Tobin Bridge Repairs

I'm not sure its a good idea to upgrade transit service in corridors where existing service seems to be underutilized, or where good alternatives are already in place. In the corridor being discussed only Chelsea has a large underserved transit market. Improved connections from Chelsea over to the Blue Line (perhaps via a spur of that line) in Eastie seems like a better idea than new Charlestown or Downtown light rail/subway service. In Charlestown, the bus/ferry/Orange Line market provides service to within a couple blocks of almost all residents and I don't think a market exists for the downtown waterfront.
 
The Blue Line was originally going to go to Chelsea but when the MTA took over the opted for the Revere extension since the ROW was cheaper.
 
Blue line to Chelsea

vanshnookenraggen said:
The Blue Line was originally going to go to Chelsea but when the MTA took over the opted for the Revere extension since the ROW was cheaper.
Click to expand...

Do you know any details about that plan?
 
All I know is that when the Blue Line was originally light rail they were going to tunnel north from Maverick Sq along Meridian St. Around White St the line would have come to the surface and run at grade over a new bridge into Chelsea where it would have run in mixed traffic from there on. Most of the trolley traffic was coming from Chelsea so this was the logical extension, allowing the trolley traffic to funnel into Boston. When the Blue Line was converted to heavy rail in 1924 I think that BERy would have wanted to contiune with the extension but at this point Boston was in an economic depression which stopped all expansion until the MTA took over. The MTA decided to instead extend the Blue Line along the abandoned Narrow Gauge ROW up to Lynn but only got as far as Wonderland.

Don't quote me on the time periods though since it has been a long time since I read about the plans, but this is the basic jist of the situation.

I don't know if any serious plans were ever drawn up, all I ever saw was a small map. I would think that if the Blue Line was extended into Chelsea today it would not go along Meridian St but would swing in further up past the Airport station, entering Chelsea along Chelsea St and follow the abandoned ROW to connect with the commuter rail station. The best reason I could think of to actually build this extension would to connect the giant parking lots (and future parking garages if the line was built) to Logan Airport, or to build it with enough clearance so that the Urban Ring could be incorperated into the line.

Edit: There was also a map I saw that extended the Green Line in a tunnel to Chelsea past the Navy Yard, either through Charlestown or bypassing it and traveling under the harbor. This was just an idea though and I don't think any real plans were drawn up.
 
Charlie_mta you should not remove the existing expressway because u will need destroy building that is in the new expressway path. I think they extend the green line underneath the mystic river to get to Chelsea.
 
If the expressway and Tobin bridge were rerouted to the west as I had depicted, it would pass through a largely underdeveloped industrial area, requiring relatively few buildings to be demolished.

Constructing a branch of the Green Line to Chelsea would be nice, but it would require a new tunnel under the Mystic River, which would obviously be very expensive. Also, connecting to the existing Green Line would be a problem. There would probably have to build a new tunnel under the Charles River, unless somehow a connection to the Lechmere viaduct could be made near the Gilmore Bridge, with the new branch hedaed from there to City Square. This would require a new elevated rail structure alongside the Gilmore Bridge, which would be opposed by the existing and proposed high rise apartment buildings in the area.

It would probably be cheaper to build a branch of the Orange Line to Chelsea, with the Orange Line branching off between the tunnel portal in Charlestown and the Community College station, then loooping around towards Chelsea Street parallel to the highway loop ramps.
 
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