Ron Newman wrote:But even if the station building was no longer available, why didn't the T put the new stop in the same place as the old? The Kendal Green station in Weston is now a private residence, for example, but the train still stops there.
juni0r75 wrote:Ron Newman wrote:But even if the station building was no longer available, why didn't the T put the new stop in the same place as the old? The Kendal Green station in Weston is now a private residence, for example, but the train still stops there.
Part of the logic around modern CR construction is the assumption that the riders will use their cars to drive in from more distant suburbs (or exurbs in the case of some areas) and use th train to get into the city, thereby maximizing the transport corridors into the city by reducing the number of cars on the freeway. The old idea of CR being suburban passenger service meant that the towns often grew up around the transport hub (station) and promoted foot traffic. People would walk or take the bus (streetcar) to the station and leave their cars at home (if they even had them). With our town centres mostly built-out, it is difficult to justify leveling a large area for the cars that people will use to get to the stations.
juni0r75 wrote:Ron Newman wrote:But even if the station building was no longer available, why didn't the T put the new stop in the same place as the old? The Kendal Green station in Weston is now a private residence, for example, but the train still stops there.
Part of the logic around modern CR construction is the assumption that the riders will use their cars to drive in from more distant suburbs (or exurbs in the case of some areas) and use th train to get into the city, thereby maximizing the transport corridors into the city by reducing the number of cars on the freeway. The old idea of CR being suburban passenger service meant that the towns often grew up around the transport hub (station) and promoted foot traffic. People would walk or take the bus (streetcar) to the station and leave their cars at home (if they even had them). With our town centres mostly built-out, it is difficult to justify leveling a large area for the cars that people will use to get to the stations. Even if stations are available for purchase or reuse (eminent domain could be used by the Commonwealth if the MBTA thought that reclaiming stations would be in the best interests of the line's restoration), the T often would rather build a purpose-built station with adequate parking and road connections to better maximize the line's use. For example, the only town centre station on the restored Middleville/Lakeboro line (that I can remember) is in Brockton, which had the space to support moderate parking (I think about 200 spaces?). At the same time, East Bridgewater station was available to reopen as a stop (it housed a Burger King last time I was out there) and the T instead decided to build a station nearer to East Bridgewater State with better parking availability and access for the students which would make an excellent weekend market for service into Boston. It is unfortunate that CR service cannot meet both needs and allow for service to both out-of-town stations for parking and town centre stations for foot traffic and local business.
boatsmate wrote: and Lets not forget Worcester station, the old Amtrak building still stands even though the station is now Down the street.
ST214 wrote:It's not really down the street...it's right on the other side of I-290. takes about a minute walk.
BTW, the MBCR B&B Dept. uses the old Amshack there.boatsmate wrote: and Lets not forget Worcester station, the old Amtrak building still stands even though the station is now Down the street.
RedLantern wrote:ST214 wrote:It's not really down the street...it's right on the other side of I-290. takes about a minute walk.
BTW, the MBCR B&B Dept. uses the old Amshack there.boatsmate wrote: and Lets not forget Worcester station, the old Amtrak building still stands even though the station is now Down the street.
They even share the same platform, sure only the new high level platform is used, but the yellow rubber platform edge runs the entire length of both station areas and in between. I suppose the only real abandoned part is the paved second platform in front of the amshack, but AFAIK that was only used for Amtrak, and not the T.
Ron Newman wrote:B&Mguy wrote:Rosemont/495
Methuen
Route 213
These stations appeared on some MBTA maps, but my understanding is that they never got service. And the New Hampshire stations had no service "when the MBTA took over". That came later, and only lasted a year or so.
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