The Type-10s will work on the Park St loop which has a 47' radius, and the Heath St curve is a more like ~50'.
I believe the issue, as F-Line had previously stated, is that the Type 10s can’t physically fit within the inner loop of Heath St. I believe they can on the outer loop without stretching into the road but I could be wrong.
To be fair, I think a new extension (even just by 1-2 stops) will need to go through a lot more processes than replacing infrastructure on an existing route.
No doubt! But if this is something the MBTA/city wants to do, then start that process. It’s going to be cheaper in the long run to fold the extension in as a..well, extension, of the Huntington rebuild.
I would honestly consider this to be much closer to an extension from Brigham Circle to Heath St than a replacement of existing infrastructure. I wouldn't be surprised if literally nothing from the current line is left where it originally was by the time it's done.
Agreed, I would have liked to see the city extend the study area down to Hyde Sq.
A 2-car train of Type 10s at 225' long won't fit on either the inner or outer loops at Heath Street. This presentation from 2018 gives the length of the inner loop platform as 131'. The outer loop isn't used in revenue service as the platform is not accessible, but some rough estimating using the Google Maps "Measure distance" tool puts it at about 175'.
Damn now we lose the Huntington St fast lanes! /sPlanning is underway for a new dedicated transitway for the E branch – which could be shared by the 66 and 39 buses as well.
The project needs to be done by 2027 for the new Type 10 trains:
Huntington Ave. Redesign Will Eliminate Last Mixed-Traffic Segment of the Green Line By 2027 - Streetsblog Massachusetts
On Tuesday evening, officials from the City of Boston and the MBTA officially kicked off a planning effort that will ultimately redesign Huntington and South Huntington Avenues in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood. The project will likely eliminate the last segment of the Green Line where...mass.streetsblog.org
Yeah I always loved the look off those cars, only just a bit more than weaving through the people who were too scared to drive on the tracks.
Will it be like Columbus ave where between the stations there is no physical barrier or will it be like the rest of the E branch where it’s completely separated?
Given the limited space I have to imagine there won't be any room for physical barriers between stations, that space would be better used to make the sidewalks or cycle lanes wider.
So street running will remain!
Technically I guess, but "street running" generally implies mixed traffic running.
In addition to the space issues mentioned above, first responders made a physical barrier on Columbus a non-starter. I’d be shocked if they had suddenly changed their view on that in the interim.
