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Past time to make the Mattapan Line a tourist attraction
By adamg on Wed, 10/19/2016 - 8:26am
Our own Jim Sullivan writes about a recent tour he and Mattapan Line driver Tim Murphy gave a Japanese reporter and some transit enthusiasts and wonders why the T doesn't promote the PCC ride as a tourist attraction:
The Mattapan-Ashmont line is a true tourist attraction. Drivers like Tim Murphy love to show it off. Why the T doesn’t better promote one of its true gems is the real puzzler.
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Comments
Great job Suldog!
I think Jim should start charging good money for these tours. I'd sign up.
In San Francisco …
They have regular operation of "heritage" cars on the E and F lines, and pull out all the stops for the Muni Heritage Weekend when all sorts of old equipment operates. It's definitely a tourist draw for out-of-towners to the system. Imagine if, instead of rotting away behind a fence in Boylston, 5734 was refurbished and operated on weekends on the Mattapan Line.
PCC cars in regular opration
In fact, San Francisco has PCC cars running regular routes in the neighborhood near the US Mint. Boston could do so much more to promote "the first subway" too.
Sad lack of imagination
That's one of the same lines
mentioned above. The F runs from Fisherman's Wharf down the Embarcadero to Market, then down Market all the way to Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro. The second leg would serve the US Mint, though I wouldn't call that area a neighborhood any more than I'd call Downtown Crossing/the Financial District a neighborhood in the traditional sense. It does serve the Tenderloin and Castro neighborhoods, but each also has a faster option running below it as well.
Jim is right, the Mattapan
Jim is right, the Mattapan trolley is definitely worth the detour. I suggest that the reason why it gets so little promotion is that the neighborhood hasn't been "discovered" yet (in real estate agent parlance).
???
Which neighborhood? Ashmont that has listing over a million now? Lower Mills where the Mayor moved, and the Baker Chocolate factory was converted to 500k+ 1 bedrooms and 800k+ two bedroom condos? Or do you mean all of the stop in Milton, where you aren't getting anything under a million.
He means
Mattapan Sq. and everything along the Trolley Line north of the river, where you can still buy a single family house under $300k in Boston proper. The disparity driving on Central Ave from Mattapan into Milton is pretty incredible. Likewise on Blue Hill Ave. If they commit to keeping the trolley, or at least a dedicated service line (no matter its form: bus, updated trolley, horse drawn sleigh), out to Mattapan Sq then it will be one of the last bastions of "undiscovered" or "un-gentrified" neighborhoods with T service nearby in Metro Boston.
I only travel over there
I only travel over there everyday - forgot to include Mattapan Square in that. Not only is the trolley there, but they are finally getting to building the Blue Hill Ave Fairmount line stop there, too. There are also two large apartment/condo projects going up around the T stations in the Square, so I am not really sure I would call it undiscovered. I mean, plenty of people know about Mattapan, just with the (perhaps perceived) violence around Blue Hill Ave, many people don't seem really motivated to try to buy/move in there. Personally I think around Mattapan square is fine (although there have been some shootings on River St.).
Or better yet
Make one of the lanes of the six lane highway that's fouling the Greenway a trolley reservation and move them there (if the time ever comes to update the Mattapan line for its users). That would be a great tourist attraction, and would greatly increase the surface artery's capacity.
Not to mention providing a
Not to mention providing a one-seat ride between North and South Stations.
Holding out for the monorail
Holding out for the monorail
THIS.
Ari mentions the E+F trains on the Embarcadero in SF - but those run primarily in commercial/tourist districts along the waterfront, from Fisherman's Wharf in the north, past the Exploratorium and the Ferry Building [and its farmers market], then short-turn [F - Market & Wharves] or continue down [E - Embarcadero] to ATT Park and the CalTrain station on the south end.
Trolley on the Greenway would be a much closer parallel. Starting down in Chinatown by the iconic gate, coming up past the South Station transportation hub and the Dewey Square farmers market, then past the wharves and fancy hotels, then the Aquarium and Faneuil Hall, and finally either terminating at Haymarket and the Boston Public Market, or, you know, continuing all the way to the North Station transportation hub, giving us the fabled [if slowish] North Station-South Station link.
That isn't anything close to
That isn't anything close to what the NSRL is about.
