Silver Line to Chelsea

djohnstonb said:
Chelsea City Manager could make the call. I bet he'd be game.
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Yeah he could. But I will also state that Chelsea has been trying to get FAA and MassPORT meetings about the airplane noise, and it's crickets.

Im pretty sure it would be the same about that ramp since its owned by Massport. When MassPort doesn't wanna do something, they don't.

I was going to try myself if I won my seat, but I dropped out. I guess I could team up with other city councilors to see if we could make some noise. But we need the service to start first :)
 
cybah said:
Yeah he could. But I will also state that Chelsea has been trying to get FAA and MassPORT meetings about the airplane noise, and it's crickets.

Im pretty sure it would be the same about that ramp since its owned by Massport. When MassPort doesn't wanna do something, they don't.

I was going to try myself if I won my seat, but I dropped out. I guess I could team up with other city councilors to see if we could make some noise. But we need the service to start first :)
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Honest question: do we know that Massport owns the ramp? Who paid for its construction during the Big Dig? This document states that the T "got permission from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to use an on-ramp near Silver Line Way" following the 2006 ceiling collapse. The Turnpike Authority is now MassDOT. From later in that document:
In cooperation with the State Police, as well as Massport, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and the City of Boston, the MBTA started using an emergency vehicle access ramp to the Ted Williams Tunnel during the morning peak just a few hours after the collapse occurred. Police oversaw the use of the ramp. Buses were the only vehicles in the Ted Williams Tunnel eastbound, and shared a lane with emergency vehicles going westbound. To address the increased demand for transit at the airport, two buses were added, and the SL1 ran at an 8-minute headway instead of a 10-minute headway. The MBTA estimates that ridership to and from the airport jumped about 70% immediately after the tunnel collapse, and gradually returned to normal as portions of the highway were re-opened.
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This Aloisi op-ed says that the "ramp is a public asset built and maintained with taxpayer dollars".

The Boston Assessing database shows that parcel being owned by "Commonwealth of Mass | Highway Dept" while the surrounding stuff is largely owned by Massport.

If the ramp was built with general highway funds and is controlled by MassDOT, Massport may have no say in its use... Massport's "cooperation" during the 2006 collapse may only have pertained to coordinating extra busses to serve the airport.
 
cybah said:
Yeah he could. But I will also state that Chelsea has been trying to get FAA and MassPORT meetings about the airplane noise, and it's crickets.

Im pretty sure it would be the same about that ramp since its owned by Massport. When MassPort doesn't wanna do something, they don't.

I was going to try myself if I won my seat, but I dropped out. I guess I could team up with other city councilors to see if we could make some noise. But we need the service to start first :)
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If you're on good terms with the councilors and could do that, that would be amazing. I think it's something that could get done if positioned right. It's a layup public transit victory that costs no money and could be done today. It would be a feather in the cap of any political incumbent.

Why does service need to start first though? Couldn't the mentality be that we're trying to set things up for success before they start?
 
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Re: Subway Line to Chelsea

Charlie_mta said:
A Blue Line branch to Chelsea could be done with no tunnels:

The Blue Line would be on the aqua color route:

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I think this might make more sense as a Green Line branch. If it were going to serve both Amazon's HQ2 and the casino on its way to Sullivan and Lechmere, it would probably get good ridership.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Paging Elon Musk...
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If you want Elon to address the issue of the bridge being raised to allow boats through and its impact on bus service, I wonder if you should be thinking more about Tesla than The Boring Company.

As far as I can tell, the only port facilities upstream of the bridge are for receiving fuel deliveries. Perhaps we should be focused on understanding whether there's any excess capacity at other nearby fuel facilities such that the fuel facilities upstream of the bridge could be bought out and closed down.

If there end up being recreational boat facilites upstream of the bridge in the future, perhaps plans should be made for a fixed bridge that's a bit higher than the current bridge in its lowered position.
 
Re: Subway Line to Chelsea

Joel N. Weber II said:
I think this might make more sense as a Green Line branch. If it were going to serve both Amazon's HQ2 and the casino on its way to Sullivan and Lechmere, it would probably get good ridership.
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Yeah, it could be a segment in an urban ring light rail line

In some ways I wish the Blue Line itself was light rail. The extension from Bowdoin to Charles Street would be very easy using the old portal and running on the surface to the Charles Red Line station.
 
Yay!!

The service starts in April!

No more taking those atrociously slow bus lines From Maverick Station that are constantly stuck in traffic & on Meridien Street waiting for that drawbridge to come back down!!
 
djohnstonb said:
Chelsea Record recently wrote an article about it:

http://www.chelsearecord.com/2017/1...come-together-service-to-begin-in-april-2018/
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A Note from the aB photography department:

I've been trying to take photos.. last few weekends just have been tough. I planned on going this weekend, but I may need to stay close to home for a electrician to come by.

