JumboBuc
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2013
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I'm all for aspiring for a robust transit solution, but as we found out in the 2016 elections sometimes settling for half a loaf is better than the alternative which in that case was getting the loaf shoved you know where sideways. Red to Blue unless Amazon is pushing for it as a condition for locating here has a problem in that you can already get from point A (blue line) to point B (red line) merely by making one extra stop. That's an inconvenience, but the connection exists. That limits the amount of $$$ the public and state is going to be willing to blow on this project since the vast majority of voters and politicians aren't affected by it.
In addition to the Red and Blue Lines, the Green and Orange Lines also suffer because the Red and Blue aren't connected. As it is currently, everyone who wants to connect Red and Blue has to traverse through the already overcrowded central transfer stations at Park/GC/DTX/State, and take the already overcrowded Orange or Green through the core. Connecting Red and Blue directly simplifies things for those transfer passengers, but it also simplifies things for everyone else (all the non Red-Blue transfer passeners) by taking the Red-Blue transfers out of the mess on the platforms at Park/GC/DTX/State.
And a cut-and-cover Blue Line extension to Charles MGH from the existing tunnel at Joy Street would be relatively simple and inexpensive (as far as urban transit projects go).
I think a NSRL with a central station that connects to the blue line is a better option and could solve many of the regions transit issues. It would be more expensive though.
These are totally unrelated projects of totally different magnitudes. It's not an "either or."