Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

I'm kind of astonished that these new maps don't have a sticker over the GLX stations that says "Opening May 2022" or some such. That's kind of egregious even by T standards.
 
How many people are riding from BU to residential Sommerville or Medford/Tufts? I'd take a bus even if GLX was open, personally. I don't see it being that big of a deal for ~6 months during COVID-level ridership.
 
Tomorrow's news today from the MBTA BOD:


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The EGE said:
Hopefully those contingency funds can be redirected towards the MVP extension.
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I was under the assumption that any leftover funds would go towards paying back the contributions Somerville and Cambridge made to the project.
 
Texasian said:
I was under the assumption that any leftover funds would go towards paying back the contributions Somerville and Cambridge made to the project.
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That particular slide is part of a proposed action to waive the last 2 years (~30 million) of contributions, and return what they've already contributed with interest. Part of the rationale for doing that now instead of waiting for project closeout is that they have a surplus already that will exceed 75m - which they don't expect to deplete. The project got ~103M in additional federal covid relief funds which more than covers the municipal contributions in of itself. They're basically saying that even without the municipal funds that there's enough contingency built into the budget - so they're almost definitely going to be left with money in the bank.

Other than that, I suspect the biggest hurdles in using the excess to fund other projects is that I would be very surprised if there wasn't a clause somewhere in the funding agreement that says something along the lines of "unexpended funds will be returned to the funding source." Further, Such an expansion of scope would more than likely require new authorizing votes.
 
Stlin said:
That particular slide is part of a proposed action to waive the last 2 years (~30 million) of contributions, and return what they've already contributed with interest. Part of the rationale for doing that now instead of waiting for project closeout is that they have a surplus already that will exceed 75m - which they don't expect to deplete. The project got ~103M in additional federal covid relief funds which more than covers the municipal contributions in of itself. They're basically saying that even without the municipal funds that there's enough contingency built into the budget - so they're almost definitely going to be left with money in the bank.

Other than that, I suspect the biggest hurdles in using the excess to fund other projects is that I would be very surprised if there wasn't a clause somewhere in the funding agreement that says something along the lines of "unexpended funds will be returned to the funding source." Further, Such an expansion of scope would more than likely require new authorizing votes.
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I could look this up but I'm lazy: MVP is a Phase II of GLX left off for immediate cost reasons, not a completely separate project - it might be possible that they could redirect funds for GLX Phase I to GLX Phase II.
 
Equilibria said:
I could look this up but I'm lazy: MVP is a Phase II of GLX left off for immediate cost reasons, not a completely separate project - it might be possible that they could redirect funds for GLX Phase I to GLX Phase II.
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It was also left off because the political pro-rail consensus ran only to the Tufts U protective bubble. My recollection was that MVP could practically be paid for with CMAQ $ (which were reprogramed to cover shortfalls on Phase 1), and then CMAQ for 2022 to 2026 was briefly considered for Phase 2, but instead got programmed for transformation and Type 10 kinda stuff.

CMAQ is the Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality Improvement Program and is a reliable-enough source of annual millions that Maine uses theirs to fund the Downeaster.
 
From information I have just received it appears that even though the GLX is being built to a 50 MPH MAS "design speed", the cars will still operate at a maximum speed of 40 MPH as they do now.
 
BostonTrainGuy said:
From information I have just received it appears that even though the GLX is being built to a 50 MPH MAS "design speed", the cars will still operate at a maximum speed of 40 MPH as they do now.
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"[green line]...40 MPH as they do now"....Hahahahahaha.
 
Not surprising - the Type 8s have a tendency to derail over 40 mph no matter how well the track is maintained. (I once had a T maintenance manager tell me that it'll be cheaper to maintain the tracks to 50 mph for the Type 10s than to get the Type 8s to safely run at 40.) The good news is that it's not as big a deal for the GLX to run at 40 mph for the next 8-10 years as it is for the Riverside Line. Without stopping between Medford/Tufts and Lechmere, the difference between 40 mph and 50 mph is about 70 seconds; with stops, it's probably closer to 30 seconds. (Stop spacing on GLX is between 2,600 and 4,600 feet except for Union Square, which has a speed restriction on the viaduct anyway.) Riverside is almost triple the distance, with stop spacing well over a mile on much of its length.
 
stick n move said:
What are the guard rails here for?
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So a derailment will not jump onto the platform I guess. Kind of overkill especially since trains are supposed to creep along platforms at 10 mph. I suppose a stopped train could be pushed into a platform from a collision caused by a following train but the new signal system should prevent that. How many Greenline trains have killed someone when it jumped onto a platform?
 
BostonTrainGuy said:
So a derailment will not jump onto the platform I guess. Kind of overkill especially since trains are supposed to creep along platforms at 10 mph. I suppose a stopped train could be pushed into a platform from a collision caused by a following train but the new signal system should prevent that. How many Greenline trains have killed someone when it jumped onto a platform?
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I assume zero, but I also assumed you knew that.

Follow up questions that I don't know the answer to:
  • How many light rail trains have killed someone when it jumped onto a platform?
  • How many Green Line trains have injured someone when it jumped onto a platform?
 
I hope that doesn't happen. God forbids!! I think that we've seen enough damn derailments with the T already!! On every line except the Blue Line!! :eek:
 
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BostonTrainGuy said:
So a derailment will not jump onto the platform I guess. Kind of overkill especially since trains are supposed to creep along platforms at 10 mph. I suppose a stopped train could be pushed into a platform from a collision caused by a following train but the new signal system should prevent that. How many Greenline trains have killed someone when it jumped onto a platform?
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Never underestimate a Type-8's ability to derail.
 
I look at it like a building code thing: somebody learned the hard way, and now it is a simple cheap bit of insurance
 
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