Cambridge should goof and tell MassDot that it will have cars on it. It will get built in a week.
1000's of units have been placed into Alewife in the past few years and more are coming. Cambridge is drunk on the taxes generated by the Alewife and Kendall developments. These new units were all marketed as TOD's, maybe with all that tax revenue you could actually help residents get to the transit.
By formerlyTheSoBoYuppie on Sat, 04/14/2018 - 7:04pm.
that bridge doesn't drop you off close to south station. its still a decent walk to south station. especially in the cloder months. ideally, we'd have a pedestrian and bike bridge that went from broadway village to south station bus terminal. i think that would take a lot of people out of ubers, the 11 bus and the red line.
It's amazing that the roadway going from Route 2 through Fresh Pond have barely changed in 30+ years. It's still a series of ungraded intersections and rotaries.
If this were South Carolina, they would have built a highway through it by now.
A new commuter rail stop at Alewife, however, was left as a long-term consideration for “when ridership demand justifies a new station."
Has anything been done to measure demand? Seems like with the addition of both residential and office space to the area, plus a over capacity T parking garage would be pretty suggestive of pent up demand. However there is no way to know with making an effort to measure it.
This morning it took me 40 minutes to get (by car) from Mass Ave and Rt 16 through the Concord Ave rotary. If there was a commuter rail station there I would take it in a heartbeat. Worst traffic inside 128.
The best case scenario would be to electrify many lines within the 128/I95 belt, and run more frequent service using Metro North-type equipment with high-level platforms. The exurbs can still use the commuter rail trains in the interim until we can afford the entire system to be electrified, and they can stop at limited locations within the 128 belt to serve as transfer points.
The entire Fairmount (Indigo) Line, Fitchburg Line from South Acton, Lowell Line from Anderson, Haverhill Line from Reading, Newburyport/Rockport Lines from Beverly, Worcester Line from West Natick or a new Riverside stop, Providence Line from 128 or Canton Junction and Franklin Line from Norwood are all perfect candidates. The Needham Line should be converted to an Orange Line extension and open a few slots on the Southwest Corridor.
Sure, it will be enormously expensive, but the inevitable 18-hour daily gridlock will be even worse for the economy of Eastern MA unless we begin to do something about it now.
Comments
3.5 Years to defeat the Germans
3.75 Years to defeat the Japanese.
7 Years, maybe, to build a pedestrian bridge?
Cambridge should goof and tell MassDot that it will have cars on it. It will get built in a week.
1000's of units have been placed into Alewife in the past few years and more are coming. Cambridge is drunk on the taxes generated by the Alewife and Kendall developments. These new units were all marketed as TOD's, maybe with all that tax revenue you could actually help residents get to the transit.
Yeah, $20 million and 7 years
Yeah, $20 million and 7 years for a dinky footbridge?
Just drop in a prefab Bailey bridge and be done with it in 2 weeks.
Hey, beating the Germans and the Japanese was _easy_!
Try comparing this bridge building to something hard. Like convincing people to get rid of space savers.
Great!
Boston should do that to connect South Station to South Boston (Broadway Village).
You're in luck
It's called the Broadway or James Kelly Bridge. You might want to look it up.
Yeah but
Opening Dorchester Ave to traffic past the post office would be nice. Especially since the post office will [someday] be moving away.
Broadway Bridge
that bridge doesn't drop you off close to south station. its still a decent walk to south station. especially in the cloder months. ideally, we'd have a pedestrian and bike bridge that went from broadway village to south station bus terminal. i think that would take a lot of people out of ubers, the 11 bus and the red line.
Just walk up Dot Ave.
Or if you are up at the Point, L Street/Summer Street links the two areas.
It's amazing that the roadway
It's amazing that the roadway going from Route 2 through Fresh Pond have barely changed in 30+ years. It's still a series of ungraded intersections and rotaries.
If this were South Carolina, they would have built a highway through it by now.
Oh the state wanted to in
Oh the state wanted to in 1962, as part of a much bigger plan. Thankfully Boston said "no thanks." It would have destroyed the city as we know it.
https://mapjunction.com/index.html?id=/7388
Good thing we're not South
Good thing we're not South Carolina.
If anything, you're going to see the roads in that area narrowed in the coming years.
Alewife Commuter Rail stop
Has anything been done to measure demand? Seems like with the addition of both residential and office space to the area, plus a over capacity T parking garage would be pretty suggestive of pent up demand. However there is no way to know with making an effort to measure it.
Aku-Aku
Aku-Aku.
Alewife
This morning it took me 40 minutes to get (by car) from Mass Ave and Rt 16 through the Concord Ave rotary. If there was a commuter rail station there I would take it in a heartbeat. Worst traffic inside 128.
Besides the money, is it
Besides the money, is it really worth slowing down longer-distance trains to save people a Red Line transfer and two-stop trip?
This is exactly how DMU/EMU units
could help tremendously for the inner suburbs.
The best case scenario would be to electrify many lines within the 128/I95 belt, and run more frequent service using Metro North-type equipment with high-level platforms. The exurbs can still use the commuter rail trains in the interim until we can afford the entire system to be electrified, and they can stop at limited locations within the 128 belt to serve as transfer points.
The entire Fairmount (Indigo) Line, Fitchburg Line from South Acton, Lowell Line from Anderson, Haverhill Line from Reading, Newburyport/Rockport Lines from Beverly, Worcester Line from West Natick or a new Riverside stop, Providence Line from 128 or Canton Junction and Franklin Line from Norwood are all perfect candidates. The Needham Line should be converted to an Orange Line extension and open a few slots on the Southwest Corridor.
Sure, it will be enormously expensive, but the inevitable 18-hour daily gridlock will be even worse for the economy of Eastern MA unless we begin to do something about it now.
I'd love to see frequent
I'd love to see frequent expresses and locals on the Fitchburg Line. But even with MUs, it's not gonna happen.
Concord is not Stamford, and Fitchburg is not New Haven.