Essay

The "Feasibility Study Committee" will then be under way -- we need volunteers to say to the Town Manager "Yes, I will help investigate how other towns do it" including, especially, how they're funded by state and federal sources.

https://humantransit.org/2015/08/on-transit-integration-or-seamlessness.html

TJH 1974 Bus Report (transithistory.org) http://roster.transithistory.org/MBTABUSDEV.pdf

Imagine being able to travel seamlessly throughout the Blue Hills Region, with ease and convenience. Well, that's exactly what the SMART initiative aims to achieve by filling in this missing link in the transportation network. This critical connection will make it easier for residents, workers, and visitors to get around, improving accessibility and connectivity for everyone. Whether you're going to work, meeting up with friends, or exploring the beautiful sights this region has to offer, the SMART initiative will make it all a breeze. So get ready to experience a whole new level of convenience and freedom in your travels!

1. Introduction

The Southern Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) project aims to enhance transportation options for Randolph and its neighboring areas by establishing and managing a regional transit authority. A successor of the Urban Ring, SMART is a series of new public transportation routes that will provide improved circumferential connections among existing transit lines that project radially from downtown Boston. This critical link will enable a seamless regional system that allows for convenient travel throughout, what is essentially, the Blue Hills Region. By filling in this missing piece of the transportation network, the SMART initiative would improve accessibility and connectivity for residents, workers, and visitors alike.

1.1 Study Purpose

A petition by the Town of Randolph compelled SMART to conduct this Feasibility Reassessment, which reexamines prior work on the concept and was scoped to do the following:

• Identify significant changes to the context within which the SMART would be implemented, such as demographic shifts, new transportation technologies, and trends and changes to the regulatory and built environments.

• Review the technical viability of major elements of the SMART that were proposed by previous studies (Randolph Shuttle bus, Randolph, shuttle van, Work with the BAT to get the BAT #12 bus to pick up and drop off passengers in North Randolph, Fare-free MBTA bus for routes #240 and #236 in Randolph -- like the 2-year experiment going on in Boston right now, Low Income Fare Bill (HD 3417/SD 1550) to permanently reduce the cost of public transit).
Consider new alternatives and develop these to a level of detail to allow for an assessment of costs and benefts.

• Develop an order-of-magnitude cost estimate (including design, construction, and management costs). This cost estimate will be informed by recent experience in bus and industry best practices.

• Consider overall project benefits including ridership growth, increased system capacity, service reliability improvements, and economic development, and quantify the benefits and associated costs at a level appropriate to this stage in the project development process. The results of this Feasibility Reassessment will help inform MassDOT’s and state policymakers’ decisions about any appropriate next steps with regard to the SMART concept.

## 2. Problem Statement

The SMART initiative has the potential to address several separate but interrelated needs in Boston’s travel market.

### 2.1 A growing region

The Greater Boston area continues to add both jobs and people, straining its existing transportation network. Similar to other growing regions, the Greater Boston economy has grown faster than its transportation infrastructure.

The capacity of MBTA commuter rail trains varies. In 2000, peak-load-point counts found that some North Side trains had passengers standing, although there were available seats. On the South Side system, only the Fairmount and Needham Lines had no overcrowded trains during peak periods. The Framingham and Franklin Lines had overcrowded trains during the morning peak, but not in the evening. The Attleboro/Stoughton, Middleborough/Lakeville, and Plymouth/Kingston Lines had trains exceeding seating capacity in both peaks. Access to the trains is also limited by parking capacity. MBTA facilities work tirelessly to address capacity issues to meet future ridership demand, as overall MBTA ridership is experiencing an overall growth. Additionally, the downtown Boston terminal stations limit the capacity of the commuter rail system.

### 2.2 A divided system

The public transportation network in the Randolph area operates as essentially several separate systems, with fve lines serving the areas north of the urban core and terminating at North Station, and the remaining nine lines serving areas south (and, to a lesser extent, west) of the urban core and terminating at South Station. This division creates two separate markets: lines running into South Station have easy access to the Back Bay, the Financial District and the Seaport District, while lines running into North Station arrive at the northern end of downtown, an area with lower employment density and fewer major destinations. This division creates disincentives for commuters from the northern suburbs to use transit to reach jobs in Downtown Boston and Back Bay, as many trips require a transfer from commuter rail to subway, adding about 10 minutes to their overall journey. Meanwhile, suburb-to-suburb trips between commuter-rail-accessible areas south and north of Boston’s urban core require multiple transfers, and those trips are currently unlikely to be completed via public transit. This is supported by an analysis of 2010 journey-to-work data for this project, which shows the majority of trips from either the northside or southside MBTA Commuter Rail lines ending in a Downtown Boston destination.

