JohnAKeith
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Re: North-South Rail Link
What's an SSX
What's an SSX
IN addition to NSRL, You'll see the following transit-related abbreviations here a lot:What's an SSX
Can someone better explain (or provide a link) regarding how NSRL relates to the red line subway? I keep hearing it discussed but I don't have a clear image in my head. Red line already has its own ROW across downtown, so is this a re-routing of it? I've seen NSRL notional schematics, but they all only showed commuter/amtrak rail lines. Thx.
Can someone better explain (or provide a link) regarding how NSRL relates to the red line subway? I keep hearing it discussed but I don't have a clear image in my head. Red line already has its own ROW across downtown, so is this a re-routing of it? I've seen NSRL notional schematics, but they all only showed commuter/amtrak rail lines. Thx.
From the south, the Red Line is 2, 2-track branches (A & B), and therefore a 4 track railroad from south of Savin Hill to north of JFK. Today, both the A & the B branches carry only half of their potential frequencies because they must be crammed together by alternate turns, into just 2 tracks by the time they get to Andrew, but at this point there's also the yard leads that can be used as 2 more northbound tracks.
- Its north would be new, but in a transit-hungry stretch Union-Porter-Alewife and provide a huge relief/bypass of the Harvard-Kenall-MGH-Park crush.
…
From North Station Under, Red X has basically the same bellmouth/portal options that the CR has:
- via Fitchburg Line Portal to Porter (displace the Union Sq GLX)
- via Lowell Line Portal to Medford/Woburn (displace the Medford GLX)
- Newbury Rockport Portal to Chelsea (unlikely)
Plus one other option that CR doesn't have:
Orange to Oak Grove (which is the same as saying "along the Haverhill Line")
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GLX was originally designed to accommodate conversion to heavy rail (mostly picturing Blue or Orange, but everything since the 1920s has been built with sufficient clearance to be converted to Red) The big stations were dropped in the redesign in favor of D-branch style, but AFAIK, the clearances for Red remain (but now you'd have to build a headhouse and faregates wherever the Red goes, unless we go to POP as we should.)IAnd I had the impression the long range planning on NSRL was not at all about inserting Red Line in there. Did I miss something? Is this still an option in the mix over at MassDOT and MBTA?
The Red X/NSRL described by Arlington above is not under consideration. It is an idea but NSRL is a a 4 track commuter rail/Amtrak tunnel and that is unlikely to change.
The issue is power to weigh ratio (any train carrying its own fuel will have a problem and diesel has higher energy density than even 2040s batteries are likely to) and power-per-axle (any traditional, heavy FRA compliant train with only a locomotive will have a problem).Do we really think that battery commuter trains won't have progressed substantially beyond the Japanese EV-E301 by the time the NSRL gets built?
Is there a cost comparison between NSRL and expanding south station? While I agree conceptually with the project as Arlington summed up redoing major portions of both the subway and commuter rail + additional stations downtown is going to make the cost of the Big Dig look like a trip to Wal-Mart. If building the GLX on an existing right of way and active tracks for 1 mile above ground costs $2Bn....yikes.
If the project is merely $8bn to let Amtrak and commuter rail go through, again that's a lot of money for several thousand people to not have to catch the orange line at North Station to reach downtown if coming in from the north.