New Widett Circle Rail Yard

Excellent move by the MBTA:



https://www.mbta.com/news/2022-12-15/mb ... yover-yard

Should be interesting to see. Also the T is losing the "front yard" whenever the new Acelas show up, and look for a total redesign of Southampton street yard in the coming years

Does this mean that a few tracks of what remains of Beacon Park won't need to be rebuilt as commuter rail equipment storage?

There is no way to store or service trains for the Framingham / Worcester line at Widett Cir. without crossing over the NEC. All the Boston & Albany passenger facilities were sold off or destroyed by the Turnpike Authority by the 1960s. So I think there is a crying need to keep the few storage tracks they have been allowed at Beacon Park. What they should do is create a loop track to access the Grand Junction from the east, and possibly even a "basement" storage yard using an electric shunting locomotive. Not sure what is going to happen with the Turnpike interchange and Harvard's interest being more important than the MBTA!!!

Looks like there may be (or at least was) competition for the site:

Amazon Considering Opening a Distribution Center at Widett Circle
Able Company, LLC - the owner of the nearly 20-acre Widett Circle - are considering redevelopment of the site that will include an Amazon last-mile distribution center. Able Company purchased the site in June 2020 for $125,000,000.

Widett Circle is bound by Interstate 93, the South Boston Bypass Road and rail lines, and has been home to two dozen meat and seafood wholesalers for nearly 50 years. The City of Boston owns parcels adjacent to Widett Circle which, combined with the existing 20 acres, could sum to 50 acres of potential development. Any development at Widett Circle will require significant infrastructure investment and rezoning.

A Globe article mentions the Amazon proposal and makes it sound like that plan is dead.

BandA wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 11:39 pm There is no way to store or service trains for the Framingham / Worcester line at Widett Cir. without crossing over the NEC.

What do you think they do now? I do agree that Widett does not cancel out the need to have equipment storage at Beacon Park, but So Sta to S&I logistics (which would not change) are not the reason why.

I'd like to see Worcester Line service just roll in & out of South Station using mostly tracks 1 & 2, saving 5 minutes waiting to approach South Station. Could even put short turn BOS-BBY-Landsdowne-(Boston Landing?) trains on the schedule.

This is a waste. Under the flattened scheduling now implemented, there are only 15 midday layovers, 5 on OC. This facility was needed in 2018, not in 2023 and not in 2030 by the time they get it built. Total waste of money by an agency that can least afford it.

For once the T is futureproofing the system. A new service facility really makes sense, especially one that can be converted to work on electrics or EMU/DMU's. Also having your only major repair facility on the Northside it makes sense for 1 on the Southside, going out to Ayer to Worcester and back to Boston really doesn't make sense if the Grand Junction is out.

Don’t forget Worcester or framingham trains can just as well go over to tracks 5-13 as 1-4. Not saying that happens all of the time but it does sometimes, depending on the dispatching and where the train sets head to next after they arrive to south station as it is very dynamic and sets swap all of the time, even with planned specific set assignments. Lots of delays and issues can cause anything to happen.

Except, as it is now designed in the renders, it will NOT be easily converted to EMUs.

The "flattened" schedule is artificial and based on political rhetoric rather than actual ridership patterns. Unless the T is to intentionally force the system to fail, which it may very well do, it will return to a schedule which adequately serves its demands and the peak model will resume.

It is by no means "artificial". Anecdotal evidence (and there has been no data released to refute it) seems to point to a significantly increased midday ridership and that traditional 9-5 has not rebounded, especially on Mon and Friday.
I will be interested in seeing the data the new NS gates will generate.

There has been no data because there isn't any to support it. There are fewer peak travelers because there are fewer peak trains, and service reliability has been in the tank. Highway traffic patterns, which are easily verifiable, do not support this notion of even volumes.

So I guess than your opinion is no more valid than mine. Of course, I am not advocating for the expenditure of 250 M taxpayer dollars on opinion unsupported by data.

CSRR573 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 12:28 am Should be interesting to see. Also the T is losing the "front yard" whenever the new Acelas show up, and look for a total redesign of Southampton street yard in the coming years

How are 700 ft Acela consists fitting in the Front Yard?