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I have (multiple) other projects I'm working on that I want to knock out, but I can hear this idea luring me down the rabbit hole...

Yeah, this is my suggestion for an open BRT network. There's a lot of flexibility opened up by this. (And, I mean, it does kinda make sense: office parks were designed to be reached by large numbers of vehicles, with roughly equal ratio of vehicles to destination pairs, that are funneled through...

For funsies, here's the elevation profile of the Woburn <> Burlington power line ROW according to Google Earth Pro: Some problem points: Looking at the most painful of these: ^ This one is probably the "easiest" to address, in that it would be about 1000 feet, and the cut...

[alt text: screen capture from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where Kirk is looking to Spock, who is subtitled as saying "His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."] (I say self-deprecatingly.) There are other ways to handle steep grades, including open cuts, but agreed that that...

Building transit to 128's Office Parks Phase -1: Maximize bidirectional all-day frequencies to Anderson/Woburn, Dedham Corp Ctr, and Route 128. I don't think any of this has a prayer of working without 20-min frequencies at the very least (and I think it's possible it'd still be DOA...

The second goal of an Outer Ring 128 service would be serving (specific) supersized office parks. I would argue that this is actually a better primary goal, and a better starting point for planning. The "Route 128 Corridor" has long been noted for being home to a range of technology companies...

Alright, so let me explain some of my thinking and observations here. First, we should articulate two (separate) goals of 128 service. The "Outer Ring" problem: This is a generic problem that impacts all systems of this size. If you live in Braintree and work in Auburndale, it sucks to take...

Prompted by this discussion, I made a Google Map. I'll try to post more detail tomorrow, though I'm guessing a fair amount of what I'll say will be self-evident in the map.

Wait a second, yeah, this is really interesting. (I like the other Phases too, some overlap with ideas I’ve been playing around with myself.) The main question would be: is it faster to the get to the TV Place et al jobs from Auburndale via a light rail Aldgate Junction at Cook St, or a bus...

This can be somewhat ameliorated by using the "official" name for the stop (insofar as the automated announcement on the bus is the "official" name): Congress St at World Trade Center -- or on a map, Congress St at WTC or Congress St/WTC. Adding on to the numbers @TheRatmeister presented, I've...

It's interesting to see the T finally acknowledging the existence of this stop after... 20 years? It's also now on official Silver Line network maps:

In theory, a "better" name for Charles/MGH would be Mass General... but the now-merged parent company of Mass General Brigham may have complaints about that.

I will say, having despaired of trying to fit two of the T’s longest station names (Government Center, Downtown Crossing) into the core of the map, alongside two of its shortest station names (State, Park [{St}reet]), I myself would be quite alright with the name being changed to City Hall...

^ The light rail branch lettering scheme alone is chef's kiss. (I'm sure I'll come up with a longer reply soon enough!)

I remembered a comment I meant to make three months ago (which I admit seems like it says concerning things about how my brain works), so I'm back to this: I think it's worth highlighting something subtle in Lynch's remarks: he's not using the tired old "anywhere to anywhere" NSRL...

Given that they say "388 route miles, 650 track miles", I assume that they are counting each track as separate. Which I don't think is actually that disingenous -- wire cost is 1:1 per track mile (at least just in terms of the physical wire itelf), the catenary "poles" also increase in size and...

Transit Matters has posted the job description for the Executive Director role.

Wouldn't a new-cross tunnel for the rerouted Eastern Route raise the cost significantly?

I think the alternative to compare the "GLoop" to is just a pair of Green Line branches to Riverside and Waltham. (Maybe with both branches extended to a new MassPike/128 super station, but without through-running.) The loop aspect really only helps with Newton <> Waltham journeys, or B&A <>...

Someone on reddit posted an idea for a loop line connecting Waltham and Riverside. They called it an "unhinged" idea, so I don't feel bad about posting it in this thread: (Higher res and additional details at link.)