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The Transit Costs Project today released the "Momentum Report" on how to improve passenger rail in the US. https://transitcosts.com/momentum/ (summary: electrify everything, focus on improving trip time)

Interesting that they're going to leave part of the TBM down there in anticipation of a future extension. I suppose that also means they don't have to dig a big pit to extract it.

In re old trolley infrastructure, there's also the Railroad Trail in the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a former BERy ROW that includes a few bridges.

That would be a nice connection. It's currently doable about halfway across, you have to cut through the parking garage eventually.

How do you get from I-90 EB to I-95 NB?

I walked over the Broadway bridge in Ball Square today and noticed that all of the utilities that were routed over the temporary utility bridge have been removed. I recall that the plan, after the project was rebid, was to keep the utilities on that bridge permanently for cost savings, but it...

So that Bailey bridge is intended to be permanent?

Looks like it doesn't include fixing or eliminating that insane ramp off the NB onramp that drops you into the oncoming lane of Fountain St.

The obvious next step. (source: https://bsky.app/profile/shoshana.bsky.social/post/3lszoikl3fs22)

Could be worse. First time I went out the Thruway, dear gods almost 40 years ago, the service area food service was operated by the state, not contracted out, and the food was about what you'd expect from a state highway department. =:-O

TransitMatters is advocating for a heavy-rail subway link across whatever replaces the Tobin, in order to bring better transit access to Chelsea. https://commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/where-is-chelseas-subway-station/

The article indicates they want to build full-high platforms to handle the increased passenger volume more efficiently.

Don't they already double-berth the trains? I recall reading somewhere, probably here, that they moved the block boundary to the middle of the platform so they could do that.

They could invest in some block heaters and bigger power drops (which they'd need for the heaters anyway).

It looks like it ought to be possible to site a combined station on the other side of the diamond, off Foundry St. There's still the platform issue, but that's what automatically-deploying bridge plates are for. But this Central Corridor plan in general does seem like kind of a train to nowhere...

I'd bet money that while he knew about the layover yard, he didn't know that the locomotives were going to idle all night. Which is not at all unreasonable. (Why do they do that anyway? It just seems stupid and wasteful.)

Not that I'm any kind of expert here, but I've never had the sense that that tunnel boring is the kind of enterprise that's ripe for the kind of disruptive innovation that Tesla and SpaceX achieved. (How much credit Musk deserves for those innovations is, of course, debatable.)

The Transit Costs Project has released their proposal for overhauling the NEC; among other things it calls for having all of the commuter agencies upgrade to EMUs. I'm sure that'll be a piece of cake. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2025/05/05/the-northeast-corridor-report-is-out/

This is fantastic! So is that from the MCRT bridge over the Fitchburg line in Weston to the BFRT crossing at West Concord? Be even more awesome if it extended to South Acton to connect to the ARRT.

Curtatone wanted to do pretty much exactly that a few years ago when it turned out to need a bunch of repairs.