Category: Uncategorized

Alrighty, the last Metro-North entry for now! Welcome to Darien!

So, after taking the 344 to here, it’s pretty much got the same general stuff as most other Metro-North stations. Wait, what’s that? A sign pointing to elevators?! Naturally, I had to do the piss test…..except I can’t. Actually, neither elevator was working. The fact neither elevator works, would mean this station is accessible ONLY ON PAPER. WHAT, WHY, HOW, WHY?! This would NEVER happen on the MBTA!!! Oh yeah, track work necessitated bridge plates over one track. Vending machines can be found on the Grand Central side.

At least the station building was open…with not a lot of seating. Actually, there wasn’t much of anything, aside from a pair of restrooms and a bench. They seemed clean, but why was there an emergency exit and a fire alarm pull station INSIDE the restroom?! That’s a new one! But yeah, I think this one is open primarily because of CTtransit.

The good: Well, the station building being open is one! Granted, it’s in a minimal manner, but it’s better than nothing! It’s also located in Darien’s city center, so there’s that as well. Also, the fact the 344 terminates in the station parking lot, with the 341 running curbside on US-1 is neat.

The bad: The station building just feels empty though! Like, it’s nice that it’s open, but it feels unlively. Also, the 341 not deviating into the station lot feels weird. But, whatever. However, the fact it’s accessible only on paper is BAD.

Nearby points of interest: Darien’s city center seems interesting. The library’s a short bus ride away too, however the area is car dependency hell due to US-1 being largely that.

Transit connections: Metro-North (New Haven), CTtransit (341, 344)

Overall, it’s a nice station. It’d be among the best, even, IF THE ELEVATORS WORKED!!! Holy SHIT! That flaw, right there, is enough for me to singlehandedly reduce what otherwise could’ve been an 8.5 or 9. And it’s unfortunate, too.

Rating: 6/10

2/14/23

Alrighty, now to the northernmost station on the subway system! And dear GOD is it ugly!

So, of course, getting off and it seems like they were high on concrete when they built this. But, whatever, it was popular in the ’70s. The platform has a sheltered area and a bit of lighting, with benches, so there’s that. Meanwhile, the mezzanine is also well-lit, to say the least. I didn’t get much of a further look since the Orange Line is (as of me writing this) in a bad state with headways. But, parking is also plentiful, and two bus routes stop here. Vs. Malden Center, it’s clear this station’s much lesser-used on the subway and, presumably, the Haverhill Line.

I’ll also add: you can’t access the Commuter Rail platform from the mezzanine. You need to go down and access it from the parking lot. HOW’S ANYONE SUPPOSED TO FIGURE THAT OUT THEIR FIRST TIME UP HERE?!

The good: Well, it’s the terminus of the Orange Line and it’s one of the primary park & ride stations, like Braintree is to the Red. There’s also bus connections and a Pedal & Park!

The bad: WHY, JUST WHY, IS THE COMMUTER RAIL PLATFORM SO GOD-AWFUL?! THIS IS LITERALLY A LAST-MINUTE HACKJOB! THAT PLATFORM IS ONLY MEANT FOR EMERGENCIES, AND NOW IT’S OPEN FULL TIME. YES, IT’S NICE TO HAVE, BUT THERE’S NOTHING! NO DEPARTURE BOARD OR COUNTDOWN SIGNS LIKE AT MALDEN CENTER! FURTHERMORE, YOU CAN’T EVEN DO A TRANSFER FROM THE ORANGE LINE FROM WITHIN THE MEZZANINE – YOU NEED TO GO UP, OUT, DOWN, AND AROUND. HOLY SHIT, THAT’S EVEN WORSE THAN QUINCY CENTER!

Nearby points of interest: Well, there’s a park at least. But, it’s largely suburbia so not a lot.

Transit connections: Orange Line, Commuter Rail (Haverhill), MBTA bus (131, 137)

Overall, it’s alright for an Orange Line station. It’s a sizable park & ride that fits the area well enough, maybe save for the ugly concrete. However, THAT COMMUTER RAIL PLATFORM IS A SORRY EXCUSE FOR A STATION. At least it’s accessible. Unfortunately, it neuters the score a bit.

Rating: 5.5/10

So, since everything’s on hold until the spring, that’s not necessarily that I’m going radio silent in the winter. What DO I have planned? Well, not much, but here’s the tea:

– Green Line Medford Extension (Medford-Tufts, Ball Square, Magoun Square, Gilman Square, E. Somerville, Lechmere, Science Park) (12/12/22)
– Pawtucket-Central Falls (Commuter Rail) (date TBD, as close to day 1 as doable)
– Happy birthday! (Stamford, Greenwich stations, New Canaan branch, & a few CTtransit entries) (2/14/23)
– 1 year anniversary (DTX, Park St., Haymarket, Govt. Ctr., State St., North & South Stations) (March ’23)

Oh yeah, I also made a Discord server! Feel free to join.

These two routes are essentially the same, so I’m gonna cover them as one as the sole difference is the last stop. I’ll also be covering their street stops here, as once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

So the routes begin at either Downtown Crossing or South Station, but I caught the bus at Boylston. Once my friend and I got on, we proceeded to inch down Tremont St., and soon enough, Washington St. Now, the stops included were:
– Downtown Crossing
– South Station (@ street)
– Chinatown
– Boylston
– Tufts Medical
– Herald St.
– East Berkeley St.
– Union Park St.
– Newton St.
– Worcester Square
– Lenox St.
– Melnea Cass Blvd.
– and lastly, Nubian Square.

