The BRT + rail-trail study from 2011 that MaineCoonCat referenced https://www.mapc.org/wp-content/uploads ... report.pdf for a project that was obviously not going to be built, isn't as detailed as the study for power-line vault + rail-trail. But there were lots of interesting tidbits, plus it covers the full corridor not just Hudson & Sudbury.
A BRT + rail-trail is really just a paved road. Apparently there are 23 grade crossings (how is the rail-trail dealing with that?) They assumed a BRT line would not have traffic lights installed because ~$2.5M is too much, yet any new Commuter Rail crossing has to have signalized crossing, and any rail-trail crossing a road of any consequence would have a crosswalk signal. 23 grade crossings, 1 minute slowdown each --> +23 minutes delay, which is ridiculous. The other things that struck me as bizarre include that the ROW is narrowed by tree growth!! Obviously trees can/will be cut down for any project. Also narrow bridges are a constraint but if the bridge is totally missing that isn't a constraint.
A BRT + rail-trail is really just a paved road. Apparently there are 23 grade crossings (how is the rail-trail dealing with that?) They assumed a BRT line would not have traffic lights installed because ~$2.5M is too much, yet any new Commuter Rail crossing has to have signalized crossing, and any rail-trail crossing a road of any consequence would have a crosswalk signal. 23 grade crossings, 1 minute slowdown each --> +23 minutes delay, which is ridiculous. The other things that struck me as bizarre include that the ROW is narrowed by tree growth!! Obviously trees can/will be cut down for any project. Also narrow bridges are a constraint but if the bridge is totally missing that isn't a constraint.