Dukakis, Weld: Connect North and South Stations

[Insert laughter here]

But seriously: Kendall has a capacity problem. We know this. Even the Globe's editorial page knows this! And with MIT's plans and the Volpe rebuild coming up in the next few years, plus Novartis, Pfizer, Boston Properties, Alexandria, etc, etc, etc (and there's still a lot of land left, believe it or not, and Cambridge is not about to allow it to be built as above-ground parking which takes up a lot of land, even in downtown Boston), the Red Line is going to get more and more crowded.

Will new trains help? Yes. Would signal upgrades help? Certainly. But in the long run, you can move a lot of people by a single-track subway, but not an infinite number. And since the Red Line serves as the last mile connection for the South Station Lines and the Fitchburg Line, and also serves major employment centers downtown, at MGH and at Harvard, it carries a very heavy load. It does a good job, carrying close to as many people across the Charles as the Zakim Bridge. And Cambridge has done a good job with their PTDM ordinance to encourage last-mile shuttles and bicycling programs and 60% of commuters to Cambridge don't drive alone.

Kendall is traversed by a transit corridor which makes close-to-right-angle crossing of the Red Line, and connects the Worcester Line and most of the North Side (at either North Station or, better, I'd say, Sullivan). It could provide a ton of capacity, especially from areas which are currently hard to get to (by car or transit). You can get from Littleton to Kendall, with a change at Porter, in 45 minutes. From Lawrence (about the same distance) you're looking at 1:10 and from Southborough (also the same distance) it's more than 1:20, because for both you have to go in to the city and then back out. A good connection between Sullivan and Allston would shave 40-60 minutes off those commutes, making Kendall as accessible as Downtown. (The Seaport, on the other hand, has no such panacea.)

The problem is that the current Grand Junction, and its fragmented ownership and history, would not make for such an easy connection. First, the corridor. Two track operation through the whole corridor, which you really need for any dependability and frequency, would be very hard. MIT owns the corridor from Pacific Street to Broadway, and CSX/MassDOT has just a narrow 20' easement on parts of it. MIT uses the surface for deliveries to its buildings, and buries utilities along the line, so more surface trackage would be difficult. There's also a desire for better pedestrian and bicycle connections, and the corridor is constrained.

Then there's the grade crossings, especially Mass Ave, Broadway and Cambridge Street. A train every 20 minutes is no real issue, but if you have 10 minute frequency in two directions, it creates the potential for a traffic nightmare, especially since along most of the corridor there are intersections nearby so it would have to be built to allow them to clear, which adds time to the cycles and backs up already back-ed up traffic further.

Finally, you have perceptibly loud diesel trains coming through, and even DMUs have source-area pollution (although they are quieter than 3000HP commuter rail engines). Its over Tim Toomey's dead body that you'll get frequent long trains going through East Cambridge at grade, even though you'd probably have a net reduction in pollution from fewer cars and less congestion. So that's a concern, too.

Anyway, how doe Cambridge have to lead? The city needs to talk seriously about grade separation. The corridor has MIT utilities buried underneath, which would need to be moved, utilities at cross streets, which would need to be mitigated, and would have to cross under the Red Line. These are all constraints. However, unlike the Big Dig, it would not be built under an existing highway, several existing subway lines and in a congested downtown area. The Grand Junction could be built as a trench. Several recent developments (Novartis and Pfizer just north of the GJ) have dug down 40 feet for parking structures, which is about how far you'd need to descend to get under the Red Line. It's all clay down there, so you need slurry or retaining walls, but not a tunnel boring machine. Put in concrete, and you have your connection, grade-free.

