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| Re: PHOTOS: MBTA MPXpress Locomotive #010 In Delivery (1024593) | |||
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Re: PHOTOS: MBTA MPXpress Locomotive #010 In Delivery |
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Posted by WillD on Wed Jan 12 01:22:20 2011, in response to Re: PHOTOS: MBTA MPXpress Locomotive #010 In Delivery, posted by aem7ac on Tue Jan 11 23:50:06 2011. Disagree. The Everett and Dudley lines were doomed for reasons that had nothing to do with commuter rail (and just in case you misunderstood, the reasons had nothing to do with the structural integrity of the elevateds either; that was the stated reason of record). Regardless, the Everett and Dudley lines were lost; it was a sign of the times.It may have made sense at the time, when Everett was dropping 10% of its population between censuses, but today its recovered and is left with buses. The attempt to include it in the urban ring BRT project was poorly conceived from the beginning. It isn't acceptable to combine subway and commuter infrastructure and then offer poor bus service as an inadequate substitute for the lost rapid transit service. Personally I am glad that something did come of the sacrifice, namely the Southwest Corridor and the Malden extension, instead of more highways. To suggest that had those lines been preserved the commuter rail lines could/would have been electrified is to say that Gandhi could have prevented World War II. But in the aftermath of the Boston Transportation Planning Review there really wasn't anything that came of the sacrificing of the Orange line's northern and southern portions. Fine, they avoided a few new highways, but the only real investment was a geographic consolidation of mass transit infrastructure which reduced the catchment area severely. It's not like New York were immuine to such abandonments. The 3rd Ave el was lost, as was parts of the Lexington Ave, Myrtle, and Jamaica els in Brooklyn and Queens. Of course, but at least in part there were attempts made to rectify the situation. It's taken a while, but the SAS will restore the capacity lost when the 3rd Avenue El was removed. I cannot condone the consolidation of the Jamaica Ave line into Parsons Archer. But both the Lexington and Myrtle el demolitions were done for structural reasons, which you noted was not the case with the Charlestown or Washington St. elevateds. No, the MBTA provided a replacement Bus Rapid Transit service. The majority of stakeholders when the modal decision was made did not want the restoration of a rail service. With the Southwest Corridor where it is, the transit needs of that area is well served. Except that it travels through one of the densest areas in the Boston Metro area outside downtown Boston and Cambridge, but has a ridership closer to Buffalo or the Portland streetcar. Where do those people actually travel> They're clearly not using the Silver Line, because that would be overwhelmed if it were to face the demand the dense neighborhoods should be placing on it. There is no way travelling more than a half mile to one of the stations on the Southwest Corridor is an acceptable substitute for the 3 mile trip from Dudley Square to downtown Boston. Furthermore, it cost more per mile than the Portland Streetcar, all while providing less capacity than a streetcar. |
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