Regional Rail at NC IS rapid transit!If RER can't fix a broken, dysfunctional, Lynn Terminal, RER is not going to fix the broken, dysfunctional, Waltham Terminal.
Like with Lynn, RER from Waltham does not follow the path of where all of Waltham's buses and urban densities go. Look at the Waltham streetcar map above. All of Waltham's historical streetcar lines, with it's urban densities, are all oriented towards Watertown Sq. and Newton Corner, and not the CR to Belmont. RER is not going to fix the broken Watertown Sq. bus terminal, since there is no CR at Watertown Sq. RER does not hit all color change transfers, neither Waltham or Newton Corner CR have a Blue Line connection, and Newton Corner CR also lacks a GL connection. RER fare integration with bus + subway is problematic, compared to just bus + subway.
One can electrify the Fitchburg & Worcester Lines, plop in an infill in Newton Corner on the B & A, and run 7.5 minute headways as much as desired on both of the RER lines. Yet all of Waltham's bus headways are still going to be eaten up by the 70, the 505, and in the pre-COVID era, all of Waltham's 55x buses, making distended super-extended runs to Cambridge and Downtown. Waltham's buses cannot cycle efficiently back and forth to Waltham Terminal because those super extended runs means all of Waltham's buses get stuck in Mass Pike traffic, or getting bunched making the long 16 kilometer slog through Arsenal St. and Western Ave. to hit all of those color change rapid transit transfers bringing riders where they want to go. The 70 bus to Waltham is among the top 10 most bunched routes in the MBTA system, because 16 kilometers of street running in mixed traffic kills reliability completely, and running a 16 kilometer route on KBR headways under BNRD is going to consume a lot of buses. Why did the 70 between Watertown Sq. and Waltham get KBR status in BNRD, and not the 54 to Belmont that parallels the CR? It's because riders from Waltham Center want to get to Watertown Sq. and Newton Corner, not Belmont. CR/RER to Belmont does not bring Waltham riders where they want to go, so RER can't possibly fix the broken Waltham bus terminal. Riders constantly fill buses to Watertown Sq. from Waltham and buses to Wonderland from Lynn. The historical Watertown Branch Railroad is one of the few branch railroads to ever have seen such signficant heavy traffic it had to be double tracked the entire length, serving as the primary railroad connection to Waltham, not the main line via Belmont.
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The 55x bus routes were cut back to Newton Corner due to COVID, WFH, & the lack of bus operators. BNRD is going to cut back and reduce Waltham's bus system (mostly the 55x routes being axed), aside from upgrading the 70 to KBR. This essentially causes all those last mile shares from Waltham to be inaccessible to the rapid transit system and killing potential ridership, since one has got to take two buses to reach those rapid transit color transfers, or pay an extremely expensive bus fare + CR fare with no free/discounted transfer + an additional transfer from RER to the Red/Orange to hit the Blue/Green transfers.
Given how F-Line comments about RER vs HRT to Lynn, I'm under the impression that with no rapid transit to Watertown Square, Newton Corner, or Waltham Terminal, means that one is never going to get any meaningful bus headways for last mile shares out from Waltham Terminal, even with RER. Only a proper HRT extension hitting all 3 terminals are ever going to give one any meaningful bus headways for last mile shares in the Waltham area. High frequency urban rail from Waltham has got to hit Watertown Sq., not Belmont.
If one wants better bus service to Waltham, one has got to start with bringing rapid transit to Newton Corner and Watertown Square, then extend one of those rapid transit lines all the way to Waltham Terminal.
If one can pull off BLX to Newton Corner via the B & A alignment, one will be able to instantly nuke all of those express buses, and get balanced 1:1 bus cycling out from the Newton Corner terminal. The bus headways redistribution will instantly be able to provide a rudimentary level of service across the Waltham area & prop up demand for those last mile shares.
GLX from Union to Watertown Sq. via Porter could help, potentially allowing the 70 bus to be split into 2 separate routes at Watertown Sq. and finally allowing Watertown Terminal to have balanced 1:1 bus cycling. The western segment of the 70 to Waltham would still be load bearing. That could be fixed with an extension of rapid transit from Watertown Sq. to Waltham Center, whether with BLX from Newton Corner via Watertown Sq., or GLX from Watertown Sq. to Waltham Terminal.