1. Introduction

1.1 Study Purpose

1.2 Previous Studies

1.3 Abbreviations

2. Problem Statement

2.1 A Growing Region

2.2 A Divided System

2.3 Operational Issues

3. Background Information

3.1 Existing Conditions

3.2 Regional Demographics

3.3 Guiding Principles

3.4 Best Practices and Emerging Trends

4. Service Planning

4.1 Background and Previous Studies

4.2 Service Plans Considered

4.3 Service Plans Extensively Studied

4.4 Capacity Assumptions

4.5 Ridership and Operating Costs

5. Potential Alignments and Schematic Design

5.1 2003 Alignments and Alternatives

5.2 Current Design Assumptions/Criteria

5.3 Station Design Principles

5.4 Tunnel and Underground Construction

5.5 Fire/Life Safety and Ventilation

5.6 Initial Alignments Considered

5.7 Short-Listing of Alternatives

5.8 Alignments and Stations

5.9 Upstream Improvements

5.10 Construction/Operational Impacts

6. Cost Estimates and Analysis

6.1 Cost Estimating Methodology

6.2 Organization of the Cost Estimate

6.3 Basis of Estimate

6.4 Assumptions and Exclusions

6.5 Schedule

7. Benefts Analysis

7.1 Methodology for Quantifable Benefts

7.2 Mobility Impacts

7.3 Operational Effciencies

7.4 Economic Impacts

7.5 Environmental Justice Analysis

7.6 Air Quality Benefts

8. Preferred Alignment and Construction Technology

8.1 Purpose and Background

8.2 Evaluation Objectives and Methodology

8.3 Summary and Recommendation

9. Appendices

A. Citations

B. Full List of Upstream Improvements

C. Ridership Model Description

D. Fire and Life Safety

E. Cost Estimate

F. Evaluation Weighting and Application of Scores

G. Environmental Evaluation and Permitting Summary

H. Public Engagement

The Southern Metro Area Regional Transit is a proposed micro transit system based south of Boston. The entity is dedicated toward filling gaps in the suburban network caused by population change, demographic shift, and low-density development patterns. It does so by providing a network of community shuttle bus routes that provide service along numbered state routes, using smaller vehicles to comply with residents are who opposed to having large diesel buses on their streets. The neighborhood-friendly vehicles connect populated areas to shopping centers, employment zones, and regional transit hubs while improving access to existing services.

Welcome to the SMART transit Wiki!
The SMART coverage area focuses on the cities and towns of Braintree, Canton, Holbrook, Randolph, Sharon, Stoughton, and Walpole, Massachusetts. Over 200,000 people live in this area. The extended area spans the cities and towns of Brockton, Easton, Raynham, and Westwood, Massachusetts.
This service area awkwardly straddles the edges of three counties, Bristol, Norfolk, and Plymouth. Conversely, it is also at the outer reaches of three different agencies, GATRA, MBTA, and BAT. As a result, the riders have a deteriorated transit experience. SMART complements the service gap, while providing connections to all three services.
Fortunately, the population centers and primary destinations (such as shopping, employment, healthcare, education, and entertainment) are located along existing numbered state roads, making route design much simpler.
As population and traffic congestion continue to grow, SMART is effected to providing service to the fast-growing region it serves.

