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Maybe this is just my cynicism showing, but in many ways I think the project would benefit from losing the grant. As we've been discussing, the project is in a really bad spot and rushing to get everything finalized by next Fall is only making things worse. The designs we are seeing are bad...

What's the source here and do you have any additional information? Last I heard there was no public info on the RFP Keolis is issuing for the BEMU pilot.

Thank you for those corrections, @F-Line to Dudley. I was trying to remember everything from the meeting and clearly made some mistakes. I was also trying to only reiterate the points made in the meeting by MassDOT, instead of presenting them as fact, which was certainly not clear in my first...

Maybe, but based on the lack of progress we're seeing from East-West Rail and Regional Rail, malice is not needed to explain these designs. Also, city representatives seemed to indicate they would fight the state tooth and nail to prevent any new diesel maintenance facility within city limits...

First, the issue with Grand Junction is not layover space but access to Boston Engine Terminal (BET) in Somerville. I believe this is the only site where heavy maintenance can be performed on the CR locomotives and GJ is how all south side locos access BET. The city of Boston also effectively...

If I had to guess, the consultant team (and probably MassDOT too) are quite frustrated at being constantly called out for not doing their jobs well. During the meeting, no one could specify if the new layovers were needed overnight, for midday, or both, whether their were options further west on...

Listening to the "I-90 Allston Rail and Transit Working Group Meeting" right now and more details about the "Worcester 30-30" upgrades were presented. It would include all-day 30-minute frequencies on both a zonal express to and from Worcester and local service to and from Framingham. This was...

From what I've seen, it looks unlikely that traditional NYC subway cars will be run along the corridor even if it is fully grade-separated. The local Transit Worker's Union (TWU) is very strongly opposed to automation and I believe has a handshake agreement with the MTA to not automate subway...

I can't help but feeling a bit disappointed that we are going to be seeing more weeklong shutdowns, especially for "proactive rail maintenance" and "infrastructure work". Cynically, it looks like the earlier TIP work was not done as well as later shutdowns, to the point where some of it requires...

https://www.mbta.com/news/2025-01-17/mbta-shares-planned-service-outage-scheduled-january-june-2025 Noted outages: RL Ashmont to JFK/UMass from April 1 – April 9 for proactive rail maintenance. OL North Station to Oak Grove from May 10 – May 18 to support MassDOT’s Maffa...

I was reviewing the video for this event and there was a mention of making improvements to the Green Line central tunnel with the implication it would result in lower headways (roughly between timestamps 1:08:20 and 1:08:50). I understand GLTPS should help some on this front, but are there other...

The answer is it doesn't unless it's done nationally. However, there is a user fee that solves this problem. Unfortunately, that answer is tolling.

This is somewhat tangential, but one of Boston's participatory budget ideas is for bus stop bench installation. More specifically: For more information and for budget voting: https://www.boston.gov/departments/participatory-budgeting/ideas-action-cycle-one-proposals

While this is pretty clearly not what the Millionaire's Tax was intended for, and it's not a long term a long-term fix, I don't hate it. If it weren't for the states abysmal track record of funding the T, I'd say it's a very reasonable stop gap. It's fairly reasonable to expect both sides of the...

It's regressive on drivers, but not necessarily the whole population. If the congestion charge ends up effectively being a transfer from drivers to transit riders (which seems to be the plan), it becomes much less clear how regressive (or progressive) the tax is. With most trips to Lower...

I believe the plan is to only update maps at stations/stops affected by the current phase of BNRD, as well as all rail vehicles. This seems to be confirmed by this slide from November's board meeting, and the presenter echoed the same remarks when asked about map replacements.

https://www.universalhub.com/2025/ups-and-downs-allstons-north-beacon-street-life Hopefully this is the first step of stalled lab construction in this area turning into housing, but I won't hold my breath.

I'm absolutely not going to defend Brightline's safety record. The route is way to dangerous, especially considering how recently it was built. That being said, it would make more sense to compare total revenue miles instead of the system length. It appears that they are running 16 round trips a...

These seem to be basically the same issue. If a police union is serving it's members effectively, it will advocate for them to get paid as much as possible for as little work as possible, while also making it very difficult to get fired. Strong police unions just make it harder to reprimand cops...

This is definitely a point of discussion. West Station will effectively be built as a deck over Worcester line, and I'm pretty sure current plans are to integrate development with it. As for the rest of the site, the only decking reference I could quickly find are here, as part of BPD's Beacon...