Beacon Park Updates

[BandA]

Sure, you can go ahead and keep building commuter rail stations with full 800 ft platforms in the hope of eventually running some other type of service to them, but what if the Worcester Line becomes so saturated with commuter and intercity rail that you need to build additional tracks for local service? Now you're likely to need to rip them out and build new. Or what if a future study determines a light rail line, or BRT line, etc. along the corridor is a better option?

Saying "just build it, we can figure out what to do with it later" seems really backward and inefficient to me. We can and should do better than that.

The entire Massachusetts Turnpike Extension + Massachusetts Turnpike east of 495 needs to be rebuilt with higher capacity. From Weston east, probably by digging a new layer underground and replacing all the bridges. This will likely happen >10yrs and <60yrs from now. At the same time they need to put in more rails (by then tracks will be made from recycled plastic).

Plus the Grand Junction is presently only accessible from the west (and from only Track 1). Some type of loop would be trivial to design now and impossible later.

If you build West Station and a bunch of 10-story Harvard dorms and lock in the existing 8 highway lanes + 2 tracks for the next hundred years, that's criminal.

[MBTA3247]

by then tracks will be made from recycled plastic

And made by LEGO Group. That'll really encourage people to not step on them.

[BandA]

You've heard of light rail, lol

[deathtopumpkins]

This has been done, and it's been explained. Yet you poo-poo the ideas that state agencies themselves have studied and published. Every plan that comes up you shut down and then complain no one has ideas. Perhaps no one has any ideas that you like?

No, it hasn't. The Patrick administration blew a bunch of smoke about buying DMUs to run an "Indigo" service, but never actually released any concrete plans that I'm aware of. And the current administration hasn't really discussed it.
I would love to see an actual plan.
I would also love for you to stop putting words into my mouth. The only thing I've "poo-poo'd" is baseless claims with nothing to back them up, spoken as if they were established fact.

I don't need to spend the better part of a day digging for the source of articles and reports I already read and maps and plans I already studied because you're not satisfied with the information. If you're that interested in fact finding, do your own research.

I don't think it's unrealistic to expect someone to provide citations when they make claims that are contrary to pretty much everything publicly available. I have done my own research. A lot of research.

I don't think this discussion is going anywhere productive though, and it's less relevant now given the below news:

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http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/ ... t-station/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair use quote:

Harvard has pledged $50 million to fund West Station and promised up to $8 million to help construct another, interim transportation station in Allston.

...

Harvard also pledged Wednesday to contribute up to eight million dollars to help build an “early action” commuter rail station in Allston Landing South. In pushing for the construction of the temporary station, Lapp referenced what she called the significant “disruption and inconveniences” to local residents posed by construction in Allston over the past few years.

Looks like in response to MassDOT delaying West Station Harvard is offering to kick in half instead of 1/3 the cost, and another $8 million to build a temporary station right now.

[CRail]

I don't think this discussion is going anywhere productive though.

Bingo!