Airport to downtown

I'm assuming the Silver Line is suffering the same waits as automobile commuters from Revere.

Are the busses to the Airport T station inhibited by those trying to get to the Ted Williams tunnel, or are they running just like they were before the Sumner Tunnel closed?

Pretty much everything is getting tied up in the vicinity of Terminal E. At least the shuttle buses only need to go a few blocks to reach the Blue Line, vs the long slog through either the TWT or through Chelsea and Everett.

I landed at 4 pm on Monday, Terminal A and I was at the Blue Line in 10 minuets. Again the Blue Line is free right now.

Your speed will depend on the terminal you land at. The bus I was on, hit Terminal A and the two stops at Terminal B. Then it went straight to Airport with out hitting any traffic.

I landed at 7:15 on Wednesday night 2 weeks ago (13th) and was picked up at Terminal A (I volunteered to take the Blue line but Family wouldn't let me) at 7:30 and we were passing Fenway by 7:50, maybe 10 minutes slower than with zero traffic?

On my morning return they dropped me at the Green Line, at their insistence (and no argument from me). Where I found I still have $20 on a Charlie card that expires in December per the date on the card. As we have relocated to just outside the sound of the Surfliner (when it runs) I'm not sure what good this card will do for me.

Save that Charlie card with the $20. Who knows, you might be back in Boston at some undetermined time in the future and with enough advance notice to get it rejuvenated.

Or send it to me. I could make good use of it!

.

Rbts Stn wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 1:55 pm...I still have $20 on a Charlie card that expires in December per the date on the card. As we have relocated to just outside the sound of the Surfliner (when it runs) I'm not sure what good this card will do for me.

Off topic but important: If you make it into the area again before the card expires (or potentially even after it expires), bring it to the Charlie Store to transfer the balance to a new card. The reason the card expires is so you will get the balance off of it before it fails. If you won't be around, perhaps a member here could receive it and handle the transfer for you.

You can reach out to the Charlie Card store online and I think they’ll help with a swap through the mail.

I came back to Boston after a business trip to Europe with a colleague last Monday and landed peak rush hour. We both live in Coolidge Corner. She decided to take an uber home, I managed to hop on a shuttle that went immediately to Airport. She got home in 30 min, it took me an hour and 15, with about 30 min of that being terminal to Government Center on the shuttle+blue line. Pretty shameful on the T/MassDOT's part that it should take so long to get both to downtown and to any points north, west or south.

it's 1:38 pm, off peak. Mr Google shows from Terminal C to the Coolidge Corner Theatre 27min for 9.6miles by car, 56min by public transit. So ~20MPH by car and ~10MPH average by bus/trolley. Pretty pathetic. At rush hour public transportation should be faster than automobile! Your trip, 1.5 hours / ~9.6 miles = 6.4MPH! What is the breakdown for each segment? Massport could and should implement bus lanes and a people mover to the subway station.

BandA wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2023 11:31 am it's 1:38 pm, off peak. Mr Google shows from Terminal C to the Coolidge Corner Theatre 27min for 9.6miles by car, 56min by public transit. So ~20MPH by car and ~10MPH average by bus/trolley. Pretty pathetic. At rush hour public transportation should be faster than automobile! Your trip, 1.5 hours / ~9.6 miles = 6.4MPH! What is the breakdown for each segment? Massport could and should implement bus lanes and a people mover to the subway station.

The hard numbers make me shake my head even harder.

I got very lucky and had minimal waiting(<5min) getting the shuttle to Airport, which took about 10 minutes to go B->Airport, but had to wait ~10 min for the blue line once I got there. Then another 10 min to Govt Center on the blue line, then right on the C(just managed to get on before the doors closed!) and 45 min to go Govt Center to Coolidge Corner. Of note, it's a 10 min walk with baggage to my home from Coolidge Corner, so total 1 hour 25 min if we're talking terminal door to home door.

The most fixable segment is the airport circulation. But the upside would only be maybe 5 minutes. The fix that would help the most folks would be to speed up the Green Line. How could you do that? By creating express track(s) in the Central Subway. Imagine skipping from Park to Kenmore without stopping or slowing down, going as fast as 50 MPH. That would take the Green Line portion of your trip from 11 stops to 7 stops.

Express tracks certainly sound nice, but are pretty much impossible from an engineering standpoint. None of the streets above the Green Line tunnel are wide enough to handle four track plus station platforms. They are barely wide enough for what is there now. There are ways to improve the Green Line, but if you want to spend the kind of money required for four tracking the Boylston St. subway, you would do better to build a completely different line along another route, such as a Blue Line extension under Beacon St. that could go express from Charles to Kenmore.

Thinking of the Sumner project had me wondering for some time why couldn't MassDOT operate the Callahan in
two-way configuration for the duration of the project? This occurred briefly in 1961-62 when the Sumner closed
for renovations after Callahan was built.

In New York, the Midtown and Battery (Hugh Carey) Tunnels operate two-way regularly overnights and weekends
with construction in one tube.

Until the Callahan opened about 1960 or so, the Sumner operated as a two way tunnel from 1934.

The big dig made that impossible. The roadways are connect to tunnels. You would be entering 93 head on.