I-90 Interchange Improvement Project & West Station | Allston

kingofsheeba said:
Perhaps I missed it but are there any renders as to how the commuter rail line will impact the BU Bridge. I get that these are renders but they still seem ambitious
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The current Grand Junction bridge over the Charles is sized for two tracks, and it plays nicely with the BU Bridge. I don't see how changes to rail bridges and alignments W of the BU Bridge would affect the BU Bridge at all.
 
Brattle Loop said:
I'm confused as to whether the implication is that they're planning to improve the GJ or if the implication is that building a two-track incline to a one-track railroad is indicative of less-than-awesome project management.

Neither of those is particularly relevant to the question of whether it's a good idea to run CR trains Worcester-NS via the GJ, a proposal that has always been somewhat half-baked whenever it's been floated on Beacon Hill.
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Pardon me if this is a dumb question, but isn't the GJ ROW sufficiently wide for two tracks throughout the route to NS? Even if there aren't near-term plans to utilize the two tracks, it would seem prudent to sustain the possibility of two track operation, especially with the economies of scale of doing the two track incline all at once now.
 
JumboBuc said:
The current Grand Junction bridge over the Charles is sized for two tracks, and it plays nicely with the BU Bridge. I don't see how changes to rail bridges and alignments W of the BU Bridge would affect the BU Bridge at all.
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I believe they are going to rebuild part if not all of the railroad bridge. There may be an issue with the sharp curve and grade coming off the bridge now meeting the new alignment.
 
Wasnt there a distant plan to run EMU between west station and kendall at some point?
 
I'm generally happy with this except when I read that construction will take 6-10 years. For one thing, there is a very high likelihood that this will become something like 10-14 years. Public works projects like this should not, IMHO, be generational in their construction spans. Hell, the Big Dig, the shitshow of all shitshows that should not be a metric for any well-managed project, took 15 years of construction. I underatand, it's really complicated challenging enginnering, it's an extremely tight area to work within, and DOT wants to mitigate the construction impacts. But I think we undermine confidence in public works projects when we drag out construction endlessly.
 
Smuttynose said:
I'm generally happy with this except when I read that construction will take 6-10 years. For one thing, there is a very high likelihood that this will become something like 10-14 years. Public works projects like this should not, IMHO, be generational in their construction spans. Hell, the Big Dig, the shitshow of all shitshows that should not be a metric for any well-managed project, took 15 years of construction. I underatand, it's really complicated challenging enginnering, it's an extremely tight area to work within, and DOT wants to mitigate the construction impacts. But I think we undermine confidence in public works projects when we drag out construction endlessly.
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Now that's an interesting thesis. I wonder if anyone's studied the public opinion / public confidence impacts of "slow and less disruptive" versus "fast and more disruptive". (The Big Dig had the delightful qualities of being both slow and disruptive, though I think ultimately worth it.)
 
393b40 said:
Wasnt there a distant plan to run EMU between west station and kendall at some point?
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I would have to think just running back and forth from West Station to North Station is one of the options. The amount of roads that it crosses limits the frequency I assume so there's no need to get crazy.

Apparently CSX owns rights to the Grand Junction so unless they get bought out it's staying CR.
 
jklo said:
I would have to think just running back and forth from West Station to North Station is one of the options. The amount of roads that it crosses limits the frequency I assume so there's no need to get crazy.

Apparently CSX owns rights to the Grand Junction so unless they get bought out it's staying CR.
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The frequencies are definitely limited by the crossings. Somewhere in one of the threads from one of the times one of these services was proposed there's a clearer breakdown of the probable frequency possibilities, but I'm having a hard time finding it at the moment. I'll link to it if I do find it.

