North Shore Improvements

[vanshnookenraggen]

Incase people didn't know, the MBTA has posted the North Shore Improvement Study on it's web page. It doesn't include details for a Blue Line extension (however one of the Salem CR stops does provide space for a Blue Line platform) but it has alot of other great info as well as some nice maps.

http://www.mbta.com/projects_underway/nsti.asp

[Xplorer2000]

They just had a meeting in Peabody this week too, considering various options, including the restoration of commuter rail service to Peabody and Danvers.(Sorry , don't have the newspaper article right now, so I can'r give exact details...) Of course, if they go through with that cockeyed idea to send the Blue Line to Salem via the Eastern Route, EVERYBODY on the North Shore can kiss their commuter rail goodbye, and plan on standing up all the way from Newburyport /Rockport, to Boston. Personally, I prefer the expanded service alternative with DMUs, that they have listed, but thats my personal preference.
Somehow, all the pols up here have determined that having the Blue Line to Lynn( where the Narrow Gauge ROW the Blue Line utilizes originally ran to)or supplant the commuter rail to Salem will solve decades of mismanagement , urban neglect, and economic erosion, like the snake oil salesman's "magic bullet". MAYBE, just maybe it will, but I personally think it will take a lot more than just that to pull our cities out of the crapper. and I say this, having been a lifelong resident of Lynn,and T commuter. I've watched Lynn slowly go to hell in a handbasket, and watched successive administrations flounder around with one half-baked scheme afer another. (The one about wanting to level the bulk of the Union street business district , and replacing it with townhouse condos was sheer "genius"... ...not to mention torching half of downtown so we could have the North Shore Community College....that was inspired....) We need competent leadership first, THEN we need to convene a study that isn't tied to all the cronies, I.E., the so called" Steering Committee"aka , "the Usual Suspects".
If I seem like I'm being extremely down on the Blue Line, its because I have had to ride it.... Its invariably slow, crowded, and uncomfortable, and that on the best of occasions, and is strecthed to its operational limits just handling Wonderland to Government Center service.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. Sorry .

[efin98]

and now for a more rational answer.
Sorry the Blue Line service isn't to your liking, but for those of us who HAVE TO ride it, it is just fine. It serves it's purpose alot better than any commuter rail train can as the line is geared towards local riders rather than through riders. The Blue line has crowding problems due to it's restrictions, probably more than any of the other lines in the system. Can't go longer than four cars, can't have cars longer than the current ones, has older, slower cars cars with more wear and tear due to weather. That's just the obvious restrictions for starters.
The T through out the idea of using the Blue Line to replace commuter rail service so your rant about that is false. The Blue Line will not get north of South Salem/Salem State College(future stop if they ever get around to actually building the station) due to the tunnel. Now unless the T is going to spend another $1billion on a new tunnel under the historic city, service will never get beyond Swampscott or South Salem but most likely Lynn.

Also I can't fault the city of Lynn for hoping the extention would inspire a rebound for the city. There is precedent in dozens of other cities and town around the country, hoping for it to happen in Lynn isn't too much to fathom. However, I have to fault the representatives for not making a case to the state for it. They are the ones who have to do the lion's share of the pushing for the extention, not the city. It's their hard work that will make or break a project, and with Lynn being a powerful city due to it's size it can get it done if they wanted to. Pressure is the only thing that works, pressuring the wrong people gets you nowhere. Target the right people and you get what you want in a quicker time.

[trainhq]

Although it may not be posted yet, Blue Line to Lynn is actually the
preferred alternative. It probably won't make it to Salem for several
reasons; $$$, lukewarm community support, and too great a distance
to ride (comfortably) on a blue line train (although I'm aware of the
fact that it's about the same distance from downtown as the end of the
Red line at Braintree.) You can forget about DMU's any time soon; the
T is dead set against them.