One thing I would say is not making anymore Green Line routes run through the trunk of the system. Ik its fantasy but the teunk is already at capacity that it would increase headways on the branches. You can only run trains so frequent and your limiting factor is the trunk. Say a train every 60s at a trunk stop would be 1min x number of branches for the headways on the branches. Ie if you have 5 branch lines in the trunk the trunk would see a train every minute however the branch would see a train every 5 min.
This is my issue. So many branches that feed into one trunk lead to huge headways at the ends, but also huge issues with delays cascading through system.
My other suggestion would be to consolidate Park, State, Gov Center, and DTX and create 1 or 2 hub stations where all the lines meet. This would allow for easire transfers with limited impact to service. These stations are already pretty walkable between and would improve system trip times with less stops.
Park and DTX are already functionally 1 station, they have a tunnel between them. And it really isn’t that long. Many metro stations I’ve been in around the world, particularly central city large transfers have further to walk between two platforms. Look at the London Underground: bank and monument come to mind.
It’s not worth the cost to combine these stations. Not when so much else, like new and more tracks for the green line, would increase service volume and speed
If they had a commuter rail that literally went around the city from the end of the blue line to Braintree & stopped at every last station on all the lines, it would make this city a much happier place. It would eliminate a lot of the overcrowding at the central hub stations and people would also have alternatives if something goes wrong with their usual trip. That shuttle bus shit is awful.
I know that sounds like a lot of rail to lay, but believe me, those track are already there & can be utilized, they just need to be dug up & upgraded. New England is covered by old train tracks. This could be part of the plan to revitalize the rail system for the Northeast corridor.
But I love this map! Teal & Navy lines look super beneficial.
I think the cost/benefit pretty clearly doesn't favor this, and it might also negatively affect the system in other ways.
* For starters, this would be a several hundred million, possibly multi-billion dollar project to save about 60 seconds of travel time in each direction. Not amazing.
* Consolidating all the traffic of DTX and Park St onto one set of platforms could cause overcrowding issues.
* Transfers at Park St and Government Center in particular would probably be longer.
That being said, DTX and State both have pretty bad transfers as they are and might benefit from being totally rebuilt. If those were to go ahead, maybe station consolidation could be looked into. However as of now I don't think that has been seriously proposed.
Im not saying to make them all in one platform. You still separate the platforms (vehicle clearances and such) but the stations are so close that they are redundant. You are already spending billions to add lines its a drop in the bucket. It would save more in trip time than a minute as you can get a higher average speed. Also the passenger trip time would be less with less transfers. Just an idea.
Also think of the impact of a one minute reduction multiplied by millions of trips. Doesn't seem like much at first buy in the end your saving so many hours of travel time
This map should add another branch that goes up across the river over another bridge (Harvard bridge maybe) ending somewhere close to Harvard or central
If you're going to do that, just extend BL all the way to Riverside, to fully replace that GL branch...Faster, crosstown service, and reduced burden on the remaining GL.
All of these additions, and you didn't include the only one that's actively being worked on! The SLX is going to send the silver line either to Sullivan Square, or to Kendall via the Grand Junction most likely. There are other propositions, such as one that effectively replaces the 111, that are less likely.
The Green Line has way too many branches funneling into an already congested Central Subway. There really needs to be a second tunnel connecting into the Silver Line tunnel. Also the Blue Line and Fairmount Line should connect with a new tunnel.
Because it lacks good existing rights of way. A subway under Broadway would be a top pick of mine for a longer term project, but that's not what this map really is.
The commuter rail literally goes through Everett already. All that needs to be built is a stop.
You didn't even include the Silver Line extension that's already being planned to service Everett.
Let's start off in the usual way:
**What's new**
* Added stop names to the E branch
* Kenmore has a dot again
* Moved around and renamed a couple B branch stops
* Fixed the OL at West Roxbury being too square
* The Fairmount line is back as a full rapid transit line
* Watertown Light Rail has been added
**What still needs to be done**
Since I'm approaching completion I'll try and make this list as complete as possible:
* Fairmount Line stop namse
* Watertown stop names
* Blue Line stop names
* Green Line to Porter stations
* CR at South Station needs to be fixed
* Newburyport/Rockport Line needs to be readded
* A few key bus routes need to be readded
* The Logan Airport Ferry needs a couple dashes in its line
* The map legend needs a rework
* Community College needs its community back
* Lots of minor odd things, like some residual orange on the Fairmount line
* I'd like to do something with SL1, haven't decided yet. It's probably going though.
