Search

I have my doubts about whether the Green Line will ever make it to these stations they're designing. I also wonder why they're designing such fancy stations to begin with. Surely simple platforms, with concrete ramps for ADA purposes and an enclosed booth for ticket machines would be more cost effec...

During various points in time, there appear to have been quite a few stations along the B&P/NH main line in the Boston area that are long since gone. The only one that I have difinitive dates for is "Mount Hope" which was closed for good when the line was shut down for rebuilding in 19...

An extra 2-3 outbound runs (every hour-90 mins. or so) on each line would be a perfectly adequate level of service. Again it's not necessarily the infrequency of outbound trains late in the evening that deters would-be visitors, but the timing of the last trains themselves. Additional trains at say...

And, really, it no longer makes sense to hold the Needham Line open for future restoration now. A Millis branch wouldn't have solved the NEC congestion that's leaving the Needham Line odd man out on any meaningful service increases. A far, far greater audience gets far, far better served doing the ...

From what I can gather, many of the worst (practical) problems with Penn Station today do date back to the original. Essentially the current station has all the faults of the original with none of its virtues. If the whole thing is rebuilt, I would hope the new station ends up not only with a new sh...

Were any of the older PATH cars saved when the new new PA5s came around? I know that a few cars that were involved in 9/11 were stripped and sent to Washington for a memorial and that some PA4s were saved as work equipment, but what I want to know is if any equipment was sent to/purchased by transit...

I think that rather than railfans hating rail trails, it's more of a case of railfans not really caring about rail trails one way or the other unless those trails are in an area where trains would be better. Case in point, the Minuteman Trail which basically amounts to the results of a bunch of NIMB...

Irene brought the water higher then it's been for many years. The operating fleet was moved to the highest areas, except for where large trees would have done other damage. For most of the fleet they weren't high enough, i.e. Peter Witt, Red Bird, etc. Also there was some degrading of the ROW that ...

A better move for [nearly] everyone would be to combine the E with the D. Extend the tunnel from Symphony to Brookline Village via Huntington Ave. Definitely a better move. But I think service on the Highlands Branch between Brookline Village and Kenmore should be retained. How about this? The D co...

I'm sorry to read about it. But not surprised. It really seemed like there was this feeling of inevitablity that the E line was going to be cut back to Heath Street Loop. But it made me wonder if Green Line service could have been restored to Arborway on a route other than South Huntington Ave, Cen...

Except for the Greenbush line, the Old Colony lines are pretty well utilized. Given that the Greenbush line cost more than all the others put together due to all the NIMBY-proofing that needed to be done to get it built AND it has the weakest ridership, I don't think you'll find too many people who ...

The Middlboro and Plymouth lines are both pretty well used and probably have a minimal effect on the T's deficit. The Greenbush line, however, has had a VERY bad impact on the T's budget due to the large amount of money needed to make it "NIMBY-proof" and the low ridership numbers.

Lovely F-unit photo. As to the whole aerodynamics and streamlining thing, I think it's just cyclical fads.In the "streamlined" era (30s-50s), rounded surfaces were the "in" thing: locomotives, cars, kitchen appliances and everything else all had a "futuristic" curved lo...

It looked nice back then! Why can't we have nice things like that now? Because nobody wants to run businesses inside subway stations anymore? And, of course, the fact that the T has turned areas that used to be revenue-producing rental space into non-revenue storerooms and the like (see DTX concour...

Ultimately, the T will build a few parking spaces next to a commuter rail station in an exburb and say it's the same thing as extending the Green Line. Because they have practice doing that. I'm not quite that cynical. The T also has a long history of delayed extensions that nevertheless DO manage ...