The Massachusetts DOT, MBTA, and the city of Boston just had
a ribbon cutting for a new station on the Fairmount commuter rail line, one of
a set of four in various stages of completion (story here). What’s interesting about these stations
is that they are all in an urban setting, within the city limits of
Boston.
What MBTA is in fact doing is retrofitting a rather weak
commuter rail line to function more like a rapid transit line in transit-poor
urban neighborhoods.
The background of these stations traces back at least 25
years to the opening of the Orange Line rapid transit service. The Orange Line replaced a planned
freeway, which transit advocates thought was a major triumph, but unfortunately
it meant putting transit in a corridor meant for highway traffic and located
away from major activity centers.
This, in my opinion, is an all-too-common problem with transit planning,
which tends to look for cheap and available rights of way rather than looking
at linking up activity centers.
Be that as it may, the Fairmount Line will be a very
interesting case study. We wish
them well!
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