Reasonable Transit Pitches

[Wash]

What's the most cost-effective way to fix the "Quincy Pinch" and get the Old Colony fully double-tracked all the way from South Station to Braintree? I suppose since this is in "reasonable transit pitches", Quincy Center can remain single-track.

 

[George_Apley]

What's the most cost-effective way to fix the "Quincy Pinch" and get the Old Colony fully double-tracked all the way from South Station to Braintree? I suppose since this is in "reasonable transit pitches", Quincy Center can remain single-track.

There is no cheap way to do it. It’s likely Red over Red.

 

[ra84970]

What's the most cost-effective way to fix the "Quincy Pinch" and get the Old Colony fully double-tracked all the way from South Station to Braintree? I suppose since this is in "reasonable transit pitches", Quincy Center can remain single-track.

I keep on thinking -- if we could do it over again, should we really have tried to get the Old Colony lines up to South Station? Wouldn't a forced transfer at Quincy Center or Braintree have made much more sense? Or ... pushing us toward crazy pitches here, considering the Tokyo model of through-running onto a Red Line slot?

 

[jklo]

I keep on thinking -- if we could do it over again, should we really have tried to get the Old Colony lines up to South Station?

Well, yeah, because that's where commuters want to go.

Plus even if your destination is further on Red (read: Kendall) I'd have to think that getting off at SS is faster than say Quincy Center or Braintree. Not to mention the direct connection to BB via the commuter rail.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Wouldn't a forced transfer at Quincy Center or Braintree have made much more sense?

In the 1960's, that was the vision for metro Boston commuter rail: Extend the Orange and Red Lines out to Route 128, and truncate the commuter rail lines at the ends of the extended transit lines. That's why there's only one railroad track through Quincy and one along the Orange line through Malden. These were not originally intended to be commuter rail lines. However, the suburbanites waylaid this scheme, due to their concern about switching trains at the outer ends of the transit lines, and also probably concerns about having to ride transit lines through the "bad" parts of town. Also, the Orange Line at its north and south ends, and the Red Line at it's north end, never made it out to Route 128 due to NIMBYism and funding constraints. So, as a result we have these undersized commuter rail lines paralleling the transit lines.

 

[ra84970]

Plus even if your destination is further on Red (read: Kendall) I'd have to think that getting off at SS is faster than say Quincy Center or Braintree. Not to mention the direct connection to BB via the commuter rail.

No direct connection to BB on the Old Colony lines...

 

[The EGE]

Forced transfers from commuter rail at the end of subway lines don't make sense. The purpose of commuter rail / regional rail is to get riders to the CBD / other major destinations as quickly as possible; the purpose of rapid transit is to provide local service within dense areas and inner suburbs. Having to transfer at an outer terminal causes a longer journey time for suburban riders and adds crowding on the subway line.

(Note that it's the opposite case for transfers from rapid transit to surface bus/light rail lines: for those, the rapid transit provides a faster ride downtown than would be possible on the surface line.)

 

[JeffDowntown]

We want commuter/regional rail passengers spending less time/distance on the subway, not more. A major point of NSRL is to get suburban commuters closer to their end destinations at employment centers, easing the load on the subway trains and particularly packed transfer stations.

 

[Arlington]

We want commuter/regional rail passengers spending less time/distance on the subway, not more. A major point of NSRL is to get suburban commuters closer to their end destinations at employment centers, easing the load on the subway trains and particularly packed transfer stations.

When you see how the Orange is crushed from NS to BB you see how letting NS CR continue through to BB would free oodles of OL capacity

 

[jklo]

No direct connection to BB on the Old Colony lines...

Right but it would only be one transfer instead of two.

 

[ra84970]

Right but it would only be one transfer instead of two.

Not sure that there's a large flow of pax from the OC lines to BB.

 

[JeffDowntown]

When you see how the Orange is crushed from NS to BB you see how letting NS CR continue through to BB would free oodles of OL capacity

Probably continue NS CR on to Ruggles to capture NEU and Longwood computers.

 

[roy_mustang76]

Not sure that there's a large flow of pax from the OC lines to BB.

That flow is largely handled by matching outbound trains from SS to Back Bay (and vice versa during PM rush) - it's not show-and-go level service, but neither are the OC lines so it's entirely feasible to plot your commute out without passing the subway faregates. The T even publishes a schedule for it.

A forced transfer at Quincy Center or Braintree only serves to overload Red even more in the core, because people absolutely walk from SS to other downtown destinations rather than hop on Red, especially when the weather is nice. Forcing them to transfer further out means they will stay on Red all the way to DTX or Park, where they might have just walked from SS, or hopped onto a Providence train for the one-stop hop from SS to Back Bay. So a forced-transfer provides the OC lines a worse experience, and simultaneously worsens Red by overloading it in the core because now you have ALL of the OC ridership coming in/out on Braintree trains.

