Blue Line to Lynn??

RailBus63 wrote:

Veristek wrote:One thing Rapid Transit has going for it is the scheducles. With subways, you can wait 5 minutes or so for the next one, whereas with the Commuter Rail, you have to wait a hour or more for the next Commuter Rail train. Also, it's much easier to work out your daily activities around a subway commute, like dates, events, dinners with friends, visiting family, etc. The Commuter Rail doesn't leave you with much options time-wise.

For example, on the Providence Line, there's only 7 inbound and outbound train trips each for a 24 hour period. With the subways, there's a hundred or more round trips in a 24 hour period. See how the scheducles for the commuter rail can suck compared to the subways?

You're using an example of poor service to condemn the entire commuter rail concept. Look at New York City - Metro North and Long Island Railroad run very popular commuter lines that feature hourly off-peak service or better on many lines. I use Metro North periodically for visits to the city and I have no problem scheduling activities and working my plans around an once-an-hour train schedule. If the demand is there for better service from the Cape Ann or Attleboro areas, it would be much less expensive to expand commuter rail service than to build extensions of the Blue or Orange lines that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yes, but there are many folks in Lynn who prefer to get to Central Sqaure and hop on a train that's there and if they miss they only need to wait 10 minutes tops for another one (which does happen with CR but is more a half-hr interval and that's only during rush hour). Plus, it doesn't go anywhere near the airport. One thing that could help this craphole of a city I live in is if we could build hotels for people who want to stay coming from Logan but don't want to pay outrageous prices, such as business travelers and possibly families.

I envision Central Square as becoming the North Shore's transit hub if the Blue Line came, especially considering the fact it's already a major bus hub. I mean we have the only full length platform on the line for Commuter Rail, and we have a large parking garage.... which is never filled to capacity.

I'd rather jump on the Blue Line and pay the same $1.70, then having to plunk down $5.00 to go to Boston and even then it doesn't take me to where I work... which is the Airport...

On top of that, my father hates downtown Lynn so much, he prefers going over to Swampscott and taking the train there, just because he has a disdain for the scumhole downtown has become so much to him and if he missed a train, he'd rather wait there, then wait on the platform at Central Sqaure. (This is hypothetical, he hardly ever goes into Boston and when he does, he usually takes the Blue Line.)

On top of that, I just see as a way to get a connection to Boston, since even though we aren't that isolated anymore, we're still isolated. We don't have a major connection 128/95 since that was killed long ago... and all we got out of that were rusting unused off ramps at the junction of US1/MA60 to where to go over the sand berm on the marsh and up into Lynn Woods.

Both projects are old and one is long dead. But the Blue Line is something they told us about for years and years and years... and the T has never delivered and the whole reason we're in this predicament is because they ran out of money... and we could have it running down the original ROW it was on, instead of this new jump over idea.

It's another case of good ole' transit racism and lost promises. Instead of attending to current infrastructure there for them in these areas, the T goes somewhere else.

It's just the like the El and the Arborway.... which are economically depressed areas just as Lynn is.

I mean sure they said back three years that it would finally be coming in 2017, but it wasn't told us by Mormonboy himself, who was too busy being Mr. 8 x 10 Family Values Glossy to earn himself a nice Presidential campaign, instead it was told by Lt. Airhead and said maybe if it would move forward if Fall River/New Bedford and Fitchburg fell behind. But, I've never trusted the Romney administration and the only transport related thing he accomplished during his warmup four year term was "Blame the Pike. Blame the Pike. Blame the Pike. Blame the Pike."

It's a blue carrot they've dangled in front of us for years, they said it would come, but it's just been dangling and dangling and a story gets published in the Globe or the Daily Item and then you see nothing of it for another four years or so, where they say "IT'S A COMIN!, IT'S A COMIN!"

Well, if it's a comin'.... they why don't you show for it... start work now... I want to see surveyors along the ROW... not just another god damn environmental impact on the wetlands story, I mean come on... they we're going to build a god damn Interstate highway on that same stretch of marsh, that's alot more disruptive then just having train tracks crossing it.

