MBTA Construction Projects

[Brattle Loop]

• Copley: needs a Copley Square headhouse

To which side? Or would that mean building a connection between both platforms? (Please be the second one, those two sides not being connected always annoyed me.)

 

[The EGE]

At very least, an entrance to the inbound platform from the Copley Square plaza. The existing inbound headhouse is a beautiful piece of ironwork, but it's not visible from Copley Square or the front of the library. A connection between the platforms would be nice, but it would have to be under the platforms. I think one may have been considered in the circa-2008 renovation, but rejected due to risk to the nearby buildings.

 

[Brattle Loop]

At very least, an entrance to the inbound platform from the Copley Square plaza. The existing inbound headhouse is a beautiful piece of ironwork, but it's not visible from Copley Square or the front of the library. A connection between the platforms would be nice, but it would have to be under the platforms. I think one may have been considered in the circa-2008 renovation, but rejected due to risk to the nearby buildings.

I'd guess that such a connection (to the inbound side) would have to reach the platform on the inbound end, rather than the fare lobby, right? Or is there room adjacent to the library to reach the existing fare lobby below the headhouse?

 

[The EGE]

I'd guess that such a connection (to the inbound side) would have to reach the platform on the inbound end, rather than the fare lobby, right? Or is there room adjacent to the library to reach the existing fare lobby below the headhouse?

Correct. The existing inbound platform ends at Dartmouth Street:

 

[curcuas]

What's the story with the Mass Ave Entrance on Gainsborough/Camden? Are there plans to convert from exit only?

 

[The EGE]

Some items that happened to catch my interest from the proposed FY 23-27 CIP. They're listed by FY 23-27 cost / total cost.

• E Branch Accessibility & Capacity Improvements: 85.7M / 85.9M. Probably related to the Brigham Circle–Riverway segment? Symphony is listed separately.
• B Branch Accessibility & Capacity Improvements: 66.3M / 220.9M
• Future Regional Rail Layover Planning: 69.5M / 70.3M
• Ruggles Station Improvements Phase 2: 72.9M / 93.0M
• Hynes Convention Center Station: 40.1M / 45.7M
• Green Line Type 10 Rail Fleet Replacement: 311.2M / 800M
• Knowledge Corridor Commuter Rail: 9.0M / 122.6M

 

[AndrewOnTheMBTA]

Are the plans for the Hynes Boylston entrance reopening still tied to that parcel's building project? Should be a while on that one in that case, lol...

 

[The EGE]

Yes, but full funding for the renovation is in the proposed FY 23-27 CIP.

 

[Smuttynose]

Some items that happened to catch my interest from the proposed FY 23-27 CIP. They're listed by FY 23-27 cost / total cost.

• E Branch Accessibility & Capacity Improvements: 85.7M / 85.9M. Probably related to the Brigham Circle–Riverway segment? Symphony is listed separately.
• B Branch Accessibility & Capacity Improvements: 66.3M / 220.9M
• Future Regional Rail Layover Planning: 69.5M / 70.3M
• Ruggles Station Improvements Phase 2: 72.9M / 93.0M
• Hynes Convention Center Station: 40.1M / 45.7M
• Green Line Type 10 Rail Fleet Replacement: 311.2M / 800M
• Knowledge Corridor Commuter Rail: 9.0M / 122.6M

We're really moving forward with the Springfield commuter route already? We haven't even opened South Coast yet. With all the needs in the immediate region, it doesn't sound like the best use of cash.

 

[jass]

We're really moving forward with the Springfield commuter route already? We haven't even opened South Coast yet. With all the needs in the immediate region, it doesn't sound like the best use of cash.

Most people use the buses but fuck them, lets throw 122.6M at the suburanites so they can ride it once a year to the fireworks

 

[Equilibria]

We're really moving forward with the Springfield commuter route already? We haven't even opened South Coast yet. With all the needs in the immediate region, it doesn't sound like the best use of cash.

That's commuter rail within the Knowledge corridor, extending the CTRail service from Springfield north. They'd be going to Hartford and New Haven, not Boston.

 

[AndrewOnTheMBTA]

That's commuter rail within the Knowledge corridor, extending the CTRail service from Springfield north. They'd be going to Hartford and New Haven, not Boston.

I agree the naming of it is confusing unless you look it up. The price tag sounded too low for an extremely difficult extension to SPG so I double checked when I saw that.

This was originally planned back in around 2009 or 2011.

In my opinion as a former UMass student and familiar with the area, I am not entirely sure why this is so necessary. It seems too far from the commuting destinations in CT like Hartford/New Haven etc. And the ridership on the Vermonter isn't that high is it? As far as regional travel goes, it seems like Peter Pan/Greyhound is a good enough option for now. I think a counterargument would be the ridership projections.

Not trying to be opinionated on this one. It just seems kind of like a doubtful success - kind of like SCR...

