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    MassDOT Rail: Springfield Hub (East-West, NNERI, Berkshires, CT-Valley-VT-Quebec)

    In theory we can walk and chew gum at the same time, but shouldn't there be an ungodly number of Inland Route frequencies before we consider anything close to eight daily round trips between Boston and Albany?
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    MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

    A few tidbits regarding the upcoming bus redesign. The greater weekend service sounds promising. MBTA Head: New Bus Map Gives 25 Percent More Service
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    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    This is my experience as a fellow frequent rider, too. I can't find it to dig it up right now, but I've seen data on Twitter that suggests that around 22-24% of the OL service is provided by new trains. Lately there are usually three new trains in service at any time, so I guess the...
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    Regional Rail (RUR) & North-South Rail Link (NSRL)

    Transportation emissions are the single largest source of carbon emissions in the US, so investments that increase the mode-share of rail travel and incentivize land use policy to produce more transit-oriented jobs and housing and more walkable environments that would further reduce the...
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    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    Four new trains are in revenue service on the Orange Line this morning.
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    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    There were three new OL trains running early this morning, but now we're down to two. Based on anecdotal reports on Twitter, it seems like one of the new ones was taken out of service due to mechanical problems. This jibes with what I saw approaching Oak Grove, where we passed a new OL train...
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    Regional Rail (RUR) & North-South Rail Link (NSRL)

    The ghost of Frank DePaola is posting in this very thread!
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    MassDOT Rail: Springfield Hub (East-West, NNERI, Berkshires, CT-Valley-VT-Quebec)

    The NH route is a quixotic plan because the level of investment to get it started would be very high. The trackage past Boscawen no longer exists, and even if you entirely rebuilt the line it wouldn't be very fast because the ROW is very curvy. Boston-Montreal isn't a good enough route to...
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    MassDOT Rail: Springfield Hub (East-West, NNERI, Berkshires, CT-Valley-VT-Quebec)

    This is very much the wrong way to think about a Boston-Montreal train via Springfield — or via NH (where the directness of the route would be offset by the slowness of the ROW). Some people would take the full length of the train from Boston to Montreal, but if that seems like a weak market to...
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    MassDOT Rail: Springfield Hub (East-West, NNERI, Berkshires, CT-Valley-VT-Quebec)

    It would not be faster because the ROW north of Concord is windy and slow. In any event, the success of the direct Boston-Montreal train depends on piggybacking off of robust Amtrak service in the Boston-Springfield corridor in one half, and providing a second train to the Vermonter corridor...
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    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    There is a brutal slow order northbound between Stony Brook that is creating ~2.5 minute travel times where prior to August 2020 there were 50 second travel times between these stations. I played around with the TransitMatters dashboard and you can find a ton of segments where the trains used...
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    Biking in Boston

    Maybe I'm late to the party on this one, but I was biking to Coolidge Corner on Friday and I passed through the reconstructed area of Route 9 / Washington St for the first time since the new separated bike lanes have opened. The light cycle at the intersection of Route 9 and Pearl St had a bike...
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    Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

    Virginia seals deal for $3.7 billion rail plan, including new Potomac River bridge
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    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    https://whdh.com/news/mbta-commuter-rail-adjustments-target-peak-service/
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    Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

    Amtrak Ohio proposals... http://allaboardohio.org/2021/01/29/amtrak-proposes-five-ohio-routes/
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    Connected/Automated vehicles and infrastructure in Boston

    This doesn't seem that realistic to me. First of all, how much of these intersection efficiency gains would increase the capacity of the system, and how much would just push the bottleneck to the next intersection where there's, say, a pedestrian signal? How much of these capacity gains are...
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    Connected/Automated vehicles and infrastructure in Boston

    I question the assumption that — even in an ideal AV-only world that probably won't exist — parking lanes could be converted to travel lanes. One thing that I notice AV boosters rarely contend with is curb space. In an AV world, cars need to stop at the curb to let people out or take people on...
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    Connected/Automated vehicles and infrastructure in Boston

    Q: Can Self-Driving Cars Stop the Urban Mobility Meltdown? A: No.

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