Red-Blue Connector

[jamesinclair]

Thats how most modern non-us subways are run

[sery2831]

Okay, lets get back on topic

[maxman927]

okay, heres a stretch but what if the red line was converted to blue line cars and they conected the blue line to make it a branch, through Charles/MGH. then, trains could run from alewife to wonderland,

[AznSumtinSumtin]

Impossible. The Red Line cars are taller and wider. To board a Blue Line car from a Red Line platform, you would have to jump down into the car and hope you don't miss and land into the pit. Reconstructing the stations to accomodate Blue Line cars would cost billions of dollars. It would just be easier to have people transfer at Charles/MGH instead.

[maxman927]

Impossible. The Red Line cars are taller and wider. To board a Blue Line car from a Red Line platform, you would have to jump down into the car and hope you don't miss and land into the pit. Reconstructing the stations to accomodate Blue Line cars would cost billions of dollars. It would just be easier to have people transfer at Charles/MGH instead.

if you had the trains line up at exactly the same place at the station you could have little "bridges" to connect, like in nyc for the shuttle.

[Veristek]

Impossible. The Red Line cars are taller and wider. To board a Blue Line car from a Red Line platform, you would have to jump down into the car and hope you don't miss and land into the pit. Reconstructing the stations to accomodate Blue Line cars would cost billions of dollars. It would just be easier to have people transfer at Charles/MGH instead.

When you think about it... the US spends $12 billion a month or $150 billion per year on a pointless war in Iraq.

If the US didn't spend that money on Iraq, but rather, gave just one month's supply of "Iraq money" to the MBTA once, then the MBTA can pretty much do all of its extension, expansion, revonations, and everything, plus pay off all of its debts.

Thus, it would be a cakewalk finance-wise to extend the Blue Line to Charles / MGH, or even do the Red Line revonations (or upgrade the Blue Line to accomodate Red Line cars).

[maxman927]

well, i think that it'd be worth it to have the red line platforms narrowed so that blue line cars could run it. with all that money they could also connect the orange line to make a unified subway.

[ceo]

Updating the Blue Line to accommodate Red Line cars would cost even more, because the tunnel under the harbor doesn't have enough clearance. (This is why the Blue Line cars have such a low platform height; the tunnel was built for streetcars.)

[maxman927]

it should be cheaper to have the whole system use blueline cars should it be unified. that way any car could go anywhere.

[sery2831]

Blue Line cars are very small and don't hold many people. That is not a good idea.

[maxman927]

Blue Line cars are very small and don't hold many people. That is not a good idea.

longer trains?

[sery2831]

Still would hold less people... It's not the way to go.

[maxman927]

is the clearance the only problem with the blue line? if so, without the bowdoin loop couldn't you theoretically run OL cars, with pantographs?

[sery2831]

You couldn't make the turn at State with Orange Line cars.

[maxman927]

ah, so if we had said money we could straighten that out as well.