Redesign the Urban Ring

[BosMaineiac]

Slight correction to this: In 1946, the legislature directed the Coolidge Commission to consider a "a subway loop from Boston through Everett, Maiden, Medford, Somerville and Cambridge to Boston and to Forest Hills in the West Roxbury district". That would have been a rather ungainly route:
View attachment 71979

The Coolidge Commission rejected it as costly and unneeded, except the downtown-Forest Hills subway replacing the elevated:

Report of the Metropolitan Transit Recess Commission : appointed under chapter 56 of the Resolves of 1943, to investigate and study relative to rapid transit in the Boston metropolitan area ... April 2, 1945, April 1, 1947 : Massachusetts. General Co

At head of title: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.; Part of the illustrative material is folded.

archive.org

It does look a little funny but the intent would be to run it as a balloon route with the extant Washington st subway extended from Haymarket to Everett, right? That wouldn’t be too far off from the early idea of running the red line as a balloon route utilizing the fairmount line from Mattapan back to Andrew. I guess the orange line study would fall somewhere between circumferential and radial but leaning more to radial.