General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

This was talked about earlier... even Nashua is too far for any real practical use. The commute would simply be too long. Remember that you pretty much have to get on the T after getting to North Station.

No, this is completely false. And was not "discussed earlier" as such. NHDOT's Service Development Plan is the very first Google hit for New Hampshire Commuter Rail, has reference schedules for all of the build options, and specs no more than 55 minutes to Boston from Nashua, and 1:36 Concord-Boston on the express runs. How many CR trips people regularly make that already run way longer than that? Every goddamn day if you come from Worcester, for one.


Please do not pass your own from-the-hip hottakes as affirmed doors-shut facts. It took 5 seconds on Google to correct this misinformation; it could've taken equally short time to prevent the misinfo from being spread in the first place. The affirmed facts directly contradict you here...and that has not been the first time that has had to be pointed out on this particular subject. If the studies have shown buff ridership for those, obviously the rider psychology is not behaving exactly as the hottake assumes it is.
 
This was talked about earlier... even Nashua is too far for any real practical use. The commute would simply be too long. Remember that you pretty much have to get on the T after getting to North Station.

Good examples by other members. I want to add Fall River, New Bedford, and Wickford Junction are all much farther with longer commuting times to Boston.
 
Good examples by other members. I want to add Fall River, New Bedford, and Wickford Junction are all much farther with longer commuting times to Boston.

SCR is the same deal, but with some of the lines on South Side you do have the option of getting off at Back Bay (or maybe Lansdowne or Ruggles) and that's it. Don't need to get on the T.

No, this is completely false. And was not "discussed earlier" as such. NHDOT's Service Development Plan is the very first Google hit for New Hampshire Commuter Rail, has reference schedules for all of the build options, and specs no more than 55 minutes to Boston from Nashua, and 1:36 Concord-Boston on the express runs. How many CR trips people regularly make that already run way longer than that? Every goddamn day if you come from Worcester, for one.

No way would it be 55 minutes to NS.
 
No way would it be 55 minutes to NS.
Why? It's a 45-minute drive over a much less direct route, and if it's skipping all stops inbound of Lowell, it should be able to make 55 minutes easily.
 
No way would it be 55 minutes to NS.

Again with the misinfo-by-hottakez when LMGTFY sets the record straight in under a minute. Please stop doing that.

It's 55 mins for-real Nashua-NS on the NHDOT Concord runs that switch to a Lowell-Anderson express in MA, per the NHDOT study. No way? Way. All-locals running every :30 that would need to tap Nashua for no reason other than the layover yard being there and not in Lowell would be the current 42-minute trip to Lowell + 25 minutes Lowell-Downtown Nashua covering 3 intermediate stops...65-67 mins. total. The same as the old pre-1967 B&M schedules refactored for subsequent south-of-Lowell bolt-tightening.
 
Fatnoah - assuming that there is no immediate push-back at the Congressional level - -there is a window of about 2 years for "Crazy Transit Pitches" to be fulfilled
Come 2023 or so -- the US DOT spending binge is probably over -- one way or another

Other point -- one of the Trump Legacies -- assuming Pres. Biden doesn't trash it -- the huge cut in red tape to get a transportation project reviewed and either approved or rejected [about a decade down to 2 years or so] -- hence a plan proposed today could be funded before the huge spending is wrapped-up

This is correct. Biden needs to kick off as many projects as possible ASAP, because theres a good chance the house goes back to R and its over for another decade.

As for ride length, the NYC commuter rail lines all offer commuter rail trips of over 2 hours.

I would never do that, but plenty of people do.
 
Distance wise Nashua is pretty comparable to Fitchburg, with a larger population than Fitchburg.
 
It's 55 mins for-real Nashua-NS on the NHDOT Concord runs that switch to a Lowell-Anderson express in MA, per the NHDOT study. No way?

Lets just say I am still skeptical. And I wouldn't undersell the issue of also needing to get on the T afterwards either.

MAYBE you could sell it on attracting NH workers to work in Burlington; taking employer shuttles from Anderson. Do they do this today/pre-Rona? I have no idea and what ridership they could get out of that I have no clue.
 
Lets just say I am still skeptical. And I wouldn't undersell the issue of also needing to get on the T afterwards either.

MAYBE you could sell it on attracting NH workers to work in Burlington; taking employer shuttles from Anderson. Do they do this today/pre-Rona? I have no idea and what ridership they could get out of that I have no clue.

Then you're skeptical. That's fine. But being skeptical is a very different thing from citing outright factual falsehoods as consensus-affirmed fact, refusing to acknowledge contradictory sorces when presented, and doubling down on the falsehoods repeatedly after being called out on it and after repeatedly being told to be more careful about spreading misinfo.

One is a mere opinion. One is a deliberate pattern of behavior designed to obfuscate a discussion...that starts crossing over into trolling the more the warnings get ignored. You can be skeptical...but your gut feeling does not trump verified facts and doubling-down on your 'gut = everyone else's facts' in defiance of that is intentionally chumming the waters with misinfo. That this is somehow still not apparent to you...is a problem.

Your 'gut' is contradicted by facts. Make an effort to reconcile the discrepancy if that's bothersome. STOP treating it as a license to pollute this discussion with bunk falsehoods.
 

Don't think this has its own thread yet but the new B branch stations have names, Babcock St and Amory St. No more BU West.



Excellent. Those 4 stations were way too close. The new ones are longer with better walkway access. The ancillary benefit will be less delay along the line. Progress.
 
I like "Amory Street", but the west station really should have been "BU West Campus" or "Agganis Arena" or "Nickerson Field".
 
Your 'gut' is contradicted by facts. Make an effort to reconcile the discrepancy if that's bothersome. STOP treating it as a license to pollute this discussion with bunk falsehoods.

The last numbers I saw was that CR was still in single digit retention. Even the first wave ending didn't change that during last Summer. Don't see any reason to think that CR ridership will pick up at all until the vaccine is widely available + a month and a half. That's already the end of Summer basically.
 
I like "Amory Street", but the west station really should have been "BU West Campus" or "Agganis Arena" or "Nickerson Field".

I think that there is some level of institutional bias against "Place Name" stations rather than "Street Name" stations. I'm thinking about how long we had a GLX station tentatively named "Washington Street" (!!). I wonder if the preference is to avoid anything that could be potentially controversial, if at all possible -- i.e. if the street name is specific enough, then just go with that.

There are so many stations I would rename if I could, but that's probably another thread...
 
Amory Street runs end to end from the B to the C. The opposite end of that street faces the outbound platform of the Kent Street station. They solved the double St. Paul problem by creating another possible confusion. Swing and a miss, they should have kept BU West. (Incidentally they did it right with the other stop; Pleasant St. runs to the outbound platform of Coolidge Corner but Babcock veers at a different angle and does not hook up with the C.)
 
The T dislikes naming stations after institutions because institutions can move or close. Like the ICA, for instance. (Obviously, this was not always the case.)
 

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