I don't know... I guess I believe it when I see it. To me, it is at capacity and the only solution is a rebuild of the central tunnel - either heavy rail with light rail feeders or quadruple tracking the tunnel.
I know you said it handled more lines back then, but how fast did it go? How much did train size then and now are affected?
Similar underground speeds, and they used 3-car trains of PCC's regularly back then. The main difference is that they pushed the limits more back then on approach distance between cars and having 2 trains unloading on one platform at the same time. Higher rate of fender-benders back then from operator error, so the T spaced vehicles out more cautiously when the heavier LRV's started running. And has gotten ever more conservative about it since (you'll see they almost never pull 2 trains into Park St. inbound at the same time anymore). Surface traffic delays have increased, but that's almost all Comm Ave. and the student dwell times. The B used to function a lot better when the A-branch split at Packards Corner because traffic dispersed there evenly and the really bogged-down stretch to Harvard Ave. was doubled-up by both lines. So
more trains wasn't an issue; a single
long route not supplemented by any additional service or short-turns on the school bus half is the schedule-keeping problem.
These are the other lines that used to use the subway:
Dudley Sq. via Boylston (ended 1938)
Sullivan Sq. via Main St. and North Station (ended 1948)
Sullivan Sq. via Bunker Hill St. and North Station (ended 1949)
City Point via Boylston (ended 1953)
Egleston Sq. via Boylston (cut back to Lenox St., 1956)
Watertown via Kenmore (suspended 1967, active for non-revenue moves to 1994)
Arborway via Huntington Ave. (ended 1985)
Short-turns that used to use the subway concurrent with the full branches:
Brookline Village via Huntington (Arborway short-turn, ended 1938)
Lenox St. via Boylston (Egleston short-turn, ended 1961)
BU/Braves Field Loop (BC short-turn @ Nickerson Field, ended 1962)
Oak Sq. via Kenmore (Watertown short-turn, ended 1967)
Union Sq. via Kenmore (Watertown short-turn, ended ???)
Heath St. via Huntington (Arborway, still active, ran run rush-hour only until 1985)
Brigham Circle via Huntington (Arborway, still active, ran rush-hour with Arborway and Heath)
For 2 brief years ('59-61) the subway had Watertown, BC, CC, Arborway, Lenox St., the short-turns, and the new Riverside Line all at once. So that's +2½ full branches over today.
It can definitely handle a lot more than it currently does. Main thing needed is CBTC signaling to finally retire the century old humans-with-clipboards dispatching and auto-enforce stops and speed limits. Then you can bunch the trains much closer and double-up inside stations, and run the grade-separated D end-to-end to Medford without getting hosed by the surface branches. The T gets more and more conservative about spacing with each ever more expensive car order, so that rolls back the spacing closer to what it used to be 40+ years ago without excessive risk of operator error totaling a
million-dollar purchase.
Second, the new inbound crossover they're putting in at Park inbound is going to solve a big existing bottleneck. They can finally use the inside track for thru-service trains instead of looping, and that allows them to waive cars going past Gov't Ctr. ahead of cars turning there so there's no longer a backup at GC where a North Station/Lechmere train that has to unload at the far end of the platform is stuck behind a GC-turning train unloading at the near end. Also clears Park out faster by having half the trains not have to deal with pedestrians crossing the track. That's already fully funded...construction was scheduled to start this year, finish end of '13 but haven't heard a peep about it lately.
And of course, they continue torturing us by not turning on signal priority on the surface branches...by far the easiest fix for blown schedules.
Other stuff they can do that doesn't require blowing up the whole subway:
-- Short-turn on the B. MassHighway has a (delayed) project to reconfigure Comm Ave. from Packards to Warren to eliminate the express/local lane setup, and relocate the tracks to a new and wider center median. Putting a pocket track in between Harvard Ave. and Griggs would give the B that short-turn it needs so frigging badly. The room will be there because this is going to be a WIDE, C-line like median. Are they going to care enough to do it, or fart this opportunity away?
-- Reconfiguring GC into a full 4-track station with connecting tracks cutting across the platforms to tie into the loop tracks. Requires a major change to ped movements across the wedge, as they'd have to be corralled into single crosswalks instead of having free movement, but would eliminate all remaining bunching on the 2 tracks between Park and GC and open up the 4 tracks to Haymarket for thru service.
-- D-to-E surface tracks Brookline Village to Huntington. This is an MPO-rated low priority project for non-revenue moves between maintenance facilities, but some supplemental service through here would really alleviate a lot of crunch at Kenmore. Sox games in particular. Just fumigate the downtown crush with a GC-Brookline Village-GC constant loop until everyone's been dispersed. Can safely avoid the Brookline Ave./Huntington intersection by peeling out on River Rd. and crossing to Pearl St. through the auto chop shop property.
-- (long-term) Copley Jct. replacement. Go abandoned Tremont St. tunnel, 2 block extension under the Pike, hang a right under the NEC (Worcester Line tracks to avoid hitting the Orange tunnel), new Green Line stop at Back Bay, rejoin Huntington at Prudential right where the current tunnel straightens. If Washington St. replacement service is using 2 of the 4 tracks in the abandoned tunnel, the other 2 + a wye would handle this and thru-routing from the D and E to Dudley. Shifts the E forward onto the 4-track Boylston-Park segment which can (and has) merge branchlines much more smoothly than Copley or Kenmore, and does so at higher speed without having to take Boylston curve. For megaprojects this is probably cheaper than doing anything to the current subway. The big lesson of Silver Line Phase III: urban tunneling is a LOT cheaper under existing rail ROW's or any 1960's urban renewal wasteland (i.e. Pike canyon and frontage streets) than the historic street grid. If they ever want to pull SLIII out of mothballs, the only tunnel that makes any engineering sense is light rail through the old tunnel, then burrowing under the NEC to South Station. Between Washington, SLIII, and Back Bay/Huntington there's a lot of potential use for those 4 abandoned tracks down there.
Mix of long, medium, and short term...1 per decade major improvements. Signal priority can be turned on this @#$% summer if anyone at the T gave a crap. The Park inbound crossovers will be open for business by 2014. There's an unfunded mandate for FY2016 to study CBTC. That's the 2010's decade.
2020's: They'll have some sort of go/no-go decision on CBTC by decade's end, and hopefully an implementation plan that'll get it online within a dozen years. D-to-E connectoris a pretty basic one that'll come by the time there's a new car order to buff out the fleet to 4-car trains and greater need for a track connection to shuttle equipment.
2030's: Well...I think they're blowing a golden opportunity now by not considering a GC track redesign as part of the pending renovations, but that's one they can revisit in 20 years. Maybe Silver Line completion and/or Urban Ring get put back on the front burner, and design starts advancing on options for the Tremont tunnel.
2040's: God help us, maybe before we're all dead there'll be some service in that tunnel distributing traffic around, a Copley Jct. replacement, and conceptual plans being kicked around to bury the E from Northeastern to the D at Brookline Village.
e.