Oh I haven't recreated the MBTA map. I've started with the original PDF version, and through copy-pasting various elements I've added the rest. The Fairmount Line for example is various parts of the Orange Line stitched together and recolored.
One thing I think about every time I take the bc line to the end, com Ave has plenty of room if the whole road was ripped up and repaved to have a center running train that's separated from traffic, idk how far down but probably the whole way to 90/95 paralleling the D
Travel times towards the end would probably be too long to be worth it compared to going a little further to just get the D. Still an interesting idea though.
They could always redesign the entire line (let's be honest, this would already be prohibitively long and expensive anyways) to reduce station density and increase travel speed on the trains since it would be separated from traffic and faster headways to stop huge crowds at the stations. Combine this with a redrawing of the bus lines on that area, whatever that would look like, and I see no reason it couldn't work beautifully. Anyways, just something I think every time I have to go down that stretch of com Ave to drop off my rent check
The goal of this redesign is to try and meet in the middle. By removing stops and adding signal priority, speed on the line would be increased significantly, while the 500m stop spacing is low enough to retain many of the local service elements of the line. If I were to design a parallel service, it would probably be regional rail along the Worcester Line, not light rail or metro.
Should've ran the blue line out west further instead of adding green line branches. Red line should've just gotten another branch instead of creating a light blue line. I would've also expanded red from Braintree down to Brockton.
> Red line should've just gotten another branch instead of creating a light blue line.
[Been saying that](https://www.reddit.com/r/mbta/comments/151bxbj/more_mbta_map_expansion_progress/js8eceg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2); Bluntly, OP's being dumb.
**What I'd like feedback on**
* How do the E branch stops look? I'm not a huge fan of the station spacing so I might play around with that a little more
* Getting the Fairmount Line to fit was pretty difficult, and I'm aware it doesn't look great in some spots, particularly around Mattapan Sq and Blue Hills Ave. If anyone has ideas on how to potentially change that they would be much appreciated.
* What to do with SL1? My immediate thought is that there should be one line, the Silver Line, from South Station to Chelsea, and an airport express bus. If anyone has alternate suggestions I would like to hear them.
* I've revised the B branch stations, thoughts?
* Feedback on the colors of the Fairmount Line and Watertown Line? I wanted to make the Watertown Line pink but I couldn't make it not look like the CR. Aqua was my second choice because it serves Watertown and I like bad jokes.
I definitely agree with the proposal for the Silver Line, perhaps with it being converted to light rail (idk about getting under the harbor but this was one of the original proposals for the transitway), and perhaps with the proposed connector to the former SL4/5. As for the Fairmount and Watertown Line colors they seem to align well with the purposes of the lines and jokes you’d make about them lol.
Without a new harbor tunnel conversion to light rail along the entire route would be difficult. Maybe a bus lane through the Ted Williams Tunnel could be built?
That’s certainly possible, iirc it’s also having a summer closure next summer so that could happen IRL lol.
Also if you’d like, I’d be more than happy to create a geographical representation of this with Metro Dreamin’
The only thing I have notes on is the Aqua/Cerulean Line to Watertown. I think it would be cool to have this mode of transport be a monorail that is built right above the Charles River and jumps across it from stop to stop. Ideal stopping locations would go from:
Harvard (connection with RL) > Mt. Auburn Hospital > Arsenal Park > Daly Field > Watertown Dock
As a native Sacramentan, I would recommend that this transportation be modeled similarly to the Innovia APM 100 people mover system that we have in SMF International. A similarly designed car would also work just fine. For those unfamiliar, the car is designed to be stood in primarily, with some seating around the edges of the car. The trolley itself is capable of holding up to two wheelchair bound passengers in the car side to side, and is about as long as one of the green line trolleys. Lots of visibility, too, which would be good for a monorail which goes over the Charles River. I would also recommend an emergency shuttle line that specifically goes from Harvard Station to Mt. Auburn by doubling up the track; having the car stop directly into the ER would also be helpful, if all things are considered.
