After getting only peanuts from the $8 billion the feds handed out last month for high speed rail, Massachusetts has done a bit better in grabbing some of the $1.5 billion in TIGER funds handed out today.
The states gets almost $100 million for three projects:
- Fitchburg Commuter Rail Extension & Wachusett Station $55,500,000
- Revere Transit Facility & Streetscape $20,000,000
- Fast Track New Bedford $20,000,000
Other states received cash for new streetcar projects, bike infrastructure and improvements to freight/amtrak railroads.
The grants are described as:
"The TIGER grant program targets major national and regional transportation projects that are in many cases difficult to pursue through other government funding programs. Selected projects must foster job creation, show strong economic benefits, and promote communities that are safer, cleaner and more livable."
Full details can be found here:
http://www.dot.gov/documents/finaltigergrantinfo.pdf
I would have applied for less New Bedford money and more for pedestrians and bikes in our urban centers, but I guess the governor has to spread it around.
Important note: The New Bedford money is for freight traffic, not commuter rail.
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Comments
New Bedford will take a large
By Haviland
Wed, 02/17/2010 - 9:24pm
New Bedford will take a large number of trucks off highways and bridges. That's a lot less wear and tear, along with traffic, off many roadways.
Now if only the state could provide and find companies interested in operating rail freight from the seaport (again) and very importantly from the airport, that would make an even bigger dent. Although I suppose the amount of environmental review required to accomplish that would be prohibited.
What about Lynn?
By mediaseth
Wed, 02/17/2010 - 10:10pm
Once again, the North Shore's largest city is ignored. There are 90,000 residents in Lynn under-served by the MBTA. We're getting tired of being passed over and around.
The most expensive project in
By anon
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 6:23am
The most expensive project in the country funded by this program is for $105 million, most of the projects funded are in the $20-50 million range. Extending the Blue Line to Lynn would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. There was not much chance that even if the state applied that they would have received money through this program for extending the Blue Line given the high costs. This however was the program that the state applied for money for the 28X bus rapid transit service, but withdrew the application after protests from the community. Dorchester's loss is Fitchburg, Revere, and New Bedford's gain.
The 28X was a ridiculous expansion on the ridiculous BRT
By Jonas Prang
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:41am
What Dorchester lost was a ridiculous vandalization of the Blue Hill Corridor.
The appalling idea of foisting Bus Rapid Transit on Dorchester was a simple grab for capital dollars from the Feds.
If the MBTA cared about Roxbury and Dorchester they could do a number of things cheaper and more effective than ripping up streetscape that had just been installed.
To repeat from my previous posts on this subject: If the MBTA wants to run fast, efficient express bus service from Mattapan then they can jolly well run fast, efficient express bus service from Mattapan.
It seems to work for Watertown and numerous runs to the north. It could work for Roxbury and Dorchester, too.
[url=http://jonasprang.blogspot.com]jonasprang.blogspot...
Express buses from Watertown
By anon
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:32am
Express buses from Watertown get on the turnpike less than a mile of relatively non-tangled driving from where they start. What equivalently fast highway are you going to get on less than a mile from Mattapan? I don't think 93 would do the job, and it's rather out of the way. Fast buses don't just become fast by telling them to be - there has to be infrastructure, or the bus would need to grow wings.
Last time I checked, the
By anon
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:36am
Last time I checked, the express buses from Watertown hop on the Mass Pike to get to Boston. I don't see a real limited-access road equivalent for buses on Blue Hill Ave.
Relax though, Dorchester is safe, the money went to Revere, Fitchburg, and New Bedford, not to be seen again.
Fearless Anon (not verified)s pick up my mistake on #28X
By Jonas Prang
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 4:54pm
Ah, two fearless [i]Anon (not verified)[/i] posters have rushed in to correct me. Are they the same person, or two distinctly anonymous annoying voices.
Yes, my [i]Anons[/i], you are right the MBTA is even dumber than I thought. For some reason I had conflated the express Watertown bus with the loathsome #57. I had imagined the #57 following the [url=http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/bus/routes/... that it does, but I had also imagined that it didn't stop every third block, but rather ran express down significant portions of Commonwealth Ave.
My mistake.
In any event, the secret of express buses is not a dedicated roadway—although, those are great when you have them—it is the lack of duplicative stops as the bus approaches its destination.
The idea is to run both [i]express[/i] and [i]local[/i] buses on the same route.
So a route #28X, without the idiotic infrastructure 'improvements' to Blue Hill Avenue would originate in Mattapan, pick up passengers for the first mile or two, perhaps up to Talbot Ave, and then run [i]express[/i] to its destination.
