West Station discussion

[Disney Guy]

A big problem with an automobile thoroughfare e.g. Babcock St. Extension from the remodeled Allston turnpike interchange to Comm. Ave. is lots of left turns in front of Boston University. Even after widening Comm. Ave. there will still be long red lights at a new complex intersection near Nickerson Field. Included in this traffic mix would be pickups and dropoffs at West Station, mostly to and from neighborhoods and locations far from B.U.

Plus the need to build (probably 4 lanes worth of) bridges over West Station and/or other tracks to get to Comm. Ave.

Currently, Boston traffic from the Allston turnpike enterchange is either "put on Storrow Drive and then not worried about" or makes its way to Brighton Ave. where, by the time it gets on Comm. Ave. it is stratified into mostly straight through traffic. Kiss and ride is handled by Yawkee and soon by New Balance stations with miniml left turn impact at B.U. This is also good plan to deal with the new traffic to and from the brand new neighborhood that will occupy the land liberated by the remodeling of the turnpike interchange and rail yard.

Not having to construct another complex intersection at B.U. will maintain pedestrian and bicycle friendliness of Comm. Ave. in that vicinity.

Another facility that could be provided at an in town station such as West Station would be a long term bike garage. Suburban rail commuters would leave bikes there overnight and use them the next day to complete their trip to a nearby location, here, notably, in the Kenmore Square to Packard's Corner area.

[BandA]

Yesterday morning, saw construction people assembling interlocking cement blocks for a retaining wall approximately behind the stop & shop where Boston Landing station is supposed to be built. This is also the point where four tracks goes down to two tracks. Also described the circus train in the New England Railfan < Beacon Park Tracker

Is this the beginning of station construction?

[GP40MC1118]

Might be as there will be changes to CP-4 very soon. The CSX local will have to
come down to CP-3 now to get to the Grand Jct (a double reverse move) and
buck the passenger trains and the single track. There will be no access to
the west end of the former yard.

D

[harshaw]

Why is the west end of the yard no longer available? Are they doing site prep? It doesn't sound like the turnpike straightening project has progressed much recently.

[GP40MC1118]

Whatever they are doing down there will restrict access to the west end of the yard.
I've seen three phases of reconfigurations. Has nothing to do with the Mass
Pike at this time. Not sure if they've even decided on a final design for that.

D

[dbperry]

I think the CP 4 issues are related to Boston Landing station. I'll post my reply in that thread:

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=93245&p=1353810#p1353810

[130MM]

Why is the west end of the yard no longer available? Are they doing site prep? It doesn't sound like the turnpike straightening project has progressed much recently.

The switch to the west end of the yard is being retired so that the construction of a shoo-fly can be conducted. The shoo-fly will open up the job site for the construction of the center island platform. It will swing from the westerly crossover to the north hard up against the Turnpike. This allows all access to be from the south without crossing an active track. There is supposed to be a hand throw switch installed in the shoo-fly to access the yard. It will be powered up at some point in the future.

[dbperry]

Why is the west end of the yard no longer available? Are they doing site prep? It doesn't sound like the turnpike straightening project has progressed much recently.

The switch to the west end of the yard is being retired so that the construction of a shoo-fly can be conducted. The shoo-fly will open up the job site for the construction of the center island platform. It will swing from the westerly crossover to the north hard up against the Turnpike. This allows all access to be from the south without crossing an active track. There is supposed to be a hand throw switch installed in the shoo-fly to access the yard. It will be powered up at some point in the future.

Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. I had to look up "shoo-fly" - a temporary track. And indeed, this is Boston Landing (not West Station) that we're talking about here. I'll cross post this there for future reference...

[NealG]

This includes converting a busy freight yard into an empty tax-exempt lot.

That's harvard's doing. Though the T pays not taxes either.

Just to clarify: those parcels are not tax exempt. For example Harvard paid the City of Boston $72,887.83 in FY 2015 taxes (which ended on June 30 of this year) for its parcel on Cambridge St, and it did that because the land is not exempt. It's not the 501c3 status of an owner that makes property tax exempt, it is the use of the land. If it was used for academic or other purposes related to Harvard's educational mission, it would be exempt, but because it is not being used for those purposes, it is a taxable parcel. Just as a side note, the other parcels are still assessed to CSX, presumably because the transfer, if it has happened yet, was done after January 1, 2015, when the assessment for FY16 (which began 7/1/15) was made. Per the City's records, CSX paid $485,527.85 for FY15 on that parcel.