CRail wrote:It's inevitable that it will happen eventually, perhaps before I die (I'm not 30 yet), but not because of GE. As BandA said, a major first step would be putting rails in the Transitway (which is designed to have rails put in it). Even if you just put rails in and leave them there, you're in that much better shape to convert/mix streetcars in with dual modes. The Harvard tunnel was like this at one point, streetcars/trackless only (as it should be today, IMO). DMAs to the airport and cars to South Boston (to start). Streetcars to Chelsea would be next in my ideal world. I'd probably never send them to the Airport. I wonder if the SL3 (City Point) were a streetcar, would still be running today?
The answer, as far as potential sugar daddies for a Silver Line rail conversion may go, isn't GE, and isn't even MassDOT. It's Massport.
Considering that the Ted Williams tunnel is already as gridlocked during rush hour as the Callahan/Sumner once were, and considering Massport's ongiong dreams of further expansion at Logan, it's clear that there needs to be investment in a new, better way to get from Boston to the airport.
Given the dirt-cheap cost of deep bore tunneling these days (relative to what it once was, that is, I'm starting to think that the case can be made for a second rail tunnel under the harbor to carry a light rail loading gauge from the seaport to Logan, running to the east of the Ted. Once under the airport, it could snake under the gap between Terminals A and B, offering a station serving both, while continuing under the access road and hooking west to the gap between Terminals C and E are, where a second station would serve those. From there, it would continue northwest until merging to the SIlver Line Busway to Chelsea, stopping at Airport along the way. Massport could foot the bill for the harbor tunnel and airport ROW, while the would only have to pay for electrifying the Seaport tunnels and the Chelsea ROW. Eventually, if the desire was there, you could even continue the light rail all the way to Assembly via Everett and the new Casino, who would all love to have that one-seat ride to Logan (and have the money to lobby for it to happen).
Now, you just connected Chelsea, Revere, etc to downtown and the Seaport, while setting the stage for a Silver Line extension to Back Bay or Fenway/Longwood.
It's a pie-in-the-sky idea, but if anyone has the money to make it happen, it's MassPort.