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Way back in the 20th century, Boston's passenger rail service coalesced into two mostly independent systems; a rail network north of the city, servicing the nor
by cbm-vic-20 1y ago
Way back in the 20th century, Boston's passenger rail service coalesced into two mostly independent systems; a rail network north of the city, servicing the northern suburbs, and the same in the south. The southern system was the northern terminus of the intercity passenger railroad system to New York and beyond. These systems are seperated by about a mile of dense urbanization.
There was discussion during the planning of the "Big Dig" infrastructure project of the 1990s to join these systems via a tunnel, but this was rejected due to the technical complexity, and more importantly, the cost, with the politicial battle around the project as a whole.
We could have had, for example, through service between Lowell and Providence, or between Newburyport and Worcester. Amtrak could have continued the Northeast Corridor into Maine.
- m463 1y agoI think this stuff is too common in the united states. I think of bart/caltrain/amtrak/busses/etc. It seems like it was only recently that bart reached an airport. sort of reminds me of shipping before container ships, where you had to have freight forwarders to get stuff through the morass of trucks, trains, and ships, each with their own politics/unions/finances stepping in the way. The politics of different means of transportation, with different systems just runs into enough of these barriers to self-limit their own use. and we end up being a nation of cars.
- CaliforniaKarl 1y ago> It seems like it was only recently that bart reached an airport. How recently is recently? BART’s SFO station opened June 2003, and the OAK station opened November 2014.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]