Navy Yard Transit and Transportation

[Arlington]

The Charlestown Navy Yard puzzles me from a transportation standpoint. Just about every mode seems both doable-and-not-doable.

Heavy Rail seems far (Community College)
Commuter Rail is an awkward walk or bus (or water?) ride away
Buses seem seem infrequent, circuitous and dispersed.
Water shutles--do they really work?
Walking--it looks walkable internally but unlike the North End or South End, isn't it too far from elsewhere to walk?
Car parking looks rare and expensive

If you had worked at Spaulding and were used to North Station, how now do you get to work?

If your boss told you your office was moving there, it seems a harder commute than just about anyplace else an office could be.

Where do they buy groceries? Do they need a car?

 

[metasyntactic]

If your boss told you your office was moving there, it seems a harder commute than just about anyplace else an office could be.

MGH has a teaching branch and clinics there. They run Partners shuttles from the main MGH campus to their Charlestown campus via North Station. It's a pretty inconvenient location.

 

[davem]

I cant help much since I only go out there when friends visit from out of town, but I can say that the boat isnt too bad, I always use it to get a cheap view from the harbor. The only thing that bugs me about it is that it drops you off alllll the way at the end of the pier; it's just under a quarter mile to get to land, which has got to be miserable in the winter.

I've done the walk from North Station which is only about a mile or so, not too bad in nice weather. I think you said in another thread (or site?) youre in melrose? With the underpass closed at Sullivan 99 is a disaster trying to go north even during non peak hours, I wouldn't drive through it every day.

 

[George_Apley]

MGH has a teaching branch and clinics there. They run Partners shuttles from the main MGH campus to their Charlestown campus via North Station. It's a pretty inconvenient location.

^ Right. Partners runs frequent shuttles from North Station to the Navy Yard. The 93 bus runs down 1st St, at least some of the time. It's not an unpleasant walk to North Station either. The eastern side of the Yard feels pretty cut off from the rest of Charlestown by the Navy Yard barracks wall, and the Tobin overpass slicing over/behind Chelsea St. besides all the industrial land uses east of the Little Mystic.

As for future connectivity? A Heritage Greenway/Navy Yard Trolley based on the Green Line that ran from South Station to Spaulding is probably your best bet. Unless you get really crazy insane and demolish the Tobin, bury it, and piggyback some sort of rail connection under the Navy Yard into Chelea...

 

[Arlington]

^ Right. Partners runs frequent shuttles from North Station to the Navy Yard. The 93 bus runs down 1st St, at least some of the time. It's not an unpleasant walk to North Station either. The eastern side of the Yard feels pretty cut off from the rest of Charlestown by the Navy Yard barracks wall, and the Tobin overpass slicing over/behind Chelsea St. besides all the industrial land uses east of the Little Mystic.

As for future connectivity? A Heritage Greenway/Navy Yard Trolley based on the Green Line that ran from South Station to Spaulding is probably your best bet. Unless you get really crazy insane and demolish the Tobin, bury it, and piggyback some sort of rail connection under the Navy Yard into Chelea...

Shuttles drive me nuts. Wouldn't it be far better to fund more-frequent service on the 93 by having the employer buy all their employees passes (like an unlimited bus pas) at much-reduced prices?

 

[Randomgear]

There's a Hubway station that's not too far away. Or get a bike and you can ride to the former Johnie's Foodmaster near BHCC; I think it became a Whole Foods a year or two ago.

The water shuttle is about the best low cost boat ride in Boston. I used to use it occasionally, during nice weather, to walk back to the South End from the old Hood plant.

 

[Shepard]

Interesting thread - the Navy Yard is definitely quite isolated for a business and tourist (and now hospital) district. I agree about the ferry being quite nice - haven't tried it in winter, though. I've always felt they should give this ferry route in particular a much more bold treatment on the spider map, especially since it runs quite often - 15 minutes during rush hour and half an hour every other time. Perhaps show it as a transfer off of aquarium and enable a charliecard transfer/discount (if they don't already - I'm not sure).

Heritage trolley strikes me as wasteful when you can have a real GL branch up the Greenway. Consider: Boylston > New eastbound portal > Essex Street Surface Transitway > Dewey Square (South Station surface) > Greenway > North Station (surface) > Navy Yard. Combine this with a further branch off the Essex Street Transitway before Dewey Square into the Silver Line tunnel - South Station (under) > Courthouse > etc*. In this setup both South Station and North Station would have surface GL stops and GL Under stations.

[* Wait, you say, how would this GL branch get to the Airport? It won't. Run a shuttle bus from Summer Street, stopping at the BCEC and airport terminals. Charge $5 for the service. Faster and more effective than the current SL setup.]

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Greenway trolley's a bit fanciful at this point. The focus should be on something they can implement immediately, and increased frequencies on the alt 93 bus routing that wraps around the Navy Yard would really hit the spot. There's enough development around there year-round to float it, but it would really work well during peak tourist season if the route were well-publicized with signage around the Freedom Trail and at various info kiosks catered to tourists. The route stays pretty close to the entirety of the downtown and Charlestown Freedom Trail, only diverging when the Trail pulls off on its North End meander.