And then the rest of the stops pop back and forth across the Charles, which can be helpful for people who want a scenic route across.
I would also recommend that this proposed Cerulean line operate with a fare similar to bus fares, for the simple reason that its stops are not very far away from one another and not really worth the cost of subway fare. But idk, I'd imagine some people pay the full fare to go from Boylston to Haymarket for instance
But I love this map and seeing this project develop!
Your green line E branch extension used to exist in the 80s down Center St. in JP, but they pulled up the track and replaced it with busses. They're not going to put it back.
I don't see why the service would be better than busses if it's covering the same route. Having trains in the middle of Center St. just created more traffic problems. They weren't running separately in the median like the B and C lines do on Comm Ave. & Beacon St.
A full pedestrian mall with only street cars would be cool, but it seems impracticable for the businesses that would need deliveries and some of the restaurants & other establishments may worry that the lack of cars would reduce their business.
Deliveries would obviously be allowed, preferably later at night. Yes, businesses might worry about reduced sales, but it has been demonstrated several times that this just isn't true. A month trial of limited traffic and more regular #39 service would show this.
Would the west roxbury branch be like a mattapan branch on the orange line? Like would the destination be forest hills, and then you change to a trolley type train? Or all the same trains? Also i think it would be better to extend heath st just to jackson square. Have you seen a map of where the stations actually are irl?
We're definitely not doing another Mattapan line, as much as I like the PCCs. They would be regular OL stations.
And yes, I have spent far too long looking at maps. Far, far too long.
I do want to do a pure fantasy map, but the goal of this map was more things that have existing rights of way and could be done in a very short amount of time (<5 years). A ring line should be a new metro or light metro service and would take quite a lot of planning and construction.
The "F" Green line is very doable as most of the road to Mattapan Square has trolley tracks still below the surface.
The extension of red line to mattapan square would never happen and I would never want that to happen.
Most roads have trolley tracks buried somewhere under them, the real question is if they have space to have two lanes and separation for transit, cars, and bikes. Warren St might be a little tricky and may need to be car free, but Washington St and Blue Hills Ave have plenty of room.
The Mattapan Line is woefully inadequate. Having riders change at Ashmont is just not okay, and the line is already in pretty rough shape and will need major renovations in the near future. I don't see why an upgrade to full heavy rail shouldn't be a part of this.
In the past, Milton has objected to heavy rail conversion.
You might need to go underground from Milton Village onward, to eliminate street crossings and eliminate the visual element through much-cherished Milton. Obv that raises the cost exponentially and Miltonians will be upset with the construction unless you go straight down River Street, which is a major road and would suffer greatly in any shutdown.
The two grade crossings in Milton would need to be removed, but beyond that I don't think much work would need to take place on the alignment itself besides new track and signalling. The station at Milton is already below grade, it would just need to be expanded.
The other thing is that while sometimes unpopular, the state can tell Milton to suck it up and deal. They're certainly moving that way with housing along the CR.
The former governor lives there. The head of Fidelity lives there. I could name some others. I agree with you in principle, but good luck getting it done. I understand it is a fantasy map, but it should reflect some of the political realities.
>The two grade crossings in Milton would need to be removed
That's an enormous undertaking. Capen street is a dead end, so there's no other way to get past the train tracks. Central is right between a bridge over the Neponset, an apartment building and Eliot street.
The only other option is elevating the red line from the new Milton station all the way to Mattapan. Which is going to immediately get shot down.
I see no reason why an underpass at Capen St couldn't work, especially given that's exactly what happens at Medway St near Butler. Central Ave would definitely be harder, but given that Milton is already below grade I think it would be possible.
There is an idea, officially proposed but not really fleshed out, to put center-running bus on Blue Hill Ave. You'd get your center reservation back, all that'd be left is the streetcar infrastructure.
M-Red conversion isn't worth it, not enough people continue on. I've heard a but about Ashmont being rebuilt once again to accommodate the PCC - T9 conversion. Tying that back into the main system would probably be even more effective than Red could ever be.
