Recent content by OldColony

The CapeFLYER website has been updated with the 2025 schedule. A few screenshots: Service starts Friday, May 23rd. The current Middleborough/Lakeville station will be renamed Lakeville after South Coast Rail "Phase 1" opens March 24th. It looks like fares are the same as last year.

A top priority should be to fix the Old Colony bottleneck through Quincy and Dorchester. The sad need to operate a shuttle train meet at East Taunton to provide a barely reasonable level of service to both New Bedford and Fall River, the lack of track capacity to run direct commuter trains to...

My wife, who grew up in Dedham, says this area is known as Cow Island.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/anger-frustration-aboard-commuter-rail-passengers-stuck-trains-delayed-hours/63535196 Fair use quotes: "Frustration aboard Commuter Rail as passengers stuck on trains were delayed for hours due to switch track issue "BOSTON — Anger and frustration erupted among...

WCVB has a similar news report this morning, but the chit chat was mostly about allowing traffic light cameras. https://www.wcvb.com/article/two-proposals-new-massachusetts-state-budget-could-affect-candy-traffic/63517528

How would a VMT work for residents who frequently drive out of state?

So widen as far south as the active breakdown lane runs, which I understand ends at Route 139 in Pembroke? Got it -- that makes sense. Thanks.

Umm, where would the traffic go after crossing the canal? U.S. Route 6 (the Mid-Cape Highway) east of Sagamore is a two-lane parkway, with no breakdown lanes and poorly designed (by interstate standards) interchanges down to Route 132. I can think of many much better transportation projects to...

Checking NHRHTA Shoreliner Vol. 27 Issue 3, published about the time the Old Colony Middleborough/Lakeville and Kingston/Plymouth lines were opened, the stated cost was $537 million for the two branches and the Braintree - South Boston trunk. What did that buy? Among other things, a new...

Eng was brought in to fix a broken transit system. He has proven to be the rare MBTA GM who has taken the public experience seriously. Just looking at a couple of accomplishments under his watch: -- Removal of 22 years of slow zones on the subway lines. I just find that stat dismally...

I'd definitely add double-tracking the Old Colony main between South Bay and Braintree (a big ticket item) and a Buzzards Bay commuter rail extension from Middleborough (a relatively light lift). The capital cost per new passenger for Buzzards Bay was projected as a fraction of SCR phase 1...

Communities along Buzzards Bay (further east away from the Long Island/CT landfall) also experienced a devastating storm surge during the 1938 hurricane, causing much damage in towns like Wareham and Bourne. As noted by others, the hurricane traveling over open water pushed water up into the...

Shades of what portions of University Station could have looked like, if the original Westwood Station concept had been built. Instead a large, ugly strip mall was built with a sea of asphalt.

Glad to hear this. I was at South Station in the early spring to meet a childhood friend up from Florida whose wife was attending a conference at the Convention Center. A day in the 50s, my South Station highlight was getting off the train in a short sleeve shirt to find my friend bundled up...

I was wondering about the construction project underway in the northeast quadrant of the Highland Avenue interchange in Needham. Now I know!