 

[ulrichomega]

Ignoring for a second the COVID impacts to Commuter Rail ridership and the effects that's going to have on funding for capital projects, what's the next reasonably major expansion of the CR that we're looking at after the South Coast Rail shenanigans are over? I'm not talking about pie-in-the-sky things here, but just trying to lay out (mostly for my own benefit) the next extension of service we could see. Most/all of these are already proposed.

1) Buzzards Bay
Obviously dependent upon some mitigation of the Old Colony chokepoints, whatever those may be. You're not getting three separate lines through Middleboro, let alone 5 through Dorchester. Makes use of existing MBTA stations and ROW to minimize costs. Depending on mitigations should be multiple round-trips per day at a minimum.

Stations at:

1. Middleboro/Lakeville - The shape of SCR Phase 2 might mean this isn't necessary, but some form of Middleboro station will be needed.
2. Spruce St - Absolutely the middle of nowhere, but there's some potential for some TOD at a few sites nearby, and a dedicated exit wouldn't be too hard to construct from 495. Honestly probably a skip, but the station spacing from Lakeville to Wareham is enormous.
3. West Wareham/195 - Park&Ride at Wareham Crossing. some good TOD opportunities long-term.
4. Wareham - Existing station. Town center, nothing else to really see here.
5. Buzzards Bay - Existing station, nothing too interesting.

Further developments could include extension to the rest of the CapeFlyer route, or even an additional infill near Cranberry Plaza to give East Wareham a station and take advantage of a Park&Ride off of the 25 exit nearby.

2) New Hampshire Rail - Nashua
Extension of Lowell Line to New Hampshire. Entirely dependent upon the state getting out of its own way, so God knows when/if it can happen. I'm aware of freight on this route, but I'm unsure of the impacts that it would have on scheduling. Note that the Nashua station is not the ideal location for an extension up towards Manchester. I feel like this location is more suitable suitable for a temporary terminus. And given that it can be built as nothing but a concrete slab I don't feel too bad about potentially abandoning it down the line.

Stations:

1. North Chelmsford - TOD at a few industrial sites nearby, also not terrible population density.
2. Spit Brook Road/Mall - Basically a Park&Ride for 3, maybe some possibilities for TOD on some parking lots.
3. Nashua - Downtown station, not suitable as a terminus for any real extensions.

Further developments would involve an extension possibly out to Milford, but more likely either a branch or a complete replacement of the station on the ROW towards Merrimack and Manchester. An infill at Tyngsboro might be called for at some point, but I left it out due to the low density and the travel time impacts.

3) Haverhill Line Extension
Not worthy of a map, but the Haverhill equipment layover is notoriously awful for a multitude of reasons. This would send the line up the Downeaster ROW to a less-dense area with more opportunity for a layover yard. Recently there was some thought this would be happening right at the state line, implying a possible new station at Rosemont, but that turned out to not be the case. This leaves a few possible locations for the station on both sides of the state line (with one side of that line being way more likely).

4) Peabody Line
A branch of the Newburyport/Rockport Line. Splits off at Salem station right outside the station to a new platform before following the ROW up through Peabody. The exact path it follows from here is open to discussion, but I have a sample one marked out here. Stations at:

1. Peabody
2. North Shore Mall/128
3. West Peabody
4. Danvers
5. North Danvers - Extension to a spot suitable for a layover.

5) Fitchburg Secondary
Reactivate the northern part of the Framingham wye and send trains out along the current freight route. Some real potential for Park&Rides here, and even a bit of reverse-commuting, though those commutes would start to get pretty long. Stations at:

1. Framingham State University
2. Fayville/I-90 - Park&Ride
3. Southborough - Downtown station
4. Marlborough Mill Street - Outside of downtown on the dogleg that the route takes up towards Marlborough. There is an old ROW into downtown here that is theoretically salvageable, but it ends in Marlborough proper and is almost completely gone.
5. Crane Swamp/495 - TOD and Park&Ride! Some fantastic opportunities here.
6. Northborough - Downtown station
7. Barefoot Brook/290 - Park&Ride

Overall not a bad route. Some slight duplication with the Worcester line but overall it serves some areas that are currently hard to get to from the Worcester line stations, as well as providing more substantial highway access. I'm usually a fan of stations in downtowns rather than out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but this line would be able to avoid most of the downsides of Park&Rides, I feel. Open to other interpretations, though.

