MBTA Red Line / Blue Line Connector

west of Charles/MGH is a river, so I assume the idea is to turn the tracks here to be parallel to the river. I'm not sure why they want this, however; it would be simpler to end the Blue Line well short of the river.
 
Ron Newman said:
west of Charles/MGH is a river, so I assume the idea is to turn the tracks here to be parallel to the river. I'm not sure why they want this, however; it would be simpler to end the Blue Line well short of the river.
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There's plenty of room for the tail tracks to the west here. The problems come in when you starting carving up the place under the Red Line and Longfellow's pilings. As it is, one of their presentations or fact sheets points out 2 Red Line elevated pilings will have to be reinforced.

The amounts of space left by putting the station where its going to be still leaves 3 possibilities: parallel the Red to Kendal, curve north to Lechmere, or curve south along the Charles.
 
One would hope they'd have the sense to go south to Kenmore and convert the D line to heavy rail. From Government Center to Kenmore would offer an express route around the central subway for most commuters whom need the Green Line branches. It would also take a large chunk out of the hospital traffic to and from Longwood. Not to mention the applications of having the airport readily accessible from that part of the city.
 
Lurker said:
One would hope they'd have the sense to go south to Kenmore and convert the D line to heavy rail. From Government Center to Kenmore would offer an express route around the central subway for most commuters whom need the Green Line branches. It would also take a large chunk out of the hospital traffic to and from Longwood. Not to mention the applications of having the airport readily accessible from that part of the city.
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forget it ever happening, its too great an idea.
 
Re: Beacon Street subway to Kenmore & the D

I forgot, but from North Station to State Street and from South Station to MGH all the passenger traffic to/from the commuter rail would have heavy rail access and direct transfers around most of the central subway and a direct route to/from Fenway Park. That's huge for relieving congestion on the Green Line and would probably encourage far more people to take the MBTA into games or events on the comfort factor alone.

Factor in an extension to Lynn as well and there goes most of the highway traffic from the North Shore.

But instead we will get some semi-useless BRT project.
 
I think the blue line to fenway/D line via charles and the red line under mass ave are the two best improvements the system could make. As people said, it would relieve so much congestion on the green line downtown. Tryin to get from fenway to somerville last night was so bad. walked to the 1 tons of people waiting at comm ave and hynes. green line had several pass before you could get on.
 
The preferred build option has a significant slope down from bowdion station (then demolished) to get under the Charles/MGH supports. I think this would preclude an intermediate station.
 
Unless any of you posters are under 20 years old, you will not see any of these projects built in your lifetime. This is Boston remember!
 
TomOfBoston said:
Unless any of you posters are under 20 years old, you will not see any of these projects built in your lifetime. This is Boston remember!
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I don't think anyone here is under any illusions about that. Even when this was announced it was implied that this was just for planning purposes.
 
choo said:
I think the blue line to fenway/D line via charles and the red line under mass ave are the two best improvements the system could make.
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I very much agree with the importance of these two, and the red line under Mass Ave could actually be extended/integrated with the Fairmount Line improvement - just turn south at Newmarket onto the Fairmount ROW. (I think this makes even more sense than the orthodoxy, an isolated "Indigo" line that terminates at South Station and which travels a long distance through no-man's land between Newmarket and South Station.)
 
I honestly don't think that the Red Line under Mass Ave would be economically feasible. It bypasses too many large employment centers to work. Yes it does go past MIT and Boston Medial Center but a better routing would connect BMC to Longwood or Kendall Sq, or these areas to Downtown and Logan Airport. How many people really need to get from South Boston to the Back Bay? That's what a bus is for.
 
Mass Ave would be one of those rare good uses of BRT, IMO.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
I honestly don't think that the Red Line under Mass Ave would be economically feasible. It bypasses too many large employment centers to work. Yes it does go past MIT and Boston Medial Center but a better routing would connect BMC to Longwood or Kendall Sq, or these areas to Downtown and Logan Airport. How many people really need to get from South Boston to the Back Bay? That's what a bus is for.
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Not sure I completely understand your post, Van. All the large employment centers you mention are already served by transit, and the point of a ring-type configuration isn't to guarantee a one-seat ride to any of these but rather to facilitate faster and more efficient connections. So, Cantabridgians will have much better access to Back Bay and BMC (direct) or Longwood (reverse-crush connection on the green from Hynes or Symphony). And vice versa everyone in Brookline, Fenway, South End, and Back Bay have better access to Cambridge employment centers. Judging by the crowds on the 1 and CT1 bus, the route would be heavily utilized.

When you ask "How many people really need to get from South Boston to the Back Bay?" I'd say that's a good question - another reason I'd like to see the Mass Ave branch continue down the Fairmount line from Newmarket/South Bay.

Anyway, whoever wants to get from South Boston to Back Bay should be able to take a rapid transit train from South Station to Back Bay Station (via DMUs on some existing CR lines, another probably worthwhile addition)...
 
I thought the whole point of a DMU-based Indigo Line was to preserve the conventional rail ROW for freight trains and commuter rail non-revenue trips. I think it's considered untenable to completely convert the ROW, and I don't believe the space exists for a half-and-half arrangement (like there is for the Green Line Medford extension).
 
I've heard those arguments, and they sound overstated to me. I'm not sure why we need an alternate to the SW corridor - is there forced redundancy along other approaches?
 
Shepard said:
So, Cantabridgians will have much better access to Back Bay and BMC (direct) or Longwood (reverse-crush connection on the green from Hynes or Symphony).
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That's what I mean by bypass, the Mass Ave route bypasses the Back Bay CBD and Longwood both. If we are going to spend the money why not actually directly serve these areas?

And vice versa everyone in Brookline, Fenway, South End, and Back Bay have better access to Cambridge employment centers. Judging by the crowds on the 1 and CT1 bus, the route would be heavily utilized.
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That is exactly my point because these buses provide service that a subway can't. I'm not saying we don't need some sort of crosstown/ring subway, just that Mass Ave isn't the ideal solution.
 
How about a route from Central Square through the heart of MIT, across the river at Dartmouth Street (why not add the automotive/pedestrian bridge at the same time), new transfer station on the Esplanade with the new Beacon Street Blue Line tunnel, new platform level at Copley (with an opportunity for an underpass for the E line and an inbound/outbound transfer), connection at Back Bay Station, continue South to BU Medical, then run the rest of Mass ave to JFK/Umass with an intermediate stop at South Bay.
 
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