Fully agree - I just found it amusing that the MBTA was pushing the Type-9s as the miracle for the HSRL, and went as far as to say with the transfer the HSL would no longer have the unicorn fleet/PCCs. Rather laughable, as if that is the goal, then replacing the PCCs with the Type-9s is... just another unicorn fleet.
I mean, yes, unicorn in that it'll be (eventually) the last refuge of the T9s just like the PCCs, but the T9s are already unicorns enough as it is (supplemental orders can do that to you). On the plus side, they'll be much newer technology, and the really good part is that you'll need so few of them actually running that not only do you get the pick of the litter, so to speak, the rest of the cars (a good dozen-and-a-half or so) will provide ample parts that should make it somewhat easier to maintain the active fleet than the ancient PCCs. It is something of a miracle, though, that GL Transformation project means that there should be a relatively-lightly-used fleet of suitable equipment (as opposed to, say, ancient lemon Bredas) to step in for the PCCs once the last life has been wrung out of them, instead of a choice between an expensive one-off acquisition (even as a tag-on to the T10 order custom ordering that few shorter cars would be expensive), bustitution, or the despised Red Line extension.
Exactly. I will admit: I haven't had to rely upon the HSL (or Red/Green Line for that matter) since the start of the pandemic, but: the hate for a full red line conversion is real in at least the Dot and Milton communities (didn't get to the Mattapan meetings). I personally am more than happy to give up my 1/5 mile to Butler or Cedar grove for a significantly longer walk if it means no transfer, but, I realize I am in the minority at this point, and, at least the Milton (if not Dot) crowd will fight it tooth and nail like buses.
They absolutely will fight it. Some of it, I expect, is the reflexive resistance to change, and a reflection of the fact that some people will either be or feel worse off. People in close proximity to a station whose walk will get substantially longer might not share your appreciation for the fact that that "loss" is weighed against the "gain" of no transfer, at least in part because the short-walk-plus-transfer is what they're used to. (And don't underestimate the desirability of a short walk. Once upon a time for my commute I could chose the shorter walk to the Green Line at Copley but I'd have to transfer or the reasonably longer walk to the Orange Line at Back Bay and no transfer, and I took the Green Line option. I'll concede that BBY's less than breathable atmosphere may have played a role in that too, though.)
That being said, I really do think a good amount of the opposition is not merits-based. I think a lot of it that isn't pure NIMBYism isn't hate for the Red Line or displeasure at change so much as it is the legitimate fear of the unknown, in that advocating for the continuation of the HSL in (more or less) its present form is the safest option that avoids the dreaded buses that pretty much everyone agrees is unwanted, and which has been threatened to be foisted on them from outside. Given both the Elevated and the twenty-plus year "temporarily suspended" Arborway service (before it was officially terminated) it's not like the T has proven itself trustworthy when it says that it's going to make things better. I think the conversation would be very different if there was a trusted, iron-clad commitment to either revitalization of the HSL as LRT or conversion to HRT as a Red extension as the
only possible options (with anything non-steel-wheel taken completely off the table without possibility of reneging on that pledge), because then the merits of the two options could be fairly considered. Given the (in my opinion completely justifiable) lack of trust that the T won't just simply bring in the buses (not going to be helped by the lunatic plan to rip down the OCS in Cambridge and ruin the trackless trolley network totally against the city's wishes) it's wholly
rational for the residents to insist on
only revitalization as LRT because that doesn't open the door for mode-altering reconsiderations. I think one of the things we sometimes fail to recognize here is that we tend to be optimists about transit possibilities, and a great many people do not share that optimism (sadly, too often for very good reasons).