The #22 runs this route and gets all the locals, while the express 28 runs with the traffic to Jackson Square, not making a stop every three blocks.
[url=http://jonasprang.blogspot.com]jonasprang.blogspot...
Only you could call a bus
By J
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 5:15pm
Only you could call a bus lane and bus shelters "idiotic". Good luck running "express" in mixed traffic. Why don't you suggest we run express green line trains from Kenmore to Gvt Center while you're at it. That will clearly work too.
New York City does this type
By cowsandmilk
Sat, 02/20/2010 - 5:21pm
New York City does this type of thing and it works extremely well, so why not? Oh wait, we only have one track each way and can't do anything underground to fix the green line...
Buses not stopping constantly works extremely well. That's why it's faster for a lot of people to drive to work than take the bus... you don't need a special lane.
Funny you mention NYC.
By J
Sat, 02/20/2010 - 5:29pm
Funny you mention NYC. They're planning a large BRT network, meaning exclusive bus only lanes which in some cases will be grade separated from regular traffic. And I'm not talking about staten island, but midtown Manhattan. Of course, they already have bike lanes separated from traffic with medians while we only got our first bike lane 2 years ago...
On the 28X, J is not close and does not get a cigar
By Jonas Prang
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 6:26pm
J, you are not close and you do not get a cigar.
I'm guessing you don't ride the bus much, especially not the Jackson to Talbot run.
Of course an express bus, making no stops or limited stop, is considerably faster than a local bus. Let's run an example, shall we?
Between Jackson Square and Talbot Ave the 22 has 16 stops. During the outbound rush hour, the 22 makes every one of those stops. At 30 to 60 seconds dwell time at each stop (and it's closer to 60 for many of those stops because of the missed traffic lights), the time saved by riding express is 8 to 16 minutes—call it 12 minutes.
The 22 schedule show that trip is 21 minutes at a 6:14 pm departure, so the trip goes from 21 minutes to, say 5 to 13 minutes. I can make that trip in my car outside of rush hour in about 6 minutes, so the penalty for those 16 stops is about right.
I don't know about you, but I could sure use those extra minutes back in my day.
But....
This isn't about the stretch from Talbot to Jackson on the #22. It's about going express from Mattapan to Jackson—and not the ridiculous route to Ruggles through Dudley.
So, the #28 schedule from Talbot to Mattapan at ~6:45 pm shows about a 16 minute travel time with 18 stops. Because I like you, we'll pick the lower dwell time estimate of 30 seconds on Blue Hill, yielding a 9 minute savings of an express over local from Talbot to Mattapan
Put those 9 minutes added to the 12 minutes from Jackson to Talbot, and you get a 21 minute savings of express over local.
The conclusion is that an operational change to running express buses from Mattapan to Jackson during rush hours[list][*]clips 21 minutes off that portion a Mattapan to center city commute
[*]has little need for capital dollars
[*]relieves the express passenger-burden from the local buses, making the local buses run faster
[*]frees up seats hogged by express passengers, and makes them available to passengers on the local bus[/list]
Everybody wins and there is no need lugging Mattapan passengers through the emasculated Dudley transit center.
You are right a dedicated busway and bus stops has got nothing to do it. Neither does idiotically ripping up urban infrastructure, that is, the newly installed median on Blue Hill Ave.
[url=http://jonasprang.blogspot.com/]jonasprang.blogspo...
Mattapan and lower Blue Hill
By anon
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 8:59pm
Mattapan and lower Blue Hill Ave passengers who want to get to the Orange Line do not need to take the 28 via Dudley, they can take the very frequent Route 31 to Forest Hills, or the not so frequent (every 15 minutes in the rush-hour, every 70 midday), but not very crowded either, Route 29 to Jackson.
The fact that some many people take the 28 suggests that quite a lot of its riders are making local trips, transferring to other bus routes at Dudley, and making trips just within the corridor. Those riders don't need express buses, but they could have used much improved local service. But don't worry, that chance is now gone.
At last! An Anon (not verified) who engages with the facts
By Jonas Prang
Fri, 02/19/2010 - 6:00pm
Excellent. Here is an [i]Anon (not verified)[/i] who is actually engaging with the facts, unlike our friend J.
[i]Anon (not verified)[/i], my major thesis is that the MBTA doesn't give rat's tail about delivering superior transit services to the minority communities. Thus, the middle-of-the-night move to cop some Federal capital dollars for the 28X boondoggle has nothing to do with decent bus service in Dorchester and everything to do with:[list][*]copping capital dollars to dole out to their contractor/consultant buddies, and
[*]desperately attempting to cobble together, miserable piece by miserable piece, a Bus Rapid Transit network from the disjointed fragments they have been able to construct so far.[/list]
Thanks for reminding me about this Mattapan-Forest Hills service.