If we did it OP's way
that already exists. Get off the train at Back Bay instead of South Staton, take the Orange Line.
Sure, and that still isn't
Sure, and that still isn't the point of the NSRL or what it would accomplish.
Great project Mr. Mayor
This could work if they considered it as a development opportunity and gave a company a 10-20 year concession to run something like this with vintage light rail cars. They could hire the Seacoast Trolley Museum. (Tripping out here). The city and MBTA won't invest,, but someone would.
Maybe the people who run the Greenway would do it. I can imagine this as a single track with a couple of small sections of 2-track to allow cars to pass. Two to four cars would be sufficient.
I have often wondered the same...
Mattapan Sq. just got a half-million dollar makeover this year (new curbs, sidewalks, trash barrels etc...), there is development of the Mattapan Sq. T parking lot in the works, why not create a Public Transit Museum to replace a Mobile PCS store, hair salon, check cashing place, bank branch, or vacant building that dot the area? Or on the MBTA property for that matter? People could ride out to the end of the line and then visit the museum. I mean Boston has the OLDEST subway system right? Why not make a tourist attraction of it. The trolley is also the only train in the country that travels THROUGH a graveyard.
The Central Ave stop features a boarded up building adjacent to the tracks. Sure, it's technically in Milton, but it BEGS for refurbishment. Is that an MBTA property? Milton? Private owner just sitting on their hands? Anyone know?
Despite its age it is likely the line with the least # of breakdowns every year, even though people like to point out how the Everett T shop has to tediously make all the parts to repair these trolleys. The thing runs like clockwork, simplicity is key.
I support making it a tourist attraction, as well as keeping it functional for the Lower Mills and Mattapan residents (Highly doubt ANYONE from Milton uses the T, at least anyone in Milton close enough to walk to those trolley stations.
Plenty of people from Milton
Plenty of people from Milton use it, what are you talking about?
You drive into Milton from
You drive into Milton from Lower Mills or Mattapan along the route where the trolley travels and there is nothing but basically mansions, large homes with a driveway full cars, historic buildings and prep school academies. I mean, maybe Milton residents DO use the trolley, but they certainly don't live in walking distance to it. MAYBE the Elliot St condo wasteland that constitutes Milton's "ghetto" but that's likely it.
I'm going to have to disagree with you there
Eliot Street has some multiple dwelling buildings (mostly 2 families, with this being an admitted outlier) from end to end. By and large, in terms of housing stock, it's not too different from most of Hyde Park, or the Lower Mills section of the line even.
Dunno what you're disagreeing with
I mentioned Elliot St. in the last line of my response. It's Milton's "ghetto" where you can briskly walk to Steel and Rye for a $15 burger, or 2 oz of Pork Belly and a single potato cube for $25. Directly across from Steel and Rye is a large bank of condo buildings/row/town houses, whatever you wanna call em. Beyond that (what, maybe 100 people?) The rest of the neighborhood in Milton is Robin Leach territory...
The other side of Central Avenue
From there to Blue Hill Parkway is basically something between Hyde Park and West Roxbury.
I'm just saying that those who live close to Capen Street and Valley Road are not living in mansions. They are living in housing stock like the housing stock found near me in Roslindale, albeit costing a bit more. So I am willing to bet they are not driving downtown every day to work.
That really isn't reality.
That really isn't reality. That said, even normal little houses or multi-families in Milton are big bucks. I ride the trolley every day though - plenty of people going to the Milton stops.
The Milton "stops" but not...
...Milton. Technically the stop closest to me is in Milton, but I don't live there, I live in Boston. My original point that people seem to be jumping all over is few Milton RESIDENTS are using that trolley. 90% of the residences in those areas are for the rich and famous, with the exception of the Elliot St ghetto, where folks who can afford a half million dollar condo, y'know, the blue collar guys, live.
I think Waquiot already
I think Waquiot already pointed it out pretty well why that is a pretty bogus claim. I will add to it that the Milton citizens that live around the stations are also extremely vocal in opposing any reduction of service/changing the line to anything else that would result in the loss of those stops. Seems kind of strange that people who don't use the line would fight fervently to keep it.
Great Idea
A transit museum adjacent to the new bike path at Mattapan station would be a great tourist attraction.
Let's hire a consultant to
Let's hire a consultant to see if it's feasible.