Once one has got a Waltham - Watertown rapid transit extension, the western segment of the 70 bus would no longer be load bearing. Now at last, all those bus headways are now finally freed up and can be reinvested across the entirity of the Waltham area to provide increased frequencies for all those last mile shares, and possibly add crosstown routes to Lexington and Arlington, with balanced 1:1 bus cycling out from Waltham Terminal.
No rapid transit to Newton Corner, Watertown Sq., or Waltham, likely means no improved bus service in the Waltham area. It's only fixed with rapid transit extensions hitting all three bus terminals finally allowing bus service to be improved in the Waltham area with balanced 1:1 bus cycling from all of the terminals, and get those last mile and crosstown shares. It was back in 1972 when the MBTA decided to extend the 70 all the way to Waltham, dragging out Waltham's buses all out onto super-extended distended runs to Cambridge and Downtown and destroying Waltham bus headways & reliability, 52 years ago.
Waltham Transit & Connectivity
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Regional Rail at NC IS rapid transit!
JeffDowntown
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Not until it has a Rapid Transit fare structure, including bus transfer credit.
RER won't attract riders with Zone 2 and 3 fares inside 128. Any portion of RER considered Rapid Transit needs to be Zone 1A.
mjbellantoni
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Apologies for the off-topic aside, but an RLX project that terminates at Arlington Heights is DOA politically. (Happy to hear replies in whatever thread is appropriate.)
The T def needs the money, sooo.....
Delvin4519
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In that case, then electrified 7.5 min freqs on the Newburyport/Rockport Line to Lynn with the zombie Wonderland infill is also Rapid Transit and would be more than enough to fix the broken Lynn bus Terminal (hint: it won't).
¡BUS TERMINALS! HOW DO THEY WORK?!?! needs translation from F-Line to Dudley or something.
Watertown Square today has no Commuter Rail service, and I'm not aware of any RER proposals that will bring RER directly to Watertown Square, if there are any actual proposals for this, let me know.
1 kilometer (3,300 feet) separates the Watertown Square bus terminal from the RER Newton Corner infill on the Commuter Rail. I highly doubt Waltham/Watertown bus riders will want a 15 minute freezing cold walk to transfer from local bus <---> regional rail, paying an extra double fare to get on the RER, or transferring to the 57 bus and waiting 11 - 16 minutes off peak weekends/evenings for such 1km connection to such second bus to access Newton Corner RER from the Watertown bus terminal. In that case, Watertown Square will still be left as a danging end unconnected to the rapid transit rail network.
RER from Newton Corner will not have a Green Line connection or a Blue Line connection. RER from Newton Corner will not provide rapid transit connections at Hynes to meet the Green Line or the 1 bus, no South Cove connection for the SL4/SL5, missing RER stops at Faneuil, Brighton Depot, Allston Depot, or BU, to meet the 47, 64, 66, or the 86 buses and allow last mile bus riders to reach RER service.
Bus riders are still going to ride the 70 out to Central Sq. in Cambridge, or the 57 to Kenmore. If Waltham and Watertown bus riders don't want to pay another commuter rail fare at RER transfer stations and give up their OSR to the Green Line, then they're going to want to keep their express buses directly to downtown to keep their single OSR bus fare and GL connection. All of those bus headways are still going to be eaten up by Waltham's 70 bus and the 57 in Allston-Brighton, with no bandwidth leftover to give the 64 or any of Waltham's buses (or Allston-Brighton either) their frequencies worth. RER riders need to get off at South Station. All of those riders need to board the Red Line to hit that Green Line transfer at Park or the Red-Blue connector at MGH for the BL connection. And the Green Line between Kenmore and Copley will remain overloaded as ever, since none of the buses are ever going to serve Beacon Yards (West Station) without a frequency destroying schedule killing loop a thon to reach that RER station. The lack of bus connections at Beacon Yards, Boston Landing, with the missing GL connection at Hynes means forever depressed ridership at RER stations since none of the last mile ridership shares can access RER service at these stations, since none of the yellow painted buses nor the rapid transit lines properly connect with these RER stations.
Is the 16 kilometer slog of the 70 bus going to be super extended again 2 more km from Watertown Square to Newton Corner to make an insane loop-a-thon around the Newton Corner traffic nightmare to give Waltham/Watertown a direct OSR connection to this "pseudo rapid transit link" on the B & A? RER at Newton Corner is not going to touch the 70 bus that never gets anywhere near the B & A alignment. 11 km on the 70 bus from Waltham Center all the way to Central Sq. in Cambridge with no rail connections anywhere in between as it gets horrendously bunched through all of Watertown's and Allston Brighton's traffic congestion.
The only way the bus terminals at Waltham, Watertown Square, and Newton Corner will ever become functional again is once again, actual rapid transit hitting all of these 3 terminals. That includes actually serving Watertown Square with an actual rail link, an actual rapid transit connection directly at Watertown Square.
If RER at Newton Corner is "good enough" for Waltham/Watertown riders, surely that should make the zombie Wonderland RER infill good enough for Lynn riders, but it isn't.
RER is not going to absolve us from the generational responsibility of building BLX to Lynn. RER is not going to absolve us from the task of bringing rail rapid transit service directly to Watertown Square alongside Newton Corner, and then onwards to Waltham. Once sea levels start flooding Charlestown, Eastie, and the Seaport, then the task of building high frequency transit within the inland western suburbs of Boston will become an extra pressing need.
No rapid transit to Watertown Square means no balanced 1:1 bus cycling from Watertown Square, and with no balanced 1:1 bus cycling from Watertown Square means no balanced 1:1 bus cycling out from Waltham Terminal. With no balanced 1:1 bus cycling from Waltham Terminal means forever depressed last mile ridership shares to all rail, including RER service. The entire corridor from Back Bay through Allston/Brighton/Watertown to Waltham Center is never going to get good bus headways until all 3 bus terminals finally get fixed with proper rapid transit extensions hitting all three to end the madness of super extended routes to Cambridge and Downtown.
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TheRatmeister
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Or at least have a reasonable fare, like $3.50 or $4 or something. I do think that the notion that everywhere inside of 128 should have the base rapid transit fare is a bit out of whack, the idea that residents of Lexington, Dorchester, Woburn, Brighton, Waltham, Salem, Brookline, and Mattapan should all pay the same fare to get to downtown has never really jived with me. Costs for any other mode of transit increase with distance, why should transit not?
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Organization before electronics before.........a recalibrated fare structure with ez transfer is one of the principles of Regional Rail.
The bus network needs to be reoriented to primarily N/S . While some 70/71/73 riders are simply going to Harvard/Central Sqs, most are going into the city. Even without NSRL(which is much more likely than BL anywhere west), Worcester Line gets you to the jobs in BB(as most are south of GL) LMA as good as any subway options, and the CBD, as well as close to Seaport as any other line.
Delvin4519
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Sure, but none of the stations on the Worcester Line connect to any north south bus routes. Boston Landing is inaccessible to the 86, so it's not going to pick up any N-S riders who want to get to it. Beacon Yards (West Station) isn't going to have any bus connections either, the 66 doesn't go anywhere near it, nor the 47 or the 64.
The RER stations at Beacon Yards and Boston Landing just don't work with the bus grid, they're all located halfway between each of the respective crosstown routes so none of the buses can ever reach RER stations here.
F-Line has mentioned this in another thread, but you're never going to mount any bus routes that hit Beacon Yards or Boston Landing. Malvern St. and Everett St. are all dead end streets and no bus routes can get to them without a super inconvenient loop a thon to reach those RER stations.
If the goal is to mount buses coming from the north and the south that all hit the Worcester Line, then it's going to be a necessity to plop down infills at Faneuil, Brighton Depot, Allston Depot, Cottage Farm, and Hynes Convention Center; so buses can actually get to the stations. Once that is done, all of the bus routes will hit all of the stations on the B & A giving full N-S connectivity to the line.
Notice a problem with this?
We're now asking trains coming all the way from Worcester to make 10 stops in the space of 10 kilometers so a north-south bus network can connect to the B & A line. Thats going to be a huge problem for Worcester riders, with a huge penalty for travel times having to make that many stops in Allston-Brighton. Expressing all of Worcester's and Framingham's trains isn't helpful since that would mean decreased frequencies for Allston-Brighton stations.