6) Extension of East Walpole Industrial Track
This one has always been a pet project of mine. It makes almost no sense, so it's included here at the end for chuckles more than anything. The ROW is almost not entirely gone. Large sections are intact, but there are private residences in the way. A few choice diversions (near Cedar Hill swamp, for example) allows most dynamiting to be avoided, but there would inevitably be some. I think there is real potential for such a branch in all honesty. The station parking lots in this area are full most of the time, and the existing stations miss a lot of potential catchments. Stations at:

1. South Norwood - This station is the closest the tracks come to 1 for a while, and it's a bit close to Windsor Gardens, but that station is special for a variety of reasons.
2. Plimptonville South - The demand from Plimptonville probably merits another station nearby.
3. Walpole - The second weakest station on this line. Close to the existing Walpole section. Not downtown. No room for a parking lot. Residential nearby.
4. Pondville - Nearby to a number of large lots ripe for TOD. Not too far from 1 and Patriots Place either.
5. Wrentham - Downtown station.
6. Wrentham Outlets - Potentially an anchor point at the end of the line. A huge amount of demand, with a good bit of that demand coming from city tourists.

The line is pretty heavily weighted towards the end of the line out towards 495. It think that's fine, though. The primary motivating factor would almost certainly be parking lot overflow for this region of the Commuter Rail system anyway. The inner stations wouldn't be complete losses, but they're definitely weaker and maybe even just skip them (especially Plimptonville South). The rest of this line is relatively straight, which would let trains reach reasonable speeds on their way in from the outskirts. Obviously a reach for other reasons, though. None of these stations is a need to build right now. The ROW is salvageable, which isn't the word you want to be using when talking about something that's not absolutely needed. The outer weighting of the demand would almost certainly be partially cancelled out by the longer trip times. Like I said, pet project, not really something that's going to get built anytime soon, but I wanted to include it here.

 

[The EGE]

Buzzards Bay is definitely the lowest-hanging fruit if the frequency issue is sorted out (by SCR Phase 2, or having it be a shuttle to Middleborough.) I don't see Middleborough/Lakeville as a likely stop - an extra platform at the new Middleborough station would be superior in every aspect. I would start with Wareham Crossing, Wareham Village, and Buzzards Bay; all you need is some wooden platforms. Infills at Rock Village or County Road as suggested by the 2007 study, or East Wareham/Onset, are possible.

I'd rank Nashua as #2, Peabody as #3, Milford as #4, Fitchburg Secondary as #5, Kingston RI as #6, and Rosemont/Plaistow as #7. I think you'll see all sorts of more crazy transit pitches happen - Fitchburg-Lowell-Lawrence-Haverhill, Walpole-Foxborough-Mansfield, Attleboro-Taunton, Fall River-Newport, Worcester-Webster, Newburyport-Portsmouth, Walpole-Medfield-Millis - long before you see the Wrentham Branch being discussed.

 

[OldColony]

Past state studies for Buzzards Bay rail only added two stations to keep trip times down: the Wareham crossing area and Buzzards Bay village. This would have been an extension of the current Middleborough service using the existing Middleborough/Lakeville station.

This service would have been accomplished at 1/10 the capital cost of South Coast Rail phase 1, with projected ridership at about 1/3 of SCR phase 1.

Of course, SCR phase 1 would now require a Buzzards Bay cross-platform transfer at the new Middleborough station (platform not assured), which I expect would cripple Buzzards Bay ridership.

SCR phase 2 via Stoughton should happen, but good luck on that.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Past state studies for Buzzards Bay rail only added two stations to keep trip times down: the Wareham crossing area and Buzzards Bay village. This would have been an extension of the current Middleborough service using the existing Middleborough/Lakeville station.

If they mounted it today the existing Flyer stop at Wareham Village would probably get added. The last time they studied the town was queasy about WV because the parking lot the platform faces is an unmetered municipal lot also containing some private-space allotments for building rears on Main St. Town was unsure how they'd ever be able to do fair parking enforcement there with commuters, so they demurred from including it in the MPO study. Given that several years of Flyer popularity at WV has lowered fears about patroling the lot, they'll be much more amenable next time since Main St. has proven to be a decently popular bus transfer. Wareham Crossing (495/195/28) was pitched as a fund-as-you-go add to lower the price tag for the extension...deferrable till later if they needed to fundraise on-the-fly. Today's it's most likely that Wareham Village would debut on Day 1 with Buzzards Bay...then Crossing as the infill some months or handful of years later.

