and asked it for a scheme based on the current / historic orange and cream livery the PCCs currently wear - notwithstanding the usual gen-AI artifacts, the Type 9s look good in orange ans cream.
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    Harvard Enterprise Research Campus | 100 Western Avenue | Allston

    I suppose the point to be made is that Harvard expects to be the main user of the treehouse - it doesn't expect to be the main user of the surrounding buildings which were built on-spec to be leased to other entities. Think of those as a speculative investment, and compare to something thats...
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    MBTA Fare System (Charlie, AFC 2.0, Zone, Discounts)

    Didn't CTA & Cubic try some version of that with the Ventra prepaid mastercards? As I recall, it was a bit of a dismal failure. Besides, pass support is kind of a key feature - I doubt it'll go away.
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    Logan Airport Capital Projects

    As evidenced, this is a longstanding pending personal research project of mine, I see you've already cited Seasholes, but these are some primary sources I found particularly helpful. As requested, East Boston Company Annual Report, 1860 Links to Gale, which also has a couple more years and...
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    Logan Airport Capital Projects

    Yea from the top down it very much looks like an urban renewal bulldozer job, but the history is much more that for whatever reasons economic or social, that plans here just never were completed or progressed very far. The City has maps that show those proposed east boston fill blocks since at...
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    Logan Airport Capital Projects

    The biggest difference here historically is really that the construction of logan didn't result in mass evictions or urban destruction in quite the same way, largely because it never was fully built out. As a result, displacements were much more limited. I've posted about it before in a now...
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    MBTA Fare System (Charlie, AFC 2.0, Zone, Discounts)

    www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/10/28/2-months-0-citations-mbta-releases-numbers-around-its-planned-crackdown-on-fare-evasion/? Zero citations isn't too surprising when they're issued only on the 2nd offense, but not going to lie, 85 written warnings in 7 weeks also feels quite low. Even...
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    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    The below link is to a spec sheet for the Siemens SC-44, which is the probable candidate for new diesels - I'd assume their marketed 95% reductions particulate and 89% for NOx compared to Tier 0 is largely accurate, despite the T's F40s and GP40s being Tier 0+.Beyond that, they are 4400hp...
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    Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

    In a last minute 4am vote, Illinois funded CTA/Metra/Pace (RTA) and other statewide transit for $1.5B over the coming years, largely funded by redirecting fuel taxes from roads to transit and other road funds, in addition to increases in sales taxes in the RTA counties. Additionally, the RTA...
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    MBTA Construction Projects

    I can't imagine it being too disruptive. Something like panel track would probably take all of a night to install through the platform area. That said, I'd imagine they pull out something like a track laying machine for this and do it in one shot - absent installing switches, signal etc...

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