Whenever the idea of upgrading and expanding public transportation is Boston comes up, the state legislature balks because of the seemingly high cost. But what does it really cost? Boston has five major arteries feeding into it. On an annual basis, it cost roughly $50,000 to maintain each of these roads. And when it comes to resurfacing or rebuilding, the cost zooms to $1.5 to $2 million per mile! And there are other costs associated with these roads as well. And when you consider how far people are willing to commute, you must go at least 50 miles out from Boston’s center. A bit of simple math shows how costs quickly zoom into the 100s of millions of dollars. This does not take into account the intangibles such as how likely a company is to move into the Boston area considering the constant congestion of its highways.
The MBTA recently announced it is consider running electric trains on its Providence to Boston route to see how well they work. I find this curious because the Massachusetts Department of Transportation need only confer with the New York area rail providers to see how well they work. If the Massachusetts legislature had a lick of sense, it would provide the Mass DOT with the funding to simply go out and purchase new electrified coaches and put them into service.
The upside of the electric railcar is that it can be used in a fashion similar to rapid transit, short distance routes with a high frequency of service. An example of a route which begs this kind of service is the Fairmont Line. This route run entirely within the city of Boston but constantly struggles for ridership. Were this route electrified with trains running every 10 to 15 minutes is would become extremely attractive.
Other routes which would become more attractive from frequently running trains are the Framingham to Boston, Waltham to Boston (with the addition of more stations, ie. Beaver Brook, Fresh Pond), Woburn (Anderson) to Boston, Reading to Boston, and Beverly to Boston.
Each of these routes, except the Beverly line, intersects with the interstate highway system. At present, there are no stations at these intersections. But by addling large parking garages with highway exits will certain draw a healthy percentage of present commuters to the trains. If a commuter knows that on these lines, he is never more than 15 or 20 minutes from a train, it is obviously attractive.
The conventional trains that would continue to use these lines from the stations further out would benefit from being able to run express during rush hours. That means people commuting in on these trains from places such as Rockport, Haverhill, Concord/Fitchburg and other destinations would see their travel time reduced. Additionally, the sensation that the train runs slowly because it stops at every station would also be alleviated.
The MBTA and Mass DOT would do well, regardless of how it proceeds, to take a careful look at parking availability at each of its stations. Any station which is, or has the potential, to be heavily used, should have a minimum of 1000 parking spaces. Reading is an excellent example of a station desperately in need of expanded parking as does Wakefield on that route. Reading has a total of 71 parking spaces and Wakefield 116. In each case the availability of land is at a premium but midway between these stations runs I-95/128 where there are large swarths of land which could be used with the addition of a station plus a large parking garage.
There are three routes which are begging for expansion which can be accomplished for relatively modest sums of money. The Haverhill route can be moved northward to a point named Rosemont just south of the New Hampshire state line and on Route 125, an extremely heavily traveled road. In the process it passes beneath I-495 affording a 2nd station. The next is the Lowell line being extended to a point just south on Nashua in Tyngsboro. Right now the traffic of Route 3 has no convenient station. The first mall in Nashua has a parking lot which extends into Massachusetts and has an excellent exit from Route 3 less than a mile away. And finally, extending the Framingham/Worcester line to Springfield seems like a no brainer. The track is already up to passenger standards and there is an active rail passenger station in Springfield. This route would also service Ludlow, Palmer, Brookfield and Spenser.
These solutions will cost in the multiple of billions of dollars but here is one additional thought to make that seem less imposing. The average length of an automobile is just under 20 feet while the average length of a rail car is over 60 feet. Most automobiles carry a single person while a railcar can accommodate upwards of 100 people per car. If these rail cars are only used at 50% of their capacity they are still taking about 150 automobiles off the road per rail car used.