Re: Allston Interchange / Throat
Do we know if Houghton Chemical is now transloading their shipments to truck somewhere, or if they're shutting down that facility?
Keep in mind, most of the Pike express buses won't need to run any longer if you get "Indigo"-branded Regional Rail to Riverside on the Worcester Line. If that service is introduced there will be a mass pruning of Pike routes to only the fewest serving the most distinct and/or irreplaceable catchments. Bus infastructure is going to end up significant surplus-to-requirement on the highway. I'd skip that in-total.
Does Indigo Regional Rail mean anything other than frequent service in both directions all day at the existing Newtonville, West Newton, and Auburndale stations?
I hadn't realized how limited the downtown connectivity of the Pike express buses is: most basically only stop in the vicinity of South Station, and 503's Saint James Ave @ Dartmouth St is probably close enough to Back Bay Station for a train stopping at Back Bay to be an adequate substitute.
While parts of 558's route are within walking distance of Riverside, Auburndale, and Waltham, a lot of that bus route covers areas that aren't within walking distance of a rail station. Maybe the
19 straightened out proposal could be refined so that instead of serving Watertown Sq, it would only follow the route I proposed in the other thread from Quincy to Newton Corner, and then continue along 558's route from Newton Corner to the Waltham commuter rail station. But that extended 19 wouldn't necessarily take care of the outer part of 558's route, and people who use 558 to get to the South Station area would be best served by the extended 19 if Newton Corner got a regional rail station.
The segment of 553/554 between the West Newton and Waltham commuter rail stations might be better served by a new Woodland (D branch Green Line with MetroWest connection) to Lexington Center and Burlington Mall (Lowell RTA connection) bus.
The segment of 554 from Waverly to Waltham could potentially be served by an extended 73, especially if we had battery powered buses. Perhaps that extended 73 could even continue along the Waltham to Brandeis segment of 553.
Perhaps 556's route could be kept from its outer origin point at Tomlin St @ Summit St to the Newtonville commuter rail station, and the portion to the east of Newtonville eliminated and replaced with duplicating 59's route from Newtonville to the Newton Highlands Green Line station on the D branch, and perhaps from there it could follow Walnut St to Dedham St to Baker St to Lasell St to Lagrange St to the West Roxbury station that we hope will end up with Orange Line service. Maybe it could even continue past West Roxbury Station along Lagrange to Cowing St and Washington St, continue along 40's route to the Georgetowne Housing, and cover the part of 33 to the south of Georgetowne Housing (and then 40 might possibly be eliminated).
If that's done, and if the southern part of 59 ends up basically duplicated by a Green Line branch out to Needham, maybe an extended 71 could cover the part of 59 north of I-90, and 59 running the whole length of 59 could go away.
Looking at this more carefully has made me realize that local bus service running roughly perpendicular to I-90 would work better as a regional rail feeder to replace the express buses than I'd been assuming, and I think it convinces me that existing MBTA express buses should probably be discontinued and replaced with local service instead of stopping at West Station in the long run.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Station_Bus_Terminal has a list of destinations one can get to from the intercity bus terminal at South Station. Greyhound service toward Worcester would probably benefit from stopping at West Station. Several carriers have service to New York City, but if a trip commits to stopping at West Station, that commits it to taking I-90 past West Station; for a bus serving only South Station and not West Station, there might be value in having the flexibility to either take I-90 + I-84 + I-91 or I-95 for the South Station to New Haven segment, or even staying on I-84 west of Hartford, depending on traffic conditions. Buses to Connecticut casinos potentially have similar routing flexibility in either taking I-95 or I-395.
For buses headed toward Worcester and Springfield, being able to stop at West Station with a minimal time penalty probably still has value, but if those are the only buses proceeding along I-90 that stop at West Station, their volume is probably low enough that designing high quality stops for them on the surface streets probably makes more sense than spending all the money that would be required for the I-90 median bus station.
Not there. Readville is the more appropriate place for a heavy-repair facility. Widett is envisioned strictly as
ground-level storage for 30 trainsets and crew quarters that can be capped with air rights. You wouldn't want to plunk any large buildings there, because it would foul the value proposition of the "Midtown" air rights on top. Widett already has the T Service & Inspection building and the car wash building there. Those facilities are all that's really needed for managing the day's in-service fleet. Work equipment and rolling stock that's offline for the day for repair doesn't need to be located downtown, so the main maint facility can be on the outskirts at Readville.
Readville has extra real estate available at
Yard 2, the current commuter rail yard, and empty
Yard 5. Yard 2 was envisioned as an alternate layover site as it could have
+10 tracks added to its current 8 by taking a slice of the land easement granted to the recycling center next door. If the recycling center were outright evicted the facility could double in size and go all the way to the banks of the Neponset. The T is more or less set on doing something here since the land is in their full control. If acquiring Widett reduces the day storage needs of Readville to just the Fairmount and Stoughton Lines, then they can probably put the space to excellent use building a Maintenance of Way yard for storage work equipment (like the one at
Alewife) and have a place on the southside to put tie/rail/ballast piles without being reliant on the northside. Yard 5 has 1.2 million sq. ft. inside its loop track, roughly the same size as BET. That, if the Dedham NIMBY's can be appeased with a sound wall, would be an ideal place to put a heavy-repair facility for EMU's and southside coaches. The loop and former connection to the Franklin Line inbound would allow for equipment to be feathered out there from either the NEC or Fairmount Line.
My guess is the only thing they wouldn't want to repair down there is diesel locomotives. Those are probably best kept consolidated under one roof at BET for cost control instead of splitting. But southside will be using a lot fewer diesels with just a few electrifications, so the equipment swaps dramatically diminish. Providence + RIDOT Providence-Westerly + Fairmount + Worcester electrification knocks out over 60% of the southside's diesel vehicle requirements.
If we rebuilt the throat next to the Allston Interchange before any of the commuter rail system is electrified, would building the Readville maintenance infrastructure be sufficient to be able to eliminate the Grand Junction connection across the Charles? Would there be a need to buy a bit of additional rolling stock to compensate for the more difficult north side to south side moves?
