At long last, the MBTA announces station consolidation design meeting for the Green Line "B" branch

Thursday Oct 23rd, 6pm, at BPL Copley: Commonwealth Salon.

Long time readers will recall that I have been writing about the need for station consolidation along the "B" branch of the Green Line for a few years now, in addition to articles on other topics related to Green Line operations.

It seems that the time has come for the MBTA to finally put forth a design for station consolidation within the scope of the upcoming Commonwealth Ave reconstruction project. These stations to be considered are the most closely bunched stations on the "B" branch, and clear candidates for consolidation:

The need for station consolidation on the "B" branch

Station consolidation has not been considered on the Green Line for over ten years now. The outcome of this design could result in what might possibly be the most significant service improvement in decades; a benefit for beleaguered "B" branch riders. Going from four, very closely-spaced, inaccessible stations to two, reasonably-spaced, accessible stations will greatly improve the riding experience of the vast majority of passengers.

When this concrete improvement is combined with electronic improvements such as signal priority, and organizational improvements such as all-door boarding (all the time), the result could be quite amazing. The MBTA still has some ways to go in reforming itself so that easy organizational and electronic improvements are possible to implement. But that can be done anytime. On the other hand, we won't see another chance to fix station spacing for a whole generation. This is the time to do it, and it is the time to do it right.