Whoa this sounds super cool.

Where is this exactly?

Is there a website about it?

This is America, where only drivers get things for free and somehow country music is popular. It's depressing.

i was so sure /u/puritansettler1620 would be in this thread

GLX has some disappointing slow zones though at times. It seems like it bottle necks around Lechmere with the Union Sq Branch. And the end of the Line at Tuffs was slow asf the first time I went; hopefully they've figured out how to get trains in and out quicker.

It's lovely overall though and I wish we had extensions like it planned every 5 years to actually get some good transit going. And a big investment in ongoing maintenance to ensure we don't end up shutting down lines for a month like we did last year.

This is what I've been saying, were not bad just aggressive and we know the crazy roads so the tourists are all lost while we have places to be

Debatable.

Not sure. But it’s not my job to figure that out.

Yes. It absolutely is. People think of commuter rail riders as being affluent, and currently the commuter rail riders are relatively affluent…..because the poorer ones can’t afford a $13 round trip from Hyde Park to South Station. But there are a lot of people who could benefit from the fast transit in there neighborhood if the price was just cheaper. Hyde Park is not affluent. Roslindale is not affluent. These are middle class places; neither of these neighborhoods is in the top 10 richest in Boston.

Only a five and a half mile detour one way!

The Yellow follows RT-128 which would make detouring to Forest Hills pretty absurd. This map decided to put the inner ring along the 47 Bus instead of the 66, so there's a pretty big gap between the Silver and the Yellow.

It costs way too much for me to go to South Station from where I am in the South Shore.... $22 round trip then I have to pay for subway round trip. $26 just to go to Boston from 30 minutes away without a car.

Congestion tolls please

Every trip into downtown Boston should cost the driver a fee, which goes directly towards funding more MBTA service

Hmm, possibly. MA 128 is 57 miles long according to Wikipedia. The longest subway route in NYC is 32 miles long according to Google. I don't think the OP did the entire length of 128, since it cuts over to Salem instead of going to Rockport. So it might be a stretch to make the Yellow Line truly subway like (5-10 minute headways) but there's a number of Commuter Rail Lines that are that long (Fitchburg Line is 54 miles long apparently) that have hour or so headways. I imagine you could get 20 minute headways without totally breaking the bank, which might be useful enough for some folks.

I agree it's not a great investment, but in the Grand scheme of things we spend billions on highway maintenance each year (last I saw, something like $1.5B through MassDOT) so if we wanted to divert some of those resources, or increase taxes to fund more transit, at some point a Yellow Line would make some sense. But not until we've gotten the inner line running, and all the various extensions to 128 in the first place. Even then I don't know if running rails would make a ton of sense. Rapid Bus service might make more sense and be a lot cheaper. Just take 1 lane on 128, make it a bus lane, add some cameras/cops for enforcement, and run buses every 15 minutes. That would probably be totally affordable, especially since bus stations are dirt cheap and buses aren't terribly expensive.

…but there’s escorts at casinos

We are skilled drivers.

All this missing revenue could be made up easily if all the double parked princess trucks from the suburbs were ticketed

It also doesn't help that the Needham Line leaves South Station at 3:55, 4:55 and 5:55... if you have to work until 4 PM or 5 PM you're going to have to wait a long time to catch the train home, so I would assume a lot of people like myself opt just to take the orange line. Which is ridiculous because I live literally a 4 minute walk from the Bellevue stop.

My answer is we should only consider penalizing driving once there is sufficient housing for everyone who works in Boston to live either in Boston or within walking distance of a commuter rail station.

The residents of East Boston will be pleased to know that while the tunnel is closed for five months this summer and traffic is a nightmare, that their mayor made the commuter rail cheaper for people who live on the Dedham line.

Bpd budget is in the billions including $70 million in overtime. Easy solution

I try not to judge. I won't be visiting... But I don't give a shit who does. Hopefully everyone wins.

Stay classy

Most people are hypocrites. Has nothing to do with what they believe.

Most of the Boston/Camberville people you talk to are all about housing and progressivism and transit and bikes!! Until they put a bike lane or new housing development on their street. Then they are vociferously against it.

Anyone I know in Davis Sq or Union Sq for example, is 100% against the new development there. Because change = bad. They live there, and nobody else should!

A coin flip? A tiny percentage of commuter rail trips are cancelled and you are spreading lies by saying its 50%.

The frequency is absolutely an issue, the reliability is actually really good. In the ~100 times I’ve taken the Needham Line I’ve never had a train more than a couple minutes late.

But the price and frequency make the bus to the subway a more attractive option most of the time.

Getting home they all get on at once.

If you’re going to make bus lines in the city free, those are probably good ones ones to go with.

The problem is:

• was that a good use of Federal money for COVID relief?

• what do you do next year when the funds are dry?

• is the commuter rail the best place to start serving the economically disadvantaged?

Well the GLX already exists so... ???

They added the 5 day flex pass for this exact scenario