Fall River/New Bedford Commuter Rail (South Coast Rail)

The T posted it's presentation from the Thursday meetings; selected slides below, including the expected schedule of milestones. It looks like all ATC/PTC testing was pending an FRA inspection & approval to operate at the new track speed, likely recently issued given the corridor clipper was filmed here a couple of weeks ago. The delay was likely compounded by the FTA SMS process, which resulted in in the T issuing a new safety certification plan, dated 2/27/24, which SCR had to go through prior to the FRA process.

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TheRatmeister said:
Or make the subway transfer suck less, fix the Braintree branch, and integrate fares and then CR->RL becomes actually reasonable.
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The T would have to make up a lot of ground to make this feasible. The current schedules put CR at about 23 minutes from Braintree to South Station.

In 2016, the Red Braintree -> South Station journey took about 28 minutes (maybe closer to 30 during peak).

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Yesterday, it took an average of 43 minutes.

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(With literally four trains within each hour.)

If brought back to 2016 journey times, frequencies, and reliability, supplementary Old Colony shuttles transferring at Braintree might well be viable. The transfer is still a bit hostile, but not unworkable.

But that's a lot of ground to make up between 2016 and today.

(In some alternate universe, the Old Colony or some vestige thereof kept all lines continuously operating, terminating at a rapid transit transfer station at Quincy Adams. Like the Mattapan Line, but, you know, bigger. The southern Red Line was, after all, designed as a trunk line for a distributed system of branches out across southeastern Mass.)
 
Stlin said:
The T posted it's presentation from the Thursday meetings
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It really does look like the T should have known (or, more precisely, likely knew and therefore should have announced) a while ago that Summer 2024 wasn't going to happen. If PTC testing is 6-8 months, and then New Starts brings an additional 3 months, then presumably they would have known at least by January of this year, if not earlier. Very disappointing.
 
Do we predict that a RIPTA route (maybe 24L) will be re-routed or added to serve the Fall River Station <-> Newport market?

I regularly transfer between the RIPTA 60 and the Providence Line and there is a healthy amount of people who do the same on every trip.
 
bigeman312 said:
Do we predict that a RIPTA route (maybe 24L) will be re-routed or added to serve the Fall River Station <-> Newport market?

I regularly transfer between the RIPTA 60 and the Providence Line and there is a healthy amount of people who do the same on every trip.
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The problem with Fall River buses is that the bus terminal is centered on City Hall Plaza, while Fall River Depot is nearly a mile away and only served by SRTA bus #2. The transfer integration is really weird unless you gerrymander the route off-course to meet both.

I would say it's not in the cards with Phase I frequencies being so poor. You really need Phase 2 with Regional Rail to get the frequencies on each of the branches up to hourly all-day, and who the hell knows when or if that's going to happen.
 
South Coast Rail will have weekend service, since trains already service Middleborough to begin with on weekends (I guess weekend service is just simply extending the Middleborogh line further south?).

www.heraldnews.com

MBTA: South Coast Rail will run on weekends. Here's why it's important and what it'll cost

South Coast Rail’s schedule is a little bit clearer, with a confirmation of weekend service. Here's why that's important and what it will cost riders.
www.heraldnews.com

Article quote:

“Seeing as ... South Coast Rail is an extension of the Middleborough line commuter rail service, on which weekend service is already scheduled and offered, it is not a question of whether weekend service will be provided, but rather at what levels,” said Maya Bingaman, MBTA communications manager.
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Delvin4519 said:
South Coast Rail will have weekend service, since trains already service Middleborough to begin with on weekends (I guess weekend service is just simply extending the Middleborogh line further south?).

www.heraldnews.com

MBTA: South Coast Rail will run on weekends. Here's why it's important and what it'll cost

South Coast Rail’s schedule is a little bit clearer, with a confirmation of weekend service. Here's why that's important and what it will cost riders.
www.heraldnews.com

Article quote:
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FWIW, the current Middleborough/Lakeville Line runs every 1.5 hours on weekends. If we simply take these trips and extend to Fall River and New Bedford alternatingly, that gives 3-hour weekend headways.

Weekday headways range between 1 hour (rush hour peak direction) to 1.5 hours (midday), so it's not that much better.
 
Teban54 said:
FWIW, the current Middleborough/Lakeville Line runs every 1.5 hours on weekends. If we simply take these trips and extend to Fall River and New Bedford alternatingly, that gives 3-hour weekend headways.

Weekday headways range between 1 hour (rush hour peak direction) to 1.5 hours (midday), so it's not that much better.
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Quoting from the article only mentions a morning, afternoon, and evening train as a rudimentary level of weekend service for Fall River and New Bedford. 3 trains for the whole service day on weekends.
“I don’t think anyone’s looking for continuous service during the weekend,” he said. “But having a morning train, an afternoon train and an evening train, I don’t think is too much to have.”
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Using the existing Middleborough line's schedule gives 5 trains for the whole day for each of the two branches, which is better than then the quoted level of 3 trains for the day (AM, afternoon, evening), but still less than the worst weekend schedules on the CR today, which provides a minimum of 8 trips for the whole day.

