Bike to the Sea / Northern Strand Community Trail

[BostonUrbEx]

I'm surprised there's really no posts about this...



I went to the Bike to the Sea 2011 event today, the first time I went to Bike to the Sea. It was great! Something was just pulling me towards it and I'm glad I went.

The basic idea is that this Bike to the Sea group is trying to get the Saugus Branch into a community path (North Strand Trail) and for the 19th year in a row, they had a ride somewhat-paralleling the tracks from the Dockside Restaurant in Malden, to Nahant Beach, and then back [for pizza at the Dockside].

The trail would run up western Everett, across Malden, touching Revere, sweeping through Saugus, and then bring you into Lynn and the shoreline. The trail will bring people to and from many points along the way. It is very close to Wellington (a quick walk/ride across the Malden River), Malden Station, and should run right past/under Lynn Station. The path would hit multiple schools, allowing for some good walking/biking options for students. The path also comes close to many centers and squares including Malden Center, Linden Sq, Cliftondale Sq, Saugus Center, and Lynn Center/Central Sq.


As of right now, Iron Horse Preservation (they did the Danvers trail) has ripped out a length of tracks in Everett and a 1-mile stretch will soon be completed (pea gravel/crushed stone). At full build I believe it will be about 10 miles of asphalt.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Bike to the Sea Day 2012 is tomorrow. A 14-mile ride for the young'ins and a 20-mile ride for the more adept will kick off at 8:00 AM at the Madeline School in Everett. It will be the 20th annual ride and the ribbon cutting for the completion of the Everett and Malden sections. Huzzah! Also, Revere recently approved the path, and not long before that, Saugus. Lynn is still holding out.

 

[Commuting Boston Student]

Bike to the Sea Day 2012 is tomorrow. A 14-mile ride for the young'ins and a 20-mile ride for the more adept will kick off at 8:00 AM at the Madeline School in Everett. It will be the 20th annual ride and the ribbon cutting for the completion of the Everett and Malden sections. Huzzah! Also, Revere recently approved the path, and not long before that, Saugus. Lynn is still holding out.

Just so I know I'm understanding this correctly, turning that ROW into a bike path basically kills any chance of using it for rapid transit into Saugus, right?

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Just so I know I'm understanding this correctly, turning that ROW into a bike path basically kills any chance of using it for rapid transit into Saugus, right?

If the bike path wasn't built, this ROW likely would have been lost. I'm not entirely sure on how encroachment and squatting laws are set in this state, but the line was already heavily encroached on in Malden within 15 years or less. In 50 years, the MBTA can always double back (I'm not sure what stipulations are attached to the $1-for-99-years-of-rent contract, but it can be done) if they think it's worthy of rail use. Or when the rent is up, they can do it then with no need to compensate anyone. The latter is probably more likely, IMO, as I don't think Saugus or central/east Malden will have the critical mass necessarily for a rail line in 50 years. And even if it does, I'm sure the studies and NIMBY's will big it down, no matter how rial-friendly the future becomes.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

If the bike path wasn't built, this ROW likely would have been lost. I'm not entirely sure on how encroachment and squatting laws are set in this state, but the line was already heavily encroached on in Malden within 15 years or less. In 50 years, the MBTA can always double back (I'm not sure what stipulations are attached to the $1-for-99-years-of-rent contract, but it can be done) if they think it's worthy of rail use. Or when the rent is up, they can do it then with no need to compensate anyone. The latter is probably more likely, IMO, as I don't think Saugus or central/east Malden will have the critical mass necessarily for a rail line in 50 years. And even if it does, I'm sure the studies and NIMBY's will big it down, no matter how rial-friendly the future becomes.

The letter of the contract says the T can take it back at-will. It's basically a subletter rent agreement, and if you punch up a few of the scans online of ones they've given out (disconcertingly) about as simple. It's like a 2-page form. But letter of the law hasn't been the landbanking statute's downfall...it's been spirit and enforcement. And the lessor itself being too sloppy and self-compromised by how and to whom it administers these things.

The problem of encroachment is different, but related in that the T lets itself get pushed around and around and around by municipalities like Malden and Revere whose town boards protect the property owners who are paving their rear parking lots literally up to the rail flange and making a mockery of the 20 ft. property buffers around the tracks. Malden has been notorious for this around the Saugus Branch even when it was being rebuilt in the 80's in anticipation of new freight business that never materialized. To the point where putting up a fence was a waste of thousands of dollars in chain-link because the property owners would just cut it right down and let the city stonewall and cover their asses.

