Orange Line subway (Silver Line replacement)

How about replacing the slow Silver Line bus on Washington St with a new subway? This would be part of the Orange Line and would be the true successor to the Washington Street El. The line would not replace the Southwest Corridor, it would supplement it and link up with the Southwest Corridor at Forest Hills.

The Washington Street Subway would spur off the curent Orange Line south of Chinatown, making all former el stops in the subway. It will terminate at Forest Hills, where it would meet the Southwest Corridor. Trains would have special marker lights and signs indicating if the train is operating via the Washington Street Subway (A) or Southwest Corridor (B).

North of Chinatown, all trains would make all stops and operate at a frequency of 3-5 minutes peak (6-12 off-peak). South of Chinatown each branch would operate 6-8 peak (9-15 off-peak).

Why replace something that a TON of money has just been spent on? I see your point, and there is great validity to it, but MBTA just doesn't have the money.

That would be way too expensive. Real replacement service only needs to go as far as Dudley Square to adequately serve the commuters affected by the closing of the El. The former stations beyond that point--Egleston, Green St., and Forest Hills--are close enough to the Southwest Corridor and a restored Arborway line that additional service a few blocks away would simply be redundant. It's former Dover, Northampton, and Dudley station passengers that really aren't served well by the Southwest Corridor alignment.

I don't know how the T could ever justify the cost of building such a short subway spur to Dudley unless there was some sort of future expansion upside to that. And there isn't...the expansion upside on the Orange Line was the Southwest Corridor, because it's relatively straightforward to extend the whole line way out to Rte. 128 if needed. A short spur up the old alignment wouldn't make sense because your future extension opportunities would just become redundant with what was already possible once you get closer to Forrest Hills.

The most economical way to restore full transit to that area--moreso than even that blasted Phase III scam--is to just recycle the Tremont Street trolley tunnel with a brief extension to N.E. Medical Center station (for Orange Line transfer), and then run light rail on Washington Street from there to Dudley. Between the current Orange Line, a restored Arborway line, and the "F", that's 3 separate one-seat rides to downtown covering all destinations on the old El. I'd call that equal-or-better replacement service. It was way more than those neighborhoods had in the last months of El service, when you consider that Arborway was gone and the E was truncated even further than it currently is back in 1987.