Master_Dogs t1_j6nlh57 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 4:37 PM

Reply to comment by Wilforks in Extremly Unrealistic Fantasy MBTA Subway map. The Silver Line is converted into light rail. Let me know what your favorite part of the map is and what I missed. by Wide_right_yes

> The yellow line seems a bit much, with that much line extension and intersection already, it’s probably better as a few local buses. > >

I think in a world where we actually do all the inner transit projects they've listed (Red, Orange, Green and Blue Line extensions outward via rail / trail ROWs, light rail conversion of the Silver Line, Commuter Rail turned into a proper Purple Line via Electrification and Signal modernization, etc) the yellow line becomes extremely valuable. Someone who lives in Waltham but works in Burlington no longer needs a car at all. They've got access to downtown PLUS the suburbs. And someone in Salem could get to Burlington without a car too. While still having access to downtown, and potentially cutting through via a Blue/Red transfer if they wanted to go to the South Shore.

128 appears to be the routing of the Yellow Line, and it's constantly congested. Being able to take, idk, 20k cars minimum off that roadway and put them onto heavy rail of sorts would be killer. The lost of 2 lanes of motor vehicle traffic would be more than made up for by the reduction in traffic.

> If they just extended the mattapan line and E line to Forest Hills, the city would be much better connected. Orange line out to Readville/West Roxbury would make sense and would be at least a little bit realistic, since there’s already right of way and track down those routes.

A lot of rail ROWs exist for these proposed extensions, so really this isn't too unrealistic. The unrealistic part is funding it all and convincing millions of car owners that transit is actually a good thing for traffic and providing alternatives to driving. It's slowly catching on, but there's enough resistance to make this an uphill battle and not many Governors/State officials will bother with that.

Wilforks t1_j6nnfvk wrote on January 31, 2023 at 4:49 PM

I think the length of the line is a part of the problem though, the number of trains needed to keep the line running frequently enough to make it convenient would be so high compared to ridership that it wouldn’t make sense as an investment in space and resources.

Master_Dogs t1_j6o1t2e wrote on January 31, 2023 at 6:16 PM

Hmm, possibly. MA 128 is 57 miles long according to Wikipedia. The longest subway route in NYC is 32 miles long according to Google. I don't think the OP did the entire length of 128, since it cuts over to Salem instead of going to Rockport. So it might be a stretch to make the Yellow Line truly subway like (5-10 minute headways) but there's a number of Commuter Rail Lines that are that long (Fitchburg Line is 54 miles long apparently) that have hour or so headways. I imagine you could get 20 minute headways without totally breaking the bank, which might be useful enough for some folks.

I agree it's not a great investment, but in the Grand scheme of things we spend billions on highway maintenance each year (last I saw, something like $1.5B through MassDOT) so if we wanted to divert some of those resources, or increase taxes to fund more transit, at some point a Yellow Line would make some sense. But not until we've gotten the inner line running, and all the various extensions to 128 in the first place. Even then I don't know if running rails would make a ton of sense. Rapid Bus service might make more sense and be a lot cheaper. Just take 1 lane on 128, make it a bus lane, add some cameras/cops for enforcement, and run buses every 15 minutes. That would probably be totally affordable, especially since bus stations are dirt cheap and buses aren't terribly expensive.