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gpberliner t1_j0jes8m wrote

The more realistic red line extension would be down between route 2.. The land there is already owned by the state and the logical end point would be a massive garage with direct access to 2 and 95.

I can't tell on the map but do you have the commuter lines connected between north and south station? This would be a huge connection for passengers. More than that though it would allow the trains to travel straight through and connects Maine to NYC and beyond.

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Master_Dogs t1_j0jvel3 wrote

> The more realistic red line extension would be down between route 2.. The land there is already owned by the state and the logical end point would be a massive garage with direct access to 2 and 95.

No. The realistic extension would be under the Minute Man Bikeway, as was originally proposed during the original Red Line Northwest Extension during the 1980s. The Minute Man is owned by the State of MA and was originally used for Rail Transit as the Lexington Branch. As a result, it actually passes through numerous population and commercial centers such as Arlingtons downtown, Arlington Heights, and Lexington's downtown. It can reach 128 as well and there's enough relatively under utilized land around there that could make for a decent park and ride or transit oriented development.

> I can't tell on the map but do you have the commuter lines connected between north and south station? This would be a huge connection for passengers. More than that though it would allow the trains to travel straight through and connects Maine to NYC and beyond.

Just have to do the North/South Rail Link for this. It's a costly project ($10B to $20B are the cost estimates) but as you mentioned it unlocks a lot of potential for North/South shore connections. Even just directly connecting the two stations could make transfers way easier, especially for equipment maintenance and allowing for us to share equipment in real time vs having to shuffle equipment overnight via the Grand Junction freight railroad.

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