Amusing game of chicken being played on the East Boston Branch in Revere right now, as Pan Am prepares to reactivate that T-owned freight branch for its first service since the early-90's to run 40-car ethanol trains to the Global fuel facility. Bunch of businesses on Railroad St. who've been parking their trucks and equipment on the tracks for years got C&D notices last year that the line was coming back (this is an out-of-service reactivation, not de-abandonment, so neighbors have no grounds for protest). None budged. So a bunch of people got towed and fined when Pan Am brought their brush-cutting trucks through last year. Work crews disappear for a week...all the trucks are back, new piles of scrap start appearing. Every time a surveying crew has comes in to do more prelim work...more C&D's. I honestly wonder when the real-deal track construction work begins later this summer if they're going to have to show up every single morning with a phalanx of tow trucks backed by an idling freight train blowing its "angry" horn before these abutters get it. Revere doesn't give a crap, and these trespassers only fear Sgt. Joe down the street...not MBTA police, the DOT, or Pan Am's track security.

Until the NIMBY's stop getting an anything-goes free pass on every Operation Chaos they want to pull, this is going to be the norm. The state's been rendered impotent at protecting its own property. How exactly can they be expected to put public property to public use when this is what they're up against, undermined at every step of the way at the local level?

 

[Commuting Boston Student]

Amusing game of chicken being played on the East Boston Branch in Revere right now, as Pan Am prepares to reactivate that T-owned freight branch for its first service since the early-90's to run 40-car ethanol trains to the Global fuel facility. Bunch of businesses on Railroad St. who've been parking their trucks and equipment on the tracks for years got C&D notices last year that the line was coming back (this is an out-of-service reactivation, not de-abandonment, so neighbors have no grounds for protest). None budged. So a bunch of people got towed and fined when Pan Am brought their brush-cutting trucks through last year. Work crews disappear for a week...all the trucks are back, new piles of scrap start appearing. Every time a surveying crew has comes in to do more prelim work...more C&D's. I honestly wonder when the real-deal track construction work begins later this summer if they're going to have to show up every single morning with a phalanx of tow trucks backed by an idling freight train blowing its "angry" horn before these abutters get it. Revere doesn't give a crap, and these trespassers only fear Sgt. Joe down the street...not MBTA police, the DOT, or Pan Am's track security.

Okay, I have to admit, this is pretty despicable behavior...

...but it's also AMAZING. I'm in awe.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

FWIW...Saugus Branch would be a terrible transit line to operate with all the crossings in downtown Malden. Too many major intersections, too many bad-angled grade crossings. Yes, it's an underserved transit corridor. But I don't know what you'd fashion out of that ROW with what mode that would actually be not-awkward to operate. It doesn't cross enough streets cleanly. Or it hits 1 block from a major signalized intersection but too close to jab in another signal. And it's so constrained by abutters that there's no way to square up these crossings any better.

Honestly, I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did. And it only lasted as long as it did because 1) occasional overweight freights had to get routed around the decrepit old Mystic River drawbridge on the Eastern Route (which nobody wanted to invest to replace until it was nearly keeled over), and 2) some local pols got a wad of bad money to throw at rebuilding the line on bold promises of attracting new business (i.e. when the Mystic bridge finally did get rebuilt, stave off the planned abandonment by making a bunch of crazy promises). That's fresh Billy Bulger-era rail buried in the weeds there, never used. I think the last freights worked the very tip of the Everett/Malden border in the early-90's, but nothing's gone through downtown in over 30 years and nothing whatsoever the whole length of the line since before Mystic draw was replaced (and not that frequently before then). Passenger-era it was one of the very first B&M commuter lines to get the ax because it was such a slow, low-quality trip. When they started dieselizing the northside with sleek new Budd DMU's in an effort to modernize, this is the line they banished their shittiest remaining steam engines to before retirement.

 

[Lurker]

Articulated tram-buses for BRT could be an option coexisting with the bike path if the ROW is wide enough.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Articulated tram-buses for BRT could be an option coexisting with the bike path if the ROW is wide enough.

Doesn't solve the problem of the number of grade crossings at odd angles. There's almost no way to signal this thing at city streets that's either not going to result in something B-line or worse with stop-and-go on the bus/train, or wreck the downtown traffic grid, or some combination of both. There's simply too many crossings + crossings within 1 block of a signaled intersection to coordinate. All the signal prioritization circuitry in the world is not going to result in something drastically better than a well-managed, signal-prioritized crosstown bus route on Route 60. Nothing that would overcome the cost of going to war with the abutters to both force it through and reclaim the double-track + buffer space land from all the encroachers who chewed it up.

Just because there's an ROW intact on an urban transit corridor doesn't mean it's a good transit line in-waiting. Its performance sucked 115 years ago, too. B&M spent a fortune leasing the Somerville-Chelsea connector from its original owner so it could route every thru train off the branch and avoid constantly hosing schedules into the then-new original incarnation of North Station. And once the horsecar and streetcar lines started popping people started complaining a lot about the grade crossings disrupting traffic in downtown Malden. If it was a flawed route that needed "containment" way back in 1900 because it was impossible to fix and make truly functional, how exactly is a more constrained revival supposed to perform better? Unless we're talking beyond the scope of sanity with a subway or something.

 

[davem]

I know we had talked on RR.net about it being a light rail branch splitting around Lechmere, I believe it got torn apart because of the aforementioned crossing issues, as well as some rather large population gaps through Saugus.