There never were any spacers studied between Middleboro/Lakeville and Wareham Crossing. The line parallels 28/495 on the 11 miles between stops with a very pronounced density gap in the middle of cranberry bogs and conservation land thinning out any NE or SW traffic traffic, so there's no demand for spacers at Spruce (formerly called "Rock Village") or County Rd. (formerly "South Middleboro"). Those 2 stops were slightly more important when Fairhaven Branch service (which split right after S. M'boro) was still around in the Depression, but they malingered as just seldom-used flag stops until the end. There was another pre-'58 stop at Onset just west of the Cohasset Narrows bridge barely a half-mile from BB that obviously wouldn't be coming back today. Prior to the Canal widening there was no Buzzards Bay depot and the RR went further east on the north shore of the canal with more equitable spacing until crossing the canal on an old drawbridge just past present-day Sagamore Bridge; Onset's spacing stayed as an orphan. So consider M'boro/Lakeville, Wareham Crossing, Wareham Village, and Buzzards Bay the locked-in final roster...it only being a question which of the Wareham stops comes first.


If you get to BB with a full-signalized line, it is possible to super-extend 2 rush-hour trips per direction each day to Hyannis without needing to install an on-Cape signal system. That's enough to stay under the FRA trigger for signals + PTC while still allowing Cape Rail a pair of alternating-day slots for the passenger Dinner Train and freight Trash Train. It was thought by getting the full-on M'boro schedule extension greenlit to BB that the super-express Hyannis commute addenda would be easy enough to tack on cheaply since on-Cape track is pretty much at full state-of-repair for unsignalized 59 MPH max right now after a decade of Flyer-related upgrades.

On-Cape NYNH&H stops were Bourne (few blocks west of the tiny Aptucxet infill Flyer stop), Sagamore (Freight House Rd. east of Sagamore Bridge), Sandwich (current ADA mini-high stop), East Sandwich (6A grade crossing), West Barnstable (current ADA mini-high stop), Barnstable (Railroad Ave. behind Barnstable County Courthouse), Yarmouth Jct. (middle of the wye...transfer for Hyannis vs. Chatham/Provincetown). Of those the Cape Chamber is looking for permanent digs for Aptucxet behind the nearby ice rink, Sagamore has been studied for the little industrial strip immediately underneath the bridge, and the two ex-Amtrak/current-CCCR ADA stops are perennial infill candidates. East Sandwich is in the middle of nowhere, Yarmouth Jct. is too close to Hyannis and serves little function with there being no continuing Down Cape service, and East Barnstable/Courthouse is a bus-served 'tweener that by-road is closer to Hyannis than the wraparound the rail line makes onto the Hyannis Branch so is not an infill worth slowing a long-haul trip over when bus frequencies out of Hyannis can boost it. So, basically...a final on-Cape roster of the Bourne + Sagamore bridge stops, and the 3 existing stops to Hyannis Transportation Center. Ration with skips accordingly for the super-commuter extras while the line is still unsignalized.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

View attachment 7436

2) New Hampshire Rail - Nashua
Extension of Lowell Line to New Hampshire. Entirely dependent upon the state getting out of its own way, so God knows when/if it can happen. I'm aware of freight on this route, but I'm unsure of the impacts that it would have on scheduling. Note that the Nashua station is not the ideal location for an extension up towards Manchester. I feel like this location is more suitable suitable for a temporary terminus. And given that it can be built as nothing but a concrete slab I don't feel too bad about potentially abandoning it down the line.

Stations:

1. North Chelmsford - TOD at a few industrial sites nearby, also not terrible population density.
2. Spit Brook Road/Mall - Basically a Park&Ride for 3, maybe some possibilities for TOD on some parking lots.
3. Nashua - Downtown station, not suitable as a terminus for any real extensions.

Further developments would involve an extension possibly out to Milford, but more likely either a branch or a complete replacement of the station on the ROW towards Merrimack and Manchester. An infill at Tyngsboro might be called for at some point, but I left it out due to the low density and the travel time impacts.

Don't forget Umass-Lowell!

For freight, the 3 miles between Lowell Station and North Chelmsford Jct. are the Pan Am Freight Main overlap, and a future double-stack route. ROW here used to be way wider, so around the UMass stop you'd be looking at 3-4 tracks for traffic separation much like by Lowell Station where the passenger NH Main and freight-only Lowell Branch are largely separate. Over the course of that 3-mile overlap pax & freight trains have to flip positions...freights enter the overlap from the northerly side at Lowell Station off the Lowell Branch but exit the southerly side at North Chelmsford Jct. onto the Stony Brook Branch...while passenger trains make the exact opposite move, south-to-north. So...probably 4 tracks mashing down to 3 past UMass station, then a staggered set of crossovers so the directional flip happens fluidly. Not a big deal. For electrification the 6 overpasses from MA 110 to Pawtucket St. are going to be moderately costly affairs needing double-stack under wires height. Feasible...just a lot of bridge touches in a short area.

