Gillette Stadium Transportatio Improvements

guitarguynboston said:
That's nuts. Deal with a limited schedule, on a long ride, crammed into the cars, and if you're lucky maybe the disabled and/or elderly will get seating. But if it's like American Football no seats just crammed with a bunch of loud bigoted drunks.

No thanks. I'd rather rent a car with a bunch of friends or use a friend's car and split gas and parking. UGH MBTA
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Do you have any idea what parking prices will be?
 
Tallguy said:
Do you have any idea what parking prices will be?
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$150. So for all you single ticket holders, you're getting a great deal by taking the T. For everyone else, it's a wash at best.
 
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guitarguynboston said:
Yup and it's always makes more sense to drive whether there is 2 of us or 5.
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I'm usually heading towards Worcester, but I have spent 90 minutes or more getting to 495 dealing with the bumper to bumper traffic. I hope your car is comfortable
 
World Cup service changes are out:

Service Changes During the World Cup | Previous Service Changes | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.
www.mbta.com www.mbta.com

General service reductions for five weeks, including fewer express trains and short turns. No East Taunton shuttle trains.

On match days, Foxboro has shuttle buses for the outer portion, and the inner portion... gets to use the 34E. Fairmount Line service cut back to Fairmount on those days. Subway and a few bus routes get extended service to 2 am (4am for the Saturday match)
 
The EGE said:
World Cup service changes are out:

Service Changes During the World Cup | Previous Service Changes | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.
www.mbta.com www.mbta.com

General service reductions for five weeks, including fewer express trains and short turns. No East Taunton shuttle trains.

On match days, Foxboro has shuttle buses for the outer portion, and the inner portion... gets to use the 34E. Fairmount Line service cut back to Fairmount on those days. Subway and a few bus routes get extended service to 2 am (4am for the Saturday match)
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This extreme a level of resource reallocation really underscores how little operational flexibility the T has for everyday Commuter Rail ops. Basically anything systemwide that is not a conventional end-to-end local running rush-hour size sets is completely decimated by the mass equipment raid for the event. They simply don't have the bandwidth (especially southside) to pry apart and recombine sets on any sort of less-than-long notice, have enough yard space or switchers to do the splitting/recombining, or have adequate means of balancing northside vs. southside capacity on anything more than a week-to-week basis. It's bad enough that they can't even adjust for previous- and next-day service bookending a WC day. We've definitely got a long way to go on all of the procurement end, the facilities end, and the ops reform end before we're ready to implement more nimble Regional Rail practices.

Completely irresponsible use of system resources. I hope that once the dust settles on last week's discount sweeteners vs. this week's damage bill of service disruptions that people rightly question the political priorities at work here.
 
WCVB reports that World Cup round-trip commuter rail tickets will be $80 from South Station.

MBTA to sell $80 World Cup train tickets for Boston Stadium matches

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The MBTA announced Monday details for its expanded Commuter Rail service and special Boston Stadium Train tickets for this summer's seven World Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in June and July.

Round-trip Boston Stadium Train tickets between South Station and Boston Stadium (Gillette Stadium) will be $80, sold exclusively on mTicket, and are good for travel on the entire Commuter Rail network on match days, the MBTA said...
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Speaking of which, this matchday train schedule is absolutely preposterous. Why the hell do we need to "check in" at south station 15-45 minutes before the departure time? This isn't air travel. Also why the hell is there a 45-minute range on the arrival time for a 22-mile trip with no stops? Are they really baking in 45 minutes of schedule padding (75%) on this trip? Didn't we build high-level platforms at foxboro for the exact reason so that boarding/disembarking wouldn't take 45 minutes? Even the hour travel time estimated is absolutely preposterous for a non-stop train averaging 22mph, which for example is slower than many regional rail trains making ALL stops. Add on the ticket price, and it feels they are trying to make this as inconvenient as possible.

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sneijder said:
Speaking of which, this matchday train schedule is absolutely preposterous. Why the hell do we need to "check in" at south station 15-45 minutes before the departure time? This isn't air travel. Also why the hell is there a 45-minute range on the arrival time for a 22-mile trip with no stops? Are they really baking in 45 minutes of schedule padding (75%) on this trip? Didn't we build high-level platforms at foxboro for the exact reason so that boarding/disembarking wouldn't take 45 minutes? Even the hour travel time estimated is absolutely preposterous for a non-stop train averaging 22mph, which for example is slower than many regional rail trains making ALL stops. Add on the ticket price, and it feels they are trying to make this as inconvenient as possible.

