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The Olympic dream is finally dead: MBTA buys Widett Circle for a train yard

The MBTA announced this morning it's completed its $255-million purchase of the 24-acre Widett Circle to store and maintain trains on South Station routes - both current and planned future routes to Fall River, New Bedford and Pittsfield.

Widett Circle, which few had ever heard of before our failed Olympic bidsters proposed making it the center of the 2024 Games that Will Never Be, is a mile south of South Station, near an existing Amtrak yard. The T says the area is critical to expanding capacity at South Station and reducing traffic on the Fairmount Line, on which trains needing storage between rush hours or maintenance have to be driven nine miles to a rail yard in Readville.

Trains that come in during the morning rush will be stored at Widett Circle for the evening rush, the T says, adding Widett Circle will also get facilities to do the sort of maintenance now down at a facility in Readville. The T adds that by having a nearby storage yard, it can reduce the amount of time empty trains need to sit at South Station - critical to increasing capacity there since the state has so far failed to convince the Postal Service to vacate its giant facility next door so that it can be torn down to make way for more tracks.

Currently, the MBTA’s yard in the Readville neighborhood of Boston is the layover facility closest to downtown Boston, located nine miles away from South Station. As a result, trains that are not in passenger service must travel back and forth along the Fairmount Line creating a burden on resources including train crews, additional costs associated with the use of fuel, as well as the potential for creating congestion along the line. A central location for a layover yard will allow trains to begin and end service from each corridor more efficiently. By adding a layover yard that is only one mile from South Station, the MBTA will be able to reduce its “deadhead” miles by more than 50,000 miles per year, reducing operating costs by shortening trips to and from the layover yard and increasing capacity for trains in passenger service.

The T bought the parcel from a concern controlled by CrossHarbor Capital Partners, which, after the demise of the Olympic bid, bought the food-distribution facilities that make up the circle for a potential large mixed-use development. The tenants long ago moved out to other locations.

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Comments

And nothing stopping the T from decking this site and selling the air rights.Which is probably what they will eventually do.

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Much like South Station, they pour footings for a deck when they add the tracks so that it will be quicker and easier to build over the tracks.

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Far more likely they build out the yard in such a way that it cannot be decked until antigravity technology is developed. Even then, it turns out they can't do it for less than the ten year projected GDP of Unified Earth.

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The T did exactly as described with South Station, which is why there is a building rising above it today. Why would they not do it when they've already proven the concept?

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Rumor has it that they are thinking about incorporating footings or space for them for a future platform for development on this site. I believe the MBTA is not legally allowed to operate like a developer though and profit from land they purchase.

But keep in mind that the density of Boston compared to NYC to look at doing something like Hudson Yards here is a challenge to get the numbers to work.

And also the South Station tower took 30 years to get built!

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But they can offer leases on the properties they own. So in a way they still get revenue that way. They get the final say on what can be done, but the marketing/selling/construction is up to the lease holder, which in most cases is a developer (I think this is the way it works)

And as far as the SS Tower, remember some of this wasn't the T. Some of it was the FAA, the economy, and who the developer was (it's changed hands a few times). All the T can do is just sit there and wait. (and facilitate as best as possible)

I think this piece of land would be an easier "sell" because it's not in a runway path (vs SS which is). It's a much larger parcel, area wise, so more can be built on it. Plus its not in use as opposed to South Station where construction sequencing has to include dealing with an active train station below.

And considering Cabot yard and to a lesser extend the Amtrak Facility south are adjacent to Widdet, this whole area is ripe to be decked for development. It could be the next new neighborhood (i.e. Assembly Sq or Suffolk Downs).

And even more space could be added if you include all the industrial along dot ave to old colony and down to Andrew Sq. This is a huge swath of land anchored by two T stations at either end. Widdle Circle was the last large parcel to complete the area.

Truely an area to watch in coming years now that the puzzle is complete.

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The MBTA makes investments and increases the land value; they should be able to reap some of that value to help pay off the cost of that value.

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I don't know what Hydeparkish means by profit, but surely a state agency can sell land that it owns. This happens all the time. The suggestion that profit cannot be made on such transfers of ownership is absurd, since it would amount to a value gift to the buyer at the expense of tax payers.

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Y'all should really lookup the history of this little piece of "land".
Once was a wharfed out cove, then filled in and built up for the New Haven(nee Old Colony) Railroad.
Abandoned after 1960s national railroad bankruptcies and mergers, half of this yard was gifted to the MBTA for the Cabot rail and bus facility.
The other half, now known as Widett Circle was gifted(leased) to the former occupants of Faneuil Hall and surrounding market buildings.
Widett was one of the men that made the current tourist trap that is Quincy Market Place happen.

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The story I heard is it was only used for one day; in the age of steam, the underground tracks were filled with choking smoke, and the lower level was immediately abandoned.

But today, why not revive the idea? Send Amtrak's electric trains down there, and leave the surface tracks for diesel trains.

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It's long gone by now. 1/4 of it disappeared when the Stone & Webster building was built, plus the post office and the rest when the tracks and station were modernized in the 1980s.

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should have bought south station po and as much A street as they could get .

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The state has wanted to buy that parcel for a few decades, but has gotten no where in convincing the postal service to sell it.

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