Of course, all these were on Washington Street, with the exception of DTX, South Station, and Boylston. And yes, while bus lanes existed, it’d have been much better for proper busways ala the Waterfront. And we crawled. And crawled. And crawled. Eventually we made it to Roxbury. And eventually after that, Nubian Square.

And the “stations”? Just bus shelters with heating. Kinda nice, I suppose. But this is rapid?!

For the SL4 and SL5:
The good: Well, it links South Station and Nubian Square. For the SL5, replace South Station with Downtown Crossing and the Boston Common

The bad: JUST BUILD THE SILVER LINE PHASE 3!!! Y’ALL FUCKING PROMISED EQUAL OR BETTER TRANSIT TO THESE DAMN PEOPLE WHEN THE ORANGE LINE ELEVATED WAS DEMOLISHED IN THE ’80S, AND THIS WAS WHAT THEY GET?! THE PEOPLE OF ROXBURY FREAKIN’ DESERVE BETTER! HELL, THIS SHOULDN’T EVEN BE BUS, BUT RATHER ANOTHER GREEN LINE BRANCH! HELL, IT WOULD’VE BEEN BETTER OFF AS AN EXTENSION OF THE GREEN LINE, REPLACING THE MATTAPAN LINE, FROM BOYLSTON TO ASHMONT, MAYBE TO JFK/UMASS EVEN. It also gets choked up by traffic. So much for “BRT”.

Nearby points of interest: The businesses on Washington St., plus Downtown Crossing and the Financial District. There’s also Roxbury and Nubian Square.

Rating: 3/10

For the stations:
The good: They’re heated, mostly!

The bad: They’re literally just bus shelters. Nothing more. No offboard fare collection either (lmao what, use the honor system like in Union Square???)

Nearby points of interest: See above.

Rating: 2.5/10

Alrighty, a CapeFlyer station, and the only MBTA station outside my jurisdiction. Now, am I going to visit this station just to write a blog? Nah.

Yup, it’s just a sheltered mini-high. That’s it. No low platform, no nothing. There’s a ramp though! So, I guess in a sense, it’s a high-level version of Windsor Locks. There’s some parking, but not much, and not much in the way of transit connections. As for the location? Yup, it’s directly underneath the Bourne Bridge. Does CCRTA stop at this station? Not really.

The good: It’s a (very limited) link between Bourne, downtown Boston, and Hyannis. I’m sure there’s probably a few tourists who’d get off here, but it’s largely a kiss & ride station.

The bad: It’s literally just a mini-high with no low. It’s also not a good park & ride, and it’s directly under the Bourne Bridge.

Transit connections: CapeFlyer (seasonal, limited)

Nearby points of interest: Nah.

Overall, I mean it’s not too terrible. If it were a normal MBTA station, I’d say it has potential. However, I doubt the T would extend the Middleborough Line out this far. And truthfully, it’s a shame since I legitimately wish it wasn’t so difficult to go out to the Cape without a car.

Rating: 3/10

Alrighty, first post in a while! This is what happens when you end up working a poverty job for all of two months – you don’t have money to write about stuff like this. So, the last of the Beach Bus routes, eh? Let’s dig into the sand with this.

So the journey, just like the last two, begin in Galilee and goes to Salty Brine. Wait, what? People got on! Holy crap, people actually use this! Granted, it’s all of two people but hey, it’s something! So, we progressed, and the driver stopped so a rider can get something that was on the side of a road – a turtle sand pit (you know what I’m talking about). So, after she brought it on and set it by the ADA seating (noone needed them, it turned out), we kept going. Next stop? Scarborough Beach, and OH BOY.

A LOT of people got on. One of them asked if the driver headed to Kennedy Plaza (yes), and about 12 more funnelled in and paid their fares. So, from here, we were off to Salt Pond, and then we began expressing. And express, we did…..

We got off at exit 16 onto Elmwood Avenue, and turned right. Wait, the route calls for a very long detour, but the Park Ave. bridge that’s being detoured around is repaired. What shall we do? Well, we detoured anyways. I guess the driver or RIPTA didn’t get the memo.

From here, we went straight down Park Ave. to Cranston’s city hall. No, we didn’t deviate into mayor Ken Hopkins’ office, sadly. However, two people did get off here. Moving onwards, we turned right onto Reservoir Ave., and quickly left the 21 onto Rte. 10….southbound???? Yeah, the routing calls for going northbound here, but we went southbound and up I-95 north to Kennedy Plaza. Weird choice on the driver’s part.

Wait, why are we deviating?! Oh, right, Kennedy Plaza. By this point, I was the last person on and I told the driver I was heading to North Providence, so he pulled back onto Rte. 10 and kept expressing. Was I the “asshole passenger” of the day? Probably, as I’m sure he just wanted to go home. Nevertheless, we went up RI-10 and US-6, getting off at Killingly Street. It wouldn’t be until long, though, that we joined up with the 27. We continued onwards up Greenville Ave. and George Waterman Road, hooked a right down US-44, and ended in Centerdale.

The good: It’s a one-seat between North Providence, Cranston, Kennedy Plaza, and the South County beaches!

The bad: Best hope you don’t need a bathroom break.

Nearby points of interest: Rolfe Square, Centerdale, and Kennedy Plaza mainly.

Overall, it’s a decent express. For what it is, it gets the job done and very well at that. I do wonder, if having timed connections with the 27 and/or 57 would be better though…

Rating: 7/10

what the hell? why do I see a shopping plaza beckoning me in with an express trolley replica? oh god…

STAY TUNED