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With development set to explode nearby, city looks to fix traffic in once sleepy Readville square

The Bulletin reports the city is currently studying traffic in Wolcott Square - the southernmost square in the city - and could spend up to $1 million to replace the antiquated lights at the complex intersection.

The work comes at a possibly critical time for the neighborhood: Residents have long complained about traffic flow in both the square and on the nearby Father Hart bridge - and now developers are proposing developments that could add hundreds of apartments to the neighborhood.

Developers have pledged to work towards fixing the Father Hart Bridge problem in particular, something that has long stymied residents because the bridge and nearby roads are divided between city and state jurisdiction.

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Comments

Extend the Orange line from Forest Hills to Readville. Sure the light thing will help a little bit but with the addition of all those cars, we will still be just as bad if not worse off. With the addition of the Orange line, houses will start creeping up to 1 Mil like JP... that should appease most of the home owners.

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That was considered in the 1980s and the plan was scrapped. Too expensive then. Imagine the cost now. Yes, NIMBY did play into that butteh dollars amount was the crippling factor. Let's kiss off federal monies for any aid as well at least for the next 4 years.

Subway trains and commuter trains are prohibited by law from using the same tracks. The existing 3 tracks are already reaching capacity with Amtrak and MBTA commuter runs so they will never give those up.

Go back far enough, and that right-of-way did have 4 tracks from Forest Hills to Readville at one time but when it was rebuilt before the electrification, the 4th track was torn up and maintenance space for construction vehicles and parts movement storage was set aside. That's the space on the westerly side of the rail bed. That used to be reserved for slow freights back in the day.

Also, subway trains and commuter trains have to be "grade separated" by law. Look at the Orange Line and the Amtrak/MBTA tracks where they pass through JP and Roxbury. They are separated by height and by a fence. That is a visual example of what the federal laws say you have to do.

So before an Orange line gets added, where do the tracks go? There is only room under the bridges for 4 at most. MBTA/Amtrak needs the 3 they have. Even if they were to give up one, there is that height issue (grade separation). You'd have to go down. You cannot go up due to the bridges.

Then there is that pesky 3rd rail. Forget overhead wires. MBTA trains run on 600 volts DC, not the same current as Amtrak. That's 25 kilovolts. They would need at least one DC current booster station between Forest Hills and Readville. You need land for that. And no pantograph either (overhead wires like on the Blue Line). While the current Orange line cars were designed to have a pantograph when the trains were ordered for possible later retrofit, there are tunnel height issues in the main subway in several places, so that's out.

People simply do not understand the restrictions associated with how railroads work, the limitations, and the regulations. Just because they have flanged wheels does not mean they are all the same thing.

It's complex.

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Thanks for the Logistics!!! Option? Steal a track to run a DMU back and forth between Readville and Forrest Hills (similar to the Mattapan trolley to the Redline) and let all commuter rail trains run straight through to Back Bay?

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There are several locations in the area where commuter rail and rapid transit run side-by-side on separated tracks at the same elevation. Look at Red Line at JFK/UMass.
The key is that the two aren't connected.

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It's all backed up all over the place during rush hour. I remember a few years ago when someone took out the light control box and it took a few days to get it fixed. In the meantime there were blinkie lights for traffic control.
There was never any traffic...
Maybe some of the new residents will be heading into Boston, in which case the traffic on HP Ave or Truman to Mattapan will just get worse.
Traffic that is heading out to 128 has two ways to get there...up Sprague through Dedham or through Walcott to Brush Hill to138. Neither is a great way to go in the afternoon.
I've always felt that a good solution would be to funnel the traffic to and from 128 using a new road that parallels the Amtrak right of way somehow. There's the old unused cloverleaf (um, scheduled for a $300 mill rebuild, I think) or the University Ave exits.

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Fewer cars, more transit.

Money please!

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Developers of both projects cite the Readville train station - which they border at opposite ends - as proof of their transit orientedness. The developer of the larger project, just on the other side of the Sprague Street Bridge, says he's met with the T about increasing service if his project goes in. Of course, people using Readville and not driving to Fairmount (where it costs a lot less) would also involve the T dropping the fare to board at Readville. Odds of that?

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I'm getting tired of hearing about all these plans that may or may not happen in hyde park. Why is it so hard for anything to happen here? Other parts of the city are flourishing with many new things...not hyde park.

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