Regional Rail (RUR) & North-South Rail Link (NSRL)

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Riverside

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F-Line to Dudley said:
BDPA, you're drunk. Step away from the crayons. . .
View attachment 35494
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The contrast of the professional jargon, e.g. “transfer penalty”, with the otherwise crayon-y map is remarkable.

I’m still opposed to the Green Line to Seaport wraparound service pattern in the long term, but in the medium-term I absolutely think it’s better than a reverse branch of the Red.
 
HenryAlan

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This is a remarkable document. It's like they searched for the most laughable concepts and threw them all together, hoping that either something would stick, or that it would give them space to claim that they at least tried.
 
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king_vibe

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HenryAlan said:
This is a remarkable document. It's like they searched for the most laughable concepts and through them all together, hoping that either something would stick, or that it would give them space to claim that they at least tried.
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I have no idea what kind of study produced this document, but in their defense, a lot of preliminary engineering studies produce scores of insane options for the sake of completeness.
 
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Massachoicetts

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Can't they just focus on the NSRL? The transportation planning in the Boston Area is drastically starting to fall behind other metros who seem to be making some strides and buckling down as of recently with the availability of grants and funds. This is quite embarrassing that the NSRL has no official/tentative date to start. What rail infrastructure project is on the table?

Quite disappointed with the State of Massachusetts recently.
 
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fatnoah

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BDPA, you're drunk. Step away from the crayons. . .
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The outline of the Silver Line route in these documents is amazing. It looks like it was actually crayoned in by a drunk person. I vote that WHATEVER transportation option is chosen, that it makes use of the stupid turnpike ramp, regardless of how little sense it makes, just to annoy whomever (State Police?) is responsible for this.
 
Charlie_mta

Charlie_mta

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Massachoicetts said:
Can't they just focus on the NSRL? The transportation planning in the Boston Area is drastically starting to fall behind other metros who seem to be making some strides and buckling down as of recently with the availability of grants and funds. This is quite embarrassing that the NSRL has no official/tentative date to start. What rail infrastructure project is on the table?

Quite disappointed with the State of Massachusetts recently.
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Several large metro area's transit agencies have a list of future transit extensions and other projects on their website, including status of planning, design, environmental clearance, and funding. It would be great if the MBTA would do that for the Red-Blue Connector, BLX to Lynn, and the extension of the Chelsea SL to Everett, plus any other significant transit projects on the horizon. It would keep the projects in the public eye and keep them going.
 
Highwayguy

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millerm277 said:
I am very interested in transit services with 9 second headways, I think that is the kind of service level every transit agency should look to provide. :LOL:
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“Trains would come every 5 minutes”
…Literally one bullet later…
“9 second headways”
😂

The wildest bullet isn’t even the airport travelator headways, but the expectation that gobs of people will happily pay $12 to ride Jacksonville Skyway Nord at most .9 miles!!! Maybe thats where the 9 came from?

JK, the wildest part of the plan is to spend $$$$ on the Jacksonville Skyway while not (according to their base map) fixing the SL’s spaghetti bowl ‘route’.
E1CECF0E-9E85-4922-8A68-2EE10B7E2978.jpeg
 
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F-Line to Dudley

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HenryAlan said:
This is a remarkable document. It's like they searched for the most laughable concepts and threw them all together, hoping that either something would stick, or that it would give them space to claim that they at least tried.
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It's the lack of focus that's most remarkable. All of these pie-in-the-sky concepts just collectively scream "We hate the Silver Line!", but actually improving the Silver Line is just presented as another slide buried in the middle of the deck (squint and you'll miss the sub-bullet that says possible LRT conversion) instead of as the galvanizing thrust for all neighborhood transit improvements. Total squirrel-brained thinking.
 
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F-Line to Dudley

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king_vibe said:
I have no idea what kind of study produced this document, but in their defense, a lot of preliminary engineering studies produce scores of insane options for the sake of completeness.
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And then those same studies usually relegate the insane ones to an Appendix. Like..."And ohbytheway, for completeness' sake we also benchmarked a gondola, a monorail, and grabbed every pair of rails we could cram down Track 61...but LOL to all of them." They don't get featured placement in the public presentation. The gondola, monorail, and Red-Track 61 spur were the #2, 3, and 4 slides in "Long Term Strategies" deck after the Red-Blue Connector. "Improve Silver Line Service" was #5...and it was out-scored in their fuzzy metrics by the Braintree Branch-destroying Red-61 spur, which is insane and calls into direct question how cooked their metrics were to begin with.

These things were presented like they were absolutely serious. Which is a total own-goal for the City's advocacy.


And no, NSRL isn't mentioned once in the long-term strategies...just the nutso Airport RR tunnel. That despite this slide appearing prominently in the Public Meeting presentation:
NS.png
 
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fatnoah

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...a rider making the 2 mile trip from North Station to Seaport Blvd...
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I do this commute twice a week, and I either walk, do the double transfer dance, or take the ferry. On average, when including average waits, they're all pretty comparable in terms of time. My observations are:

  • Speed - Despite its issues, the T squeaks out a victory here, though the occasional 10 minute wait for a Red Line train at S. Station often negates this. I've never tried the 4 bus, due to the 35 minute headways, and despite walking the same route that it takes, it's rare that I even see it while walking
  • Reliability - Walking, hands-down. If timing is tight, I'll simply walk because I don't trust the T enough to risk a 40+ minute visit to N. Station to wait for another train, though the Ferry is a close second. I have yet to experience a delay, but there has been a day or two where it wasn't running.
  • Cost - Walking wins again. Though the ferry is only $1.30 more than the subway if you're an a-la-carte customer of the T, which I am due to passes not making sense for a 3 day a week commute
  • Comfort - Ferry takes the prize here. Motion doesn't bother me, and it's spacious w/comfortable seats.
After seeing all of these ideas, I realize that what we really need for the seaport are two gondolas. One that essentially follows the route of the #4 bus, and one that starts at Back Bay and Connects to South Station and the Convention Center, with a possible extension to South Boston.
 
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