Lower Blue Hill Avenue, being that part of Blue Hill Ave [i]south[/i] of Morton Street. So, those commuters who live [i]north[/i] of Morton St heading to the center city do need a rapid bus connection to the Orange Line—at Jackson, and not Ruggles via the dumb Dudley distraction.
So, a north-of-Morton Street to Jackson express bus makes good sense.
I'm not denying that there is a need for Blue Hill Avenue/Warren Avenue service all the way to Dudley. There is certainly enough local traffic to support such.
But, you fail when you presume that wrecking the installed infrastructure on Blue Hill Avenue would have led to "much improved local [bus] service." Using existing equipment and modified schedules, the MBTA is perfectly capable of delivering "much improved local service" without wasting Federal dollars. Inferior service in the minority community is not best remedied by misbegotten capital projects.
But, then you say "other bus routes at Dudley." What on earth could this possibly mean? The [i]Silver Line Ox Cart[/i] to Chinatown? Or, do you mean the [i]Standee-Only Sardine Can[/i] to Chinatown.
[url=http://jonasprang.blogspot.com]jonasprang.blogspot...
Yes the 31 only covers south
By anon
Sat, 02/20/2010 - 1:41am
Yes the 31 only covers south of Morton, but the 29 covers Blue Hill all the way to Seaver and it goes direct to Jackson, and it never seems to be that crowed, even when its running every 15 minutes in the peak (not great frequency, but not the worst either). The most crowded the 29 ever seems to get is if there are delays on the 22, and the people at Jackson going to Seaver St stops who can take whatever comes first, will hop on the 29.
And other bus routes at Dudley the riders on the 28 transfer to include:
The 1 to Boston Medical, the Back Bay and Cambridge
The 8, 19, and 47 to the Longwood Medical Area, Boston Latin, the Landmark Center, and Kenmore
The 42 to English High
The 66 to Brigham Circle, Brookline, Brighton High and Cambridge
And yes the Silver Line as well to downtown, and now South station.
There also seem to be plenty of high-school and middle-school kids who pack on the 28, who are going nowhere near downtown, and are going to schools along the route like Latin Academy and Madison Park.
The 28X on the Blue Hill stretch was going to include stops with platforms that could accomodate fare validators (so they could open all the doors) and bike racks, and covered waiting areas that would have been larger than the Wall shelters that have to be squeezed onto sidewalks without blocking store fronts. They had heard the complaints about shelters that don't provide shelter on the Washington St. Silver Line and from what I could tell, where talking about more substantial station shlters for Blue Hill Ave. Seems like an improvement to me for all transit riders.
And if the point of the 28X was just to give work to contractors, why didn't they just propose to extend commuter rail in Fitchburg, build that parking garage in Revere, and repair those bridges in New Bedford in the first place, without ever having to bother to propose the 28x? I got the impression that former Transportation Secretary Aloisi had a genuine interest in trying to make a public transit investment in Dorchester and Roxbury that was affordable and could be built now, not 20 years from now. He had a bull in a china shop way of doing things, but I think he was well intentioned on this issue. Most of the people I heard talking against the 28x seemed to be concerned with the loss of parking and the loss of left-hand turn lanes on Blue Hill. Seems like the auto interests won the day, and some people who really should have been adocating for transit riders, were more upset that there wasn't more time to consult them first before going public with the proposals.
I also don't understand the light-rail or nothing point of view that some of the transit advocates had. A light-rail line down Blue Hill would require the same destruction of left-turn lanes and reduced parking as the bus lanes. The narrow width of Warren from Grove Hall to Townsend probably dooms light-rail from ever being built on the corridor. But if light-rail is ever built, there didn't seem to me to be anything about the design of the Blue Hill Ave. bus median that would have prevented it from being converted to a light-rail line in the future. The light-rail or nothing stratgey does seem to be working though, because now the neighborhood is getting nothing.
Very well said. Just two
By J
Sat, 02/20/2010 - 3:47pm
Very well said.
Just two points:
The shelters would probably be more like the new silver line stop at south station (surface). It's actually a real shelter, with heater and all.
Second, the "light rail or nothing" argument is a very scalable NIMBY tactic that always aims for "nothing". When light rail is proposed, it suddenly becomes "grade separation or nothing" because as you said, light rail would remove the same number of parking spots and left turns. This means a subway that's too expensive to build, meaning, nothing.
28X Redux: 8-lane boulevard alignment vs. constricted Warren St.
