Fairmount Line Upgrade

[Arlington]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

That fare is indeed fair; now if only they could integrate it into the Charlie Card for free transfers out of South Station. This subway pricing should also be applied to Roslindale, Chelsea, Yawkey, future New Balance, and all other inner stations.

"Subway Pricing" does apply as widely as that: its Zone 1A on the Commuter Rail and has long applied to any "inner" commuter rail station (essentially wherever buses are a traditional/practical option). IIRC, today's "Monthly LInk Pass" (bus and subway) is the same as a Zone 1A Pass, at $70 (vs $48 for bus). for unlimited use.

As seen above, it already applies to Chelsea and Yawkey and Forest Hills (Roslindale proper is in Zone 1)

 

[Shepard]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

Thanks. I actually didn't realize that about Chelsea and Yawkey. 1A should definitely be expanded to include Roslindale, Hyde Park and Fairmount, if not also all the West Rox stops.

 

[bostoneophyte]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

That fare is indeed fair; now if only they could integrate it into the Charlie Card for free transfers out of South Station. This subway pricing should also be applied to Roslindale, Chelsea, Yawkey, future New Balance, and all other inner stations.

I've taken Yawkey to South Station a couple times recently and only was charged $2 on the eTicket app. Totally agree there should be a free transfer.

 

[Arlington]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I've taken Yawkey to South Station a couple times recently and only was charged $2 on the eTicket app. Totally agree there should be a free transfer.

The $70 monthly pass (subway + bus) also includes Commuter Rail Zone 1A (those $2 fare stations).

 

[Arlington]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

1A should definitely be expanded to include Roslindale, Hyde Park and Fairmount, if not also all the West Rox stops.

Why? I think they've done right thing by calibrating the boundaries to places that need the "help" of lower fares, while charging "real" commuter rail prices beyond that.

 

[novitiate]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

The $70 monthly pass (subway + bus) also includes Commuter Rail Zone 1A (those $2 fare stations).

IIRC you do have to buy the specific "Zone 1A" pass (which covers subway and bus), because there is no Charlie on the commuter rail and a standard LinkPass can be gotten on a CharlieCard.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

Why? I think they've done right thing by calibrating the boundaries to places that need the "help" of lower fares, while charging "real" commuter rail prices beyond that.

It's also a revenue intake consideration. Needham doesn't have the headways and never can given that it's the perpetual odd man out re: NEC congestion. It's got crowded rush hour trainsets and needs more staff to run. They can't really handicap its farebox recovery any more than it already is. Sucks for the neighborhoods, but we all know that there is no way those places are getting transit equity with commuter rail. It has to be rapid transit.

Hyde Park is getting a raw deal with Fairmount and Readville staying at Zone 1. That's probably going to ruffle some feathers in the neighborhood when they start crying "No fair!" at the deal Dorchester is getting. But Fairmount's also less-than-perfect with its bus connections. Only the 24 out of Mattapan stops there. 32, 33, and 50 all hit Cleary Sq. and Hyde Park station instead. Particularly inexcusable on the 50 which terminates at Cleary and could easily have a Fairmount looping tacked on. I don't know if the 32 or 33 could have a Fairmount diversion worked into their routes without doing more harm than good...but this should be the goal for the neighborhood. Direct the rubber tire transfer traffic to a Zone 1A'd Fairmount station where the frequencies are being beefed up and the orientation is neighborhood quasi- rapid transit. Start shaping it away from Hyde Park station where the commuter rail frequencies on the Franklin and Stoughton aren't regular enough, and where more trains are likely to skip in the future if some permutation of SCR is built or if more of the Franklin schedule start using the Fairmount Line instead of the congested NEC. It would save a lot of pain on these bus routes to not have to slog it from Forest Hills to get acceptable transfer frequencies from downtown.


To make this work, though, MBCR's really got to start putting trainsets together with more care. No Fairmount consist should go longer than 4 single-level cars unless it's continuing to Franklin. No "grab the first thing available at Widett Circle" wastes where they have 5+ cars mixed with bi-levels and have to pay an extra conductor. They won't get optimal farebox recovery that way. Hell, I wish on the off-peak they'd be able to run 2-car consists and carry only 1 conductor, but for some reason the T deems everything < 4 cars a light engine move restricted to 30 MPH. FFS, Metro North and LIRR run 2-3 cars on their outermost branches and Amtrak does 2-car Springfield shuttles on the off-peak every day of the week. I don't get why the T has a technical limitation here that nobody else has which forces them to either close unused cars or carry wasted staff.

 

[bigeman312]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/Documents/Schedules_and_Maps/Upcoming_Schedules/Commuter_Rail/Fairmount.pdf

They are also adding 6 round trips daily! There will now be 22 inbound runs and 21 outbound (up from 16 and 15 respectively).

Now we will have hourly, clock-facing off-peak service, with longer periods (3-4 hours) of peak 40-50 minute frequency.

Fairmount Line will now have as many round trips as the Framingham/Worcester Line, more round trips than the Fitchburg Line, Franklin Line or Needham Line. It will also have among the most frequent midday service on the entire commuter rail network.

Specific Major changes include:

Inbound:

Previously, the midday (between 8:35 - 3:00) frequency was every 2-2.5 hours. Now, the morning rush frequency of every 40-45 minutes has been extended until 10:00 am, with clock facing hourly service from 10:00 through 3:00. So, they more than doubled the midday frequency. There is also an added reverse afternoon peak inbound run and added evening inbound run.

Hourly frequency or better is now seen from 5:48 a.m. until 10:20 p.m.

Outbound:

Previously, the midday (between 8:00 - 2:05) frequency was every 2+ hours. Now, the morning rush frequency of every 40-50 minutes has been extended until 9:20 am, with clock facing hourly service from 9:20 through 3:20. So, they more than doubled the midday frequency. There is also an added afternoon peak outbound run and an added evening outbound run.

Hourly frequency or better is now seen from 5:50 a.m. until 9:40 p.m.

 

[DominusNovus]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

To continue the 1a fare zone tangent, any particular reason why Braintree and Quincy aren't 1a zones? Is it just distance? After all, those stations are serviced by the red line.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

To continue the 1a fare zone tangent, any particular reason why Braintree and Quincy aren't 1a zones? Is it just distance? After all, those stations are serviced by the red line.

Red Line overlap, and fact that Braintree and JFK are only on a handful of Old Colony schedules. Nobody uses commuter rail to between points in the city from those stops. It's only suburban commuters who outright have to get on/off at those stops.

 

[The EGE]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I walked out to the new stations in the heat today. They look quite nice indeed. Click the images to get to the file page.

Newmarket:



Four Corners/Geneva Ave:

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

The T just dropped fares to $2 and added service. This is great. But they need to do one thing that most people wouldn't think of but would make a world of difference: update the MBTA system map to make the Fairmont Line look like a subway line. This has been brought up in the past and the thinking at the T was that it already was on the map!

This might seem like a small or useless step but they need to understand their customers. The Fairmont Line, as a commuter rail line, had the lowest ridership in the city. SO what does the T do? They go about turning it into a de facto subway line. Except the one place most people look for the subway, on a subway map, the T doesn't do anything. How are people supposed to use the line if they can't find it on the map? Subway commuters aren't looking for a commuter rail line, they are looking for a subway line so by just changing how the Fairmont Line is portrayed on the map you will automatically tell the very commuters you want to communicate to that the new line is open.

 

[Hutchison]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I completely agree, but can you actually transfer at south station with a charlie card?

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

The T just dropped fares to $2 and added service. This is great. But they need to do one thing that most people wouldn't think of but would make a world of difference: update the MBTA system map to make the Fairmont Line look like a subway line. This has been brought up in the past and the thinking at the T was that it already was on the map!

This might seem like a small or useless step but they need to understand their customers. The Fairmont Line, as a commuter rail line, had the lowest ridership in the city. SO what does the T do? They go about turning it into a de facto subway line. Except the one place most people look for the subway, on a subway map, the T doesn't do anything. How are people supposed to use the line if they can't find it on the map? Subway commuters aren't looking for a commuter rail line, they are looking for a subway line so by just changing how the Fairmont Line is portrayed on the map you will automatically tell the very commuters you want to communicate to that the new line is open.

Aren't they working on a spider map redesign to take effect in a couple years? That would be the time to do it. Although...jeez...that thing can't get much more crowded without becoming impossible to read. They're either going to have to considerably reimagine the layout (i.e. like some of the cleaner DIY concept maps circulating on the web have done) or make some hard choices about including key bus routes. As-is the combined CR + rapid-transit spider map that they use for the fold-out system map sends the Fairmount straight through the Silver Line's station names.

 

[Shepard]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I'm torn about the subway map idea. On the one hand I agree it's the best form of advertising and would certainly create a major impetus for the line's improvement. On the other hand, it's pretty much false advertising. If the silver-line-as-subway-line upsets you then I'd be similarly upset by a diesel monster with long headways represented as a subway line as well. In other words: the map should reflect real rapid transit service; it shouldn't be a fantasy map.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I'm torn about the subway map idea. On the one hand I agree it's the best form of advertising and would certainly create a major impetus for the line's improvement. On the other hand, it's pretty much false advertising. If the silver-line-as-subway-line upsets you then I'd be similarly upset by a diesel monster with long headways represented as a subway line as well. In other words: the map should reflect real rapid transit service; it shouldn't be a fantasy map.

If the Silver Line is on there then the Fairmont "Indigo" Line should as well.

And yes they are looking at a redesign but they aren't paying and I know whichever final map they choose is going to suck. They just need to get rid of all the extra bus lines. No one needs that.

 

[fattony]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I say put it on the map. Sure, it'll be a surprise to someone the first time they ride the Indigo Line, but they may just ride it again in the future...

 

[saulblum]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

I completely agree, but can you actually transfer at south station with a charlie card?

No, and you cannot even use your CharlieCard on the Fairmount Line because we know that Charlie and the commuter rail shall never mix.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

When they were still calling this the "Indigo Line" the branding was so it would go on the rapid transit map. However, they were also thinking there'd be viable DMU makes to buy for it, that the state would waste no time expanding South Station, and that the commuter rail would be Charlie Carded up by now. This is a good schedule, but it's a far cry from the quasi- rapid transit they thought they'd be able to run on it from the ops side. And it's still on the Zone fare system so you're not tapping the same card to get to your bus or Red Line before/after riding this thing...which may be the biggest psychological hurdle of all for intra-city commuters.

 

[choo]

Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade

Am I dreaming if I remember seeing handheld readers being used by the T at points on the green line to tab people in in the past? Why can't these just be given to the conductors on this line to run down and tap or quickly swipe charlie tickets, in lieu of a fare gate. Is it really that hard? I scanned my phone to board a plane yesterday!