When South Station opened in 1899, it had 28 tracks that sprawled from Atlantic Avenue to Fort Point Channel. Today, with only 13 tracks, trains idle outside the station while they wait for other trains to vacate berths, causing maddening delays.
Governor Deval Patrick wants to change that with an $850 million South Station expansion project, one of the major components of his sweeping transportation plan that includes projects across the state costing billions.
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if sucha plan doies not include a link between north and south station then it would not make sense. If your going to to do it then do it right.
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BostonBC61,
Um, what? Currently the only way to do so is a 1.2 mile walk (a lot if one has luggage), a two seat subway ride (some of which is backtracking), or a 10 minute cab ride. We could definitely do better. The thing about major transportation projects like this is it would create economies in places people don't even imagine now. E.g. It would make it convenient for Rhode Islanders to get to Portsmouth, NH or Maine, something that right now requires either driving a circuitous route around Boston, braving Southeast Expressway traffic, or trying to coordinate a complex set of schedules that allows one to switch from the Northeast Regional or Acela to the Downeaster, a trip which can end up spanning more than five hours. These are journeys which aren't even on people's radar right now, so we don't account for them in transportation planning, but, as they say "if you build it, they will come."
Please, please, please--the wait at South Station is ridiculous! With the airline industry collapsing in on itself, we need more and better rail.
As a commuter on the Framingham-Worcester line this is a good idea. It is also a good idea to move the Post office out of high value real estate right in the city and on the water.
Maybe this isn't considered environment friendly - by why do we have the fort point channel at all? It extends a quarter of mile and then stops as far as I can tell. You could fill it in (ala back bay style) and have plenty of room for new development including south station expansion.
The Fort Point Channel is what is left of the South Bay after two centuries of land filling around the Shawmut Peninsula. Take a look at this excellent map of what was land filled and when: http://www.mappingboston.org/HTML/map19-0.htm
I would ordinarily be against more land filling, but since the water route into the Channel is mainly blocked by Seaport District bridges, maybe we should finish the filling.
If this goes thru, hopefully it can be done without a PLA. It would be good if we get competent builders in there..
Anyone notice that Patrick's tax increases or supposed to pay for EVERYTHING! They are going to bail out the MBTA, pay for early education expansion, teens marched for jobs from tha money, healthcare increases, road and bridge repair and probably a bunch of stuff I am not remembering right now...these tax increases are not going to pay for all that...he is just tring to get people to agree to the increases...that money is going to pay for already given raises and the state's increased healthcare costs, nothing more...time for honesty...
Well said
Agreed and AGREED!
Hub-and-spoke rail systems are as dated a mentality as "mainframe" computers and dumb terminals. Building a bigger, better crunch point is just a temporary fix to a problem. But if we do it, it should be financed by an 'entry tax' on every major highway like the one London has to insure that the people who choose to drive in, pay for those on the trains.
However, the vast majority of the commuters using South Station work in service industries like law, finance and high technology. We are trapped in a work environment where colocation of body and "presence" are presumed necessary to accomplish their work. It isn't. Modern communications technologies like Skype, Facetime, powerful desktop and hand held computer systems and cloud storage enable workers to do their work and collaborate in real-time without coming into the city.
The real issue here is getting one of the most technically advanced state economies to use its own products. That takes leadership that Governor Patrick hasn't evidenced yet.
Are you seriously suggesting that the solution to the shortfalls of our transportation system is to get people to use less transportation? Good luck with that.
As long as people are interested in leaving their houses, they are always going to have a need to come to the city (either for work or for recreation). Even at most high tech companies, the majority of employees choose to come in to the office. It's just human nature.
The only thing we get by refusing to expand rail service is more automobile traffic, and the loss of business to places with better transportation networks.
To me, it's a no brainer that one would want to have most parts of the Commonwealth interconnected by both rail and bus. Imagine, there is no rail to the Cape (year round)! Or to New Bedford and Fall River, and inadequate rail to Worcester due, I suppose to those delays).
If we are going to spend all this $$$$, then lets be smart about it and add the new rails from the South stopping at South Station and running to North Station and points north. Let's be smart for a change and plan for the 22nd Century. Make sure these new lines can use trains that travel about 300 MPH.
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Representative Hedlund's stance opposing commuter rail expansion to Fall River/New Bedford, while favoring expansion of south station is short sighted and symbolic of ignorance that areas outside of the Boston metro get from our legislators in the state house.
State taxpayers paid handsomely for the big dig...time to focus on other areas of the state that have been neglected for too long...
For the last 60 years the state has spent disproportionately much more (on a per capita basis) on infrastructure outside of the city than inside. All of those state roads people expect to be repaved every five years, and all of those bridges being rebuilt? They are hugely expensive compared to the number of people using them. The Big Dig was a notable exception, but even that was mainly about benefitting commuters coming from the suburbs.
Quite the contrary, we've neglected our city infrastructure for a while now. It's time to start investing in urban infrastructure. There is just far more bang for the buck in terms of the number of people that benefit AND it gets people out of their cars, which is good for everyone.
Also, lets be clear. South Station is mainly a regional rail facility. Even though the work is physically occurring in the city, improvements there disproportionately benefit suburban users.
Jroy2 -- The reason Rep. Hedlund is against the Fall River/New Bedford project is because the folks who live there are not his constituents. Conversly, the reason he favors the South Station expansion project is because his constituents will directly benefit from the project -- a point Rep. Hedlund readily admits as he states that he has had to wait as his train is in que waiting for another to clear the station. Both projects are needed. Maybe, just maybe, Rep Hedlund could work with the Governor to create a smart equatable state wide transportation system that serves all citizens and all tax payers. The truth about our transportation system is that in order for Massachusetts to remain economically competive we need a system that utilizes auto, bus, train and air.
This expansion(or rebuilding) of South Station would also relieve some of the traffic congestion on the expressway,an extremely necessary move.
Boston BC61 wrote: "And you must have never rode the rails in Boston because it's pretty easy to get from South to North station."
With your luggage? Or heavy bags? Of what age are you talking about?
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For starters maybe the Governor and the MBTA could come up with a few bucks to increase and upgrade the seating inside the station and do something about the unintelligible PA system.
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They claim this is a statewide benefit?
HELLO! what about us on the North Shore?
An alternative, the Grand Junction route to North station for metro West regional trains, was dropped due to whiney provincial Cambridge neighborhood activists (you already screwed us before in the gold plated demands that the Red line extension be built the most expensive way possible, thus draining the coffers dry, resulting in no Blue line in lieu of the cancelled i95 years back; thanks for nothing Cambridge!)
Unlike the south of Boston here in the North, rights of way that were aquired by the commonwealth to expand mass transit are being torn up for the equivalent of Indian reservations for bicycles; Yes, bike ghettos that recieve neither lighting nor snow removal or even a reliable pavement. as roadway congestion makes the streetscapes more bike hostile. i
The Patrick administration dropped the Blue line to Lynn in favor of the South Coast commuter rail (more costly, less riders,more local opposition, negligable effect to land use patterns functioning merely as sattelite parking for the sole benefit of Boston)
an addition that will compel the South station expansion due to simple lack of capacity.
Well it is the right time of year for us on the North Shore to observe "passover" while the axis powers Cambridge, Roxbury, and the South Shore, project a sense of entitlement for the finest and most costly, as they suggest we "take the bus" that runs on our clogged roadways.