MBTA Red Line / Blue Line Connector

JeffDowntown said:
You probably won't like how DCR has interpreted that concept (be careful what you wish for!) -- basically tearing up a lot of the Esplanade for a new surface freeway.
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It'll be their turn with the NIMBYs then. The people like their cherry blossoms and hatch shell.
 
TheRatmeister said:
It'll be their turn with the NIMBYs then. The people like their cherry blossoms and hatch shell.
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Re: my idea of placing the BL in the existing traffic tunnel at Hatch Shell and running all regular traffic on the surface, with traffic lights.
I'm guessing the Hatch Shell group would not like the additional noise of routing all traffic onto surface roads, plus the noise when traffic lights turns green, etc. Also, along the rest of the route, the adjoining residences may not like the noise from surface BL cars.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Re: my idea of placing the BL in the existing traffic tunnel at Hatch Shell and running all regular traffic on the surface, with traffic lights.
I'm guessing the Hatch Shell group would not like the additional noise of routing all traffic onto surface roads, plus the noise when traffic lights turns green, etc. Also, along the rest of the route, the adjoining residences may not like the noise from surface BL cars.
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An environmental review would never let a new BL corridor at surface (without an elevation increase) along the Storrow Drive corridor anyway. Sorrow's current elevation along the Esplanade is in the 1% annual flood risk by 2030, and some is in the 10% annual flood risk by 2050.
 
JeffDowntown said:
An environmental review would never let a new BL corridor at surface (without an elevation increase) along the Storrow Drive corridor anyway. Sorrow's current elevation along the Esplanade is in the 1% annual flood risk by 2030, and some is in the 10% annual flood risk by 2050.
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I'm just seeing more reasons for it to be an park that can absorb more water and drain it into the Charles. Less flooding, less Storrow, and more green. Win win win.
 
thepixelnation said:
do you have a link to the DCR's plans for this?
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There is an archBoston thread on the last big rebuild planning cycle, around 2010. They did repair work instead to push the date forward.

Storrow Drive tunnel replacement

Emergency crews work to shore up deteriorating walls and roof of Storrow Drive tunnel almost every night, officials say. State narrows options on crumbling Storrow Drive tunnel Officials mull three choices By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | June 21, 2007 Forget the ramps from the Massachusetts...
archboston.com

I don't know if they have floated new options more recently.
 
Jahvon09 said:
Some rather disappointing news for the Blue Line. :(

commonwealthmagazine.org

Blue Line ridership disappointing during and after tunnel closure

THE SUMNER TUNNEL shutdown on July 5 prompted an increase in MBTA passenger levels on subways, buses, ferries, and commuter rail, but the increase wasn’t
commonwealthmagazine.org commonwealthmagazine.org
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Why is this at all surprising. The Blue line is marginally functional, but does not go where people really need to travel. It dumps passengers onto three other fully dysfunctional lines to try to complete there trip. Surprise, surprise, people don't like crappy transit service.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Why is this at all surprising. The Blue line is marginally functional, but does not go where people really need to travel. It dumps passengers onto three other fully dysfunctional lines to try to complete there trip. Surprise, surprise, people don't like crappy transit service.
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I think that the only big benefit coming from the line are those who are trying to get to Logan Airport to catch a flight. :unsure:
 
JeffDowntown said:
Why is this at all surprising. The Blue line is marginally functional, but does not go where people really need to travel. It dumps passengers onto three other fully dysfunctional lines to try to complete there trip. Surprise, surprise, people don't like crappy transit service.
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Yeah I was just visiting Boston this past weekend and The Blue Line would be so much more useful if it extended to like Kenmore or Lynn. Like one other place. Lol. It feels so short.
 
Massachoicetts said:
Yeah I was just visiting Boston this past weekend and The Blue Line would be so much more useful if it extended to like Kenmore or Lynn. Like one other place. Lol. It feels so short.
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It baffles me why the BL wasn't built to Lynn in the first place, when the BL was built to Revere in the early 1950s. The abandoned RR right-of-way through the Point of Pines to Lynn was sitting there open and unobstructed, ready for use. Since then apartment buildings have encroached on the ROW at Point of Pines. Not totally, but it will require a short tunnel to squeeze between the buildings. It was stupid and shortsighted on the City of Revere's part to allow that to happen.
 
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Charlie_mta said:
It baffles me why the BL wasn't built to Lynn in the first place, when the BL was built to Revere in the early 1959s. The abandoned RR right-of-way through the Point of Pines to Lynn was sitting there open and unobstructed, ready for use. Since then apartment buildings have encroached on the ROW at Point of Pines. Not totally, but it will require a short tunnel to squeeze between the buildings. It was stupid and shortsighted on the City of Revere's part to allow that to happen.
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Honestly I think a better alternative is a flyover near Diamond Creek and then to join CR alignment earlier. The CR would get a grade separation as a nice bonus. It would probably require demolishing ~5-6 houses in Oak Island but I think that's much easier than trying to navigate Point of Pines. If Revere wants a station at Point of Pines they can pay for it.
 
CheapLeak said:
Still a decent amount
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It would be the 2nd least used gated station, ahead of only Suffolk Downs, a station currently serving basically nothing.

CheapLeak said:
Still a decent amount, short term may not be enough riders.
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Unless you plan on building a bunch of high rises on top of some rich people's beach homes (I hear they're a big fan of that by the way) there's not going to be enough ridership on any term. Also even if the land was able to be redeveloped, it seems at best reckless to build on extremely low lying beach land that's very likely to flood as sea levels rise.
 
TheRatmeister said:
Honestly I think a better alternative is a flyover near Diamond Creek and then to join CR alignment earlier. The CR would get a grade separation as a nice bonus. It would probably require demolishing ~5-6 houses in Oak Island but I think that's much easier than trying to navigate Point of Pines. If Revere wants a station at Point of Pines they can pay for it.
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The flyover of Diamond Creek is probably going to be the most expensive option out of any because of the tricky EIS'ing. Which is why the state preferred that one the last time it gave a cursory look at the project: tankapalooza potential. You need to do a trestle on pegs over a lot of marshland acres, need to quad up and raise the Eastern Route embankment, and need to do a quad-track bridging over the Oak Island Rd. grade crossing with property takings. With likely no intermediate stops between Wonderland and Lynn contributing any ridership offsets for all that pain.

Point of Pines has its own problems, of course. But the flood risk is not more severe on the BRB&L ROW than it is on the Eastern Route ROW. The marsh is actually much worse for that because of its drainage properties. So that's why the EIS'ing is a blowout on the Diamond Creek ROW and isn't on any other routing. If the state were truly concerned with building this and truly concerned with building it climate-resilient, they would be looking at Point of Pines and would not be looking at Diamond Creek instead of putting its finger on the scale in the opposite direction.


Alternatively, there's a third potential routing that avoids all of the Diamond Creek wetlands, the Oak Island Rd. grade crossing, and the Point of Pines encroachment. And that's the "middle alternative" of a BRB&L extension to Oak Island St./Jack Satter House, where the 1945 plan had an intermediate stop, cutting behind the Oak Island Park ballfields and 1A here at the crane operator yard, and joining the Eastern Route right behind said industrial tenant at about half the distance across the marsh. You get 1 intermediate stop's worth of ridership, fewer land-takings, and explicitly avoid the worst of the cost blowouts. That may end up being a preferred alternative in the end if given serious study.
 
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