Among other things, I was a high-tech hiring manager in Metro Boston most of the time between 1981 and 2014. The only site I ever worked at whose parking lot could hold one car for everyone who could work in the building was off Dedham St. by I-95. But there I still had 3-4 employees who walked more than a mile from Rt. 128 because they hadn't saved up enough for a car, or couldn't park it where they lived. Every time I offered an interview to someone, I was thinking about their likely commute, whether there was a T alternative to driving etc. If the commute was going to be bad enough, they might not accept an offer, or they'd have to move fairly soon after they started. Every time I worked on a company move I had to consider who I'd lose because of their new commute routing.
This is the foundation of my support for North-South Rail (even if, as I've said elsewhere, it winds up being a 2-track elevated line over the Greenway): It would enormously broaden "where I live, where I can work" options for everyone on the commuter rail or other transit that feeds heavy rail. And I have come to believe that's what doomed it, because that would have threatened real-estate values in Back Bay and Downtown. I think the Urban Ring idea was killed (effectively) by downgrading it to a long, slow bus route to protect those same real-estate barons.
Earlier (late '70s) I spent a while commuting from Back Bay to Crescent Ave. in Chelsea. Slow trolley ride, then slow bus over the Tobin, but at least I was opposite the rush on that leg. In good weather I'd bicycle. I don't recall getting a seat very often, only if I happened to arrive at Haymarket just as a bus opened its door. If Eastern Route trains had stopped at Chelsea then, I'd have probably used them when the schedule fit mine. But I was Q/C, I don't know if the factory floor workers coming from Roxbury were being paid enough to consider it an option.
The equity issue can be understood by looking at the trains zooming past the residential neighborhoods which were built when they stopped at Everett, Ball Sq., Jackson Sq., Brookline Village etc. Inner stations were allowed to be closed when the Boston Elevated offered more frequent service (but usually longer travel times). Auto congestion has made post-1960 street transit travel times much worse, and cost-cutting has played hell with reliability and frequency. Yes, restoring those stops now would make the system overall worse as more stops increase trip times. The 4-track roadbeds have been encroached on, bridges rebuilt for two tracks only, downtown stations and their interlocking plants cut back to half their former size. IMO equity needs to carry some weight as we plan and invest in our future regional transit.