What do you get? You get stations in Cambridgeport and East Cambridge, both relatively far from transit today (East Cambridge will do better with the new Lechmere Station). In Cambridgeport, a lot of low-density, low-value land that is perfect for high density buildings (far from existing residents to NIMBY things) are currently underutilized because it's so damn far from Kendall. You get a new station between Mass Ave and Main Street, which puts transit much closer to the new development there (5 years ago: parking lots and candy factories) and the ability to build a connection to a new Red Line station at Tech Square (which should happen regardless: the distance between Kendall and Central is the same as the distance between Charles and South Station; there was less going on when the Red Line opened 105 years ago). You connect Kendall to the Green and Orange Lines, and to the Worcester Line, Haverhill Line and Eastern Route (Rockport/Newburyport) giving it much better access to regional housing markets. By improving access, you assure that it remains the huge tax base generator for decades to come.

On the surface, you buy plenty of room for pedestrian and cycling improvements, and give MIT the ability to ease deliveries. You also allow MIT to build a utility tunnel above the grade, which is much easier than constantly digging up the ground to run utilities under their delivery roadways and an active rail line. This becomes a utility artery for the MIT campus, and one they could drive a truck into to service or repair.

In a bit more detail, west to east:

* Charles River on existing bridge
* Memorial Drive under existing bridge (although that decrepit structure might not be too long for this world)
* At-grade station in Cambridgeport (say, at the end of Putnam)
* Boat section east of there, descending at a 1% grade and going below ground at Pacific Street.
* Continue 1% down from Pacific Street, with MIT utility tunnel above and a vehicular access ramp between Putnam and Mass Ave for the utility tunnel.
* Underground station in the vicinity of the Cyclotron Building, between Albany and Vassar, just south of Portland. Connect through currently abandoned parcel to MIT-Tech Square Red Line station between Albany and Portland on Mass Ave. This parcel, especially if the north garage were razed (as is planned at some point in 10-20 years) would then be very valuable, above a major transit node, for a large building. It also brings transit to the doorstop of the CHA public housing on that corner.
* Descend out of the station under the Red Line.
* Ascend to just below grade between Broadway and Thorndike.
* East Cambridge Station at Cambridge Street
* Either ascend to grade to meet the Fitchburg Line and run in to North Station or use ROW around Boston Engine Terminal to route trains to Sullivan Square (currently 7 tracks and two platforms, could be rebuilt to 6-7 tracks and three platforms as a major transfer) and perhaps further to Assembly Square.

I guarantee you that gets a lot of ridership. It also helps access developable land in Boston (Allston, Sullivan) and Somerville (Assembly) so it's not just Cambridge. But Cambridge would have to take the lead, work with MIT to spend a lot of money (but damn Cambridge has the money, and will have more given the development going on) and realize that to stay as the top biotech location in the world, they need to make an investment. Cambridge has been riding 1900-era infrastructure to develop Kendall for the past 30 years, but needs to look forward.

Now, what does this have to do with the North South Rail Link? Well, it would help the Rail Link's imbalance. There are about twice as many trains that come in to South Station as North Station, so not everything can be interlined. However, Worcester trains could use the Grand Junction to make a loop, instead of running straight through. So in addition to regular shuttle service between Allston and Sullivan, Worcester Trains would go through downtown, then curve back to Kendall. Another line, potentially Fairmount, could do the same, but terminate in Kendall (or perhaps run out to 128 providing local service). The rest of the lines run through, now much more balanced, and you don't have to worry about some trains terminating at South Station. You also get an RER-style system: Fairmount trains provide service from Allston-Kendall-South Station, Allston-Sullivan/Assembly trains run that service (with the potential to extend east towards Chelsea and Lynn) and the Worcester trains run the loop (Back Bay to Kendall).

The cost? Probably a couple billion dollars. But that's peanuts compared to the development in Kendall (and Allston, and Sullivan, and Assembly) ongoing and what this would allow.

Of course, you basically have to electrify the system for this, but that would have to happen anyway.

This tunnel is not going to happen with the current system.

If there is another alternative that will provide the tunnel, then that system should be explored.

BTW we already have private schools.

Intersection cameras on the route. Instant $100 ticket for blocking the box. Cameras on board that record the view ahead. Again instant tickets for blocking a train. It happens in Europe too. But after a few tickets people get the message.