Waltham Mayor Proposes Monorail

[underground]

I swear to God, if any of you mention the Simpsons...

 

[bigeman312]

Or, you know, they could focus resources on improving the 70 bus first. But why use proven incremental fixes, when you can have a lavish, expensive, unproven proposal!

I understand that the 70 bus serves a different corridor than the proposed monorail, but it bothers me that there are easy, highly beneficial steps that can be taken to improve Waltham's public transportation, and they are being wholly ignored.

 

[Shepard]

I don't see who this benefits.

 

[underground]

@bigman
Yeah, seriously. Keep working on CR frequency, and talk to the MBTA about some sort of 128 corridor commuter bus, and BAM, you've solved your problem for a fraction of the cost.

 

[fatnoah]

I have a better idea, how about we bring the CitiBus back, but gear it mostly for commuters? I rode it regularly and it was great for my car-free commute from Beacon Hill to Bear Hill Rd (parallel to 128).

It provided decent Commuter Rail connections and the 8am bus from Waltham Center was always full. There was even a contingent of 5 or 6 commuters from Beverly that were able, thanks to tight connections, get to their jobs in about an hour.

A much better solution (as stated by @underground) is a bus or other 128 corridor network that connects the various CR stations with business centers. Throw in some better in-out CR connections like the 10 minute connection from Beverly to Fitchburg lines the aforementioned Beverly commuters used, and you've made some impact with minimal cost.

 

[Arlington]

I try to take both sides seriously when discussing monorails.

Don't make fun of monorail boosters, they're making an honest effort to describe transit that works in sprawly conditions (leaping across parking lots, and threaded under power lines, for example). Disney and Las Vegas have proved that they can move a whole lot of people who'd never otherwise set foot in mass transit, and don't we find that a pleasant thought?

Yes, the monorail boosters skip right over bus because of negative stereotypes they have about buses, and we'd all be better served if folks could focus on plain old widely-spaced stops, shelters, and frequent headways, but bus boosters (and agencies) have been really bad at actually delivering "better buses" that are advanced as the cheaper solution than monorails..

Maybe the Mayor would have drawn fewer (but not zero) sneers if she'd talked up streetcars, DMUs, and light rail (many of which are as badly implemented as express buses are).

At least she's talking transit.

 

[Shepard]

How could any linear transit - whether monorail or light rail - serve the various business parks on either side of 128 without doing some bizarre zigzag?

 

[bigeman312]

At least she's talking transit.

Agreed, but not all transit was created equal (both in cost and usefulness). While it is good that she is talking transit, it is also helpful to discuss the many possible iterations of "transit" and their respective cost-benefit/likelihood of happening. That's true whether she's talking about hyper-loops or buses.

 

[HalcyonEra]

How could any linear transit - whether monorail or light rail - serve the various business parks on either side of 128 without doing some bizarre zigzag?

I think you could run a loop from Main St along 128 on Bear Hill, out around the reservoir, onto to Trapelo and across 128, then down Wyman and carrying through Prospect Hill.

 

[Arlington]

I think you could run a loop from Main St along 128 on Bear Hill, out around the reservoir, onto to Trapelo and across 128, then down Wyman and carrying through Prospect Hill.

Sadly, the Winter Street hilltop stuff is a terrible dead end, hemmed in by Weston (South) Lincoln (North & West) and Cambridge's Reservoir (East). Lincoln has underscored this point by making their roads one way for just long enough to choke off the AM rush.

Winter Street is going to either be a terminus (it'd be a natural terminal loop of an all-Waltham system even) or bypassed, but never a stop on a linear line.

I think any "train" (whether mono- or steel-railed) if it is linear, is going to have to stick parallel to 128, no further west than Bear Hill Rd, no further East than the power lines ROW

 

[Shepard]

I think you could run a loop from Main St along 128 on Bear Hill, out around the reservoir, onto to Trapelo and across 128, then down Wyman and carrying through Prospect Hill.

Sure, you could, but then you'd have no connection to any real transit. Basically that would only serve the three or four people each day who for some reason or another need to move between different office parks and who don't want to take their car.

 

[HalcyonEra]

Sure, you could, but then you'd have no connection to any real transit. Basically that would only serve the three or four people each day who for some reason or another need to move between different office parks and who don't want to take their car.

You could run it down to the commuter rail line and have a new stop.That route would cover 75% of Waltham's office parks.

But the mayor's idea is to run it from Westwood to Burlington.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

 

[Shepard]

I must never return to this thread if I want to keep my blood pressure down.

 

[Matthew]

<3 Monorail Cat!

 

[whighlander]

You could run it down to the commuter rail line and have a new stop.That route would cover 75% of Waltham's office parks.

But the mayor's idea is to run it from Westwood to Burlington.

as actually suggested by the Mayor of Waltham

Under her vision, McCarthy said she would hope to have an elevated electric monorail built that would connect Burlington to Waltham and then run down to Westwood and connect to the existing Fitchburg/South Acton commuter rail.
McCarthy said she is lobbying the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to include the idea in a feasibility study it plans to do about the Route 128 corridor.
- See more at: http://waltham.wickedlocal.com/article/20150112/NEWS/150119235#sthash.nMRXmFcW.dpuf

I think that this means threading the Monorail along the RT-128 ROW --However, lots of issues at the intersections

 

[underground]

However, lots of issues at the intersections

Not to mention, a lot of the office parks would still be +1mile walks from the monorail station. 128 ain't exactly Comm Ave.

 

[whighlander]

Not to mention, a lot of the office parks would still be +1mile walks from the monorail station. 128 ain't exactly Comm Ave.

Uground -- then you have a fleet of Hubways and Zipcars at each station giving the commuter the options of walk, bike, drive depending on weather, fitness level and time, etc.

Or to really make it Jetsonville there could be a network of Gerbil Tubes with moving sidewalks feeding into each building in each office / R&D center

 

[Jahvon09]

Probably looking at years of construction headaches & traffic delays, which part of, is already in effect now because 128 is being widened in some areas.

 

[whighlander]

Note -- if Stephanie Polack formerly of the CLF is to be the next Transportation Secretary ==> well then its on with the Monorail