Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
Just a little bump, but as a lifelong fan of This Old House I was watching the first episode of the new project located in West Roxbury and was wondering if there is an advocacy for an extension of the Orange Line replacing the Needham Line from Forest. Hills to Needham? Its my understanding that this was the plan when the current Orange Line was constructed to replace the old elevated but funding never materialized for the full length and thus the current commuter service west of Forest Hills. Wikipedia doesn't really say if this is an MBTA goal. Just wondering if anyone with a local read knows if people have been asking for this or if there's appetite for it.
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The original plan for an orange line extension was indeed to send it through Roxbury replacing the Needham line and then south to Dedham. Dedham allowed their portion of the ROW to be built over though, so any contemporary Orange line extension would probably terminate around VFW parkway. The grade crossings in Needham would make it much more expensive to have the orange line completely replace the CR line in Needham. Needham would have to be served by branching the greenline.
As I understand, Needham is indifferent to rapid transit conversion because the CR line meets their existing primarily commuting needs. The bus line paralleling the Needham line in West Roxbury to the Forrest Hills transfer are very busy, so logically there strong local demand for a conversion, but I not aware of any local advocacy outside of transit enthusiasts, certainly not like there was for GLX in Somerville.
https://www.vanshnookenraggen.com/_i...c-t-track-map/
Large version of the full map:
https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-conten...-3000x1994.jpg