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Automated light metro like the Montréal REM is a much better solution for the Blue Line than any sort of light rail conversion.

Unfortunately no. The recap video they just posted says they removed 12 restrictions, two more than planned; reducing travel times by 4 minutes. Not sure if that’s round trip or one way.

Where did you hear this? The last I heard it was due to them needing custom ties for the viaduct. https://mass.streetsblog.org/2023/01/18/temporary-green-line-slow-zone-approaches-1-year-anniversary

95 is effectively a ring road, and all highways within it could be eliminated if NSRL is built with park&rides where it intersects Commuter Rail lines.

Not to distract from the BLX discussion, but is it realistic to request this station be built with platform screen doors? What signaling enhancements does the blue line need to make this happen? Can these enhancements be made on the new track before they are rolled out to the entire line?

Does anyone know at what time they are doing this work? Do they only do demo work when the GL is shut down overnight? Or are they able to make progress during the day?

Ah that’s too bad, I thought I could see catenary poles on top of the bus if I squinted just right.

Interesting that the vehicle they chose to highlight for bus electrification is a hybrid trolleybus. Maybe (hopefully) that means a shift in bus electrification strategy.

Alternatively, just bustitute to East Somerville station, they’re so close you’d probably only need one bus.

To be fair, I think this is probably the worst run single track ops in the country. Plus it’s two branches on one track. The headways would probably be manageable if it were just one branch.

It’s because they run single track operations between Science Park and North Station during the diversions. The system (last time I checked) involves passing a flag between the train exiting North Station and the next one to enter which has to wait at Science Park. I don’t know what the track...

I'm wondering if we'll get the details of the lease agreement with the T. I'm wondering if Somerville could do things like raising the retaining walls or widening the path itself. Somerville could also eminent domain three feet of the person's backyard at School St. to fix that crossing since...

Fully agree. I frequently use the path because my alternative route means biking / walking on McGrath. While I’m doing it intentionally, a reasonable person could mistakenly think the path is open. There is no signage indicating that it’s closed at most entrances (I think I’ve seen it at Lowell...

I believe this will be the second Miyawaki Forest in the Northeast after Cambridge planted one in Danehy Park two years ago. The method of planting allows trees to grow significantly quicker and has much more biodiversity than standard urban tree plantings.

It’s still not running anywhere close to its published schedule besides maybe commuter rail.

They did commit to keeping the potential GLX ROW clear in a public meeting in December: https://binjonline.com/2022/12/14/redesigning-union-squares-substation/ However I wouldn’t put it past the MBTA to say that they don’t need the ROW only to use that as an excuse in the future to not build...

I think many of the industrial parcels are spoken for in the USQ and Boynton Yards plans. Given that Eversource has already done air rights above a substation in Kendall, I expected they could do the same here. It seems rare that the city and neighbors are asking for a development to happen and...

Truly insane that they can’t get the economics to work out to have an air rights development above this. Such prime real estate that the city and direct abutters are begging to have a building on instead of this plan.

They’re jackhammering the brand new path?

Yes, the opportunity cost of the development not taking place is much greater than the sunk cost of the repairs. However, it is disappointing MassDOT has a trend of prolonging the planning phase which makes repairs necessary. This is exactly what is happening with McGrath Highway now. Millions...