Plus, if all of the buses are devoted to the 70 and the 57, there's no bandwidth leftover to give any N-S crosstown routes or Waltham routes frequencies that meet the neighborhood's needs. BNRD is only going to give half hour headways for the 86 and the 64 since the 57 and the 70 are just going to consume that many buses. Plus all of Waltham buses that are supposed to reach Newton Corner, the 55x buses, most of them are going to be cut back and eliminated in BNRD, in order to re-allocate resources to increase route 70 service.
Again, RER cannot fix a broken Waltham bus terminal, nor is it going to fix the broken Watertown or Newton Corner bus terminals. Last mile and crosstown shares in the western suburbs, from Back Bay all the way to Waltham Terminal, are going to remain depressed, without the westward expansion of rapid transit that hits all three bus terminals, and finally give last mile shares and crosstown shares worth their frequencies worth.
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So, build a multimillion dollar BLX rather than adjust bus routes ? Makes total sense to me. And I agree that a Fanuiel infill is necessary, but a GL A line to Harvard through West Station could also do a branch to Allston Depot, and there might even be space to push it as far as BL or at least close. The 57 should be a pale ghost of it's present self if replaced with shuttles to NC , Fanuiel, and West Station.
Do you have data to back your opinion?
Delvin4519
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Well that's literally the only way to end the insanity of bus bunching in Watertown/Newton Corner/Allston/Brighton and super extended bus routes from Waltham to Cambridge eating all of the available buses so there's never enough buses to give any other crosstown or Waltham routes their frequencies worth.
The aformentioned proposal proposes cutting the 57 in favor of buses making schedule-killing, frequency-reducing loop-a-thons to reach Faneuil, Boston Landing, and Beacon Yards, leaving huge gaps of frequent service in Allston Brighton and reducing last mile mobility and square to square connections in the neighborhood.
Just Faneuil, Boston Landing, and Beacon Yards leaves huge parts of Allston-Brighton without high frequency local service. There's still a need for Brighton Depot, Allston Depot, Cottage Farm, and Hynes, to fill in the gaps of frequent service, and those stations are all better positioned to receive buses coming from the north and the south. Brighton Depot on Market St. is physically the closest location to Brighton Center, Faneuil and Boston Landing are much further and inaccessible to crosstown buses. Allston Depot is the closest station to Allston Village and is the only way the 66 can physically get to it. Same with Cottage Farm and Hynes Convention Center to get a north south oriented bus network feeding into Cambridge with the 47 and the 1 buses getting connections with the 70 bus to Waltham.
There's physically isn't a way for buses from Brighton Avenue to get to Beacon Yards. I linked to F-Line's post but I guess I need to re-post it again here:
Look at this intersection. How are buses such as the 66, the 64, or the 47 supposed to get through here to Beacon Yards? It's not set up for buses to get in or get out in the slightest, not suitable for transit. The 47 bus can't get here, nor the 66 or the 64.
Beacon Yards and Boston Landing is not that different from Stony Brook. The street grid is all shredded to pieces by the time you get to Malvern St. for Beacon Yards and Everett St. for Boston Landing.
In the case of Boston Landing, buses physically can't get to it from Brighton Center. Everett St. has no hookup to Cambridge St., none of the buses can reach Boston Landing from Brighton Ctr. without introducing too many 'round-the-block turns killing schedule reliability. Look at the 64 with it's three headed 'round the block monster and terrible schedules, dragged off its North Beacon trajectory and yet it can't even get to the doorsteps of Boston Landing. Who navigating the ground in the neighborhood between Union Sq. and Brighton Center south of Cambridge St. is going to base their trip on a mid-block to catch a train at Boston Landing? The grid is all oriented towards Market St. (Brighton Depot) or Cambridge St. (Allston Depot), that's where all the buses go for connections, and that's how one is going to orient themselves through the neighborhood.
If RER had situated spots at Brighton Depot, Allston Depot, and Babcock St., RER would be able to get crosstown riders and last mile riders feeding into RER stations. Poor station siting, poor bus connectivity, plus the fact that the dysfunctional Watertown bus terminal doesn't work without a proper rail rapid transit link, means that ship has sailed. RER at Newton Corner - Boston Landing - Malvern St., simply doesn't work with the bus grid. It's not going to fix the broken bus terminals from Watertown Square to Waltham Center if buses can't get to rail stations. Waltham's 70 bus is still going to have a 11 kilometer distended run from Waltham to Central Sq. Cambridge. It can't hit any of the RER stations at Boston Landing or Malvern St., the stations are not suitability placed for any bus to get to it, including the 70, to reach it.
