HarborTram

Shepard

Shepard

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Because... our harbor deserves a tram. [And many other reasons.]


harbortram.jpg



<<<< Long time lurker,
first time poster.
Thanks to all for making this such a great read
day in and day out.>>>​
 
This is very similar to the proposal by ablarc some years back (which, incidentally, was how I first came to these boards.)

If only we had a mayor who didn't loath trolleys, this would be a no brainer.
 
Makes way more sense than connecting the S. End and Roxbury to South Boston and the airport via the Silver Line. Throw in an airport extension (for the direct, one-seat ride) and this tram would link two train stations, the bus terminal, the cruise port, several ferry terminals, and Logan.

It's almost more justifiable (and certainly more feasible) than the Urban Ring.
 
How about converting the Silver Line to light rail and forking it at S. Station? This would avoid the redundancy in the Seaport. You could get the same coverage into Southie by extending the SL City Point route down L St.

Welcome to the board, Shepard.
 
Run it a bit further into the far reaches of the Navy Yard.


(The Aqua Line.)
 
Alternatively, run it to Assembly Square and on to Wellington Station.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome - I look forward to participating here.

How about converting the Silver Line to light rail and forking it at S. Station?
Click to expand...

I've seen on this board that there would be problems running light rail to the airport through the TW tunnel.

This would avoid the redundancy in the Seaport. You could get the same coverage into Southie by extending the SL City Point route down L St.
Click to expand...

What I envision here is that the HarborTram (Aqua Line?) replace SL service to City Point, relegating the SL to what it should be: an express bus between Logan, WTC and South Station. (Although the word "express" is used broadly here to include 15mph through tunnels!)
 
Good. I like Harbor Tram more than SL, except for the express route between Logan, WTC/BCEC, and South Station. More of a specialized line rather than a (poorly executed) general solution to mass transit in the City.
 
The limitation here is that there would be no easy connection between the HT and the Back Bay/Westbound green line. I've seen proposals to extend a new branch of the green line from Boylston towards the South Boston waterfront (and some SL-to-rail proposals show this too). Are there any other proposals on the table to connect the South Boston waterfront to the Back Bay? (Important for conferences, hotels, etc)...?
 
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Well the Silver Line Phase III would connect South Station to Boylston. But we all know how we feel about that project...
 
HarborTram seems to have existed as a proposal in the late 80's - among a number of other interesting ideas.

I'm pulling this from the Globe archives from 1988. Interesting that there was a much MUCH greater focus on the waterfront's transit network back then. And despite all these proposals - each of which could have been a rather enviable solution - we end up with the silver line.

METRO
SOUTH BOSTON, WATERFRONT T CONSIDERS A FIFTH SUBWAY LINE NEW SERVICE WOULD OPERATE IN FAN PIERS AREA, AND PERHAPS ROXBURY
Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff
526 words
19 September 1988
The Boston Globe
THIRD
22
English
? 1988 New York Times Company. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Planners investigating ideas for bringing mass transit to the developing South Boston waterfront area are now envisioning what could become the city's fifth subway line.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is about two months away from recommending a preferred transit alternative for the so-called Fan Piers area, which is expected to see 16 million square feet of development in the next decade.

The options include a $170 million shuttle bus network; a $240 million surface trolley line linking North Station, South Station and the yet-to-be-built Fan Piers; a $390 million trolley line or monorail with an underground section downtown and a surface-level section in South Boston; or a $300 million loop extending the Red Line into the Fan Piers area.

Until this spring, it appeared the top choice was the Red Line loop, a plan endorsed by the Flynn administration. It would add a station near the World Trade Center, on Northern Avenue, between South Station and Broadway.

But MBTA project officials and city planners are increasingly interested in the underground trolley line, saying it can offer high-quality service and be built most flexibly. Also, they say, its construction could easily be piggybacked on the $4.4 billion project to build a third harbor tunnel and depress the Central Artery.

And under one scenario, the line would become a full-fledged fifth subway line, running from Roxbury through the theater district and South Station area into South Boston.

"We clearly have grown more interested in it because of the service possibilities it presents and the flexibility of implementing it," Aiello said.

The proposed underground trolley or monorail line to serve the Fan Piers would start at or near the Boylston Green Line station, running under Essex Street past the Chinatown Orange Line station to the Red Line South Station stop, then up Atlantic Avenue past the Federal Reserve tower. It would cross a new bridge over the Fort Point Channel to run along the South Boston waterfront at street level.

Aiello said preliminary studies suggest the line could work as a new branch of the Green Line: Some trolleys that now go to Park Street and Lechmere would instead head east on the new spur into South Boston.

Or, if the MBTA chooses to build a trolley line from Boylston to Roxbury's Dudley Square -- an $80 million solution to the problem of replacing the Washington Street elevated line -- that line could connect at Boylston to become the southern half of the new Fan Piers line.

Advantages of the underground trolley idea are that it would offer better service than buses or a Red Line loop, and that it could be implemented at least a decade earlier than a surface trolley line connecting North and South Stations and South Boston.

The last public hearing before the MBTA issues its preliminary environmental report on the Fan Piers transit proposals is scheduled for Oct. 26.
Click to expand...

Does anyone know anything more about these proposals, or where they went? Especially interesting is the "Red line loop" that seems to have been favored at the time. Another proposal this mentions, the Roxbury-to-Southie underground line, seems to form the basis for the SL route to some extent... ("hey, let's just do it with a bus, ok?")
 
"Or, if the MBTA chooses to build a trolley line from Boylston to Roxbury's Dudley Square -- an $80 million solution to the problem of replacing the Washington Street elevated line -- that line could connect at Boylston to become the southern half of the new Fan Piers line."

"a $240 million surface trolley line linking North Station, South Station and the yet-to-be-built Fan Piers;"

I would place a strong bet that had this been built the, "Fan Piers area, which is expected to see 16 million square feet of development in the next decade." would have happened.

Remind me how much the SL3 tunnel is again?
 
Well you do need to adjust for 20 years of inflation. That said I still think that the Silver Line Waterfront section is a good project. My beef has always been that the T has tried to tack on the Washington St replacement service to the Silver Line when even their numbers show most people from Roxbury want to get to Park St, not Logan, and most people coming from Logan and SBW want to get to the Back Bay.
 
The article should be placed next to the Magna Carta, it was full of some really smart, sensible ideas.
 
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