Swap Wedgemere For Montvale?

I think the Wedgemere and Mishawum Stations should both be shut down in exchange for a Montvale Station, which could also alternatively be named East Woburn or Woburn/Stoneham (if it is that close to the border, Google Maps doesn't show city borders).
Mishawum suffers from low ridership, and Wedgemere already has nearby Winchester Center station to serve as an alternative for riders, and with a potential New Hampshire Extension on the horizon, speeding up trip times on the New Hampshire Route by axing these two stops in exchange for one would be a good move for the MBTA.

Is a NH extension *really* on the horizon? It'd be nice but I'll believe it when I see it. But otherwise, yes I agree. Although most trains already don't stop at mishawum. Wdgemere and Winchester, the only benefit is two parking lots. But the stations are so close, they could keep the wedgemere parking lot and make a walkway from there to Winchester.

There's a fulsome thread about NH service at potential-mbta-southern-nh-service-t173778-225.html. To capsulize, conservatives failed to stop a NHDOT study which should come back ?at the end of this year? with updated numbers, but nobody has figured out how to cover the required subsidy without destroying what makes NH NH.

Back on topic, to quote myself quoting wikipedia quoting someone...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_an ... l_Railroad

The Boston and Lowell was faced with a new problem; it had a reputation for speed which made it very popular and highly competitive with stagecoaches. Many people wanted to go not only from Lowell to Boston but to places in between. The Boston and Lowell ordered another locomotive and cars for local passenger rail in 1842, and had them make six stops along the route. Passenger rail proved to be almost as profitable as freight

they could keep the wedgemere parking lot and make a walkway from there to Winchester.

There is a walkway that already practically connects Wedgemere to Winchester Center, the Community Greenway starts on Bacon Street right near Wedgemere and parallels the NH Main until Waterfield Street, which is right at Winchester Center. Perhaps they could rebrand this path as an MBTA walkway to and from additional parking for Winchester Center, or they could just have a bus shuttle timed with train arrivals run between the two instead. A simple new parking garage at Winchester Center could also be an option if there is enough space.

but nobody has figured out how to cover the required subsidy without destroying what makes NH NH.

What makes NH NH is also what makes it outdated, but if they so want to keep the current system, they could use the money collected from the tolls on the highway by trying to get rid of the law that forbids that or they could try and fund it with the current system (if possible).

Well, there you go again

- Ronald Reagan

I'm not saying NH needs to or should get rid of their current system if they don't want to, it's just that with this system, its really hard to subsidize something like this, no matter how beneficial it would be, and the law they have that forbids toll money from being used to subsidize anything other than the highways doesn't help either.

Um...what makes NH NH, again?>

No Income or Sales tax, which in turn causes a heavy reliance on Property taxes for the state to generate revenue for itself, this is criticized because property taxes are often looked at as an antiquated and unfair form of taxation due to the fact that this form of tax is not premised on the ability of the taxpayer to pay, but rather on the value of the taxpayer's property, which can rise and make it even harder for the taxpayer to pay the tax, this is why retirees often oppose property taxes and why homeowners have been forced to sell their homes due to rising property value under a property tax-based system. And if we're gonna start discussing the NH extension again, shouldn't we be doing it on the aforementioned NH Extension thread?

Yeah back to Woburn..... While adding a station at Montvale seems like a no-brainer to me, I don't know why it's not a no-brainer to everyone that they don't extend the foot bridge at Anderson station so you can have walking access to the station from New Boston Road. I've never thought about it before this thread but its perfectly set up with the bridge lined up with a little grass field. And if you happen to work on New Boston Road, you'd have to walk all over creation to get to the train station that's 10 feet away. What a dumb choice that was.

Just looked at it on google maps and wow, what a terrible design flaw, they could have at the very least made a foot grade crossing over the freight passing track and the inbound track and some stairs to get up to the platform after that. But I guess this is the type of anti-pedestrian design you should expect from a station with 2,350 parking spots

I mean it's a good location for a spot with a huge parking lot. Its RIGHT off the highway and if you're coming from the North, you can pull in there and hop on a train before you even get to 128, which is great. But what a lousy setup for people who might live or work nearby.

Remember that a key reason for Anderson being what it is (both physically and in name) is because the land is heavily contaminated and unsuitable for development.

While that is true, I don't think that face really has any bearing on the lack of west-side station entrance.

If I were going to research and write the history of Anderson, I think I'd go back and read the local newspapers and city/town records and MBTA comment files to find out if:
1. The T didn't want to spend the money to bridge the tracks with an ADA accessible bridge and approaches, and didn't want a pedestrian grade crossing for fair reasons.
2. The landowners on the other side of the tracks wouldn't sell a footpath right of way for a price the T could/would pay.
3. The businesses and the T were afraid that commuters would park in the businesses' parking lots instead of driving around to the T's lot.
4. Woburn officials didn't want to spend the money to install sidewalks and whatnot along the streets between the residential neighborhood to make the route walkable.

Just my guesses, not sure which if any are right. IIRC there's a station on the Red Line (somewhere in Quincy?) where one of the entrances is closed because the neighbors on a residential street didn't the foot traffic or some other effect (perceived threat of crime, maybe?).

There aren't even good pedestrian paths to most of the businesses on the same side of the tracks as the station.