deathtopumpkins wrote:The idea of sending some Worcester trains to North Station via the Grand Junction is discussed now and then, but unlikely to ever happen, for good reason.
CRail wrote:1.) T
4.) Yore also only looking at the advantages from the south side. This completely ignores the fact that the city of Cambridge operates a rather expansive bus operation from North Station to that measly single employment center (which, by the way, in the last 10 years went from a few little shortie school bus bodied vehicles to a fleet of full scale 40’ transit buses). Imagine the impact this rail connection would have on the bus loads of people that currently sit in gridlock traffic on these buses every day.
CRail wrote:1.) There is no dilusion of service, especially since West Station to the Seaport is also a concept included in the plans (you don’t really think a red line test track is the end goal for track 61 do you?). Plus, there’s another driving factor which is the overcrowding of South Station, which your ever so thorough analysis ignores.
2.) Transferring to the subway alone takes a few minutes. Then there’s waiting for the train, and then there’s riding the train. Since any responsible contributor to society will allow the greatest amount of time reasonably necessary to get to work that’s an additional 20-30 minutes of commute time. The value of a one seat ride is not in the comfort and convenience of not having to get up, it’s the minimizing of how much a variable your commute time is. Certainly in my mind, uncertainty is far more a detractor in a mode of transportation than elapsed time. I’d rather know my ride will take 40 minutes than somewhere between 20 between 60.
3.) Drastically slimming automobile capacity for bike lanes and other mode of transport accommodations has a much greater impact on traffic than having to wait an extra light cycle for a train to go by 10-20 times a day. We aren’t talking long slow freights that take 20mins to pass, we’re talking short passenger trains (really short if they’re shuttles) whisking through at significantly upgraded track speeds. The up to 6 daily moves the line sees now (I understand Amtrak doesn’t traverse the line daily anymore since they have a facility in Maine now) are probably a greater impact to traffic patterns than a more fequent but less obtrusive passenger trains. It’s ridiculous to undermine the impact of the currently necessary Red Line transfer while exaggerating the impact of a bunch of grade crossing activations.
4.) Yore also only looking at the advantages from the south side. This completely ignores the fact that the city of Cambridge operates a rather expansive bus operation from North Station to that measly single employment center (which, by the way, in the last 10 years went from a few little shortie school bus bodied vehicles to a fleet of full scale 40’ transit buses). Imagine the impact this rail connection would have on the bus loads of people that currently sit in gridlock traffic on these buses every day.
5.) I’m evidently not the only one that sees it this way. Currently the GJ only accesss yard tracks on the Cambridge end, the switch to the main tracks is already at the junction waiting to be cut in. This is part of the GLX project, but it would be foolish to think it isn’t also a provision for currently impossible service expansions. Passenger service on this corridor has been included in several different project plans which initiated with a busway and have thankfully morphed into talks of rail service. This includes West Station proposals and the long talked about “Indigo” service. You might think it’s a non-starter, but you’re apparently outnumbered by those who actually have a say in the matter.
GP40MC1118 wrote:North Station has just as bad capacity issues, so adding Worcester Line trains would compound a bad problem.
D
JPoland wrote:The "new" ]North Station has unused tracks that were never put in service
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