To match today's minimum levels of weekend service on the worst CR lines, means having to run 14 - 16 trips in the trunk through Brockton in order to give 8 weekend trips to Fall River and New Bedford., It would be a 1.5x or 1.6x service increase in the trunk (depending on if the first and last train of the day is a mandatory transfer for 1 branch to give the same span of service for both branches).

On weekdays, the worst service levels on the CR seems to be 12 trips on the Franklin Line and 10 on the Foxboro line, only slightly better than 8 trips on the weekends (Foxboro and Stoughton have no weekend service). Giving 10 weekday trips to NB and FR each to match Foxboro still means adding 4 - 6 additional trips on weekdays to the Middleborough Line.
 
Delvin4519 said:
Quoting from the article only mentions a morning, afternoon, and evening train as a rudimentary level of weekend service for Fall River and New Bedford. 3 trains for the whole service day on weekends.
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That quote is from the "executive vice president of Bristol County Economic Development Consultants", aka politely a nobody when it comes to MBTA scheduling.

The MBTA service delivery policy stipulates a maximum of three hour headways on the weekends on commuter rail, I see no reason to believe this project won't easily meet that.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
That quote is from the "executive vice president of Bristol County Economic Development Consultants", aka politely a nobody when it comes to MBTA scheduling.

The MBTA service delivery policy stipulates a maximum of three hour headways on the weekends on commuter rail, I see no reason to believe this project won't easily meet that.
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The SDP only requires 3 hour headways between 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays, with the first train from each branch arriving at South Station before 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and departing South Station at 6:30 p.m. Saturday or later.

There is no requirement for service OR service frequency for Saturday early AM, Saturday late evening, or Sunday service; on the Commuter Rail.

4 hour headways between 6:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday evening, or 5 hour Sunday headways, still meets the service frequency standard, since it is "extra, bonus" service after the minimum 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays SDP standard.

By this definition, the T only needs to provide 5 Saturday trips for both Fall River and New Bedford individually, to meet the standard. There is no requirement to provide a 6th Saturday trip, or Sunday service.
 
Delvin4519 said:
Quoting from the article only mentions a morning, afternoon, and evening train as a rudimentary level of weekend service for Fall River and New Bedford. 3 trains for the whole service day on weekends.
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this might kneecap the efforts for some to use South Coast rail as a connector to the ferries out of New Bedford. I know the NB ferry companies were lobbying for the line to terminate right near the ferry terminals near JFK Memorial and I'm happy they have some space so transit riders need to spend some time/$$$ in New Bedford, but those train-to-ferry riders will definitely be a boost of cash for New Bedford
 
Given the fiscal cliff looming when service finally starts, and one of the stated likely cuts being weekend CR service... I don't blame the T for not saying anything yet - it wouldn't be wise to until they get a better look at their fiscal state next year.
 
thepixelnation said:
this might kneecap the efforts for some to use South Coast rail as a connector to the ferries out of New Bedford. I know the NB ferry companies were lobbying for the line to terminate right near the ferry terminals near JFK Memorial and I'm happy they have some space so transit riders need to spend some time/$$$ in New Bedford, but those train-to-ferry riders will definitely be a boost of cash for New Bedford
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Just an FYI, but the ferry parking lot in New Bedford last night was about 98% full (and that included spilling into the commuter rail station area). Not sure what is going to happen when T service starts up. Guess they are thinking everyone is going to walk to the station? Don't think so. Ferry parking is like that most of the summer.
 
Stlin said:
Given the fiscal cliff looming when service finally starts, and one of the stated likely cuts being weekend CR service... I don't blame the T for not saying anything yet - it wouldn't be wise to until they get a better look at their fiscal state next year.
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anywhere I can read about this as a potential likely cut? that would be a huge bummer. the $10 CR weekend pass is one of the best things about the T.
 
GP40MC said:
Just an FYI, but the ferry parking lot in New Bedford last night was about 98% full (and that included spilling into the commuter rail station area). Not sure what is going to happen when T service starts up. Guess they are thinking everyone is going to walk to the station? Don't think so. Ferry parking is like that most of the summer.
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I was more thinking the Boston to New Bedford route rather than the other way around. I'm sure the city is much more focused on tourism/transit dollars entering the city, rather than providing park and ride parking for New Bedford residents trying to leave.
 
#bancars said:
www.bostonglobe.com

Dear MBTA: Googly eyes are great, but how about on-time projects and reliable trains? - The Boston Globe

The once-again delayed South Coast rail project is all too typical of the MBTA's management failures.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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As cute as those were, I could not understand everyone hyping up the MBTA for those googly eyes. People from the "protest" were talking about how this was proof that they listen to citizens – seems to say it proves how easily they could listen in every other scenario
 
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