TheBOSman

They've replaced most of the commuter rail locomotives in the past few years, but the new ones are having their own issues. Even when they try to replace things, they seem to run into issues (the newer Green Line cars couldn't even be used on the D line for years, and broke down over 20 times as frequently as the contract specified for MTBF upon entry to service). Honestly the agency is a disaster.

shawbridge

OP, I forgot to say that I have lived in the Boston area since 1978 save 5 years in Manhattan and winters in recent years in Sausalito. Commuting here is unpleasant. I don't do it -- I started my own firm and our office is in a building roughly 1/4 mile from my house in one of the Western suburbs. The houses here are very expensive but the admin staff typically live in towns to the west of us and the cost of these drops off significantly with some distance.

My impression is that commuting on the Red Line is generally pretty good (snow may be a problem). So, if I were going to be working along the Red Line, I might seek a place in Somerville or at the other end (Braintree or Quincy I guess but I don't know that part of the world well) and send my kids to private schools. I can't comment on TheBOSman's evaluation of the equipment (but people who are in the know tell me that TheBOSman is right that the agency is a complete disaster). If the office is near North or South stations, as someone mentioned, you can take commuter rail. Neighbors of mine do it every day. I really like driving my car, but rush hour driving in Boston seems pretty gruesome to me. Lots of traffic, rude drivers, bad weather, ... .

If your office is in the suburbs, life might be simpler. Commuting by car could be pretty easy depending upon your location. For example, if the office is in Waltham (where there are pharma, tech and financial firms), you could live in Lincoln, Sudbury, Concord or Wayland where the public schools are very good and the commute might not be that bad. If the office is in Burlington, you could look to suburbs nearer Burlington, like Winchester or maybe Andover (don't know its schools).

TheBOSman

The worst part about the MBTA is that it still beats driving in IMO . I vowed never to have a commute that involved driving the Southeast Expressway daily, all of my hair would probably fall out. Used to know someone who commuted into the city from Rockland daily, sounded like hell.

Andover has pretty good schools overall, and of course (if your kid is really sharp and you can afford the tuition) Phillips-Andover is there. Most of the school systems in MA, even in the bigger outer cities like Lynn or Lowell, are better than similarly sized cities in much of the rest of the country. Lynn/Lowell aren't better than Weston or Lexington of course, but they aren't the horribly underfunded atrocities seen in some similarly sized cities (Lawrence is an exception, it's awful, but I assume OP can avoid Lawrence, Brockton to a lesser degree is similar).

Anything more than 5-10 miles beyond 128 is still fairly reasonable in terms of housing prices, though north in the Andover to Chelmsford/Westford area outside of Lowell is starting to get a bit high.

Bonehead

I was born in Quincy and lived in Randolph and South Weymouth until I was 4 (left in 1958). Feel free to PM me with any questions.

mikeef

I take the Green Line every day. It's above ground most of the way. A 5-mile commute (as the crow flies) takes 45 minutes.

Mike

TheBOSman

They need to pull out about half of the Green Line above ground stops if they want to improve the speed. I would say build express tracks in the North Station (or at least Govt. Center) to Kenmore stretch like they have in NYC but the expense would be mind-boggling, even if done as cost-effectively as possible; which, as might be said here in Texas, "ain't gon happen y'all".

PVDtoDEL

The Green Line is fundamentally an equipment problem - the T has no business operating streetcars on such a busy and important transit corridor

TheBOSman

Streetcars are fine on busy corridors; see Melbourne, Australia for a fantastic example of the role streetcars can play on public transit. Implementation is the issue.

Plato90s

I'd say the Green Line is fundamentally a laziness issue with some stops being less than 200ft from one another because they assume people are too lazy to walk to the next stop.

SkiAdcock

I mean this nicely, but if I read your post correctly you basically haven't lived in the Boston area in 58 years. I'm a bit perplexed how much info you can provide to the OP vs. the folk who currently live there or have lived there since 1958 when you left. Or am I missing something (serious question; no snark involved)? It's nice of you to offer to help.

Cheers.

Bonehead

Just another of my lame attempts at humor. I'll go crawl back under my rock.

annerj

So slower than someone could jog it? wow.

TrojanHorse

You have not seen me Jog 😮🐖

Plato90s

Oh, definitely. In the past, I've just-missed a Green Line trolley, and then ran to the next stop in time to get on.

Between the traffic lights, short distance between above-ground stops on the B-branch, and the need to accelerate/decelerate - the average speed of those trains are nothing to brag about.

mikeef

Sadly, yes. That's not a joke.

B-Line is the worst. I'm on the second-worst branch, the C-Line.

The problem is that the cost of fixing the system is so high that no politician wants to be the one to propose a way to pay for it, figuring that they would get blamed for the taxes but wouldn't be in office to see the results (a decade from now). So the can just keeps getting kicked down the road.

Oddly enough, that's what riding the T is like: Being in a giant tin can, moving about as fast as if it were being kicked down the road.

Mike