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Old 11-13-2013, 07:26 AM
 
Location: New England
1,050 posts, read 1,397,732 times
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Also, Somerville isn't on the Orange Line. One of these days they'll get Green Line service, or so the legend runs, but who can believe such foolish tales?

That Fairmount Line fare change is an odd thing. In general the MBTA charges a low fare on commuter rail only as long as you're very close in to Boston, and they call it "Zone 1A". In the north the limits are Chelsea, Malden, West Medford and Porter, or in the south or west Yawkey, Forest Hills, Ruggles or JFK/UMass. Now the Fairmount Line stations have been placed into Zone 1A, but they're farther out than Roslindale, West Roxbury or Hyde Park, which still pay the higher fare. I wouldn't be surprised if those places start demanding a lower fare too.
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Old 11-13-2013, 05:39 PM
 
8,811 posts, read 6,134,711 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BitofEndearment View Post
Rich communities like Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford?!
Compared to the area that is the subject of this thread, yes rich.
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Old 11-13-2013, 05:53 PM
 
Location: Boston, MA
3,962 posts, read 5,706,122 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amontillado View Post
Also, Somerville isn't on the Orange Line. One of these days they'll get Green Line service, or so the legend runs, but who can believe such foolish tales?

That Fairmount Line fare change is an odd thing. In general the MBTA charges a low fare on commuter rail only as long as you're very close in to Boston, and they call it "Zone 1A". In the north the limits are Chelsea, Malden, West Medford and Porter, or in the south or west Yawkey, Forest Hills, Ruggles or JFK/UMass. Now the Fairmount Line stations have been placed into Zone 1A, but they're farther out than Roslindale, West Roxbury or Hyde Park, which still pay the higher fare. I wouldn't be surprised if those places start demanding a lower fare too.
The only station on the Fairmount Line which changed from Zone 1 to Zone 1A is Fairmount itself. Readville is still Zone 2. All stations Morton Street north were always Zone 1A since 2007 (Morton Street used to be the now defunct Zone 1B in which one pays a slightly higher cash fare but subway/combo passes were still accepted - Forest Hills, Porter, West Medford, Malden, and Chelsea were the other Zone 1B stations).

You are right though. Fairmount is within walking distance to Hyde Park Station which remains Zone 1. The whole ploy OF lowering fares on the Fairmount Line is simply to get more people to ride the line. Watch out, I suspect that after all of the stations are built (I believe there are one or two more in the plans), the MBTA is going to reclassify the Fairmount Line as a rapid transit line and so it might not even need the commuter rail fare structure anymore. Now if only the conductors can have devices where you can tap your Charlie Cards to deduct fares.
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Old 11-13-2013, 06:06 PM
 
1,221 posts, read 2,096,746 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amontillado View Post
That Fairmount Line fare change is an odd thing. In general the MBTA charges a low fare on commuter rail only as long as you're very close in to Boston, and they call it "Zone 1A". In the north the limits are Chelsea, Malden, West Medford and Porter, or in the south or west Yawkey, Forest Hills, Ruggles or JFK/UMass. Now the Fairmount Line stations have been placed into Zone 1A, but they're farther out than Roslindale, West Roxbury or Hyde Park, which still pay the higher fare. I wouldn't be surprised if those places start demanding a lower fare too.
That's only really true for the Fairmount station itself being an outlier as Readville is still at a higher zone #. All of the others are closer than any of those, and inside the "rapid transit/subway" zone of Boston, they're all closer in than the Ashmont-Mattapan Line is. So a fare higher than the subway cost, would be rather odd.

Quote:
You are right though. Fairmount is within walking distance to Hyde Park Station which remains Zone 1. The whole ploy OF lowering fares on the Fairmount Line is simply to get more people to ride the line. Watch out, I suspect that after all of the stations are built (I believe there are one or two more in the plans), the MBTA is going to reclassify the Fairmount Line as a rapid transit line and so it might not even need the commuter rail fare structure anymore. Now if only the conductors can have devices where you can tap your Charlie Cards to deduct fares.
That's the end goal, they want it to be a rapid transit line, not a CR line, in terms of functionality.
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Old 11-16-2013, 01:32 AM
 
2,621 posts, read 3,387,914 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amontillado View Post
Also, Somerville isn't on the Orange Line. One of these days they'll get Green Line service, or so the legend runs, but who can believe such foolish tales?

