Crazy Transit Pitches

[Stlin]

Actually, a question. There's money in the CIP for a new Northside CR MoW facility to be built in Billerica, presumably at Iron Horse Park. Presumably that will replace the CR MoW yard at Alewife. I'm fully aware that the 2004 PMT ridership for an infill station here was dismal, but what else would you do here if the site were vacant? I would think at minimum a footbridge from Wheeler.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Actually, a question. There's money in the CIP for a new Northside CR MoW facility to be built in Billerica, presumably at Iron Horse Park. Presumably that will replace the CR MoW yard at Alewife. I'm fully aware that the 2004 PMT ridership for an infill station here was dismal, but what else would you do here if the site were vacant? I would think at minimum a footbridge from Wheeler.

I don't think it's going to replace Alewife. Alewife is way over-capacity, and they've been stuffing work cars on sidings across the northside unprotected from trespassers because there's such an overall space crunch. Most likely you'll see Billerica become HQ for the T's roster of freight work cars and all manner of heavy track critters, while Alewife gets freed up for hi-rail and inspection vehicles (logical, because those get more general use and have greater need to be centrally located).

There've been various proposals for a footbridge between Cambridgepark and Fawcett St., but all of those would've been a little bit west of the MOW building. Unlike the City-proposed footbridge east of the parkway by Danehy Park, it was always assumed that private interests would be picking up most of the tab for the Cambridgepark one (not surprisingly, little has come of it).

 

[RandomWalk]

I thought they wanted to colocate a MoW facility with the South Salem station.

 

[Longfellow]

That study is a little sad. I liked the proposals people had here of digging underground for grand junction and then using a modular station design.