Teban54

Just another transit enthusiast

Ideas from Everyone: Green Line Reconfiguration

The “Ideas from Everyone” series is a collection of proposals and fantasy maps contributed by other transit fans that I personally find interesting. For a full index with ideas on all topics, see here.

This post includes proposals that are specific to the concept of Green Line Reconfiguration (GLR), a concept that transforms and expands the Green Line into two or more LRT networks with higher connectivity, capacity and reliability. If you are unfamiliar with the idea, refer to my own fantasy map on this topic. RailsRoadsRiverside also has a section on his website dedicated to the GLR concept, which he calls “the Gold Line”, with many design implementation details.

Note: Due to heavy overlaps in the concepts of Green Line Reconfiguration and Urban Ring (UR), proposals that touch on both will be listed in both this page and the Urban Ring ideas page, with a brief note.

Last updated: February 26, 2024 (added Kenmore-Seaport discussions)

A Website with Everything You Need

The Gold Line (RailsRoadsRiverside)

  • This section on his website details the vast majority of the concept. It serves as a great introduction to GLR, and also includes many details, including intuitions behind the proposal, as well as descriptions and justifications for specific parts of the design.

Systemwide GLR Designs and Maps

This section includes proposals that showcase the entire GLR concept or all its key components.

Possibly the very first GLR proposal, in 2008 (vanshnookenraggen, Feb 2008)

  • This was 6 years before the concept even got the name Green Line Reconfiguration. Even though Van branded it as an Urban Ring redesign and included many UR components, the key parts of the proposal are very similar to what we call GLR today, motivated by increasing capacity on the Green Line to allow the Urban Ring branches.
  • Subsequent ArchBoston comments on the proposal in 2024, including from myself, can be found starting from here.

RailsRoadsRiverside’s Transportation Dreams Submissions (Jan 2024)

  • RailsRoadsRiverside submitted two maps to Leventhal Map Center’s Transportation Dreams Challenge.
    • The first map is a classic systemwide fantasy map, but showcases the entire GLR concept and its routes, among many other improvements.
    • The second map has a specific focus on the main components of GLR in downtown Boston and Longwood Medical Area.

Commonly Accepted Core Pieces

These are components with two characteristics: (1) crucial to the GLR concept; (2) there exists a general consensus of their importance and routing. I consider three core projects to fall under such a category:

  1. Pleasant St portal reactivation and Bay Village – Back Bay connection
  2. Huntington Ave subway extension and D-E connector
  3. Bay Village – Seaport connection and extension of Seaport Transitway

Back Bay Station

RailsRoadsRiverside’s thoughts on building Back Bay station and connecting to the E branch’s Huntington Subway (Feb 2024)

Connecting Bay Village and South Station

RailsRoadsRiverside’s thoughts on connecting Bay Village to Stuart St (East) (Feb 2024)

Branches and Peripheral Pieces

These are components that are enabled or enhances by GLR, but not crucial to the overall concept, and can often be implemented independently to the core pieces. Examples include Nubian branch(es) and Needham branch. (Some discussions of these proposals are not necessarily on this page.)

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Ideas Under Debates

These are relatively recent ideas and proposals that are still closely related to GLR, but are still under active discussion and are not commonly accepted as “set in stone” ideas yet.

Connecting Kenmore Division to Seaport

My thoughts on a Kenmore-Seaport connection: