Crazy pitch: RL/OL Meet & Cross at Harvard
This would be a major project extending an Orange Line branch from Back Bay outbound under the Pike, then through Allston via a new four-track OL/RL tunnel to Harvard. The OL would take over the current Red Line ROW to Alewife, while the RL would turn south from Harvard to Lower Allston, then out Western Ave. and Arsenal St. to a new terminal at Watertown Square/yards.
Reconfiguration of Harvard station would take advantage of the often-discussed old RL tunnel through Eliot Sq. Additional tracks at Back Bay could be a parallel sub-level (terminating at BBY, or joining the current OL alignment to continue through downtown, onward to a future North-side OL branch), or a wye enabling trains from Cambridge to continue either South to Forest Hills or North to Oak Grove.
I like the new alignment you've proposed, especially because it allows you to divert the Red Line to Watertown. However, I think it would work better as a separate line, instead of as a branch of the Orange Line.
There are a couple of issues I see with branching the Orange Line there. The biggest is that, right now, the Orange Line's trackage is probably more or less at capacity. That means that the number of trains running downtown will have to stay constant under your proposal, which means that your new branch (as well as the current service to Forest Hills) will basically have to make due with half-time frequencies. That seems less than ideal to me.
You could mitigate this with your proposed wye at Back Bay, but that'd have to be a damn tight turn, or would basically entail building a hypotenuse subway under Massachusetts Ave. It's an interesting idea– turning the Orange Line into a collection of three service patterns: Oak Grove-Forest Hills, Oak Grove-Alewife and Alewife-Forest Hills. But it seems somewhat inelegant, and would still involve lowering the frequency of trains to each destination (though local density of service would remain unaffected– think of the difference between waiting at Copley to get to Newton Centre as opposed to getting to Arlington).
Also, making it a separate line leaves open the idea of using Red Line rolling stock, which would mean, if nothing else, the potential for shared platforms at Barry's Corner and potentially the existing Red Line platforms at Harvard, though I'm having a hard time imagining how you'd do this without blowing up the current Harvard Station.
I think this is only really crazy because it would entail a HRT “Little Dig” through Lower Allston into Harvard Square, probably at enormous expense, along with major renovations of Harvard and Back Bay stations, all likely to be billion-dollar projects. It would solve a lot of big problems with local transit at once though, increasing crosstown transit options, relieving or replacing several overburdened/underserved bus routes, providing new and improved service to several neighborhoods, and taking pressure off of the already overwhelmed DTX/Park/State/GC transfer nexus.
Any thoughts?
You'd probably also have to tunnel under the Pike west of Back Bay– unless you want to take lanes from the highway to lay down the rapid transit tracks (which I am always for, at least in this thread). Plus whatever tunnel/elevated you're gonna use to send the Red Line down Western Ave. and Arsenal St. This would be an extremely expensive project.
I think the question of whether or not the cost is justified would be settled by what you do east of Back Bay. If we're in for a penny, in for a pound tunneling-wise, then I say there are two choices:
a) tunnel under the railroad tracks all the way to South Station and possibly beyond: either a NSRL-esque route under the CA/T all the way to North Station, or a subway under Congress St to connect to serve the Financial District and connect to the Blue Line. The NSRL alignment would probably make a proper link infeasible, so I'm less keen on that. Congress St. would make much less sense if there were a Blue Line transfer at Kenmore, so maybe nix that, too.
b) actually do what Track 61 sets out to accomplish: split away at the curve going into South Station, bridge across the Fort Point Channel and meet up with Track 61 right around the Convention Center to serve the Seaport.
Actually, if the Olympics do come and there is an Olympic Village built in Allston, then I could actually see something like option B coming to pass. Maybe with EMUs instead, and probably without the Red Line diversion. Still, though.
In any case: this line would be a paradigm shift for Boston. The Red Line between Harvard and Downtown is probably the highest ridership area in the network, and this would add a second east-west belt across the region between those destinations, but shifted down to the currently developing areas: Allston and the Seaport.
I'm not convinced it exactly works as a circulator; seems to me that the bigger problem right now is bring transit to developing "satellite downtowns": Harvard/Allston, the LMA and the Seaport. And this does that pretty well.
Some maps: [edit: or not]
A built out network. Our jointly-proposed new line (in maroon, I'm calling it "The Belt"), Red Line to Watertown, Indigo Line DMU service to Fairmount and Riverside (potentially redundant in the case of the latter), SL4/SL5 service as is, a rebranded SL1, significant GLX expansion to West Medford, to Alewife via Porter (likely bearing the brunt of ridership, given the more direct route to downtown) and to East Boston via Everett and Chelsea [which should probably go all the way to Logan, actually], and potential Blue Line to Kenmore.
Focus on The Belt. You can see I include branches to both South Station and the Seaport. Loathe as I am to lose the connection to South Station (though less so if we have multiple-unit service on the Boston & Albany between BOS and BBY), I don't think it makes sense to halve frequencies by keeping both branches; gotta pick one or the other. I also include a potential Congress St alignment.
Focus on the Green Line North Expansions.
I just don't think you're getting a subway/elevated down Brookline Ave. It's filled in salt-marsh/drainage basin with close abutting hospitals. Too much potential for expensive mitigation disasters.
Ah, but you forget, we're in the Crazy Transit Pitches thread, which means I can propose closing down Brookline Ave entirely and converting it to a surface-running ROW for the Blue Line with pedestrian and bikepaths! Muahahahaha...
(Haha, just kidding, of course.)
Sadly, you're probably right.
LMA does already have two rapid transit stops (Longwood on D and LMA on E). What LMA needs is more radial connectivity to Cambridge, not more connections to BBY and Downtown. That's where a GL Urban Ring boomerang comes in, with two flanks (from Harvard and MIT) to B to D to E.
Yeah, but that's
boring to talk about, 'cause we talk about that all the time.
But yes, I do agree.
Getting Blue past Kenmore is something to start thinking about much later.
Very much agreed.
Blue to Charlestown just opens up more RT to that neighborhood, and shortens inbound trips for locals in the Navy Yard and riders of the 92 & 93. Connects MGH with Spaulding with a one seat ride on RT. Potential for future extension if Tobin is rebuilt/Rte 1 is rerouted in the future. I prefer the Riverbank routing myself. But you could also do both with branches out of Charles/MGH.
Hmm. Interesting. Just seems like a pretty roundabout solution for transit to Charlestown, though I suppose it's better than nothing. Would definitely like it better if it went across the Tobin to Chelsea, but it seems like the Grand Junction would be a better solution for Chelsea anyway.
I'm with you, obviously, on Riverbank, but, as I said, it's an interesting idea.
ETA: anyone have any idea why the images won't load? They're jpegs hosted on my Google site.