That Fairmount Line fare change is an odd thing. In general the MBTA charges a low fare on commuter rail only as long as you're very close in to Boston, and they call it "Zone 1A". In the north the limits are Chelsea, Malden, West Medford and Porter, or in the south or west Yawkey, Forest Hills, Ruggles or JFK/UMass. Now the Fairmount Line stations have been placed into Zone 1A, but they're farther out than Roslindale, West Roxbury or Hyde Park, which still pay the higher fare. I wouldn't be surprised if those places start demanding a lower fare too.

Your statement (i.e., that Somerville is not on the Orange Line) is incorrect. The Sullivan Square station is on the border of Somerville and the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston and is on the Orange Line. And the MBTA is finishing a new above-ground Orange Line subway station one stop north of Sullivan Square which will become the new Assembly Square T station (which will be wholly in Somerville).
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Old 11-16-2013, 07:15 AM
 
546 posts, read 1,368,738 times
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I look at the Transit lay out simular to how Boston Streets are laid out as many were paths from days of old. Some were cow paths, Rte 1 was a North/South route for American Natives to move etc. As the T grew, it could only follow certain paths.

The T is not a perfect system, but it really helps alot of us out.
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Old 11-16-2013, 05:05 PM
 
7,912 posts, read 7,739,485 times
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Although what Bob stated is true I think it does hold the area back.

The other issue I would argue is why does *EVERYTHING* have to be assumed it has to go into boston. Obviously it's the largest city in the state and region and has the 12 and 495 belts around it but it would make much more sense to simply try to eliminate the need for everything to occur there.

If education, medical and sports started to be more outside of Boston it would help. Thank God the Patriots don't play in Boston because the traffic would really add up. Maybe the garden could move, maybe the state capital could move out west (worcester) etc.
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Old 11-21-2013, 11:06 PM
 
34 posts, read 72,043 times
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What millerm277 said. Boston Real Estate costs are (as you probably know) incredibly expensive. Buying up all the land needed to build a new train track would be daunting. Most subway lines are built on the site of tracks that were put in before cars were invented. Boston is lucky because for some reason the old rail right of ways weren't sold off as they were in most cities. Any time you try to build a new train line the locals make a stink about the noise, pollution, disruption etc. and it ends up being a political/legal mess. Also, the MBTA is strapped for cash. Expect at most a few tweaks as old lines get extended a stop or two.

Watertown, Chelsea, East Boston, and the Federal Courthouse are all odd holes in the subway system.

If we are fantasizing about what we want, I'd like to see a "Circle line" connecting the ends of the red, green and orange lines.

Could you tell me more about the Fairmount/Indigo Line? Where is it supposed to go? I'd never heard of it.
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Old 11-22-2013, 08:31 AM
 
2,439 posts, read 4,800,920 times
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The Fairmount / Indigo line was a branch line of the Old Colony Railroad. Until some point in history--don't know when--it provided commuter service for Dorchester residents into Boston. Then it became a little-used freight line. In the 1980s during the Southwest Corridor construction it was upgraded so that Amtrak passenger trains could use it while the mainline through Roxbury and the South End was rebuilt. When Amtrak returned to the mainline, the T Commuter Rail started running limited passenger service on the Fairmont. The route runs through Uphams Corner and then southwesterly between Washington St (Dorchester) and Blue Hill Ave, stopping at Mattapan, Hyde Park, and a few other places.

What people in those areas could really use is what Newton and Brookline got, over 50 years ago, from a very similar situation-- a little-used branch line of the Boston & Albany RR. When the railroad terminated passenger service in 1958, the MTA acquired the line and turned it into the D-Riverside division of the green line. Instead of an infrequent commuter train you have regular light-rail service that connects into the subway system. The difference between the two is that Fairmont serves poor neighborhoods whose residents haven't got the clout that affluent Newton and Brookline folks have. Also the logistics of connecting the Fairmont to the subway system aren't nearly as easy as they were for the Highland Branch, and the state's resources aren't what they were then. Unable to afford the costs of making it a regular T line like Riverside, they keep it going as a commuter rail line that isn't all that useful to neighborhoods along the way.
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Old 11-22-2013, 09:01 AM
 
Location: Massachusetts
6,301 posts, read 9,584,490 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EdLincoln86 View Post
If we are fantasizing about what we want, I'd like to see a "Circle line" connecting the ends of the red, green and orange lines.
I have mused about this many times. This very much makes sense and would cut commute time for many people if it could be made workable.
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