DMUs are great. Hopefully the Nippon Sharyo DMU's work out well, and can become a modern day successor to the RDC.
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This seems to be a lot of effort at solving a problem that it'll struggle to keep up with - a lot like the Silver Line itself. I think they used BRT in the wrong place, on the main SL truck itself. Aspects of BRT would have been great for airport service and for some other connections, but this will never be able to meet the capacity needs of that convention center to Back Bay hotels that they're talking about without a seemingly much higher capital investment. Are they really going to have the DMU's stopping on the Old Colony main line to change ends, and then doing so again at Back Bay on the through tracks? Or are they going to to run them through out to Yawkey and then change ends up in Beacon Park (not a bad idea, but does increase the turn time and thus operating costs)?
*edit* Snipped the part about the reverse move on the Old Colony - read the article on my phone and didn't see the graphic. But that's still not going to be easy to push this kind of service through yard trackage - that seems to open it up to plenty of delays.
When they start talking about the numbers coming to/from the Convention Center, is this single track branch line, awkwardly accessed, really going to be able to offer the capacity? Making a direct connection off track 61 looks horribly expensive. Of course, if we had a Green Line branch via the ethereal Stuart St Subway, continuing on into the SL waterfront tunnel, we wouldn't need a DMU shuttle to get people to Back Bay.
If these DMUs work, they could do a lot of good on the existing northside lines. Lot of runs up there which don't need a full 5-7 car set, or could benefit from better frequencies with shorter sets. That's in addition to all the places on the southside that could do the same.