With the ship having sailed, the only way the bus terminals and the last mile shares and crosstown shares can be fixed, is with rapid transit extension restoring the original B & A stops alongside the new CR stops, to finally allow last mile bus riders and crosstown riders to reach rapid transit, then extend rapid transit out to Waltham Terminal whether with GLX coming from Watertown Sq. or BLX coming from Newton Corner via Watertown Sq., to finally fix the broken bus terminals and have crosstown shares and last mile shares getting their frequencies and rapid transit connections. It's literally not possible to cut back on the 57 or the 70, and reorient the entire bus grid towards rapid transit feeders and crosstown connections, without the full 1km rapid transit stop spacing on the B & A. and Watertown Sq. getting it's rapid transit connection to finally get 1:1 bus cycling from Waltham and Watertown.
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TheRatmeister
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Is that the only way though? I suppose while it doesn't really fix, or even touch, Allston/Brighton, the large version of the Aqua Line, running from Weston/128 to Harvard via Waltham Center, the Watertown Branch RR, and Mt Auburn St would be a pretty good way to:
- Provide a solid transit backbone for Watertown, bringing it back to a streetcar suburb and hopefully at least partially pulling it out of its deep post-pandemic ridership slump
- Better connect Waltham and Watertown to the RL at Harvard and RER at Waltham Center
- Serve existing and new developments on Pleasant St and in The Chemistry
- Consolidate demand from the 70 and 71, and at least some demand from the 55X buses onto a faster, higher capacity route
- Western segment can be easily provisioned for BLX, just raise the platforms
- Easy potential expansions along Belmont St to Waverley, Galen St to Newton Corner, or north along the I-90 median to serve the office centers (Although the cost-benefit here is trickier since stations would need to be quite substantial)
Delvin4519
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In terms that RER does not solve the underlying issues with anemic crosstown and last mile shares from Allston-Brighton all the way to Waltham Terminal. Only with rapid transit extensions hitting all three bus terminals, will it fix the bus terminals and redistribute bus headways across the entire Waltham/Watertown/Allston/Brighton corridor.
B & A hits all of the redevelopments at Boston Landing and Beacon Yards, and is a stone's throw from much of the 57 (especially towards higher density Allston), and has a much straighter alignment all the way to Newton Corner. It's also worth noting that underlying demand is much lower north of Mt. Auburn than it is in Allston-Brighton. The 71/73 were a lot more peaky with less demand off-peak than the 57, whereas the 57 has much flatter and greater all-day demand.
Newton Corner is also a bus terminal, primarily for the 55x routes, and a diversion from Boston Landing over to Arsenal Yards is going to leave the Newton Corner terminal still broken and require all of those buses at Newton Corner to be super-extended and frequency-deprived elsewhere to hit rapid transit connections. (BNRD will do exactly that - but to Watertown Sq.)
The amount of buses that can be freed up and reinvested in Waltham routes and crosstown routes is much greater when the 57 and the 70 are relieved of it's duties, than freeing up the 71. The 71 runs less frequency and is shorter than the 57 (5.6km through lower density areas/low frequency, vs. 8.5km through higher density/traffic congested/longer route/more frequency). The 57 corridor also has a lot more crosstown connections than the 71 corridor, so the ability to reconfigure the entire bus network to a N-S orientation is easier to do with the B & A alignment in Allston than in Watertown or Belmont, where the bus grid is less conducive for that.
TheRatmeister
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So a few points, but the main core of my argument is that there are 3 (Somewhat but not entirely connected) problems here: Bus transport in Waltham, bus transport in Newton, and bus transport in Allston/Brighton. There are some projects that go a long way towards addressing all three, mainly BLX, but there's no rule that says a good project has to do everything, there are plenty of projects that really focus in on doing just one, maybe two, like the Aqua Line, GL-A restoration, RER through Newton, etc. These projects are still worth talking about, even though they're not necessarily the ultimate end goal which would be BLX.