# ==

To whom it may concern,

I've read the bus petition, as well as the commentary from members of the local community. Bus service to these underserved areas is long overdue. It always concerned me to see all these apartment communities located far from bus stops. And this isn't just Randolph; Canton, Easton, Stoughton, and the like are just some of the towns that locally share the same issue with Randolph. Now the website does mention that the previous work was rejected because it required a new RTA and plans for expansion in Stoughton, Canton, and Avon. There was also the side note referring RTA "complications", begging the need to focus only on Randolph, ignoring potential travel destinations. The law regarding the creation of regional transit authorities (MGL Part 1, Title 22, Chapter 161-B, Section 3) states that "Any city or town, or group or combination of cities or towns, other than a city or town included in the MBTA in which the Authority operates a fixed bus service, may... ...be made into a body politic, etc..." Yes, I can see where this may present a complication because Randolph can use an RTA but it has a fixed bus route. And under the law, a city or town with an MBTA fixed bus route does not qualify to create an RTA. But the law does not forbid a group of cities or towns that have an RTA route. Braintree, Canton, Holbrook, Randolph, Sharon, Walpole, Easton, Raynham, and Westwood are a group or combination of cities and towns (the law forbids cities and towns included in the MBTA with a fixed bus route, but is null in regarding a group of cities or towns sharing the same distinction). A combination of new bus routes linking major South Shore points such as Route 128 Amtrak Station, Cobbs Corner Shopping Center, Walpole Mall, and the Stoughton Commuter Line, along state routes 24, 138, 139, and I-93, would cover a majority of the high density development in the area, with links to three different commuter rail lines, two other RTA's, an Amtrak connection, a subway station, and (potentially) a ferry connection under the name 'SMART', the Southern Metro Area Regional Transit Authority. The routes cover much of the same area as the proposed shuttle bus, but also go further to include expansion in nearby towns like Stoughton, Canton, and Avon. This entity alone, if approved, would unlock federal funding through at least nine different flex grants (grants that allow federal highway funds to be "flexed" to transit), namely CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement), STBG (Surface Transportation Block Grant), TA (Transportation Alternatives), Ferry Boat Program, Carbon Reduction Program, HSIP (Highway Safety Improvement Program), NHPP (National Highway Improvement Program), SPR (State Planning and Research), and Metropolitan Planning.

The bus petition, and the resulting commentary from members of the local community, is refreshing after spending years watching Randolph's evolution from a one-stoplight town into a flourishing metropolitan suburb. The signs of growth alone tell the story (i.e., many more stop lights showing increased traffic levels, storefronts in different languages showing increased diversity, and a commuter rail expansion showing increased transit demand), but the incongruencies tell a different story (i.e. entire apartment communities located far from bus stops, high-density development accessed by low-density travel patterns, and high pedestrian counts on roads that lead to and from bus stops); the fact that Randolph's robust evolution has outpaced the development of its transit infrastructure. Since the MBTA's 1968 inception into Randolph, the same two bus routes have shown their inadequacy and fifty years later, the only changes have been the addition of the BAT and the commuter rail, both which offer very limited coverage in a fast-growing town where at least 25% of the inhabitants come from places where mass transit is the dominant form of travel (i.e. the Carribean and Southeast Asia). The story isn't unique to Randolph; Canton, Easton, Stoughton, and the like are just some of the towns that locally share the same issue.

Now the website does mention that the previous work was rejected because it required a new RTA and plans for expansion in Stoughton, Canton, and Avon. There was also the side note referring RTA "complications", excluding any chance for the surrounding towns to share in a much needed service. The law regarding the creation of regional transit authorities (MGL Part 1, Title 22, Chapter 161-B, Section 3) states that "Any city or town, or group or combination of cities or towns, other than a city or town included in the MBTA in which the Authority operates a fixed bus service, may... ...be made into a political subdivision of the commonwealth under the name of the municipality within the new authority having the greatest population, or under any other appropriate regional name agreed to by a majority of the member municipalities, and followed by the words *Transit Authority*." The only complication with this law is that it forbids any city or town with an MBTA bus route running through it from creating a transit authority, but does not forbid a group of cities or towns sharing the same distinction from the same act. Braintree, Canton, Holbrook, Randolph, Sharon, Walpole, Easton, Raynham, and Westwood are a group or combination of cities and towns. A combination of new bus routes linking major South Shore points such as Route 128 Amtrak Station, Braintree Logan Express, Cobbs Corner Shopping Center, Walpole Mall, and the Stoughton Commuter Rail Station, along state routes 24, 138, 139, and I-93, would cover a majority of the high density development in the area, with links to three different commuter rail lines, two other RTA's, an Amtrak as well as an airport connection, a subway station, and (potentially) a ferry connection under the name 'SMART', the Southern Metro Area Regional Transit Authority. The routes cover much of the same area as the proposed shuttle bus, but also go further to include expansion in nearby towns like Stoughton, Canton, and Avon. This entity alone, if approved, would unlock federal funding through at least nine different flex grants (grants that allow federal highway funds to be "flexed" to transit), namely CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement), STBG (Surface Transportation Block Grant), TA (Transportation Alternatives), Ferry Boat Program, Carbon Reduction Program, HSIP (Highway Safety Improvement Program), NHPP (National Highway Improvement Program), SPR (State Planning and Research), and Metropolitan Planning. A sample route map is enclosed in the attachments. Please share your thoughts, as there are many people who will be happy once this gets on the road.

Problem

Solution

Benefit