View attachment 71952
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Each group represents at least 2 maybe 3 trains which explains the arrival time range. At the friendly match, the trains took 50 minutes to get to the station which would imply that the first train in group A will leave around 3:20. Not sure why queuing starts an hour in advance of that, but considering each boarding group will have 4,000-6,000 people in it, the half an hour at the end of the check-in range seems like a reasonable enough ask. I am confused in the screenshot as to why boarding group d and e have the same estimated arrival time, not sure if that’s a typo on their end or if they have some specific plan there.
 
turnto10.com

Rhode Island fans question lack of direct MBTA train to World Cup games

With less than 10 weeks until the first World Cup match at Gillette Stadium, transportation plans are raising questions for Rhode Island fans.
turnto10.com turnto10.com
There will be no direct train from Providence to Foxborough. Instead, Rhode Island fans who want to take the train will need to go through Boston, traveling from Providence to South Station, then transferring to the Foxborough train.
The MBTA said the decision was based on efficiency.
"In an effort to provide the most efficient service to Foxboro for up to 20,000 passengers per match, the decision was made to operate express train service between South Station and Foxboro only,” the MBTA said in a statement to NBC 10.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said the city asked for a direct commuter train line. “In an ideal world we’d have train service from Providence to Foxborough,” he said. “But that doesn't mean that we're not gonna have good transportation options to the stadium.”
“There was just a capacity problem. There were only so many trains that could be assigned to this. And Boston took the priority in that respect,” Smiley said.
He added that there was a possibility for some off-hour trains, but the city did not think it was reasonable for fans “to get to the game six hours in advance or have to wait after the game.”
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FIFA Boston officials announced the Boston Stadium Express Bus today. While the media and website don't really explain it, it appears there are the following routes:
  • Serving Boston hotels ($49.50 one way, $95.00 round trip; apparently there will be 100 hotels, but I count 63):
    • Route 1- Seaport
    • Route 2- Logan Airport Area
    • Route 3- North End/Downtown
    • Route 4- Downtown/Theater District
    • Route 5- South Bay (includes the DoubleTree near JFK/UMASS)
    • Route 6- Back Bay/Copley Square
  • Serving transportation hubs ($49.50 one way, $95.00 round trip; apparently there will be 20 locations):
    • Logan Airport Terminals
    • Rhode Island Convention Center
  • Serving Foxborough Area hotels ($12.50 one way, $25.00 round trip):
    • GATRA Northern Route to hotels on Route 1 in Sharon, Walpole, and Norwood
    • GATRA Southern Route 1 to hotels off Route 140 in Foxborough near I-95 (Exit 13)
    • GATRA Southern Route 2 to the EnVision Hotel in Mansfield and the hotels on Ledgeview Way in Wrentham, off Route 1 near I-495 (Exit 36)
It looks like there is more to come and the news made it sound like the hotel stops may be consolidated. I'm surprised that the Providence stop is at the Rhode Island Convention Center and not the Providence Train Station or T. F. Green Airport!
 
The Convention Center is a 10 minute walk from the train station, and has both plenty of space for bus queuing and holding people both outside and inside if necessary (with plentiful bathrooms).
 
ritchiew said:
It's a real shame this does not also describe the city's main train station.
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You know what? I take this back. I was too quick to be snarky.

In my experience, Providence Station is pretty nice, and it seems well scaled to meet day-to-day needs. It even has decent bathrooms. (Maybe people who use it more than I do know better.) We shouldn't be overbuilding stations to accommodate extremely rare events. And in any case, train stations shouldn't be a place lots of people have to hang around very long. People should be flowing to and from trains. If a rare, extra-busy event comes up and the MBTA wants to turn the convention center into an ad hoc transit center, that's probably fine.

The real failure here is trying to move people en mass by bus when Providence and Gillette are actually directly connected by rail. We're just not set up to use it. With some double-tracking and a slightly larger fleet, the MBTA could also run our super high capacity trains from Providence to Gillette. And it would be possible without nearly the level of disruptions we'll be getting to the commuter rail this summer. And if we were doing that, Providence Station would probably still be big enough to handle the crowds.
 
ritchiew said:
In my experience, Providence Station is pretty nice, and it seems well scaled to meet day-to-day needs. It even has decent bathrooms. (Maybe people who use it more than I do know better.) We shouldn't be overbuilding stations to accommodate extremely rare events. And in any case, train stations shouldn't be a place lots of people have to hang around very long. People should be flowing to and from trains.
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If your experience of PVD station does not extend into 2026, then you're in for a *special treat* upon your next visit. All these pictures were taken today around 6 pm.