N. Chelmsford to Nashua has a pair of daily Nashua Yard feeder trains...high-and-wide clearance route, but otherwise nothing to write home about. North Chelmsford Station is specced to be built full-high with a freight passing track. Expect ditto at South Nashua. Downtown Nashua station property that City of Nashua purchased @ Crown St. already is within yard limits. All points north to Concord it's just the incredible shrinking NA-1 local, and increasingly infrequent monthly coal trains to Bow power plant until it inevitably closes. Pan Am's ultimate buyers can probably shoot some free throws for more business on this industrial-heavy stretch, but it would still cram neatly on that single NA-1 round-trip so is neglible concern for Cap Corridor passenger.

NOTE: The T does not have trackage rights on the Hillsborough Branch like they do perpetually/irrevocably to Concord, so passenger service squared-up with Main St. in downtown is not in the cards. They don't have any interest in running there because it's double-dip negotiations with Pan Am, not in their in-district constituency like serving to the border and terminating at a convenient rail yard, and will not make them money running NHDOT mercenary service like the Boston-Concord express layer. Traditionally Main St. has never been Nashua's primary train station because it only featured light service on the branch to Keene; Hollis St. one block up from Crown was Nashua Union Station at what formerly was the junction of 4 RR's where intercity New York-Portland and Boston-Montreal service criscrossed each other on separate platforms as well as all the primary local service patterns.

If NHDOT really wanted to study to Wilton badly enough, that's all on them. So far they've had zero interest whatsoever. And the T would be much harder to deal with if they were fileting in that direction vs. concentrating all energy on Concord, so it's vanishingly unlikely a passenger train is ever going to trawl the "Hillbilly Branch", off-center downtown be damned. Probably because the local mindshare has always centered on Hollis/Crown as 'the' train depot the off-centeredness isn't as big a deal to local psychology as it looks to a 2D map, so I'd be wary of overestimating the interest in studying a Main St. station at all. They've had more local meetings than you can count about this damn extension, and questions about a Main re-siting have never carried much mindshare.

3) Haverhill Line Extension
Not worthy of a map, but the Haverhill equipment layover is notoriously awful for a multitude of reasons. This would send the line up the Downeaster ROW to a less-dense area with more opportunity for a layover yard. Recently there was some thought this would be happening right at the state line, implying a possible new station at Rosemont, but that turned out to not be the case. This leaves a few possible locations for the station on both sides of the state line (with one side of that line being way more likely).

View attachment 7435

It is confirmed on-the-record that a new layover site has been purchased or I.O.U.'d for transaction near the state line by the industrial park. News of the deal got much pub in the local papers in Summer 2019. It's just not (1) the land-cleared parcel we speculated it would be, or (2) published anywhere with specificity exactly where it is other than same neighborhood past Rosemont, meaning the transaction is probably tape-delayed by comething. The information drain is annoying, but it IS happening.

Since the Rail Vision splits Haverhill and Reading back into separate schedules, T-owned Salem St. Station on the Wildcat Branch gets reanimated as a replacement for North Wilmington as base requirement. From there the likeliest infill candidates on the streamlined schedule are: South Lawrence by 495/28 as bus-richer replacement for 1980-closed Shawsheen Station just down the street; Ward Hill/495 at Industrial Ave. in North Andover as replacement for 1976-closed North Andover Station (too close to the New Lawrence) with easier highway access (including from NH border-crossers who take MA 213) and better TOD. Then Rosemont just because T still owns all the land for the canceled 1981 station, it's a useful bus transfer convenient to populated parts of Haverhill inconvenient to downtown, and it's effortlessly located vs. that new TBD layover slab just north. Note also that when Bradford Layover is vacated Bradford Station can very easily be reconstructed as full-high with passing tracks, relieving a major freight v. Amtrak v. T congestion point right by the Merrimack Bridge.

4) Peabody Line
A branch of the Newburyport/Rockport Line. Splits off at Salem station right outside the station to a new platform before following the ROW up through Peabody. The exact path it follows from here is open to discussion, but I have a sample one marked out here. Stations at:

1. Peabody
2. North Shore Mall/128
3. West Peabody
4. Danvers
5. North Danvers - Extension to a spot suitable for a layover.

Danvers is out. They already signed the 99-year trail lease, so the ROW north from Peabody Sq. is now blocked. The only Peabody ROW left reserved for commuter rail is the ex- Salem & Lowell ROW owned by Peabody Municipal Light as a power line ROW. The city-owned utility long ago gave the T its audible that it would be perfectly happy to run track on the power ROW out to North Shore Mall, while also saying it would never allow a trail next to those trunklines.

