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Unlurking to make the very narrow point that $20 million/station is not that bad (especially if you net out design costs at $2-7m/station - the designs are not standardized); it's not much of a premium over Berlin, for example. New turnouts aren't needed for running track to Lowell, but if they...

I forgot to say this in the post, but, another implication of the 50-50 split between wiring and substation cost is that leaving short sections like Stoughton and Fairmount unwired saves less money than you'd think on a cost/km basis, because neither of these sections requires its own...

Re: Green Line eRconfiguration ...then it should not be allowed on passenger track, unless there's somehow a clause in the trackage rights agreement that maintains the right to run trains with flat wheels. Incidentally, Continental Europe is standardizing on 55 and 76 cm platforms, and...

Re: Green Line eRconfiguration Okay, then announce you're building full-length platforms, and if the freight operators complain about derailment risk, forward their complaints to the insurance companies. If anything, doing it this way is better, because it means the freight companies can't lie...

Re: Green Line eRconfiguration Gateway is exhibit A of Amtrak's profligacy and insanity, but that's neither here nor there. NSRL... sure. But in the context of what I think is about a $6 billion project (regionwide around Boston) or a $12 billion project (Boston-Washington HSR, including...

Re: Green Line eRconfiguration If the freight operators hit the platforms and foul up the tracks, the MBTA can sue them for damages over maintenance costs and lost revenue. If the schedule's not robust to derailments - which it shouldn't be, because first-world railroads shouldn't plan around...

Re: Green Line eRconfiguration If the one-car mini-highs have retractable platform edges, why can't they install retractable edges on full-length platforms? Also, Mansfield shouldn't get any Amtrak passing tracks for decades on end; it's too close to four-track Attleboro to be of any use as an...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Yeah, the West Station location always looked like a compromise to me - halfway between BU and Harvard Avenue. The problem with relying on TOD there is that BU and Harvard Avenue have development now, whereas the West Station area is planned to have development...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Oh, nice. But they're not planning to raise the preexisting low platforms in Newton and such, are they? (If they do raise them, they should of course move them to the center, to allow effective double-tracking.)

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Because the US stopped electrifying in the 1930s, yeah. Other countries didn't, and there you do see several hundred km of electrification done within a few years. Hell, you see entire HSR lines built in a few years when they're fully funded. The first phase of...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Indeed, I would not. But not just because it's an airport line! It would also look really awkward on a map. Is it a radial? A circumferential? Or what? There's something to be said for comprehensible service patterns. The fantasy map I have on my computer has...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration The construction schedule is "as soon as money becomes available," same as for every other project. When there's money, it's possible to accelerate the construction schedule, and this includes even extremely expensive projects like ARC and ESA. The EIS schedule...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Actually, you don't expand North and South Stations, because you don't need to; the supposed capacity limit is an artifact of ridiculously long turnaround times. You add access points, like from the bus terminal to the South Station platforms, but you don't add...

So? It's an argument they couldn't even begin to have if they needed globally unique orders (or, okay, a piggyback on notoriously high-cost NJ Transit). With a waiver, they can piggyback on a European order, the way Ottawa's O-Train, which has a waiver with time separation, piggybacked on a...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Caltrain asked for a waiver, and got one. The MBTA hasn't ever thought to do so. The FRA's rewriting its rules as we speak; my understanding is that new rules are forthcoming this year. One key obstacle to good intercity rail, the 3" cant deficiency limit (4"...

Re: Green Line Reconfiguration Sorry, but no. It's not an urban ring question. It shouldn't be an urban ring question. Trying to modernize a small segment of commuter rail is insane. It basically sandbags any sort of commuter rail modernization, because you cannot have modern EMUs sharing...

The whole point of modernization and organization-before-electronics-before-concrete thinking is that commuter rail should run frequently at all times of day, since it's cheaper to implement the necessary changes than to build new bridges across rivers and railyards. Working-class immigrants...

What some cities do, e.g. Berlin, or Paris until its ongoing transition to single-zone fares regionwide*, is have the inner zone comprise only city center, but then only sell tickets for at least 2 zones. In Berlin, this is the simplest, with 3 zones: A is inner Berlin, B is outer Berlin, C is...

I'm sort of skeptical about this, at least if the plan is to use commuter rail ROW. Commuter rail modernization is more useful here. Now, you might ask, what's the difference between this and the GLX on the Lowell and Fitchburg Lines? My answers are, 1. First, it wasn't my decision to build...

The Green Line can have grade crossings. Using the inner Fitchburg Line between Porter and Waltham isn't a good idea. The Watertown branch has way more stuff located next to the track - compare Watertown Square with Belmont. So the Green Line should use the branch, and the Fitchburg Line should...