- You've talked a good amount about how demand on the 71 is relatively low, but I don't think that necessarily tracks with the population density, which shows it as being somewhat comparable to the 32. This is backed up by the BNRD map which suggests that about 22k people live within .25 miles of the 71 and 28k live within .25mi of the 32. And yet, the 32 has three times as many riders as the 71. I would say that there is much more to this story than "The 71 is a commuter route so its recovery is slow."
- With bus lanes, or even bike/bus lanes, on Galen St extending to Watertown Yard is a lot less of a problem
- Focusing on BLX as the primary means to reduce load on the 57 and mostly ignoring GL-A restoration seems a bit misguided. I would say they're both important and highly relevant to the transport future of the area
- Newton Corner is not super relevant to transit in Waltham, especially with RER and especially especially with the Aqua Line. "How can we rearrange bus routes in Newton?" is a question worth asking but it's a separate question.
- Same thing with Allston/Brighton
- As I think you point out, the 70 is one of the main ones for freeing up bus availability, and the Aqua Line would allow a majority of the line to be split off and the spare buses to be re-allocated to routes like the 553 and 554 or BNRD 56/58. (And GL-A would do the same for the 57 and Allston/Brighton)
Delvin4519
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I wasn't necessarily saying that it all has to be done with a single line. Watertown is probably best served with a line separate of that than to Allston Brighton, and Waltham can be served by either the Watertown Line or the Allston/Brighton Line. (If I said otherwise my bad)
4 - 5 bus routes from Waltham all run to Newton Corner through different alignments (553, 554, 556, and 558; 505 expresses through it). Extending those routes to Oak Sq. or Watertown Sq. would decrease frequencies for the Waltham bus network with longer cycling and route duplication on Galen St. or Tremont St. to hit either Watertown Sq. or Oak Sq.. All of the 55x routes all originate at Waltham and all provide last mile shares between Waltham Terminal and Newton Corner. So a rapid transit connection at Newton Corner ensures the routes would all terminate at Newton Corner and don't make distended runs to hit the A branch at Oak Sq. or Watertown Sq. terminal.
Brighton Center would gain a lot more crosstown connections with BLX, as a reconfigured bus network would give Brighton Center frequent connections to the B & A mainline with the 86 to Brighton Depot/Harvard, a rerouted 64 to Central via Allston Depot, plus frequent connections to the D with the 86 and the 65 to Reservior/Brookline Village. GL A can't deliver improved crosstown connectivity if it duplicates BLX.
GL A mostly parallels BLX with no way to access BLX until all the way to BU Bridge, from Brighton Center. A rider boarding the A branch at Oak Square would need to take the streetcar 5km all the way to BU Bridge/Cottage Farm to access rapid transit, despite BLX paralleling the entire corridor to Faneuil/Brighton Depot. Given a desire to reduce all of Boston's 25 mph streets to 18 mph/30 kmh & a lack of space to accommodate a dedicated streetcar median along most of the A, a trip from Oak Sq. to BU Bridge would lengthen by 3 - 5 minutes, compared to the excessive speeding of the 57 buses and car traffic today (say 36 mph/60 kmh). As such, it is desirable for surface routes to feed into rapid transit, so allowing Brighton Ctr. riders to reach rapid transit earlier/faster at Brighton Depot or Allston Depot, stops much closer to Brighton Center, than the streetcar ride all the way to BU Bridge/Cottage Farm. Plus, they'd gain crosstown connections to boot via those routings as well.
GL A restoration to Oak Sq. would also leave no room for dedicated bike lanes, as most of the streets between Newton Corner and Union Square Allston are not wide enough to support 4 vehicle lanes and 2 dedicated bike lanes. Plopping down GL A through the core of Allston-Brighton would mean the neighborhood would have much more limited ability to provide direct straight alignments for bicycle routes for cyclists. Commonwealth Ave. on the B has plenty of space for 2 streetcar tracks, 2 dedicated bike lanes, and vehicle lanes. The A branch likely does not have sufficent room to accommodate dedicated bike lanes alongside the streetcar tracks and vehicle lanes (let alone a dedicated median for streetcars + dedicated bike lanes & vehicle lanes).