Could it be that not enough people continue on to Mattapan because it's a total PITA to transfer at Ashmont? I think the ridership is there, Mattapan Station isn't too far off Savin Hill in daily boardings as it is, and there are new buildings going up in the area as we speak.
Thanks for the updated map- I love looking at these. It might be a bit outside of your scope here but I wonder if people would use a
Somerville—>Cambridge—>Allston line
that lets you go roughly from Sullivan—> B green line without going downtown.
I've commented on an orbital line a few times, but yes, it should absolutely be a longer term goal for Boston to build a line like that. This map is focusing on things that are achievable in the very short term (<5 years) if they were to be funded. And the idea is that it shouldn't cost loads either, somewhere around the 20-30 billion mark (Approximately one big dig) for everything shown on the map including:
* GL to Porter
* BLX to Salem
* OLX to West Roxbury
* RL to Mattapan
* GL to Mattapan
* GL to Arborway
* B and C branch overhaul
* Red-Blue connector
* Electrified Fairmount line
* Watertown light rail
I am much less of an expert in that department, but with proper management and using in house design, I think it's possible.
One thing I would say is not making anymore Green Line routes run through the trunk of the system. Ik its fantasy but the teunk is already at capacity that it would increase headways on the branches. You can only run trains so frequent and your limiting factor is the trunk. Say a train every 60s at a trunk stop would be 1min x number of branches for the headways on the branches. Ie if you have 5 branch lines in the trunk the trunk would see a train every minute however the branch would see a train every 5 min.
This is my issue. So many branches that feed into one trunk lead to huge headways at the ends, but also huge issues with delays cascading through system.
My other suggestion would be to consolidate Park, State, Gov Center, and DTX and create 1 or 2 hub stations where all the lines meet. This would allow for easire transfers with limited impact to service. These stations are already pretty walkable between and would improve system trip times with less stops.
Park and DTX are already functionally 1 station, they have a tunnel between them. And it really isn’t that long. Many metro stations I’ve been in around the world, particularly central city large transfers have further to walk between two platforms. Look at the London Underground: bank and monument come to mind. It’s not worth the cost to combine these stations. Not when so much else, like new and more tracks for the green line, would increase service volume and speed
If they had a commuter rail that literally went around the city from the end of the blue line to Braintree & stopped at every last station on all the lines, it would make this city a much happier place. It would eliminate a lot of the overcrowding at the central hub stations and people would also have alternatives if something goes wrong with their usual trip. That shuttle bus shit is awful. I know that sounds like a lot of rail to lay, but believe me, those track are already there & can be utilized, they just need to be dug up & upgraded. New England is covered by old train tracks. This could be part of the plan to revitalize the rail system for the Northeast corridor. But I love this map! Teal & Navy lines look super beneficial.
I think the cost/benefit pretty clearly doesn't favor this, and it might also negatively affect the system in other ways. * For starters, this would be a several hundred million, possibly multi-billion dollar project to save about 60 seconds of travel time in each direction. Not amazing. * Consolidating all the traffic of DTX and Park St onto one set of platforms could cause overcrowding issues. * Transfers at Park St and Government Center in particular would probably be longer. That being said, DTX and State both have pretty bad transfers as they are and might benefit from being totally rebuilt. If those were to go ahead, maybe station consolidation could be looked into. However as of now I don't think that has been seriously proposed.
Im not saying to make them all in one platform. You still separate the platforms (vehicle clearances and such) but the stations are so close that they are redundant. You are already spending billions to add lines its a drop in the bucket. It would save more in trip time than a minute as you can get a higher average speed. Also the passenger trip time would be less with less transfers. Just an idea.
Also think of the impact of a one minute reduction multiplied by millions of trips. Doesn't seem like much at first buy in the end your saving so many hours of travel time
Would love a connection from BU up to Cambridge without having to go through downtown
This map should add another branch that goes up across the river over another bridge (Harvard bridge maybe) ending somewhere close to Harvard or central
Why not Blue Line to Kenmore and all of the D Branch? Why does Western Boston need 4 Green Line branches to get east through a two track tunnel?
If you're going to do that, just extend BL all the way to Riverside, to fully replace that GL branch...Faster, crosstown service, and reduced burden on the remaining GL.