 

[fatnoah]

MGH has a teaching branch and clinics there. They run Partners shuttles from the main MGH campus to their Charlestown campus via North Station. It's a pretty inconvenient location.

Me, my wife, and my 5 year old just moved from Melrose to Back Bay last week. One of the places we looked at early on was the Navy Yard. There didn't seem to be a good way to get anywhere without a substantial walk (especially for a 5 year old) or getting in the car. All the little things that are good about living in the city seemed pretty much non-existant there, such as grocery stores, hardware stores, pizza joints, etc.

 

[Matthew]

The lack of just about every kind of amenity in Charlestown has always mystified me, especially considering some of the beautiful colonial streets and architecture there.

No wonder the residents fight over off-street parking, they can't stand spending time in their own neighborhood.

 

[Shepard]

Greenway trolley's a bit fanciful at this point. The focus should be on something they can implement immediately, and increased frequencies on the alt 93 bus routing that wraps around the Navy Yard would really hit the spot. There's enough development around there year-round to float it, but it would really work well during peak tourist season if the route were well-publicized with signage around the Freedom Trail and at various info kiosks catered to tourists. The route stays pretty close to the entirety of the downtown and Charlestown Freedom Trail, only diverging when the Trail pulls off on its North End meander.

Tourists don't use buses, unless they're completely branded as part of a tourist route. If you don't see tourists on the potentially very useful #1, good luck luring any onto the 93.

 

[Arlington]

When is the Charlestown Bridge (North Washington Street Bridge) due for replacement? The ironic thing is that this bridge was built with streetcars on its central lanes.

A lot could be done to better integrate Charlestown, like a streetcar that ran from Haymarket or North Station to Navy Yard and Sullivan Square. Or even better bus, bike and pedestrian lanes on the bridge.

 

[choo]

I am a fan of the idea of a street car from haymarket over the bridge and down main street to sullivan sq. Remove the on street parking and make it a dedicated trolley lane that cars can still cross but not have them park in. The removal of street parking should be made up for by the better access and frequent service.

I think something like this would also do wonders for sullivan sq. This is a different topic entirely from the genesis of the thread, but that area is such and automotive clusterf*ck. It needs to be reworked entirely and it screams for high rise mixed use and income housing on so many underutilized plot. I hope a mayor with a vision and maybe a casino in Everett will get this area some attention.

 

[underground]

N Washington St Bridge is slated for rehab in 2015. Pretty sure there aren't any plans already drawn up.

The issue with transit line through the Navy Yard is, even if it followed the 93 route back up to Sullivan, the population in that area's sort of small, and it wouldn't get a bump from anyone traveling through (those people are probably already on the Orange Line). Charlestown, especially that part of it, is just sort of a dead end due to the harbor. I'm not sure the handful of new developments going in there are going to help either since it's mostly small-ish housing with nothing that really screams "destination."

As is, tourists seem to be able to make their way to the Constitution just fine. Walking the bridge from Memorial to Labor Day is wall to wall with people. It's hardly like the ships and the museum are underutilized attractions waiting for "activation" from a transit line.

 

[PaulC]

When is the Charlestown Bridge (North Washington Street Bridge) due for replacement? The ironic thing is that this bridge was built with streetcars on its central lanes.

According to last night Greater Boston show it will be replaced in 2016.

 

[Arlington]

According to last night Greater Boston show [the Charlestown Bridge] will be replaced in 2016.

I searched on the WGBH site for "Charlestown Bridge" and only found a story from June about unsound bridges.

Was it part of the Segment on the Seaport District? (sorry I haven't had time to watch before asking)

 

[George_Apley]

Shuttles drive me nuts. Wouldn't it be far better to fund more-frequent service on the 93 by having the employer buy all their employees passes (like an unlimited bus pas) at much-reduced prices?

The Partners shuttles connect all of the major Partners locations throughout the city with major North Station. Don't think they run one out of South Station too. Not sure if they also offer a subsidized/deducted CharlieCard.

 

[PaulC]

I searched on the WGBH site for "Charlestown Bridge" and only found a story from June about unsound bridges.

Was it part of the Segment on the Seaport District? (sorry I haven't had time to watch before asking)

That episode isn't on their web page yet, but here is info from it:

Rob Rottenbucher, the supervising structural engineer for the City of Boston, said the Charlestown Bridge is on its priority list and a bridge re-design is expected to be finished in 2015.

http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/bridge-collapse-sparks-questions-over-bridge-safety-mass

 

[Arlington]

That episode isn't on their web page yet, but here is info from it:

Rob Rottenbucher, the supervising structural engineer for the City of Boston, said the Charlestown Bridge is on its priority list and a bridge re-design is expected to be finished in 2015.

http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/bridge-collapse-sparks-questions-over-bridge-safety-mass

Thanks! On the one hand it seems too long to wait if the bridge is unsound, but here's hoping that there's time to get bus, bike and pedestrian access to Charlestown included in the redesign process.

 

[PaulC]

I hope if it's a brand new bridge that it will be iconic.