Transit Planning $h!tposting (Ideas so bad, they're good)

TheRatmeister said:
This wasn't by happenstance though. Watertown, Brookline, Arlington, Brighton, Southie, much of Dorchester, etc were all Streetcar Suburbs, they were designed around streetcars in particular, not with rapid transit conversion in mind. That was the point, lower densities offered an escape from the less than pleasant urban life of the time. Had we as a society thought rationally about the future of streetcars in the 1940s and 50s, routes like the 16, 22, 28, 71, 73, and 77 would likely still be operated as streetcars.
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It's not about the densities being low. Even in the early 1900s, plans called for an El extension to what is roughly today the Malden bus terminal. This extension would've followed the routing of today's 109 and 106 buses from Sullivan Square via Broadway, Sweetser, and Main. Plus the southside El being extended from Nubian to Forest Hills, despite the city quickly fading into the abyss by the time it gets to Green Street.

West of Boston, you've got major bus terminals at Waltham Center, Watertown Square, and Newton Corner. Brighton Center (and debatably Union Square Allston) is also strong enough to warrent being a dedicated bus terminal. All of these bus terminals could be stringed together onto a single rapid transit line like with northside Orange. Waltham is the metro-west equivalent of Lynn and Quincy on the north and south-shores, so there is a corridor of density west of Boston, that, when stacked up, is almost to par with the Quincy and BLX corridors. However, street routings and the rail network; created a situation where there was no clear centralized corridor west of the city like with north and south. The hostile routings of the RR ROWs and the street grid left Allston, Brighton, Watertown, and Waltham; absolutely shafted in the transit expansion department (not to mention Harvard pulling demand away from Kenmore/Back Bay).
 
Delvin4519 said:
It's not about the densities being low. Even in the early 1900s, plans called for an El extension to what is roughly today the Malden bus terminal. This extension would've followed the routing of today's 109 and 106 buses from Sullivan Square via Broadway, Sweetser, and Main. Plus the southside El being extended from Nubian to Forest Hills, despite the city quickly fading into the abyss by the time it gets to Green Street.

West of Boston, you've got major bus terminals at Waltham Center, Watertown Square, and Newton Corner. Brighton Center (and debatably Union Square Allston) is also strong enough to warrent being a dedicated bus terminal. All of these bus terminals could be stringed together onto a single rapid transit line like with northside Orange. Waltham is the metro-west equivalent of Lynn and Quincy on the north and south-shores, so there is a corridor of density west of Boston, that, when stacked up, is almost to par with the Quincy and BLX corridors. However, street routings and the rail network; created a situation where there was no clear centralized corridor west of the city like with north and south. The hostile routings of the RR ROWs and the street grid left Allston, Brighton, Watertown, and Waltham; absolutely shafted in the transit expansion department (not to mention Harvard pulling demand away from Kenmore/Back Bay).
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BERY's 1945 transit expansion plan showed a stub end of an RL extension aimed straight at Waltham (see below). The RL would have terminated in east Watertown with a Mattapan style light rail line from the RL terminus to Arlington Hts. The interseting part is that the RL appears to be set up to extend to Waltham.

1730601632840.png
 
Charlie_mta said:
BERY's 1945 transit expansion plan showed a stub end of an RL extension aimed straight at Waltham (see below). The RL would have terminated in east Watertown with a Mattapan style light rail line from the RL terminus to Arlington Hts. The interseting part is that the RL appears to be set up to extend to Waltham.

View attachment 57499
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It likely wouldn't have been HRT Red Line to Waltham, but an extension of the Arlington Heights trolley west along the Watertown Branch, where the trolley could've handled the grade crossings and closely paralleled the (then-trolley) 71. The reason it wasn't proposed as such in the '45 plan is that it was wartime, and the Watertown Arsenal was doing huge freight volumes that necessitated the branch stay connected to the national network at the Waltham end.
 
Riverside said:
Someone on reddit posted an idea for a loop line connecting Waltham and Riverside. They called it an "unhinged" idea, so I don't feel bad about posting it in this thread:
View attachment 60097
(Higher res and additional details at link.)
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I like it. It's a good application of a cross-suburban transit route that connects radial lines in the outer towns, like a segment of an outer urban ring. The Boston area doesn't have any of those types of routes connecting the radials.
 
Isn't that the 1945 plan just with The Fitchburg ROW instead of the Boston and Albany? In a way, it's an old idea brought back to life arguably better.
 
I think the alternative to compare the "GLoop" to is just a pair of Green Line branches to Riverside and Waltham. (Maybe with both branches extended to a new MassPike/128 super station, but without through-running.) The loop aspect really only helps with Newton <> Waltham journeys, or B&A <> Waltham journeys. That's definitely intriguing, and I think a long-term vision for the area might benefit from those kinds of connections. But I think you'd want to compare the loop alternative to a series of north-south bus/streetcar routes, similar to the 52 or a combination of the 59+556.

I do like the idea of extending a far future Green Waltham branch down to something at the MassPike though, to offer a transfer to the Worcester Line.
 
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