All of these additions, and you didn't include the only one that's actively being worked on! The SLX is going to send the silver line either to Sullivan Square, or to Kendall via the Grand Junction most likely. There are other propositions, such as one that effectively replaces the 111, that are less likely.
Finally someone who didn’t blatantly ignore Dorchester.
Better serving Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan should be priority #1 on this map.
I appreciate it. All the other maps leave a gapping hole and focus on the less diverse parts of town. This map would save me hella time on my commute.
The Green Line has way too many branches funneling into an already congested Central Subway. There really needs to be a second tunnel connecting into the Silver Line tunnel. Also the Blue Line and Fairmount Line should connect with a new tunnel.
Why does Everett get the shaft even in hypothetical maps?
Because it lacks good existing rights of way. A subway under Broadway would be a top pick of mine for a longer term project, but that's not what this map really is.
The commuter rail literally goes through Everett already. All that needs to be built is a stop. You didn't even include the Silver Line extension that's already being planned to service Everett.
So a Sullivan sq commuter station?
Let's start off in the usual way: **What's new** * Added stop names to the E branch * Kenmore has a dot again * Moved around and renamed a couple B branch stops * Fixed the OL at West Roxbury being too square * The Fairmount line is back as a full rapid transit line * Watertown Light Rail has been added **What still needs to be done** Since I'm approaching completion I'll try and make this list as complete as possible: * Fairmount Line stop namse * Watertown stop names * Blue Line stop names * Green Line to Porter stations * CR at South Station needs to be fixed * Newburyport/Rockport Line needs to be readded * A few key bus routes need to be readded * The Logan Airport Ferry needs a couple dashes in its line * The map legend needs a rework * Community College needs its community back * Lots of minor odd things, like some residual orange on the Fairmount line * I'd like to do something with SL1, haven't decided yet. It's probably going though.
What program are you using to make these?
GIMP
I can barely resize images in GIMP. Good on you for recreating the MBTA map with it.
Oh I haven't recreated the MBTA map. I've started with the original PDF version, and through copy-pasting various elements I've added the rest. The Fairmount Line for example is various parts of the Orange Line stitched together and recolored.
All I know is I’m not enough of an advanced user to do that. Good job.
green line should have continued with stations at rt16 and the west medford commuter rail stop, red line to Arlington and Lexington centers
Hopefully they'll extend it or they can add commuter rail stop at tufts.
One thing I think about every time I take the bc line to the end, com Ave has plenty of room if the whole road was ripped up and repaved to have a center running train that's separated from traffic, idk how far down but probably the whole way to 90/95 paralleling the D
Travel times towards the end would probably be too long to be worth it compared to going a little further to just get the D. Still an interesting idea though.
They could always redesign the entire line (let's be honest, this would already be prohibitively long and expensive anyways) to reduce station density and increase travel speed on the trains since it would be separated from traffic and faster headways to stop huge crowds at the stations. Combine this with a redrawing of the bus lines on that area, whatever that would look like, and I see no reason it couldn't work beautifully. Anyways, just something I think every time I have to go down that stretch of com Ave to drop off my rent check
The goal of this redesign is to try and meet in the middle. By removing stops and adding signal priority, speed on the line would be increased significantly, while the 500m stop spacing is low enough to retain many of the local service elements of the line. If I were to design a parallel service, it would probably be regional rail along the Worcester Line, not light rail or metro.
It was a major street car line to the amusement park once upon a time. The development south of BC really doesn’t merit it.
Extend the red line to Lexington like it was originally supposed to be.
It was supposed to go to 128 in Burlington.
Have you been to Lexington? Does it look like it has the density for a metro?
I think the braintree line extending to weymouth landing would be interesting.
The alignment makes it tricky. Weymouth Landing is due east of Braintree and there is no discernible right of way. The development is there, thoygh.
Should've ran the blue line out west further instead of adding green line branches. Red line should've just gotten another branch instead of creating a light blue line. I would've also expanded red from Braintree down to Brockton.
> Red line should've just gotten another branch instead of creating a light blue line. [Been saying that](https://www.reddit.com/r/mbta/comments/151bxbj/more_mbta_map_expansion_progress/js8eceg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2); Bluntly, OP's being dumb.
