Fully double track old colony lines

Hi folks, any thoughts or posts that indicates if all of the old colony lines will ever be fully double tracked and not partial double and single?

Unless they rebuild the area near Wollaston — where they just rebuilt the station with no accommodations for double tracking CR — or they somehow dig under Burgin Parkway in Quincy Center or work around the single track at the Quincy Adams garage, no. And we're not even talking about the stretch between Boston Street and the junction in Dorchester.

never going to happen in our life time. Cheaper to delay a train 10-20, even 30 minutes every now and then given the amount of traffic out there, than double tracking the OC

The MBTA's proposed FY24-28 Capital Investment Plan details a proposed project named "Rail Transformation Early Actions - Old Colony Double Track (P1209)" https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/file ... 283%29.pdf

Track improvements to support hourly, all-day, bi-directional service on the Old Colony Line and South Coast Rail. Includes design for double-tracking on portions of the Greenbush/Middleboro Lines and modifications of Middleboro Station’s tracks.

The key word is "portions". New double track south of Quincy will work much like driving to Boston from the North Shore - barrel along a limited access highway, get dumped onto 5 miles of strip development and chronic congestion.

Middleboro is singled track from after Brockton to Middleboro. If you want increased service to NB/FB/eventually BB, you'll need to double that.

I forget where it is but there is plans someplace when the Southeast expressway gets redone, to modify the Red Line and double track the Old Colony. I don't remember the specifics or the website but I've posted it somewhere on here before.

Still don't know how they get double track through Quincy though. I feel like no matter how much upgrading you do to the outer parts of the OC system, youll always have the bottleneck in Quincy

Didn't the RED line extension thru Quincy take away the 2 main tracks there leaving just one?

Its up to the city of Quincy, if the State were somehow to convince, or perhaps even force, them to narrow Newport Avenue and Burgin Parkway, then there would be enough space for full Old Colony double tracking, not sure about the likelihood of that happening though.

Red Wing wrote: ↑Wed Mar 29, 2023 9:01 pm I forget where it is but there is plans someplace when the Southeast expressway gets redone, to modify the Red Line and double track the Old Colony. I don't remember the specifics or the website but I've posted it somewhere on here before.

That plan would move the current junction down to near Harrison Square (where the Ashmont Line turns west). Between there and JFK/UMass, the current southbound Braintree track would become the second commuter rail track, and the northbound Braintree track would be used for widening the expressway.

The argument against moving the junction is that it adds an extra stop (Savin Hill) for Braintree trains.
I figured that proposal was a non-starter for that reason (although it'd be a cheaper, more practical solution than some others).

wicked wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:38 pm The argument against moving the junction is that it adds an extra stop (Savin Hill) for Braintree trains.

Why is that a problem?

Also, there's nothing stopping Braintree trains from bypassing Savin Hill.

charlesriverbranch wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 7:41 am

wicked wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:38 pm The argument against moving the junction is that it adds an extra stop (Savin Hill) for Braintree trains.

Why is that a problem?

Because precious South Shore riders would have 90 seconds added to their commutes. It’s the same complaint those riders had when the JFK stop was added. As someone who’d be affected by the change, I really don’t care. Any notion of the line being an “express” line ended long ago, especially when the Old Colony returned.