Therefore you're looking at the straight-ahead continuation from Peabody Sq. station on Railroad Ave. & associated parking lots crossing Crowninshield St. Stop at North Shore Mall next to Lahey Clinic. And Essex Green Ln. + Essex Center Dr. perimeter access roads being conjoined in a loop next to the station, with shuttle buses fanning out from there. Layover would be on the current Independence Greenway (to-be-shifted) footprint to former Prospect/Lowell St. grade crossing. Easily possible when remanicuring the trail to build a trailhead bridge deck over 128 + Northshore Rd. to connect the east side.

Ending the primary extension here leaves future flex to continue +1 more stops to West Peabody @ 95/128/1 rail-with-trail along the ROW and plunk another stop right off Route 1...but that's surplus-to-requirement for today.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

5) Fitchburg Secondary
Reactivate the northern part of the Framingham wye and send trains out along the current freight route. Some real potential for Park&Rides here, and even a bit of reverse-commuting, though those commutes would start to get pretty long. Stations at:

1. Framingham State University
2. Fayville/I-90 - Park&Ride
3. Southborough - Downtown station
4. Marlborough Mill Street - Outside of downtown on the dogleg that the route takes up towards Marlborough. There is an old ROW into downtown here that is theoretically salvageable, but it ends in Marlborough proper and is almost completely gone.
5. Crane Swamp/495 - TOD and Park&Ride! Some fantastic opportunities here.
6. Northborough - Downtown station
7. Barefoot Brook/290 - Park&Ride

Overall not a bad route. Some slight duplication with the Worcester line but overall it serves some areas that are currently hard to get to from the Worcester line stations, as well as providing more substantial highway access. I'm usually a fan of stations in downtowns rather than out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but this line would be able to avoid most of the downsides of Park&Rides, I feel. Open to other interpretations, though.

View attachment 7437

Keep in mind as well that while the density thins out north of 290 there is *excellent* future flex to continue the line to Downtown Clinton then turn south onto the PAR Worcester Main to hit Worcester Union Station from the north when Worcester itself becomes more a reverse-commute destination. So perhaps locals to Boston terminating Northborough and a shuttle *sweep* pinging Framingham-Clinton-Worcester as a future final config. The rest of the Fitchburg Sec. north to Sterling and Leominster starts to duplicate by Leominster the buses that already go to North Leominster Station on the Fitchburg Line. So that segment past Clinton Jct. will never be all that valuable. But the MetroWest sweep to Worcester as Phase II encore is a hot one.

6) Extension of East Walpole Industrial Track
This one has always been a pet project of mine. It makes almost no sense, so it's included here at the end for chuckles more than anything. The ROW is almost not entirely gone. Large sections are intact, but there are private residences in the way. A few choice diversions (near Cedar Hill swamp, for example) allows most dynamiting to be avoided, but there would inevitably be some. I think there is real potential for such a branch in all honesty. The station parking lots in this area are full most of the time, and the existing stations miss a lot of potential catchments. Stations at:

1. South Norwood - This station is the closest the tracks come to 1 for a while, and it's a bit close to Windsor Gardens, but that station is special for a variety of reasons.
2. Plimptonville South - The demand from Plimptonville probably merits another station nearby.
3. Walpole - The second weakest station on this line. Close to the existing Walpole section. Not downtown. No room for a parking lot. Residential nearby.
4. Pondville - Nearby to a number of large lots ripe for TOD. Not too far from 1 and Patriots Place either.
5. Wrentham - Downtown station.
6. Wrentham Outlets - Potentially an anchor point at the end of the line. A huge amount of demand, with a good bit of that demand coming from city tourists.

The line is pretty heavily weighted towards the end of the line out towards 495. It think that's fine, though. The primary motivating factor would almost certainly be parking lot overflow for this region of the Commuter Rail system anyway. The inner stations wouldn't be complete losses, but they're definitely weaker and maybe even just skip them (especially Plimptonville South). The rest of this line is relatively straight, which would let trains reach reasonable speeds on their way in from the outskirts. Obviously a reach for other reasons, though. None of these stations is a need to build right now. The ROW is salvageable, which isn't the word you want to be using when talking about something that's not absolutely needed. The outer weighting of the demand would almost certainly be partially cancelled out by the longer trip times. Like I said, pet project, not really something that's going to get built anytime soon, but I wanted to include it here.

See here for past discussion on the Wrentham Branch and what's salvageable for commuter rail. Basically, the split from Norwood Central is so heavily blocked that it's of no use. It's the 3-day-a-week CSX local to the Certain Teed plant by the city line, and no more. You simply aren't getting through the encroaching housing developments in East Walpole. Give 'em better buses out of Norwood and Walpole with RUR frequencies, and any demand in this problem area probably gets satiated quickly.