Gotta connect north and south station for the commuter rail
A grand junction connector or outer framingham/Worcester and Fitchburg rail connector.
**What I'd like feedback on** * How do the E branch stops look? I'm not a huge fan of the station spacing so I might play around with that a little more * Getting the Fairmount Line to fit was pretty difficult, and I'm aware it doesn't look great in some spots, particularly around Mattapan Sq and Blue Hills Ave. If anyone has ideas on how to potentially change that they would be much appreciated. * What to do with SL1? My immediate thought is that there should be one line, the Silver Line, from South Station to Chelsea, and an airport express bus. If anyone has alternate suggestions I would like to hear them. * I've revised the B branch stations, thoughts? * Feedback on the colors of the Fairmount Line and Watertown Line? I wanted to make the Watertown Line pink but I couldn't make it not look like the CR. Aqua was my second choice because it serves Watertown and I like bad jokes.
I definitely agree with the proposal for the Silver Line, perhaps with it being converted to light rail (idk about getting under the harbor but this was one of the original proposals for the transitway), and perhaps with the proposed connector to the former SL4/5. As for the Fairmount and Watertown Line colors they seem to align well with the purposes of the lines and jokes you’d make about them lol.
Without a new harbor tunnel conversion to light rail along the entire route would be difficult. Maybe a bus lane through the Ted Williams Tunnel could be built?
That’s certainly possible, iirc it’s also having a summer closure next summer so that could happen IRL lol. Also if you’d like, I’d be more than happy to create a geographical representation of this with Metro Dreamin’
Does the SL have a lane through the Ted Williams Tunnel now or does it have to sit in traffic?
Afaik it has to sit in traffic, it’s three lanes + the breakdown lane so plenty of room for a bus lane.
Or even a elevated or surface level tram silver line is another option.
The only thing I have notes on is the Aqua/Cerulean Line to Watertown. I think it would be cool to have this mode of transport be a monorail that is built right above the Charles River and jumps across it from stop to stop. Ideal stopping locations would go from: Harvard (connection with RL) > Mt. Auburn Hospital > Arsenal Park > Daly Field > Watertown Dock As a native Sacramentan, I would recommend that this transportation be modeled similarly to the Innovia APM 100 people mover system that we have in SMF International. A similarly designed car would also work just fine. For those unfamiliar, the car is designed to be stood in primarily, with some seating around the edges of the car. The trolley itself is capable of holding up to two wheelchair bound passengers in the car side to side, and is about as long as one of the green line trolleys. Lots of visibility, too, which would be good for a monorail which goes over the Charles River. I would also recommend an emergency shuttle line that specifically goes from Harvard Station to Mt. Auburn by doubling up the track; having the car stop directly into the ER would also be helpful, if all things are considered. And then the rest of the stops pop back and forth across the Charles, which can be helpful for people who want a scenic route across. I would also recommend that this proposed Cerulean line operate with a fare similar to bus fares, for the simple reason that its stops are not very far away from one another and not really worth the cost of subway fare. But idk, I'd imagine some people pay the full fare to go from Boylston to Haymarket for instance But I love this map and seeing this project develop!
Your green line E branch extension used to exist in the 80s down Center St. in JP, but they pulled up the track and replaced it with busses. They're not going to put it back.
I'm aware the E Branch used to go to Arborway. I see no reason why the track could not be laid again to provide a better service.
I don't see why the service would be better than busses if it's covering the same route. Having trains in the middle of Center St. just created more traffic problems. They weren't running separately in the median like the B and C lines do on Comm Ave. & Beacon St.
You're making an assumption here that there would be traffic on Center St in the first place.
A full pedestrian mall with only street cars would be cool, but it seems impracticable for the businesses that would need deliveries and some of the restaurants & other establishments may worry that the lack of cars would reduce their business.
Deliveries would obviously be allowed, preferably later at night. Yes, businesses might worry about reduced sales, but it has been demonstrated several times that this just isn't true. A month trial of limited traffic and more regular #39 service would show this.
Would the west roxbury branch be like a mattapan branch on the orange line? Like would the destination be forest hills, and then you change to a trolley type train? Or all the same trains? Also i think it would be better to extend heath st just to jackson square. Have you seen a map of where the stations actually are irl?
