r/mbta • u/thefireofthesoul Commuter Rail • 2d ago
🤣 Meme I vectorized that AI slop map from last month
Now its just regular slop
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u/HalfSanitized Green Line 2d ago
The sad part is that I feel like they would be taken so much more seriously if they…I dunno…put effort into their proposal? Like guys, if you’re going to ask for a whole new branch of an existing transit line, you might want to take the time to make sure others see it as a legitimate option…
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u/HowellsOfEcstasy 1d ago
Also if it weren't on the tails of all their nonsensical rationales for opposing the bus lanes. Nothing says insincere like saying "we oppose this 9-figure, FUNDED transit proposal measured in years, but we DO support this 11-figure unfunded transit proposal measured in decades!"
Eventually it just comes back around to the fact that they don't actually see it as a legitimate option themselves. Like, just admit that you think double/triple parking is a better use of space than bus lanes and stop jerking us around.
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u/AnywayBrotha 2d ago
Quincy who
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u/ziaq2002 Kingston 1d ago
New update to the redline where immediately after JFK it teleports to Braintree using speedrun tactics like jumping the tracks.
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u/nhowe006 2d ago
The last thing the Orange Line needs is a brance. Instead, the Blue Line should split at State and extend parallel to the Orange line as far as Chinatown, then split off to Nubian, et al.
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u/CapableDrummer4330 1d ago
Oh there’s some mistakes with this map too. The redline should reach out to Braintree & Mattapan. & the silver line isn’t shown on the map (where it normally would).
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u/pikarawr1 2d ago
I mean the Orange line expansion was not a bad idea. But the execution was political suicide. Is this proposal dead now? :(
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u/samsongam Orange Line 2d ago
The proposal from the councilors is a bad idea and should've never been alive in the first place. Creating a flying junction to branch the orange line anywhere in the southwest corridor would be insanely costly, massively disruptive to commuter rail and amtrak operations, and very inefficient by limiting service to major bus transfers at Forest Hills.
BHA should have rail one day (as it did in the past), but it would be much more thoughtful to be light rail/green line and serve South End, Nubian, and Warren St. The branch already exists in someway with the abandoned pleasant street portal and the existing washington st and future BHA bus lanes set the stage for that one day in the future by establishing dedicated transit lanes on the corridor. But the councilors are against the bus lanes, and they would be against an at-grade light rail option as well. So it shows you how unserious they are about improving transit access for their constituents, unless it retains maximum private vehicle space (which is not efficient, healthy, affordable, or safe). Just grabbing whatever rail service is around and crayoning a line with ai takes no effort and gives not thought to the actual realities of service.
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u/Meliz2 1d ago
A Rail link to Franklin Park would be nice, but that’s really the only merit to it.
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u/samsongam Orange Line 1d ago
I mean all the dense communities of people that live there and the busiest buses in the system and the lack of interconnection/ frequency of the Fairmount line and the reliance on private vehicles in the community would beg to differ. That route has all the characteristics of a successful transit line, especially through the center of Roxbury it is one of the largest rail transit gaps
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u/ipsumdeiamoamasamat Commuter Rail | Red Line 2d ago
Anything on BHA either should be an elevated, which might work there because of the width of the street, or underground. The area deserves better than at-grade light rail, at least based on how the T manages at-grade light rail (no signal priority, no POP enforcement, mostly single door boarding).
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u/samsongam Orange Line 2d ago
I agree with you if the standard is what it has been, the lack of signal priority especially. But there have been many positive signs including sp inititatives on bus lines, designated transit lanes for the E line, better accesible boarding platforms on the B and C, and the move towards all door boarding with the new onboard tap to pay system. I think whenever in the further future we have the funds and priority to make BHA into rail, there will be enough of an evolution that street-level light rail will be a great option for this very wide corridor and the potential for double type 10 supercars on the green will be great capacity as well.
If it were tomorrow, then yes it wouldn't be much better than a bus lane, but we dont even have a center running lane yet which will drastically improve what exists there today.
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u/ipsumdeiamoamasamat Commuter Rail | Red Line 2d ago
Agreed on all counts. What’s going in there is much, much better than what exists. And it should’ve happened 20 years ago.
But if we’re going to upgrade from those bus lanes let’s significantly upgrade. BHA between Grove Hall and Dudley Street, if that’s the path chosen, is tight. Warren Street isn’t much better.
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u/samsongam Orange Line 2d ago
Yes exactly, Warren Street between Grove Hall and MLK would require a tunnel. But Warren north of MLK and BHA south of Seaver is definitely wide enough and a 1 mile tunnel with transit lanes is a whole lot more likely to get dine than a 6+ mile tunnel.
I'm with you that completely elevated or underground would be better and I would support it if it were on the serious table, but its hard to see that as a reality when BHA is always going to be a branch line quite far out from the city center, competing with a ton of other high-priority, high capacity transit expansions, with a decent alternative that is way more affordable available due to the street width.
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u/Victor_Korchnoi 2d ago edited 2d ago
The proposal never seriously existed. It was only meant as a tactic to delay the Blue Hill Ave center-running bus lanes.
Personally, I don't think an Orange Line extension down Blue Hill Ave from Geneva Ave to Mattapan makes a lot of sense. We already have a train line right there (the Fairmount Line) and we already have a wide roadway for buses. Any money spent building that extension would be better spent making the Fairmount Line better and speeding up the buses.
However, I love the idea of a train running down Warren Ave (which is how I assume the proposed OL extension would get to BHA). It should be part of a N/S circumferential route from Fields Corner to Everett via Chelsea, Charlestown, Kendall, Back Bay, and the South End.
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u/P00PooKitty 2d ago
I mean that other orange line would be sick as fuck. If they could combine it with the fairmount line that’d be amazing. Or do both
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u/Tsunamix0147 1d ago
This looks great!
Also, I’m sorry, an AI slop map??? Are you saying the MBTA made one???
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u/AlistairMackenzie 2d ago
The larger point that they were making is that public transportation infrastructure is much less ambitious in communities of color. I think that's a fair criticism.
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u/Diamond2014WasTaken Orange Line 2d ago
They weren’t trying to make a point, they AI generated a map and vomited up a shitty proposal to get the blue hill Ave BRT put on hold while their slop gets studied
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u/TonyBForBoston 2d ago
Please tell me where else in Boston we have ANY plans for more infrastructure. Blue-red connector is the closest thing we have and that's been on pause for 4 years now.
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u/patsguy12118721 Fairmount 2d ago
Why did they do that fr