East west rail looks to be more of a reality (Boston: 2013, house)

[BosYuppie]

It is appearing that Ron Mariano is more transit-friendly than I would have expected for someone of his generation. For example, he is leading the charge to restore normal T service.

[Judder]

I just don't see the ridership being viable. No one's going to live/work in Boston and commute back and forth to Springfield or vise-versa. Springfield is a low income regional service city - you're not going to attract white or blue collar workers that would travel from Eastern Mass to Springfield. If you work in Springfield, make good income, and have a family there are so many good options outside of the city: Longmeadow, Amherst, South Hadley, Northampton, Hadley, etc. Any place but Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee are good livable places.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by Judder

I just don't see the ridership being viable. No one's going to live/work in Boston and commute back and forth to Springfield or vise-versa. Springfield is a low income regional service city - you're not going to attract white or blue collar workers that would travel from Eastern Mass to Springfield. If you work in Springfield, make good income, and have a family there are so many good options outside of the city: Longmeadow, Amherst, South Hadley, Northampton, Hadley, etc. Any place but Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee are good livable places.

Right but you do understand the western mass state office is in springfield? There's many state offices actually across the state and the governor has already said that state employees might move to a hybrid system.

You already do have people that go to western mass. The central register is evidence of that. Communities put bids up and people from across the state bid on them. I've see contractors going across the state on a weekly basis for work. It's the way how contractors work.

You also have to understand that not everything is economically viable in eastern Mass. The green computing center is in holyoke instead of Lexington because the electrical cost is half, New England ISO is also in the area. This is also where the bulk of manufacturing is in the state. So if they have some office in Boston that doesn't mean at all that products are made there.

https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/bit...=1&isAllowed=y

Lizotte Glass, Inc of Holyoke won a 1.1 million dollar contract with Tewksbury. Nowhere near eastern mass but how many glass companies are in eastern mass? Not many

Compass Restoration won a contract with Pittsfield, that's 60 miles away.

Holyoke gas and electric awarded a bid to a company in Tolland CT, 30 miles away

Yarmouth awarded a painting contract to a guy in Newtonville, 84 miles away

Boston awarded a contract to Warner Bros in Sunderland 95 miles away

Heck GE is moving to Boston and the cleanup deal in Pittsfield is nearly finalized. Getting on a train for that would make it much easier

Mass Mutual is opening up a office in Boston but the HQ is on state st in Springfield. Then factor in medical offices, legal offices and it starts to add up. Remember if we want people to go "back to the office" driving means no texting or emails. Even at 90 minutes each way that gives time to start the day

This is just one week of awards. Am I suggesting they'd take a bus or a train for their job? No but we do have people that drive across the state for work.

Many of the other places you mentioned are fine but they don't have rail service. Amherst was cut when the Vermonter was rerouted. This isn't being made with the expectations that it would be Boston to Springfield or Springfield to Boston. There's many people within the region that have access to both cities and would most likely use that. So if say an art major at Smith needs to go to the MFA every week. Boston housing authority representative wants to check a work reference of building quality in Ludlow. It would probably be easier to take the train to springfield and get someone there to drive them to ludlow. heck a long time ago I met Jim Travers. When he was in new haven he'd drive from manhattan...every day. That's 77 miles

There's plenty of livable places in all the areas you mentioned. Much of Berkshire and Franklin county is consolidating to Hampden and Hampshire.

Lastly is that one of the biggest differences between public and private transit is this. Public transit has routes, private has destinations. You can reroute private because it's a to b regardless. Public you can't really do that.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Boston awarded a contract to Warner Bros in Sunderland 95 miles away.

This is a poor example. Most Warner Brothers employees have company provided vehicles that they drive to job sites.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

This is a poor example. Most Warner Brothers employees have company provided vehicles that they drive to job sites.

Those guys are all Looney Tunes.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The money should be spent on electrified express rail from stations on the 495 belt with infinite parking. Eliminate all the grade crossings. Long term strategy to run autonomous EMU trains with 24x7 service.

A man can dream. The parking capacity along 495 is pathetic considering the density and skill/education level of the surrounding 'burbs.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

A man can dream. The parking capacity along 495 is pathetic considering the density and skill/education level of the surrounding 'burbs.

Yep. In the context of this thread, public transportation should be bus service from Springfield to a really frequent express train in a multi-modal transit center in Westborough. South Coast Rail should be the same way. A multi-model station in Taunton with infinite parking and a 20 minute express train. Personally, I'd put congestion-sensitive tolling on all the roads inside 495 like London.

[Shizim]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Personally, I'd put congestion-sensitive tolling on all the roads inside 495 like London.

Does this work? lets say its $10 a day. thats a new ~$3700 tax for me. Annoying, but whatever wont change my driving habits. but thats ~$4k that someone in Lynn might not have.

And i think its hard to do without really strong public transit. London has that. ours is fine really close in, but once you get outside of the inner core, its spotty at best.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The money should be spent on electrified express rail from stations on the 495 belt with infinite parking. Eliminate all the grade crossings. Long term strategy to run autonomous EMU trains with 24x7 service.

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

A man can dream. The parking capacity along 495 is pathetic considering the density and skill/education level of the surrounding 'burbs.

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Yep. In the context of this thread, public transportation should be bus service from Springfield to a really frequent express train in a multi-modal transit center in Westborough. South Coast Rail should be the same way. A multi-model station in Taunton with infinite parking and a 20 minute express train. Personally, I'd put congestion-sensitive tolling on all the roads inside 495 like London.

This is where the station needs to be. Go vertical, you can fit a LOT of parking in there. There's already "plans" to construct a new Mass Pike/495 interchange. Why not add another ramp for a train station? If the Boston area wants to be innovative and a "big world class city", it needs to start acting like it.



https://www.google.com/maps/place/We...!4d-71.6161294

[mdovell]

Rapid bus transit can be great (silver line) in certain applications if there's a dedicated route. PVTA wanted it on state street but maybe the budget killed it. At this point the Chambers of Commerce and unions in eastern mass, western mass and ct want it