My wishlist, from most practical to a little more fanciful:
* Major park-and-ride facility at the I-90/I-95 junction on the Framingham/Worcester line. Why hasn't this happened yet? Let NIMBYs not be the blocker. Site it on the former Liberty Mutual office buildings located right alongside the ROW AND alongside the junction:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Gri3RgKKuxCwuF1A6.
* Cut and cover an underground travelator from DTX to South Station. This will greatly improve transit access from all areas served by the Orange Line and Green Line to all areas served by SL1-3, including the many jobs in the Seaport, by removing the need for a Red Line transfer (and the psychological uncertainty about commute time that comes with it).
* Convert the Grand Junction to Green Line, creating a Green Line loop through Boston and Cambridge. Creates a bevy of new transit opportunities for riders from across the city and connects BU, MIT, and future Harvard campuses.
* Bring the Watertown Branch back in parts as a Green Line extension, running on an elevated ROW if needed. Begin it around West Station, hooking it up to the existing Green Line and the new Grand Junction Green Line loop. Open up Watertown and Waltham to high-rise development.
* Build a rail connection between the Fitchburg and Worcester lines in the Newton/Weston area. There's only about one mile between them here. Major NIMBY land, I know, but I-95 is already here, and in the worst-case the line could simply be run alongside I-95 for most of its length. Create a rail loop from South Station to North Station, create cross-terminus routes e.g. from Worcester to North Station, and use it for equipment transfers that used to run over the Grand Junction.
* Run a BRT (or at least bus lanes) along the length of I-95 from at least Woburn to Westwood, if not from Peabody to Braintree. Intersect it with every commuter rail line and rapid transit line which crosses or reaches I-95. Provide station access to every major junction and major office park along I-95. Imagine the transformation this could bring, by making office parks on I-95 once again appealing to companies who in recent years have squished themselves downtown, in Kendall, and in the Seaport. My sense is that many of these companies did so to attract younger workers who want to live in the city, but at the cost of torturous commutes for older workers with families who live in the suburbs. By making offices on the 95 loop accessible to people who wish to live in the city, a nice averaging of location can be achieved, which would help relieve the pressure on the housing market inside of I-95.
My wishlist is rooted in the following beliefs:
- Compared to many other American cities, commuting in Boston is long and tortuous.
- Compared to many other American cities, residential real-estate in Boston is ridiculously expensive.
- The difficulty of commuting forces commuters into a limited set of options for where to live which are practical to get to their workplace. For example, people who work in Seaport and Kendall bias heavily toward housing which is along the Red Line axis, driving up cost in these areas and underutilizing residential areas alongside other lines, such as Orange and Blue.
- The migration of companies from the 495 and 95 belts into the downtown / Kendall / Seaport core has brought vitality to Boston, but resulted in terrible commutes for people who live in the suburbs and a lot of price pressure on housing inside of I-95.
- Obvious transit opportunities are being left untapped because the system hasn't caught up to the last 50 years of changes in population centers and highway networks.
- Seizing these obvious opportunities creates the potential to spread housing demand more evenly across the city and create capacity for building more housing without crushing the existing transportation network