Trolleybus Pitch
Utilize the Watertown Yard as a trolleybus layover and shop facility. Wire up the 57 for sure, as it has a power source to tap into already. Extend the 57 from the yard to Watertown Square. Either wire up 74 (eliminate the jog down Blanchard and Bright) and 75 or, should a Belmont shit fit ensue, just wire up the entire length of the 77. Also, with the newly repurposed Watertown Yard, get some 60ft trolleybuses.
Watertown was a site alternative for the T's
Bus Facilities Strategic Plan for anchoring the west end of the system with a singular headquarters. The original study favored Riverside by a hair, but that was a long time and a lot of TOD building ago at so if revisited Watertown is almost certainly going to be their choice today. Mostly with diesel storage replacing the current parking at the carhouse, but also with a big revamp of the shop. Those kinds of upgrades go hand-in-hand with a larger 71 layover so all flavors benefit.
Doubt massive expansion of the TT's is going to be anyone's idea of a priority so 57 and 74 might be too big an ask right now. But extension of the 71 to Newton Corner has been an occasionally discussed real proposal with very low price tag thanks to the ex- A-line power feed under Galen St. It would be contingent on some movement on the Indigo Line w/ stop at NC, but extending the 71 there is as no-brainer as it gets if that indeed happens. Figure this:
-- If the Pike WB had a new interchange grafted on at Birmingham Pkwy. rotary to direct Watertown traffic away from Newton Corner and onto underutilized Nonantum and N. Beacon, you could probably safely lane-drop Galen and re-stripe it with proper bus lanes the whole length. Traffic load with the additional Brighton exit would be more or less halved through Newton Corner to just the EB direction and local Newton traffic.
-- The transit cutover to Harvard from Newton is an attractive prospect for people coming into NC from western outskirts of Newton and for regular Worcester Line commuter locals that may make a stop at the NC infill. Optimize the 71 well enough and it's arguably faster than going to South Station and transferring to Red.
-- Mt. Auburn would benefit greatly from a revamped layout: lane-drop it from the Belmont St. split at the Cambridge line to H2O Sq. in favor of bus/bike lanes, and audit the stop spacing to see if any tweaks further help the flow. Possibly build in 2 or 3 side turnouts so 71 express patterns can overtake 71 locals. That "71E" is where the Newton Corner and Watertown bus terminals get better bound together, and where that cutover to Harvard from the Worcester Line can deliver on its time savings.
If the Alewife busways ever get built to Mass Ave., extending the 77A wires into Alewife station makes a ton of sense. Would make for an even split of the 77A and 79 routes at Alewife, which might free up the 77 for some judicious stop consolidation to speed it up while the other two take on a more hyper-local role. Might need a slight upgrade of Porter substation, but that would not be expensive at all to string up.
Could possibly even close North Cambridge garage, tuck a small amount of storage at Alewife, and slap a couple of spot-repair garage bays a third the size of existing North Cambridge carhouse on the relatively useless
Alewife front lawn next to the busway. Then divert heavy maint and all 71/72/73 storage to Watertown, and sell the rest of that valuable North Cambridge parcel for more development. Would be much more efficient to get out of that yardlet and realign ops at bigger terminals with bigger established staff bases.
As for the full 77...don't think wire extensions, think a second rebuilding of the Silver Line dual-modes when they're replaced by new Transitway vehicles, and power-switching at Alewife Brook Parkway. 2-1/4 emissions-free miles through Cambridge (which will hopefully have a heavily-reconfigured and better-flowing Mass Ave. through North Cambridge by this point) and only 3 miles on diesel (half of that on the heavily-reconfigured Arlington Mass Ave.). Plus the route gets its badly-needed infusion of 60-footers. 77A to Alewife + streamlining of the 77 stops + some lighter-duty repurposing of the Transitway 60-footers is the fastest, cheapest, most direct way to get a very major upgrade across the whole corridor.
I wouldn't even think about further wire extensions from there, because it's beyond the ability of what the existing 650V DC substations at Porter and Alewife can serve with minor in-situ upgrades. And the next-greatest enhancement to the 77 that is actually worth spending big money on is getting GLX from Union to Porter so trip from Arlington to downtown gets fabulously faster and more flexible. So if you're going to be building new substations, let it be for GLX first and foremost. Those 60-footer dual-modes switching at Route 16 do plenty in their own right at lowering costs and raising gate receipts if you just span the existing substations with an inexpensive 77A Alewife extension.
