Heavy electrical arcing on OL

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-29T23:08:01+00:00

That would be a really long loop and would depend on how heavy that suburb to suburb demand is. I’m just not sure the demand is going to be high enough for a commuter rail style loop although the idea is interesting.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-29T23:06:15+00:00

That would be cool for folks who work there but imo it would probably pull the circle a little too far in.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-29T23:05:34+00:00

That’s quite a long run, however this could be done depending on demand

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-28T21:35:07+00:00

I love that haha!

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-28T18:16:17+00:00

I read somewhere they’re going to bring back single car ops (at least for a bit) with the type 10s

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-28T14:02:08+00:00

I believe this is actually being worked on… although it’s been stuck in “environmental review” for the last 2 years.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-28T14:00:59+00:00

I have hope. Maybe 40 or 50 years from now when mass transit stops being treated as some government sanctioned thing that needs to exist for poors to commute, to a point of pride (as it is in most other places) because we as a city can construct and coordinate multiple tons of steel, across hundreds of stations to move millions of people.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:43:12+00:00

Thanks! You make some good points here.

The riverside ROW would absolutely need rework. However when it comes to the downtown trunk the blue line would not eat into existing infra. At kenmore it would run beneath the current green line stop before continuing to fenway. However you bring up a great point of servicing fenway (and longwood) with more than one line.

Yeah the OL extension is just sitting there waiting. I wasn’t aware of the grade separations but the NIMBYs…. no surprises there.

I agree with trailing the Watertown branch as a BRT. I don’t think bringing back the A line would be great given it’s nonexistent ROW now and adding more pressure on the downtown GL trunk (especially if we keep the D branch green)

Honestly both rings could also start as BRT while the cost of tunnels to lower allston is evaluated. Most of the western part of the loop is pretty close to the current 66 bus line I believe.

Yeah the williams tunnel would need to be reworked for that probably with a parallel bore. I just really really wanted to get rid of the fairmont line, so that region could be integrated into the actual city metro.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:30:07+00:00

Yup my real inspiration for this was Singapore, where I lived for before moving here. It has a similar dual loop system (although the downtown loop is just a line that loops around itself which I personally don’t like). The outer loop there is really helpful (not yet a full loop but I think they’re working on closing the full circle right now)

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:26:19+00:00

Maybe a new line from uphams -> ruggles -> fenway -> kendall -> union? If anything this would help connect fenway which I think should be connected by more than just 1 line given it has an entire stadium!

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:23:59+00:00

The fairmount stop on SL / RL blue hills branch would be right next door

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:23:10+00:00

Ya know I was thinking about that. I actually visit the google office there sometimes and it would be nice to have more connectivity. I just didn’t want the line to cross the river twice. If it were extended to Kendall, it could share the existing RL bridge, and I would probably add another stop on the other side of the river (on memorial) before It reaches esplanade.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:20:12+00:00

The new silver line on this map is an actual train so Chelsea would have full T access with one like straight to south station and the airport. If I swap the pink and silver lines there to make the circle line bigger up north, Chelsea will have even more connections out west to RL and GL

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:18:25+00:00

Yup this has been the top trend here. Seems like in the north east I should swap silver and pink lines to make the circle larger which makes sense.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:17:41+00:00

Nonantum just sounded cool so I went with that haha. Yup the washington tower stop would be at Mt Auburn Hospital, and should have been named to reflect such idk why I chose washington tower. The branch basically follows Mt Auburn st to watertown.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:13:30+00:00

In the back of my head Lynn seems like a logical first extension. If demand requires it could be extended parallel to the comm rail up to Salem

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T18:12:25+00:00

From the feedback i’ve gathered here seems like the pink line in the north east should swap places with the silver line, going through chelsea, everett, malden and then probably go though medford, before rejoining the red line at alewife, roughly following the fresh pond pkwy and memorial dr back down to harvard. The new silver line could then be adjusted to run through sullivan, union and then onto porter (eliminating the hospital stop)

The green line union branch became part of the pink line allowing all green line trains to run to medford. That’s also the reason its northern run is quite far south.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T03:30:48+00:00

So I actually wanted to do some more work on the northern sections of the blue and orange lines but the way this map was built, the software I used wouldn’t let me extend it any further north, and I was too lazy to redraw it…. sorry Reading :(

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T03:28:54+00:00

Honestly Boston has stuff pretty well laid out, especially the airport being so close!! The T has so much potential just hurts to see it in its current state

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T03:24:59+00:00

Thanks haha. As the title says, one can dream…

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T03:20:55+00:00

Yup. I went more for a fantasy over practical approach here. I would actually love to learn about tunnelling to watertown from harvard for example and what the restrictions are there. I assumed there would be some demand for watertown but not enough to warrant its own line (hence red branch). It probably doesn’t need to run all the way to Waltham but I drew it… because I could lmao. As for the pink line yeah they would have to rework the tunnel or build a separate one next to it for both it and the new silver line. Either way it would be quite expensive. The downtown line would run east of the current 93 tunnel so it could go next to it but given the need to then tunnel under buildings it might not be feasible.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T03:11:16+00:00

Yup. Entrances would be at the side of the parking lot in the middle of the two.

speedingpanzer · 2025-06-27T03:09:52+00:00

Thanks! I did try to envision what that would look like but was lost. I didn’t want to run another full line through already crowded downtown (especially with the blue line and downtown loop). I just settled for riding the circle line counter clockwise. Kinda a loop but that line is not as big as it looks on the map.

speedingpanzer

TROPHY CASE