And if I do not do it this weekend, it probably won't happen for 2-3 weeks due to the holidays.

Sorry about that. I'll try.. suppose to be sunny so good picture taking weather. But no promises.

(I post this because I had several people ask me for new photos recently.. not on aB but on social media)
 
Hey All-

It's time for another update.

As always, lots and lots of progress. More smaller details this time. All the busway and street markings are done. signage has been added everywhere. Much of the metal fencing is down, and there's just barrells preventing people from entering the busway now. Outside of the work at Bellingham Sq Station, and a few odds and ends here and there, the SLG is pretty much complete.

As said above, Bellingham Square station is lagging behind. Now they are putting up the ramp system, and finally putting the finishes up. But I think the station should be done by Mid Feb.

If you'd like to see the previous photo sets they can be found here by clicking on the links below:

Pics from 4/25/15
Pics from 6/20/15
Pics from 8/1/15
Pics from 9/19/15
Pics from 10/31/15
Pics from 1/9/16
Pics from 3/12/16
Pics from 4/16/16
Pics from 5/15/16
Pics from 6/26/16
Pics from 8/13/16
Pics from 10/5/16
Pics from 11/10/16
Pics from 12/14/16
Pics from 2/2/17
Pics from 3/23/17
Pics from 4/20/17
Pics from 6/3/17
Pics from 7/22/17
Pics from 9/9/17

And if you'd like to see the ALL of NEW photos, you can click here

Now for the highlights..

Here's looking at Eastern Ave Station as seen from Eastern Ave. It's like done.

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Another look at Eastern Ave Station.

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A new bike rack at Eastern Ave Station

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New signage at Cottage Street!

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Looking into the nearly complete busway toward the Bellingham Street Bridge

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A view of the busway looking toward Box District Station from the Bellingham Street Bridge

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New signage near Library Street

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Finished shared use path near Library Street

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A final look at the busway near Library Street

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Box District Station

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A closer look at Box District Station with the finished shared use path next to it

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A look back at Box District Station

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The shared use path (and now covered Eversource Box) as seen from the Broadway Bridge

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The finished busway as seen from the Broadway Bridge

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Looking into the busway from the completed Washington Ave Bridge

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Construction of the connecting ramp system to connect the station to Washington Ave

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Looking into Bellingham Sq Station from the Washington Ave Bridge

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Bellingham Sq Station as seen from Sixth @ Arlington

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The nearly completed Chelsea Station

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The outbound side of Chelsea Station, nearly complete

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The inbound side of Chelsea Station, nearly complete

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The busloop at Chelsea Station as seen from Market Basket's parking lot

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That's all for now. Next set will probably in February. I am still trying to get a offical tour, maybe that will be the next one, or a "snow edition" one. We'll see. I'll also say that the next set may be the last set before opening!!!! (or second to last set).

And as always, let me know what you think!
 
Fantastic photos! Looks pretty much done, and the stations look like a model for the cost-effective but still useful new MBTA.
 
Thank you as always for these photos!

I am still impressed by the station design. Simple, effective, and well conceived.
 
found5dollar said:
Thank you as always for these photos!

I am still impressed by the station design. Simple, effective, and well conceived.
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When I saw the mockups years ago.. I thought they were ugly.

Now I see them live.. not too bad. I only wish all the shelters had sides. Oh well. I will ask the PM about that.
 
Now if there were only tracks and overhead wires along this route it would really be nice.
 
cybah said:
Yeah he could. But I will also state that Chelsea has been trying to get FAA and MassPORT meetings about the airplane noise, and it's crickets.

Im pretty sure it would be the same about that ramp since its owned by Massport. When MassPort doesn't wanna do something, they don't.
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The airplane noise concerns are probably basically impossible to address in the short term without shutting down Logan. Are there specific things you were hoping Massport would do about noise which could be done without shutting down Logan?

Perhaps in the longer term we'll get hybrid airplanes with engines that burn Jet-A sized for cruise and batteries powering electric engines for the initial climb, and maybe if that works out it might end up being quieter, but I don't think anyone has developed that technology to the point where an airline can place an order for it.

The Ted Williams on ramp is probably a lot easier to deal with.
 
cybah said:
The outbound side of Chelsea Station, nearly complete

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It's interesting that they built a shelter on the outbound platform here; isn't this expected to be discharge-only, with no one waiting here, in the initial service pattern?

Is there some reason I'm missing why a shelter at a discharge-only bus stop is valuable?

Or are they planning ahead for extending service further west?

Or is 112 going to stop here?
 
It's cheaper to build both now than try and build a second platform when the service gets extended. The initial extension was cheap and Everett desperately wants better transit- we may be posting extension construction photos concurrent with GLX.
 
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