Crazy Transit Pitches

Just to be clear, this is Water Taxi right? Not some elaborate system of tubes? ;)
 
Speaking of cables, why not a cable car?! This is crazy transit pitches after all.

Seriously: Underwater cables would have to beware of pretty heavy boat traffic between the Locks and Mass Ave.
 
cozzyd said:
Charles River Shuttle, bane of boaters, route negotiable. Faster than the Green line.
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Move Mass Ave to the MiT side then go to Esplanade at Commissioners Landing then back across to Kendall

as an extension -- continue up the Charles to Watertown Arsenal Park perhaps even to Watertown Sq. -- that get's rid of the people who want to bring the A Green Line back
 
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Commuting Boston Student said:
I kind of enjoy the sound of hopping onto a train at South Station, getting off at Springfield Union Station and transferring to the Red Line to Six Flags.

And I don't even like thrill rides.
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To me, the thrill ride would be getting there. I'm still pining for the day when the two commuter rail gaps in the NEC are closed, because I want to take the 'T (and connecting services) to DC.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Speaking of cables, why not a cable car?! This is crazy transit pitches after all.
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Cable cars are a good idea in hilly cities or near large bodies of water. I can't even think of a crazy use for one here other than something to cross the harbor.
 
HenryAlan said:
Cable cars are a good idea in hilly cities or near large bodies of water. I can't even think of a crazy use for one here other than something to cross the harbor.
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Henry --perfect app -- connect Pleasure Bay / Castle Island with Spectacle Island (otherway only accessible by boat)
 
HenryAlan said:
Cable cars are a good idea in hilly cities or near large bodies of water. I can't even think of a crazy use for one here other than something to cross the harbor.
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You're thinking gondola, right? That would have to be equipped with barf bags during Nor'easter season. The angry Atlantic is a little more unpredictably wind-turbulent than your average ski slope.
 
Cambridge-Arlington-Medford portion of my dream MBTA. Still working on the south/southwestern segments and then will have a full map to show.

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All that rail density and you'd STILL leave Inman Square without train service?
 
czsz said:
All that rail density and you'd STILL leave Inman Square without train service?
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No. Hampshire is literally at the Cambridge-Inman-Hampshire intersection while Prospect and Union also serve the neighborhood.
 
Why not call it Inman? Man, even fantasy transit planners seem to want to use the least obvious stop names.
 
HenryAlan said:
To me, the thrill ride would be getting there. I'm still pining for the day when the two commuter rail gaps in the NEC are closed, because I want to take the 'T (and connecting services) to DC.
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I keep procrastinating on finishing my proposal for the Rhode Island Rail (NOT operated by MBTA/MBCR) and have not drawn all of the lines, otherwise I would help with this.

I know that there's no commuter rail between New London and Wickford Junction (and with no Amtrak at Wickford or TF Green, you're effectively forced off Commuter Rail at Providence), but where's the other gap on the NEC?
 
^ Baltimore's MARC Commuter Rail ends at Perryville, MD, near the northern Maryland border. SEPTA ends at Newark, DE, southwest of Wilmington. So the gap is actually smaller than that. The distance along I-95 is 22 miles.

The New London-Warwick gap is actually much longer - 49.3 miles.

After commuter rail, time to rebuild localized transit. In the day you could actually do the entire journey on Interurban Streetcars!
 
SEPTA ends at Newark, DE, and there is a gap from there through Perryville, MD. The gap is about 20 miles long.
 
Commuting Boston Student said:
I keep procrastinating on finishing my proposal for the Rhode Island Rail (NOT operated by MBTA/MBCR) and have not drawn all of the lines, otherwise I would help with this.

I know that there's no commuter rail between New London and Wickford Junction (and with no Amtrak at Wickford or TF Green, you're effectively forced off Commuter Rail at Providence), but where's the other gap on the NEC?
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Newark, Delaware (southern end of SEPTA territory) to Perryville, Maryland (northern end of MARC territory) is the other gap. A little wider off-peak and weekends because SEPTA doesn't run all the way to Newark/Univ. of Delaware except rush hour. Gap's about 20 miles total. MARC has a proposal to extend to Newark specifically for the SEPTA transfer revenue, so that one's not going to last too much longer.

The RI one will be filled, but by South County Commuter Rail running from Pawtucket to Westerly, and Shore Line east extending from New London to Westerly. CDOT has it on its SLE service plan that they are 100% going to Westerly the second RIDOT gets there. There's a layover yard at the station leftover from the old Conrail Providence-Westerly commuter rail that lasted until 1979, so both services would be able to layover and turnback there. The station's also due to be rebuilt by Amtrak for ADA high platforms and 3 tracks. For CDOT it's a natural because Westerly is only 150 ft. across the state line and as much Stonington, CT's stop as it is Westerly's. And they can't currently go past New London to the existing Mystic stop (with all the tourist revenue from the Seaport and Aquarium) because there's no turnback spot that wouldn't totally screw with Amtrak schedules. So it's a no-build proposition for CT and in-district gap filler to get SLE to the border.

Next step for the Providence Line is extending to Kingston, because several Wickford trains will need to deadhead to Kingston turnback to avoid fouling Amtrak schedules. It's only when there's a schedule gap that they can turn directly at the Wickford platform. So all crews are being trained to Kingston, and they'll add as a revenue stop later. Amtrak is starting heavy construction on it for ADA high platforms and triple-track, so it's going to be in temporary torn-up condition for the next 18-24 months. That's why it's not on the table quite yet. At some point after RIDOT has weaned itself onto its own service and the Pawtucket, Cranston, and Davisville intermediate stops get built it's going to split off into its own Pawtucket-Westerly service. It's just too much for the Providence Line to go that far out-of-market. The T will really want to firm up its district borders and terminate it at T.F. Green once South County's running on its own legs. This is doable for the T right now, but the expansion of the Providence schedule that'll come after South Station's expansion hits a glass ceiling when they have to run that far south of Providence where only scant number of people are commuting to Boston.

Ultimately, better service is going to be MUCH more frequent Providence Line service turning at Providence or T.F. Green but no further, and a full-blown Pawtucket-Westerly schedule in-state. Since RIDOT will be "graduating" to some degree from the MBTA when it launches its own service, it's quite likely they're just going to keep on using the T's fare collection system to avoid the redundancy of starting fresh. At that point...one Charlie on one transfer gets you to Westerly. Which ain't bad at all when you figure how frequent these trains are going to be 10 years down the line.


And, yes, I bet MARC has filled the last gap by then, so by 2020-2022 (at latest...RIDOT is for-reals about this)...MBTA --> RIDOT --> SLE --> Metro North --> NJ Transit --> SEPTA --> MARC --> Virginia Railway Express gets you from South Station to Fredericksburg, VA via NYC and D.C. in one very very long all-day commute without once seeing the inside of an Amtrak train.
 
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