My Proposal for the Re-Imagination of Boston’s Commuter Rail System
The MBTA, and by extension the MBCR rail system or "Purple Line" that radiates out from Boston has long been the subject of many transit proposals. Boston is a city that seems to attract a lot of transit enthusiasts to make proposals and fantasy systems, and I'd like to throw my hat in the ring.
The first and most important change is switching the Commuter Rail system to a Regional Rail system, with regular frequencies in both directions rather than being scheduled for commuters. Many have said this before me.
The North-South Rail Link is one of the most important and talked about projects when it comes to Boston's transit future. It was originally supposed to happen as part of the Big Dig, but it got cut so early in the project that most people don't even know this. The prevailing idea is to simply connect North and South Station under downtown through a tunnel parallel to the Big Dig, connecting both stations with through-running rail for both Amtrak and the Regional Rail system.
I like the idea, but I think that it would be immensely difficult, due to the challenges of boring a large, new tunnel under and around the existing web of tunnels and waterways in its path. Let's not take the idea off the table, but let's consider some other options.
I looked at Paris, and I looked at London, and I thought about the ways in which their cross-rail systems mesh with their other regional services, which end at large terminals in downtown. Having large downtown terminals is certainly not a bad thing, and I think to some degree we should continue to embrace them rather than try to replace them all with through running.
Consider, instead, a crossrail style system for Boston:
The south end is in the existing Cabot Yard between Southie and the South Bay. Here, it has connections to the Fairmount Line and the Old Colony Lines. It travels northwest, sort of paralleling Mass Ave. There would be a large transfer station at Dartmouth St & Stewart St, allowing for transfers upstairs to Back Bay Station and Copley (through a short corridor). After Copley it goes to Kendall Square, providing a transfer with the Red Line, and then goes north to the Inner Belt Yard, where the tunnel branches into three parts, one connecting to the Fitchburg Line, one to the Lowell Line, and one to the Newburyport Line. My plans include the conversion of the Haverhill/Reading Line to subway service, which I will detail in a future post.
Services through this new lateral crossrail tunnel would be branded as Indigo Line services. The Indigo Line would provide fast, frequent transit through the center of Boston to points all across the metro area. The new tunnel would be close enough to downtown to make it very feasible for commutes into downtown while also providing connections to places that are harder to reach from the suburbs.
Services through this tunnel would replace several existing Commuter Rail lines, and provide more frequent transit to and between the many outer urban cores of the Greater Boston region.
To the north, Indigo services would go to Lowell, Concord, Danvers, Haverhill, and potentially Rockport. Trains to Haverhill and Lowell would both go via Wilmington & Woburn, and trains to Danvers would go via Salem. Trains to Concord can actually go as far as Littleton should there be demand for more frequent Park & Ride service from I-495.
To the south, Indigo services would go to Providence, Greenbush, Middleborough, and Plymouth. Trains to Providence would travel via Foxborough, Walpole, and Fairmount (explained later). Indigo services would replace regional services along the Plymouth and Greenbush branches entirely.
Trains would also go to Worcester, but how is a bit difficult to answer. The tunnel as I have proposed it is in a poor position to connect to services to Worcester in a way that would allow them to utilize the crossrail line, make all the subway connections, and also have the ability to travel either north or south out of the city. I have about a half a dozen different ideas for how the Worcester connection could work, which I can detail in a separate post if there is interest.
As for the purple commuter/regional rail lines that Boston has come to know and love/loathe, they would continue to operate out of North and South Stations. In places where they share the corridor with the Indigo Services, they would act as an express, stopping at only the most important stops, allowing for regional rail services to be expanded farther out into New England from The Hub. Trains travelling as far as Concord, NH and Springfield, MA wouldn’t be slowed down by making every stop along the way, which would better connect the region.
The line to Providence can be expanded to handle more train traffic, as the section between Mansfield and Providence would host Amtrak, Indigo, and regional services. The Canton Viaduct, however, is limited to two tracks, seriously bottlenecking the corridor. Indigo Line services would travel via Norwood, Walpole, and Foxborough, avoiding the viaduct entirely at the cost of slower service between Boston and RI. To supplement this, the existing Providence regional line would provide more frequent express service.
Lastly, there’s Amtrak services. One of the core arguments for the North-South Link between North and South Stations is the potential to run Amtrak services through Boston towards Maine and New Hampshire. Amtrak trains would probably cause too much traffic on the proposed cross-rail tunnel, meaning Amtrak services to Boston would need to continue to terminate at either North or South Station. However, the Indigo Services would siphon much of the existing train traffic to the two terminals, freeing up space for more Amtrak services to originate in Boston. Additionally, Amtrak services from New York or southern New England going to northern New England can travel via Worcester, avoiding Boston entirely and improving connectivity to New England’s other urban centers.
A text post doesn’t do this idea justice, and I hope to make a map of it someday. Alas, I am a very busy college student. If there is enough interest, I’ll pursue it further. In the mean time, I plan to make more posts about my transit ideas for Boston and beyond.
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