But instead, it seems like the T would prefer to build to more economically affluent areas like.... Hingham... and they don't even want it.... (well at least the way the T planned it.)

We're not NIMBYs up here, because we see the benefits this brings up. But instead... we just get ignored... and the T continues build into NIMBYville.

I mean I wouldn't mind if there was a Wonderland CR station.... but I would only like if it included more frequent service on a near-scale of that the Blue Line... such as trains every half-hour... but the way the T and MBCR is stretched for equipment, I don't see that happening.

A DMU would be nice and I expressed that interest back in February when we had a "green future" talk at North Shore Community College which I attended, and the reps said they've considered DMUs....

But DMUs are going on for Fairmount supposedly... yet the only DMU equipment manufacturer at the moment is Colorado Railcar... and they didn't do to well. I wouldn't mind if the T just bought a bunch of surplus Budds that we're still working or buy them off that company that had a bunch of them that could actually propel themselves.

Then I would mind, especially if there was some sort of service that was an express between Lynn and Wonderland.


But at the moment, that's just a dream.... just like the Blue Line.

You can blame Romney and the Republicans if it makes you feel better, but the transit-friendly Dukakis administrations did nothing about extending the Blue Line to Lynn either. In fact, it was the Duke's transportation cazr Fred Salvucci who was the true champion of the Big Dig - it should be no surprise that the era of big-time MBTA extensions ground to a halt once the Southwest Corridor was done in 1987.

How to give Lynn better transit in 2009: Buy one 1- or 2-car DMU. Build a layover siding on the Swampscott side of the Lynn Station. Budget crews to operate an every-80-minutes (based on current 25 min. Lynn - No. Station schedule) round-trip 7AM to 10PM, bringing Lynn service up to 36 R/T per weekday, 24 on weekends. Then take some more money from somewhere and subsidize a "Lynn Ticket", good for one Lynn - Boston round trip and two subway rides, costing $3.40. If you get the riders, campaign for grade crossing improvements in Chelsea to speed up the ride and get more R/Ts out of the DMU, and/or buy a 2nd DMU.

The MBTA plans to take a new, hard look at how you get in and out of Lynn — including the long-awaited Blue Line extension.

“We’re still waiting for the Blue Line, but so were my grandparents,” Lynn at-large City Councilor Brian Fields told the Herald with a laugh. But, he added, “There’s a real need for it.”

The T announced yesterday that it has issued a request for proposals for a study of transit options for the North Shore city.

Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_ ... it_options" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I stand by what I said in 2009. And the SL3 Silver Line now connects Chelsea and Airport, which at least partially addresses Lynn - Logan trips.

Recent news:
"Sen. Brendan Crighton Renews Push To Bring Blue Line To Lynn"
https://www.itemlive.com/2019/01/16/sen-brendan-crighton-files-bill-for-feasibility-study-on-blue-line-extension-to-lynn/

A tidbit:

Gayla Cawley, The Daily Item wrote:State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) knows the skepticism that surrounds any mention of extending the Blue Line from the Wonderland Station in Revere to Lynn. It’s been mentioned as a priority of elected officials and those seeking election for decades, with discussion dating back to the 1930s.

But on Thursday, Crighton will renew the push when he plans to file a bill in the state legislature that, if passed, would require the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to conduct a feasibility study on how to extend the Blue Line, or rapid transit, from Revere to Lynn. The study would have to be completed by March 2020.

Great! Let's build it out to Lynn, then work on further extending it to Salem next!

Given the rate of ocean level rise, I wouldn't make a big investment in the old B,RB&L RoW across the Saugus River and the swampiest part of Lynn. But politics in the Commonwealth keeps all sorts of iffy ideas alive and nibbling at the budget for Yet Another Study.

Better service to Lynn is important because the North Shore trains are crowded and Blue Service would increase the frequency of the riders coming to downtown Boston as more land is being developed in north of Revere Beach. Commuters are looking for better access to downtown Boston. This was one of the MBTA's big projects when the merger took place in 1966.