By Jonas Prang
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 5:07pm
To the [i]anon (not verified)[/i] whose post was titled, "Yes the 31 only covers south."
You have responded to my dig about the useless trek to Dudley Station by listing a bunch of bus routes. My point is that decent express service to Jackson down six- to eight-lane divided boulevards (Blue Hill to Seaver to Columbus) beats any alignment to Dudley (constricted by dual-laned Warren), first, because the trip time is unarguably faster, and, second, because the trip delivers the passenger to actual rapid transit with efficient connections to the Back Bay, the LMA, Brigham Circle, and Cambridge—all without the need for a self-serving diversion through Dudley.
I say self-serving, because the MBTA is willing to cobble together a shade-tree mechanic version of a, so called, bus rapid transit system, piece-by-miserable-piece, on the backs of what they thought would be unwitting dupes in Dorchester, who are desperate for decent transit.
You say, the "28X on the Blue Hill stretch was going to include stops with [all the trapping of utopia]." I'll believe that when the MBTA is able to provide those trappings to the rich white people on the D Line—fare validators[i]![/i] You wish.
Aloisi may be a righteous man; I can't say. But, for you to say that the destruction of a recently installed median (with trees!) for a [i]bus![/i] makes any sense when there are eight existing lanes—count 'em EIGHT!—on Blue Hill/Seaver/Columbus, is to be tricked by a sparkly bauble ([i]BRT![/i]) when something ordinary would be cheaper and would work better.
You say, the "narrow width of Warren from Grove Hall to Townsend probably dooms light-rail from ever being built on the corridor." You are not reading what I write: the corridor of interest is now to Jackson, not the diminished Dudley.
Besides, the same argument can be said for the excruciating trip from Williams Street to Dudley Station at rush hour. If you question my use of the word Ox Cart for the Silver Line, those four blocks doom (5 minutes on a recent trip) the reverse of the commute we have been discussing.
To my friend J: Heated bus shelters? See my comment about the D Line, above. "Scalable Nimby light rail or nothing"? Huh? What does that even mean?
[url=jonasprang.blogspot.com/]jonasprang.blogspot.com[/url]
If so many people want to go
By anon
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 9:12pm
If so many people want to go to Jackson, then how come I can always get a seat on the 29 and not the 28? (and I'm talking about the rush-hour, when the 29 is running every 15 minutes).
The 29 already follows the very route you are proposing (Blue Hill to Seaver to Columbus). My recollection is the 28 and 29 used to run about the same amount of service after the Orange Line was moved. But the 28 was always packed and the 29 half-full at most. They later added service to the 28 and reduced service on the 29 to better match the traffic patterns (I would say about 15 years ago now at his point at least, maybe more).
People want to go to Dudley because a lot of people are going to places other than those served by the Orange Line. If so many people were looking for a faster ride to the Orange Line, it would be the 29 that was packed and the 28 with the room.
While I do agree with you
By NEbytrolley
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 7:57am
While I do agree with you completely, at least Lynn will get some small benefit out of the rebuild and renovation of Wonderland Station's parking and busway (which is what that Revere project refers to). The buses from the north shore will be able to go in and out of the station with less traffic hassle, which means a bit more schedule reliability, and with better conditions/comfort for passengers transferring to and from the blue line.
Does Lynn have plans for this?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:44am
It might be easier if the City of Lynn did some of the planning legwork themselves - as in, where would the line go, where would it stop, could it use existing facilities or rights of way, etc. ... or looked at the nearer-term alternatives and put in a formal request that made funding the project a lot easier from a federal standpoint.
You can't wait around for the MBTA to get its act together, or the state to be sued into sense and then have a bunch of backward NIMBY fools try to sink it. This is especially absurd as most cities and towns have abandoned rail corridors already from past public transit. Identify the pieces and put a plan together and sell it. Some states and cities are getting a lot more transit money than MA is simply because they have banked plans for expansion and have clear, build-able projects to present on paper.
The Blue Line to Lynn has
By anon
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:30am
The Blue Line to Lynn has been studied multiple times over the last 40-50 years. Last attempt was this:
http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/t_projects/defa...
Although Lynn would be the primary beneficiary of the extension, much of it would have to be built in Revere, and Revere has been against an extension using the old abandoned narrow gauge railway right of way, which is still owned by and utilized by power company lines. The alternative is to build the extension next to the existing active commuter rail line, which would require construction in a wetlands area. A major river crossing is also required on either alignment. Big bucks, which requires regional coordination to get the federal $. Not something Lynn could do on their own, especially considering the preference's of Revere. The state's/MBTA's priorities for expansion are Green Line to Somerville and Commuter Rail to New Bedford/Fall River. Blue Line to Lynn was never a legal requirement of the Big Dig either, which Green Line to Somerville was. It's not going to happen any time soon, and certainly not before Green Line to Somerville is done.
