Continuing a thread in the Seaport thread about downtown busways:
I decided to take a quick look and see what routes I would actually include in this "Inner Belt" radial network, and came up with something like this:
View attachment 47936
The general thinking is "routes that do not travel beyond the 'Inner Belt' of transfer stations like Maverick, Sullivan, Kenmore, Ruggles, etc, and which point toward downtown". I think the list comes out to:
- T7
- T8
- T9
- 11
- T39
- 43
- 55
- T111
- SL4/SL5
It does not include circumferential routes like the T12 or 10, and it doesn't include routes that might otherwise make the cut if there weren't a water crossing (arguably such as the 68).
The T39 and the T111 are both debatable, particularly the T39. Forest Hills and JP are clearly outside of the Inner Belt; on the other hand, Copley isn't otherwise a major radial transfer point (like Kenmore or Central). Ultimately, if the T39
could reliably run all the way to South Station, that seems like it would be reasonable and not overextended. (The T111 also extends beyond the Inner Belt, but it is unusual in its complete lack of an Inner Belt transfer station.)
And what about the T57 you ask? Yeah I don't know. I can't really justify including the T39 but excluding the T57, other than perhaps to point to the fact that, in general, this is currently a map of surface routes that offer 1SRs to employment centers in downtown and Back Bay. The T39 and T111 meet that criterion on a somewhat exceptional basis, but the T57 really doesn't. (And it's a similar argument for the proposed 42, IMO.)
Anyway, the reasonable transit pitch (which I believe
@The EGE originally suggested some time ago) is a network of busways in downtown and Back Bay that would allow these routes to through-run with stronger reliability, and would form better links to the Seaport from Downtown and Back Bay:
View attachment 47939