Streetsblog Mass reports the MBTA is warning commuter-rail could come to a screeching halt "within weeks" if its parent agency, MassDOT, goes ahead with its plans to tear down the Grand Junction rail bridge under the BU Bridge as part of its plans to completely rebuild the turnpike where the Allston tolls used to be. Read more
A concerned citizen files a 311 request asking the city to do something about the rustier parts of the Grand Junction Bridge, which carries commuter-rail and Amtrak trains under the BU Bridge, before they fall on people walking or jogging along the Charles River.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld Harold Parker's first-degree murder conviction for the 2001 murder of Io Nachtwey, a homeless woman from Hawaii who was stabbed and then beaten in the head with nunchucks before her body was dumped into the Charles from the Grand Junction railroad bridge over the Charles River. Read more.
Neal Doyle captured a new commuter-rail train chugging along the Grand Junction rail line in Cambridge towards the Charles today.
The T and Amtrak occasionally use the line, which crosses the Charles under the BU Bridge, to transfer trains from the north side of Boston to the south - it's the only north/south link inside 495. State officials hope to one day use the line to connect the Worcester Line to North Station, although Cambridge city officials remain opposed.
Ed Hatfield photographed the empty trackbed that now makes up half of the Grand Junction train bridge over the Charles River - the only train connection between north and south track networks east of Worcester county
Copyright Ed Hatfield. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
The folks at Railroad.net report the Grand Junction bridge over the Charles River - which connects rail lines north and south of the city - has had to be shut again, only three months after it was re-opened following extensive repairs.
The folks at Railroad.net report the Grand Junction Bridge, under the BU Bridge, re-opened to train traffic on Friday.
The bridge, the only connection between railroad tracks north and south of Boston within 128, was was shut by inspectors in November. This forced Amtrak, MBCR and CSX to re-route freight trains and trains carrying cars needing repairs on a 108-mile journey through Worcester County.
Norm Vigeant posted a photo of three MBTA locomotives and a commuter-rail coach crossing a causeway at the Wachusett Reservoir in West Boylston on Saturday.
Normally, the T would use the Grand Junction bridge (the train bridge under the BU Bridge) to move cars from its repair facility in Somerville to points south, but the bridge was shut last Wednesday for some emergency repairs, changing what used to be a 7-mile trip into a 108-mile loop by way of Ayer and Worcester.
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