 

[KCasiglio]

I'll be opinionated, it seems, much like SCR, like a political bone throwing to say "hey look we're paying attention and delivering results for the whole state not just Boston" to please people who think suburbs prop up cities and not vice versa

 

[The EGE]

It's worth noting that the Springfield-Holyoke-Northampton-Greenfield-Brattleboro corridor had real-deal commuter service up till 1959 - one of the only non-Boston-centric lines in the state to have schedules useful for daily commuting. These are from 1929 and 1946 timetables.

 

[OldColony]

I'll be opinionated, it seems, much like SCR, like a political bone throwing to say "hey look we're paying attention and delivering results for the whole state not just Boston" to please people who think suburbs prop up cities and not vice versa

I'll also be opinionated, and state BS on South Coast Rail described in terms of a project "to please people who think suburbs prop up cities and not vice versa." Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River are gateway cities.

SCR phase 1 is a political bone, providing a poorly designed level of service to serve Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River, particularly in consideration of the concept of regional rail, but it well serves politicians like Gov. Baker and Rep Straus. It also practically prevents an extension of existing Middleborough/Lakeville service to Buzzards Bay, which would serve Wareham, a community of similar economic status of Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River at a much less capital cost per projected passenger.

 

[Riverside]

It also practically prevents an extension of existing Middleborough/Lakeville service to Buzzards Bay, which would serve Wareham, a community of similar economic status of Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River at a much less capital cost per projected passenger.

This raised my eyebrows, as it isn't an angle I've thought of before for Cape Rail. As it turns out, this is somewhat true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Massachusetts_locations_by_per_capita_income

Rank	Municipality	Type	County	Per capita income	Median household income	Median family income	Population	Number of Households
235​	Wareham	Town	Plymouth	$29,740​	$59,186​	$74,960​	22,086​	9,125​
267​	Taunton	City	Bristol	$26,446​	$51,637​	$66,969​	55,953​	21,657​
291​	Fall River	City	Bristol	$21,257​	$33,211​	$42,962​	88,811​	38,258​
293​	New Bedford	City	Bristol	$21,056​	$35,999​	$44,607​	94,927​	39,068​

That said, it's worth noting that Fall River and New Bedford both fall in the bottom decile when ranked by per capita income, and Taunton just barely falls into the second decile; Wareham is significantly higher on that measure. Fall River and New Bedford are joined by many familiar names in that decile: Revere, Worcester, Everett, Lowell, Lynn, Fitchburg, Brockton, Chelsea, Easton, and Lawrence. It's also noteworthy that Wareham has anywhere from 40% to as little as 23% the population of any one of Taunton, Fall River, or New Bedford (and less than 10% of the three of them combined).

I think it's reasonable to mythbust the notion that Cape Rail is meant to serve places like Hyannisport, and I of course think it's a crying shame that the current build for SCR is going to forestall Cape Cod Commuter Rail for the foreseeable future. But SCR would serve a lot more people. How many more?

175K on Cape (including Yarmouth and Dennis), plus another 23K in Wareham, yields a total of 198K at the most generous. Fall River, New Bedford, and Taunton alone trounce that at 238K; if we apply the same "one town over" logic that brought in Yarmouth and Dennis, we add another 91K (33K of which comes from Dartmouth), at which point SCR's "population served" count tops out at 329K, leaving Cape Rail's 198K in the dust.

(And for what it's worth -- the shorter extension to Buzzard's Bay drops the Cape Rail numbers down to 41K. Taunton alone beats that, and at a third of the distance, too.)

So, I think there's good nuance to add here with respect to Wareham, but I do think it's not comparable with the gateway cities, as you note, that will be served by SCR.

 

[Wash]

Again, we need to bite the bullet and double-track the Quincy bottleneck already. It's a difficult project, but it solves so many of the problems with the old colony lines at once.

 

[KCasiglio]

I'll also be opinionated, and state BS on South Coast Rail described in terms of a project "to please people who think suburbs prop up cities and not vice versa." Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River are gateway cities.

SCR phase 1 is a political bone, providing a poorly designed level of service to serve Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River, particularly in consideration of the concept of regional rail, but it well serves politicians like Gov. Baker and Rep Straus. It also practically prevents an extension of existing Middleborough/Lakeville service to Buzzards Bay, which would serve Wareham, a community of similar economic status of Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River at a much less capital cost per projected passenger.

To be clear, I don't disagree with you, but put me in the "I'll believe it when I see it funded" camp in regards to SCR phase 2. Hard to call phase 1 as serving Taunton in anything other than the most suburban park-and-ride model imaginable, and ending the FR branch at FR Depot is really underwhelming. Likewise with NB ending at Whale's Tooth and not the ferry terminal.

The paradigm matters. Newburyport, Leominister, or Portland ME for example are all "served" by rail but none in a way that actually encourages or supports urban development patterns.

 

[cubalibre]

Construction of the second platform at Worcester’s Union station has started, so weekend trains are getting diverted to tracks near the surface parking lot.

 

[HenryAlan]

I'll be opinionated, it seems, much like SCR, like a political bone throwing to say "hey look we're paying attention and delivering results for the whole state not just Boston" to please people who think suburbs prop up cities and not vice versa

And like it or not, that's a valid part of the political process. That said, I could see some benefit to the service, seems more viable than SCR, but I don't really have the data to back such a statement.