My opinion is that built in concert with or after a BL extension to Lynn (or better Salem) a light rail branch with 10-20 min frequencies could be beneficial here. My preferred routing would have it split in Lynn and route around the common there. The problem intersections in Malden could be solved by putting the line in a 1500' culvert.

 

[Roxxma]

If the bike path wasn't built, this ROW likely would have been lost. I'm not entirely sure on how encroachment and squatting laws are set in this state, but the line was already heavily encroached on in Malden within 15 years or less.

Basically, there can be no adverse possession claims on a property if the property is held for the purposes of public use, or if the property is registered land, in which the Commonwealth guarantees title. It is unlikely to be registered land because of the nature of railroad property requires frequent changes in usage, overlay and operating leases, etc and because major changes of title for registered land require Land Court approval, railroads rarely registered their rights of way. Holding the ROW for public use however will probably exempt it from any potential adverse possession claims, and the years of planning and talk about this path might be enough for it to fall under the public use category, if maintenance claims by the MBTA aren't enough.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

By the way, just an example of damage done to ROW before it could be preserved in the form of a path... an autobody fenced off a section of the ROW and used it to dump chemicals such as transmission fluid, brake fluid, and gasoline, among other things. The section of trail is now fenced off and could take a few million to clean up. Thankfully the trail came before any more instances of this came up. Clean ups like this, among other problems, would hinder any transit expansion.

 

[ant8904]

By the way, just an example of damage done to ROW before it could be preserved in the form of a path... an autobody fenced off a section of the ROW and used it to dump chemicals such as transmission fluid, brake fluid, and gasoline, among other things. The section of trail is now fenced off and could take a few million to clean up. Thankfully the trail came before any more instances of this came up. Clean ups like this, among other problems, would hinder any transit expansion.

A few million? How much sq footage did they fenced of? How much does it cost to just dig up that patch of dirt and put in a bunch of new dirt? Also, who is going to pay for the cleanup? Is the autobody not going to be penalized for making million of dollars of environmental damage?

----

As for the bike path itself, I think it is a good set up. Malden definitely can use every lift possible and I don't really see a line working in the area. Just too many crossing and too many low density areas. This bike trail have been on proposal since somewhere in the 90's. I remember hearing about it from my teacher back in the 3rd grade (maybe 4th). I'm glad it is finally happening.

 

[Shepard]

If transit couldn't get across these awkward grade intersections, how will bikes?

 

[Commuting Boston Student]

If transit couldn't get across these awkward grade intersections, how will bikes?

Bike bridges, which are exactly like footbridges except instead of ghettoizing pedestrians they're beneficial (somehow?)

To clarify, that 'somehow' is because I have a major disdain for a bike lanes. I think they help nobody and instead enable horrible, elitist, holier-than-thou smug jerks. I equate the bike lane to a pedestrian footbridge, except I firmly believe the footbridge is far more beneficial than any bike lane, anywhere.

Difference between bike lanes and bike trails - pedestrians can benefit from bike trails. And now you know why I like trails and hate lanes.

 

[Ron Newman]

Most likely the path will be slightly realigned to cross the streets at close to a 90-degree angle. See, for instance, the recent realignment of the Minuteman path where it crosses Woburn Street in Lexington. I recall seeing similar examples on the Bruce Freeman trail in Lowell and Chelmsford, though I can't pinpoint exactly where right now.

A bike path can have tight turns that a railroad can't, and such a tight turn is actually beneficial as it slows down the bike traffic before it reaches the street crossing. No bridge is needed.

As for your comments about bike lanes, they mostly show ignorance. Somerville Avenue is so much better now with its bike lanes than it was before.

 

[Commuting Boston Student]

As for your comments about bike lanes, they mostly show ignorance. Somerville Avenue is so much better now with its bike lanes than it was before.

Better for who? Not 'cyclists' - they're out in the middle of the road now instead of on the edge and must contend with vehicles (in motion on one side, parked on the other). Not pedestrians, who can't actually walk in the bike lane, and not vehicles, who now have to deal with bikes in the road. We're 0-for-3 on travel modes/groups of people the bike lanes helped.

Actually, I take that back. The bikes being away from the sidewalk means I don't have to deal with them as a pedestrian. So I guess they help me in that way.

 

[Ron Newman]

Have you actually seen Somerville Avenue, before and after? Perhaps this should go to a different thread. I bike it several times a week and it is a huge improvement.

 

[Ron Newman]

This close-up Google aerial view shows how the Minuteman Bikeway was realigned to cross Woburn Street at a right angle. The Street View is older and shows what it looked like before the realignment.

I expect to see similar treatment wherever the Northern Strand crosses Route 60 or other streets at difficult angles.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

I expect to see similar treatment wherever the Northern Strand crosses Route 60 or other streets at difficult angles.

The trail will use existing curb cuts and signals for a crosswalk where Holden St intersects Rt 60.