The former diamond crossing + junction with the Framingham Secondary (Cedar Jct.) in Walpole, on the other hand, is completely fungible, with no truly problematic encroachments before Wrentham and only a couple mild-difficulty solves between Wrenthan and North Attleboro. Most of this part of the route passed into utility ROW hands. So it is build-feasible as a branch from Walpole that diverges from the Foxboro route and hits stops at South Norfolk (MA 115), Wrentham Common (Depot St. @ MA 1A/140), Wrentham Outlets/495, Plainville (W. Bacon St. @ 1A, downtown), and North Attleborough (downtown). The only functional encroachments are very easy to stitch together.

The main issue with this one, and why it kicks to dead-last on the (southside, at least) priority pile is the property acquisition. Eversource is the largest single owner of this 1976 Conrail abandonment, but there's lots of smaller property owners to contend with as well and that's just going to bureaucratically chew paper for years on end. Not wanting to think about how headache-inducing that would be is probably why the MPO has never taken a gander at studying it. As you can see from the stop roster it would be pretty buff ridership in an under-served 'tweener area between the Franklin Line and Providence Line. But no one's going to rate this one all that high while the labor in paper chew rates as excessive, no matter how relatively intact it is (and figures to stay).

I think a formal study is in-order one of these days to quantify it, but practically speaking this one has to stay in the file cabinet until we've closed out most of the most-wanted landbanked service restorations that don't have to deal with patchwork property ownership.

 

[Riverside]

I like imagining new lines. Obviously it's fun to draw lines on a map, but I really do believe that there is an element of placemaking to naming a route as a "line". This can be misused and abused -- Exhibit A being the Silver Line on Washington Street. But I believe that the concept itself is not inherently problematic. What's more, I believe that "linemaking" can be a way to put individual projects into a systemic context, and help knit the region together.

So, with all that in mind, I present: the Navy Line.

So-named due to its service of the Charlestown Navy Yard park, and for its unparalleled six water crossings, the Navy Line is largely an amalgamation of existing BRT proposals, with a couple of modest additions. It takes its cues in part from the B/C/E branches of the Green Line, which are characterized by local bus stop spacing on the outer branches, and rapid transit stop spacing on the core trunks. Also like the Green Line network, the Navy Line includes short-turn services to accommodate variable reliability on its outer branches.

Core and Southside

The core of the Navy Line draws on the "Center City Link" concept, proposed in Dec 2019: dedicated bus lanes running from North Station to South Station to Summer Street. The exact route is still TBA, but in general these are multilane streets with plenty of room for bus lanes. High-freq bus service through the Financial District and from North Station to the Seaport would relieve crowding on the Orange Line.

This section would largely be a combination of the current 4 and 7 buses. Stops would be:

• North Station (Green, Orange, commuter rail)
• Haymarket (Green, Orange, express buses)
• State at State & Congress (Blue, walking transfer to Orange)
• Financial District between Franklin and High
• South Station (Red, Silver, commuter rail)
• Fort Point between Melcher and A St overpass
• BCEC (walking transfer to Silver at World Trade Center)
• Drydock Ave (walking transfer to Silver at Design Center)
• E 1st Street
• L & Broadway (transfer to the 9 and 10)
• N & Broadway
• City Point (exact location TBA)

A second southern branch would serve Logan Airport, and provide a one-seat ride between Logan, the Financial District and North Station. This service would layer on top of SL1 service that would continue to run into the Transitway and more directly serve Seaport Boulevard, and offer a more convenient transfer to the Red Line at South Station.

The map above shows a simplified representation of how the Navy Line would access the Ted Williams Tunnel. In actuality, eastbound buses would turn left on D Street, and then left again on Haul Road before reaching the I-90 on-ramp and continuing to the airport (hopefully in a dedicated lane in the tunnel). Coming westbound, buses would do similar to the current SL1/SL3 buses, exiting on to Congress St (with a one-way bus lane here) and stopping at World Trade Center at street level, before continuing ahead to D St, turning right and then rejoining Summer Street. (Ideally, in a future where SL buses aren't wire-dependent, they could follow this route as well.)

Services to the south would be named NV1 to the Airport, and NV2 to City Point (like the current SL designations). Some NV2 services would through-run beyond North Station, but most if not all NV1 services would short-turn at North Station, due to the unreliability of traffic in the TWT.

Northside

To the north, the Navy Line would have three branches: NV3 to Chelsea, NV4 to Charlestown, and NV5 to Everett.

