Boston transit priorities in no particular order: - Stations, vehicles, etc must be CLEAN and in good repair - Lighter trains on Red, Orange, Blue lines - Infrastructure in good repair - Dedicated bus lanes + transit-favoring traffic lights - Commuter rail to subway standards
"subway standards" refers as much to vehicle type and infrastructure as it does to scheduling, it's a *very* big project but long overdue and the need won't exactly diminish over time
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Level crossings not the biggest deal, but working out new passenger/freight dynamics and eliminating flat junctions is gonna be the hardest part
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Flat junctions are problematic enough on the London Underground. They're a real mess on the south London rail network. Don't know Boston's commuter rail that well - is it that bad? Or is it worse because passenger rail hasn't been the priority it has been elsewhere?
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And certainly historically commuter rail in London was far less attractive than the Tube in places where both are options (eg Enfield).
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"Commuter rail" in Tokyo is more or less indistinguishable from subways--they employ the same kinds of trains and even offer through service from commuter to subway lines. I talk about "commuter rail" so people know what I mean, but the term I prefer is "suburban rail"
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Something I've not seen in Europe. We have the RER concept, where commuter trains run through the centre in separate tunnels, but not commuter trains on subway tracks. Not any more anyway. (We used to - the District line once had trains to Southend.)
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The RER concept is pretty much the same concept
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It's a bit different because you have much bigger tunnels, longer platforms and fewer and further between stations. And less frequent trains (RER C in Paris is particularly bad for that).
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Differences in tunnel dimensions or platform length can easily exist *within* a subway network (Tokyo's has 3 different gauges and at least 3 different power sources!). Wider station spacing is the same from rider's perspective as skip-stop services on more dense lines...
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But that's just it. The sort of service you want on a subway isn't what you want on a commuter train going maybe 80 to 100 km from the centre.
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what are you talking about? of course you do, nobody *wants* infrequent service with slow acceleration and deceleration the distance is one thing tho--maybe 2 out of Boston's commuter rail lines extend 100km, the rest are all closer in
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You don't want a vehicle that's mostly standing space though. Whereas you do on a subway.
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You certainly want a vehicle which is mostly standing space if you're dealing with overcrowding, as Boston is:http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/04/25/shortage-in-commuter-rail-coaches-overcrowding-mbta-keoloiscs/ …
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