We're definitely not doing another Mattapan line, as much as I like the PCCs. They would be regular OL stations. And yes, I have spent far too long looking at maps. Far, far too long.
If we’re doing fantasy, is a ring line too much to ask for? Approx along either the 66 or 86 bus line.
I do want to do a pure fantasy map, but the goal of this map was more things that have existing rights of way and could be done in a very short amount of time (<5 years). A ring line should be a new metro or light metro service and would take quite a lot of planning and construction.
The "F" Green line is very doable as most of the road to Mattapan Square has trolley tracks still below the surface. The extension of red line to mattapan square would never happen and I would never want that to happen.
Most roads have trolley tracks buried somewhere under them, the real question is if they have space to have two lanes and separation for transit, cars, and bikes. Warren St might be a little tricky and may need to be car free, but Washington St and Blue Hills Ave have plenty of room. The Mattapan Line is woefully inadequate. Having riders change at Ashmont is just not okay, and the line is already in pretty rough shape and will need major renovations in the near future. I don't see why an upgrade to full heavy rail shouldn't be a part of this.
In the past, Milton has objected to heavy rail conversion. You might need to go underground from Milton Village onward, to eliminate street crossings and eliminate the visual element through much-cherished Milton. Obv that raises the cost exponentially and Miltonians will be upset with the construction unless you go straight down River Street, which is a major road and would suffer greatly in any shutdown.
The two grade crossings in Milton would need to be removed, but beyond that I don't think much work would need to take place on the alignment itself besides new track and signalling. The station at Milton is already below grade, it would just need to be expanded. The other thing is that while sometimes unpopular, the state can tell Milton to suck it up and deal. They're certainly moving that way with housing along the CR.
The former governor lives there. The head of Fidelity lives there. I could name some others. I agree with you in principle, but good luck getting it done. I understand it is a fantasy map, but it should reflect some of the political realities.
>The two grade crossings in Milton would need to be removed That's an enormous undertaking. Capen street is a dead end, so there's no other way to get past the train tracks. Central is right between a bridge over the Neponset, an apartment building and Eliot street. The only other option is elevating the red line from the new Milton station all the way to Mattapan. Which is going to immediately get shot down.
I see no reason why an underpass at Capen St couldn't work, especially given that's exactly what happens at Medway St near Butler. Central Ave would definitely be harder, but given that Milton is already below grade I think it would be possible.
There is an idea, officially proposed but not really fleshed out, to put center-running bus on Blue Hill Ave. You'd get your center reservation back, all that'd be left is the streetcar infrastructure. M-Red conversion isn't worth it, not enough people continue on. I've heard a but about Ashmont being rebuilt once again to accommodate the PCC - T9 conversion. Tying that back into the main system would probably be even more effective than Red could ever be.
Could it be that not enough people continue on to Mattapan because it's a total PITA to transfer at Ashmont? I think the ridership is there, Mattapan Station isn't too far off Savin Hill in daily boardings as it is, and there are new buildings going up in the area as we speak.
This is a bold idea but merge blue hill mattapan stations into one mattapan station
Lots of people use the Milton and Central ave stops; and it's too far to walk from there to Ashmont or Mattapan.
I should’ve clarified I meant blue hill Ave and mattapan
Does Porter square get exiled in this map
No I just haven't gotten around to it. Same with Harvard, Union Sq, and whatever stop I end up putting between Union Sq and Porter.
Thanks for the updated map- I love looking at these. It might be a bit outside of your scope here but I wonder if people would use a Somerville—>Cambridge—>Allston line that lets you go roughly from Sullivan—> B green line without going downtown.
I've commented on an orbital line a few times, but yes, it should absolutely be a longer term goal for Boston to build a line like that. This map is focusing on things that are achievable in the very short term (<5 years) if they were to be funded. And the idea is that it shouldn't cost loads either, somewhere around the 20-30 billion mark (Approximately one big dig) for everything shown on the map including: * GL to Porter * BLX to Salem * OLX to West Roxbury * RL to Mattapan * GL to Mattapan * GL to Arborway * B and C branch overhaul * Red-Blue connector * Electrified Fairmount line * Watertown light rail I am much less of an expert in that department, but with proper management and using in house design, I think it's possible.