General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Riverside said:
To answer your question, I point to F-Line's photo:

Check out the rust on the pedestrian overpass. I imagine it's similar to the deterioration at South Attleboro -- just hopefully caught earlier on.

Also, unrelated, but it's still shocking to me that only 21 years ago we built a station without full-high platforms.
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I understand why it needs to be rebuilt, I do not understand how it reached that point in barely 20 years time.
 
HenryAlan said:
I understand why it needs to be rebuilt, I do not understand how it reached that point in barely 20 years time.
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Also, the MBTA waits until a needless disaster strikes, such as when the guy who tried to use those rusted stairs near the Red Line in Dorchester fell & died before they try to fix it!! :eek:
 
HenryAlan said:
I understand why it needs to be rebuilt, I do not understand how it reached that point in barely 20 years time.
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Oh sorry sorry, yeah I didn’t mean for my comment to sound instructional; I was agreeing with you, and noting what looked like a commonality between Ashland and South Attleboro, a commonality that to me implies a systemic neglect of at least this particular kind of maintenance.
 
I would venture to guess that the overall maintenance assumption of a structure is underestimated compared to older structures that were mostly overbuilt. When a structure has been “value engineered” as mentioned above, it usually means less use of a material, not always just shoddy construction. When you use less of a material, say a smaller beam and column section, you need to be more proactive in maintenance because corrosion can do serious damage faster. This has often been the norm of the past 30 years or so. It’s not that it’s bad design, it just often comes with higher maintenance costs that are often not met. That being said, it’s possible that the materials used were subpar.
 
Surprise - no one is parking and riding... "Collectively, these North Shore lots and garages in the MBTA's daily reports have had about 2,000 vacant parking spaces available by the end of the morning rush hour, with a total utilization rate that's consistently less than 50 percent."

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https://mass.streetsblog.org/2023/0...-parking-garages-are-mostly-empty-this-summer

1. This proves we should not reserve real estate for parking where housing desperately needed.
2. Is anyone surprised that after brutal delays, unpredictability, and neverending doom&gloom media coverage that people think bumper to bumper driving is less risky than the T? We need both a performance and public image rehab.
 
Vagabond said:
Surprise - no one is parking and riding... "Collectively, these North Shore lots and garages in the MBTA's daily reports have had about 2,000 vacant parking spaces available by the end of the morning rush hour, with a total utilization rate that's consistently less than 50 percent."

2. Is anyone surprised that after brutal delays, unpredictability, and neverending doom&gloom media coverage that people think bumper to bumper driving is less risky than the T? We need both a performance and public image rehab.
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Probably WFH more than people driving in.
 
jklo said:
Probably WFH more than people driving in.
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The value of the real estate near the transit stop is directly related to how good the transit service is. Provide 5-min headways and short transfer times, people will pay up to ride the train. Someone on reddit pointed out that instead of subsidizing the lots they should just be replaced with TOD.
 
Vagabond said:
Surprise - no one is parking and riding... "Collectively, these North Shore lots and garages in the MBTA's daily reports have had about 2,000 vacant parking spaces available by the end of the morning rush hour, with a total utilization rate that's consistently less than 50 percent."

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2023/0...-parking-garages-are-mostly-empty-this-summer

1. This proves we should not reserve real estate for parking where housing desperately needed.
2. Is anyone surprised that after brutal delays, unpredictability, and neverending doom&gloom media coverage that people think bumper to bumper driving is less risky than the T? We need both a performance and public image rehab.
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Where are we doing that here, though?

Orient Heights seems to be placeholder for Blue Line operations flexibility/future planning and they've knocked out rows of parking to expand MBTA functions in recent memory.

Beachmont + Wonderland are next to vast expanses of currently outright vacant land. For how "prime real estate" the article says they supposedly are, I'm not sure that I buy that developers are waiting with shovels ready for these sites today. Long run I could certainly see the surface parking going away if those other sites come to fruition, today I'm skeptical.

Beverly station is currently surrounded by businesses as low rent as....used car dealers and auto repair shops. Feels like it too has a whole lot of low-value lots accomplishing even less than the parking garage does that you'd want to redev first. AFAIK this garage + Salem have been overbuilt from the beginning.

Salem is the only one where I feel like there's development demand + lack of more obvious places to develop first.

In short - 1 seems reserved for future MBTA needs, 3 seem like you're a long way off from the parking lot being the prime development site, 1 seems like maybe you could find other use for.

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Also, as I discovered last weekend, Wonderland is evidently used for Revere Beach parking. At 10pm last Sunday for the end of the sand castle festival the garage was packed and had clearly been full or nearly so that day. I'd be curious what average weekend occupancy is, to get a better picture of utilization.
 
millerm277 said:
Also, as I discovered last weekend, Wonderland is evidently used for Revere Beach parking. At 10pm last Sunday for the end of the sand castle festival the garage was packed and had clearly been full or nearly so that day. I'd be curious what average weekend occupancy is, to get a better picture of utilization.
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I've been researching the history of Wonderland station the last few days, and I swear that some of the garage documents specifically said it was intended to also serve Revere Beach parking. I'll see if I can dig up which ones.
 
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Let's not forget that the Red Line slow zones have been creeping back up. We're back to roughly May 2023. I believe they have been doing work for the Braintree branch, but right now you can 20 minutes for the train and enjoy that each day's ride experience is getting worse.
 
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