NV3 would utilize dedicated lanes on the Tobin to run express to Chelsea and then running locally to Woodlawn, with short-turns at Cary Square -- today's 111. To my knowledge, there are no proposals to add bus lanes in Chelsea, so this branch would be mixed-traffic for the foreseeable future. However, the 111 is important enough to it merit inclusion in this new line, even if imperfect; the presence of dedicated lanes on the Tobin would add some element of "rapidness", so it's not entirely without justification.

NV3 complements but does not replace SL3. SL3 is good for accessing the Airport and the Seaport, but NV3 would offer direct access to Downtown, and direct transfers to the Orange and Green. Given its lengthy mixed-traffic segment, and its overlap with SL3, NV3 would be the likeliest candidate for a short-turn as South Station to accommodate the variable reliability.

NV4 would run to Sullivan Square via Bunker Hill Street, mirroring today's 93. This corridor isn't necessarily screaming for BRT, but it does pair-match well with the current 7 to the south, and so is a logical candidate for the Center City Link. Dedicated lanes along Bunker Hill Street would require elimination of parking (politically challenging), but some improvements could be made using strategically placed queue jumps. Peak-only "soft" bus lanes could also be effective. That being said, much of Chelsea Street (paralleling the Route 1 viaduct) is four lanes, and could receive dedicated lanes, speeding service to/from the heavily-used southern half of Bunker Hill Street. (Note that some sort of accommodation would need to be made for current riders who board southbound along Lomey Way and east of City Square.)

In principle, most NV4 service could through-run to City Point as NV2. This would really depend on how many improvements can be made to improve reliability along Bunker Hill St -- the fewer the improvements, the worse the reliability, and the fewer buses that can be through-run to South Boston.

NV5 is a bit different from all other branches, in that it really is a net new service, rather than an amalgamation of existing services. Running express in dedicated lanes on Rutherford Ave (my proposal) and Route 99 (proposed by the Lower Mystic Regional Working Group), and then running locally in bus lanes along Broadway to Glendale Square at Ferry Street, this would supplement, not replace, the likes of the 104 and 109, which would continue to run to Sullivan Square, and run beyond Glendale Square to Malden Center and Linden Square. It might also supplement an SL3 extension to Sullivan, Lechmere and Kendall, which provide a circumferential complement to NV5's radial route.

One key distinction between my proposed NV5 and that of the Lower Mystic Regional Working Group is that the NV5 bypasses Sullivan and runs non-stop between North Station and Encore Casino. I realize this is highly debatable, but my reasoning is that Sullivan itself is not the ultimate destination -- rather it is a transfer hub. Riders who are destined for downtown only currently go to Sullivan because they need to transfer to the Orange Line; a direct service would eliminate that need. For riders destined for Cambridge or Somerville (i.e. who will be transferring to another bus at Sullivan), the 104 and 109 will continue to provide that feeder service, and an SL3 extension might capture some of those riders as well (who'd be able to transfer at Sweetser Circle instead of Sullivan). The 104 and 109 would still benefit from the bus lanes along Broadway, so there would be significant reliability and travel time improvements for circumferential riders.

However, bypassing Sullivan is hardly make-or-break for this proposal -- if the numbers merit it, it's easy enough to add it in. It would be a minor drain on travel time, but not earth-shattering. Moreover, since there are proposals for dedicated bus lanes on the entire NV5 route north of Sullivan (and easy enough to add them on Rutherford), this route can afford a little extra travel time.

Due to its higher reliability, the NV5 would typically through-run to City Point as the NV2.

Conclusion

As we are all aware, the days of widespread rail expansion are behind us -- BRT, even the barely-qualifying iteration that prevails in the US, is here to stay. However, I would argue that this proposal is one where BRT is actually a good fit. The high number of water crossings means that radial rail service would be costly; there is a natural trunk-branch topology that lends itself well to rapid-transit-ification; and, critically, there is some measure of community support and political will to bring these kinds of enhancements to fruition.

If the T is going to continue to expand BRT service, it will eventually become necessary to create differentiation within the branding -- if the "Silver Line" runs everywhere, then it loses its placemaking significance. Creating a second BRT brand would enable clearer messaging, and clearer wayfinding. NYC colors its lines based on trunkline, and a similar approach could be used here: Silver Line uses the Transitway, while Navy Line uses the Center City Link.

Finally, it bears mentioning that this would allow the T to add an entirely new line to the map -- with the vast majority of the needed infrastructure improvements being paint on the ground. Future enhancements could include better shelters, level boarding, even pre-payment. But, for the most part, all that would be needed are some newly painted lines on the ground, some level of political enforcement, and probably a few extra buses.