Restoring Green E-line
By anon
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 8:46pm
Restoring Green E-line service to the Hills was a legal requirement as well. The T seems to look at binding agreements as a way to get people to shut up and go away.
Why does New Bedford need a 'fast' freight line?
By Ron Newman
Wed, 02/17/2010 - 11:25pm
Can you say more about this? Where would this new 'fast' track go?
Also, you say that "Full details can be found" but not where to find them.
Sorry ron, i don't understand
By J
Wed, 02/17/2010 - 11:42pm
Sorry ron, i don't understand why the link didn't show. Basically it's to fix bridges.
http://www.dot.gov/documents/finaltigergrantinfo.pdf
Or, to quote the summary: The
By Cynic
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:32am
Or, to quote the summary:
New Bedford could certainly use the help. But it's tough to imagine that this is actually an efficient use of the funds in question. 500 carloads of freight is less than two trucks per day; the dredging project is of finite duration. It's a trickle, not a torrent. And even with state-of-the-art trackage, it's not as if New Bedford is about to become an active harbor again, with significant freight traffic arriving by sea and moving by rail. We're in a world in which port activity capitalizes on economies of scale, and New Bedford is too close to Port Elizabeth and Boston to capture traffic. Maybe it's the Governor sharing the wealth. More likely, it's the powerful influence of Congressman Barney Frank, who represents the city.
New Bedford
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:04am
If New Bedford has good port facilities and transport, it will easily draw freight away from Boston. Boston can be difficult to get freight out of due to its difficult highway systems and poor rail links, hindering any expansion of capacity.
If MA as a whole is to capture more port traffic, New Bedford is the place to do it.
This may also have something to do with consolidation of rail freight handling in Worcester, which is much easier to reach from New Bedford than from Boston.
Although these bridge
By anon
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 4:11pm
Although these bridge improvements are supposed to be for the existing frieght traffic, its pretty clear that the Governor and Barney Frank are selling this as the start of federal support for the New Bedford/Fall River commuter rail service
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...
A quote from Barney from the article linked above
"“This is not just $20 million, although that's important,” said U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. “This is the declaration by the federal government that commuter rail between Fall River, New Bedford and the surrounding communities, to and from Boston, is a reality.”
That's a bit of a stretch, since this is $20 million out of a total estimated $900 million+ project. Just $880 million+ to go!
To Fitchburg, or Wachusett?
By Cynic
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:02am
The Revere project is a fairly classic example of transit-oriented development, and given the chronic congestion on Route 1A, it makes a fair amount of sense. I'm having a very, very tough time seeing how 400 riders a day coming in from Fitchburg are worth the $72m cost - how, exactly, is that going to reduce congestion on the highway?
My best guess is that the Fitchburg expansion has more to do with the "new commuter rail station, layover facility, and infrastructure and track improvements" that's going to go in by Wachusett Mountain. The MBTA already runs a popular 'ski train' on weekends, to deliver customers from North Station to the slopes. This would make that service much, much more attractive, and significantly increase the flow of customers. The franchise at Wachusett is owned by the Crowley family, of Polar Beverages fame. They're major players in Central Mass, and key donors to Tim Murray (now Lt. Gov.) and John Binienda, the somewhat obscure chair of the powerful House Rules Committee. This looks an awful lot like a project intended to benefit a particularly loyal constituent.
Been to Wachusett Lately?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:34am
There is a fair amount of residential development in this area, too, and a lot has been built in the last 20 years. It is also very easy to get over there off of Route 2. My guess is that it will make a very popular commuter station as well as a ski destination. I will take my skis to work and back out on the red line to hop that train on weekday afternoons - and will authorize teen offspring to do same - if it regularly stops at that station.
Dilly Dallying Continues...
By datadyne007
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 12:59pm
in New Bedford: "Freight, not Commuter Rail..."
When are they going to get serious about the extension? I got excited when I saw the funds and then the important note at the bottom just brought everything back to square one. While New Bedford's freight traffic is important, the potential and need for the MBCR down there is just as much. Middleboro/Lakeville just isn't close enough (to NB, Dartmouth, etc) for some people to make the switch to the MBCR for their commute.
I know very little about the
By hrose
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 3:07pm
I know very little about the state of bridges, etc in New Bedford, but I do worry that the MBTA will end up pouring good money after bad e.g. Greenbush (which cost HOW much? and I think the general consensus is that the spur wasn't worth it!)