CSX has rights over the GJ, though they haven't used them in several years since they contracted with Pan Am to handle the remaining traffic. My assumption is that they'd prefer to keep operating that way once they finish eating Pan Am rather than run a redundant train over the GJ. That said, until they agree to sunset their rights (which won't be free but probably will be easier if and when Pan Am is safely in their pockets) it is stuck on the RR mode, yes.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Pardon me if this is a dumb question, but isn't the GJ ROW sufficiently wide for two tracks throughout the route to NS? Even if there aren't near-term plans to utilize the two tracks, it would seem prudent to sustain the possibility of two track operation, especially with the economies of scale of doing the two track incline all at once now.
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Yes the ROW is DT. I will bet on LRT on GJ. It's the only format that works
 
Smuttynose said:
I'm generally happy with this except when I read that construction will take 6-10 years. For one thing, there is a very high likelihood that this will become something like 10-14 years. Public works projects like this should not, IMHO, be generational in their construction spans. Hell, the Big Dig, the shitshow of all shitshows that should not be a metric for any well-managed project, took 15 years of construction. I underatand, it's really complicated challenging enginnering, it's an extremely tight area to work within, and DOT wants to mitigate the construction impacts. But I think we undermine confidence in public works projects when we drag out construction endlessly.
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I think the endless moving highways around because they won't shut it down for a few months to do the demo is maddening. If they add together all the road closures and lane reductions over that decade it would likely be less disruptive to just shut down all those roads, blow it all up, haul it away and start paving all in one go. Especially since they actually do have some room to do some prep before they take down the elevated parts. Somehow they took the least expensive option and made it twice as expensive.

I think it is a surprisingly good final state plan though, even though I would have liked to see them fill in some of the Charles instead of doing the elevated walkway... I know some environmentalists refuse to fill in wetlands no matter how many millions it would save.
 
tangent said:
I think it is a surprisingly good final state plan though, even though I would have liked to see them fill in some of the Charles instead of doing the elevated walkway... I know some environmentalists refuse to fill in wetlands no matter how many millions it would save.
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I thought in this case it was the hard no from the Feds that nixed filling in the river, or was that just a rumor? (Your mileage may vary on whether that's "feds beholden to environmentalists" or "feds just not playing ball 'cause reasons".)
 
jklo said:
I would have to think just running back and forth from West Station to North Station is one of the options. The amount of roads that it crosses limits the frequency I assume so there's no need to get crazy.
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An ideal plan would have a train running from Riverside to North Station, stopping along the way.
 
jass said:
An ideal plan would have a train running from Riverside to North Station, stopping along the way.
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That's another option. My question if there's really room for more on the Worcester Line if service were to return to 2019 levels.

bigeman312 said:
An ideal plan has a North-South Rail Link, greatly diminishing the need to lean on the Grand Junction for such trips.
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It's more about getting the new West Station residents to Kendall than North Station. As it is, they could presumably easily walk to B to get to North Station among other options so they are covered there.
 
Harvard University should have known & acted better. They need a good transit option for commuting between 3 of their biggest campuses. Their shuttles are.... I mean were great long long ago before all 3 of these campuses existed together but come on between students, faulcaty(sp?) employees, and visitors numbers of today the school is like a city of itself in a city.
 
guitarguynboston said:
Harvard University should have known & acted better. They need a good transit option for commuting between 3 of their biggest campuses. Their shuttles are.... I mean were great long long ago before all 3 of these campuses existed together but come on between students, faulcaty(sp?) employees, and visitors numbers of today the school is like a city of itself in a city.
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Think of Harvard more of a real estate developer than a school in this case.
 
Tallguy said:
Yes the ROW is DT. I will bet on LRT on GJ. It's the only format that works
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The only way I could see LRT is if NSRL happens - don't they need to keep this rail available for moving commuter rail trains between the lines? DMU or EMU (hopefully the latter) would allow both rapid transit and train movement.
 
We all know GJ should be LRT and connected to West Station as well as the B-line as part of the urban ring. NSRL-Regional Rail needs to be built before we can do anything as smart as that. Or anything really smart as a region.
To that end, I will pay Charlie Baker $500 out of my pocket if he says loudly and clearly, on television, with witnesses from all the news outlets, this entire phrase:
"The North South Rail link is essential to the smart, green growth of Boston and New England, which is why we have included full funding for construction in next years budget. I already have written guarantees from House Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka. This project will be a reality on that you have my solemn promise. You can hold me to that. This will be the signature legislation of my career and something generations will look back on with respect and admiration."
Hell, make it an even $1000.
 
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