The multi-year renovation has finally almost finished; I'd estimate it's at 95% completion. It has dramatically improved the station's ambiance and aesthetics, as seen here in this perspective of the revamped Cafe La France-adjacent waiting area.

HOWEVER: the remaining 5% includes restoring the escalator--and until that happens, there will continue to be profoundly exasperating pile-ups at the stairwell. As I experience frequently, commuters disembarking from the 4:52 inbound from South Station confront passengers trying to get down that stairwell to board whatever Amtrak train is heading northbound or southbound in the 6-6:05 pm vicinity. It really, really, really sucks that the escalator has yet to be restored. Did I mention how sucky it is?

As for the bathrooms--I'm pretty sure the renovation did not extend to include them. Whatever. In the most blunt assessment, they endure orders-of-magnitude less human misery than their counterparts at South Station, for which I'm grateful.
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Arenacale said:
The Convention Center is a 10 minute walk from the train station, and has both plenty of space for bus queuing and holding people both outside and inside if necessary (with plentiful bathrooms).
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True, however it is not as convenient for those who are flying into PVD or taking Amtrak. These passengers have to make the walk from the train station or go all the way into Boston first.

On the other hand, as I'm imagining those passengers, the earliest match is at 3pm, so the number of attendees who will fly or take the train in for the day, see the match, and fly or take the train out that night is likely very small. Anyone who is flying into PVD or taking a train to Providence will need a hotel in the area, so the added walk is one they would make anyway.
 
Damn New Yorkers! Always trying to outdo us with their absurd prices! ;)
Fans planning to use New Jersey's NJ Transit to travel from New York City to MetLife Stadium for FIFA World Cup games this summer may have to pay around $150 for a round-trip ticket, according to a report.

The Athletic reported that while NJ Transit's modeling initially projected a price of more than $100 per passenger, a price around $150 has been discussed this week, according to a source with direct knowledge of the plans.

The fare would apply to fans taking NJ Transit's rail service from New York City's Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, with a stop at Secaucus station.
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www.foxbusiness.com

Taking a train to World Cup games at MetLife Stadium could cost around $150

NJ Transit reportedly discussed charging around $150 for round-trip tickets from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium for FIFA World Cup games this summer.
www.foxbusiness.com www.foxbusiness.com
 
Ryanontherails said:
True, however it is not as convenient for those who are flying into PVD or taking Amtrak. These passengers have to make the walk from the train station or go all the way into Boston first.

On the other hand, as I'm imagining those passengers, the earliest match is at 3pm, so the number of attendees who will fly or take the train in for the day, see the match, and fly or take the train out that night is likely very small. Anyone who is flying into PVD or taking a train to Providence will need a hotel in the area, so the added walk is one they would make anyway.
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I think we can assume some modelling of who would be going to the games and where they might stay if from out of town likely suggested that Providence was not going to be a significant source of transit trips to the stadium. Unlike a Pats game or concert that would draw heavily from Providence area spectators, the World Cup is going to involve lots of tourists, many of whom likely have no idea where Providence is or about the many reasons somebody might want to stay and visit there, rather than Boston. For good or for bad, everything about this event is branded as Boston, and people coming from Europe or South America are only going to focus on that as the location.
 
HenryAlan said:
I think we can assume some modelling of who would be going to the games and where they might stay if from out of town likely suggested that Providence was not going to be a significant source of transit trips to the stadium. Unlike a Pats game or concert that would draw heavily from Providence area spectators, the World Cup is going to involve lots of tourists, many of whom likely have no idea where Providence is or about the many reasons somebody might want to stay and visit there, rather than Boston. For good or for bad, everything about this event is branded as Boston, and people coming from Europe or South America are only going to focus on that as the location.
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Be careful conflating "travelling for sporting events" with general tourism. This is anecdotal, but when I'm attending races I choose hotels based on price and location to the venue, not what is the best tourist spot. Hence why, when going to Daytona, I stay in Lake Mary on the Orlando suburbs. Granted, it might be different for the World Cup where the games are an isolated 3 hour event vs. racing's multiple days at the track, but I think Providence will end up a popular spot for a lot of fans to stay simply because it's (probably) cheaper and more convenient.
 
I also don't think that Boston has that much excess hotel capacity that have spun up for the 5 weeks of world cup events either. I wouldn't be surprised for these games to spread visitors/attendees pretty far afield from the southwest sector of metro boston.
 
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