by Arborwayfan
Interesting to see all lines stopping at Forest Hills on that 1990s map. They should have provisioned Forest Hills with room for another platform to serve one or both of the tracks that don't now have platforms. What would another ten or fifteen feet of width have cost? Millions, I know, but those millions could have paid dividends one day it they made it easy to use CR to get to Forest Hills from points on north side CR lines and from points on the Providence and Stoughton lines (and maybe the Franklin Line, too, if the T chose to set up coordinated schedules for transfers at Readville).
There are quite a few commuter-rail stops in old downtowns that have some jobs and might get more in the future. A couple has jobs in Quincy, so they buy a house down that way. One of them gets a job in Salem. (Imagine that they are National Park rangers at Adams and Salem Natl Historical Parks, if you want, but they could work in any industry.) They don't want to move, and the one with the new job doesn't want to drive through the city twice a day at rush hour. They see a one-seat, or easy-transfer train ride, and take it as the obvious choice. Another couple gets jobs in downtown Providence and downtown Lynn, and decides to live someplace in between because both of them can easily take the train. Etc. Not a huge stream of people, but worth thinking about if we're deciding how to get hte most use out of an NSRL.
There are quite a few commuter-rail stops in old downtowns that have some jobs and might get more in the future. A couple has jobs in Quincy, so they buy a house down that way. One of them gets a job in Salem. (Imagine that they are National Park rangers at Adams and Salem Natl Historical Parks, if you want, but they could work in any industry.) They don't want to move, and the one with the new job doesn't want to drive through the city twice a day at rush hour. They see a one-seat, or easy-transfer train ride, and take it as the obvious choice. Another couple gets jobs in downtown Providence and downtown Lynn, and decides to live someplace in between because both of them can easily take the train. Etc. Not a huge stream of people, but worth thinking about if we're deciding how to get hte most use out of an NSRL.