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

[Koopzilla24]

Sounds to me like Middleboro - South Station will then be seeing 35min headways on weekdays and 60min headways on weekends

 

[Delvin4519]

Sounds to me like Middleboro - South Station will then be seeing 35min headways on weekdays and 60min headways on weekends

The trunk through Brockton seem to be getting Fairmount Line frequencies, which is quite surprising. I was only expecting the split branches to only get 13 weekday trips and 8 weekend trips (26 weekday and 16 weekend trips in the trunk) at most, which is what our worst commuter rail lines see today (only Stoughton and Foxboro are worse).

Fairmount Line has 34 trips on weekdays and 26 trips on weekends, with an average headway of 37 minutes weekdays and 49 minutes on weekends.

 

[TheRatmeister]

MBTA provides new details on Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton South Coast Rail Service

The following details were released by the MBTA regarding SouthCoast Rail service in Fall River and New Bedford: “Initially, 26 trips were expected to be part of revenue service daily for the Fall River and New Bedford lines. The team has since increased total weekday trips between South Station...

fallriverreporter.com

Where are these additional trains coming from? Are they squeezing even more out of the Quincy track, or are Greenbush/Kingston just getting absolutely shafted?

 

[TheRatmeister]

Where are these additional trains coming from? Are they squeezing even more out of the Quincy track, or are Greenbush/Kingston just getting absolutely shafted?

Or a third in-between option, are the late night trains that terminate at Braintree and a new focus on raising line speeds on the Red Line a sign of things to come?

 

[Delvin4519]

Where are these additional trains coming from? Are they squeezing even more out of the Quincy track, or are Greenbush/Kingston just getting absolutely shafted?

In 2019, 3 Greenbush trains, 4 Kingston trains, and 3 Middleborough trains all arrived at South Station between 7:15am and 9:35am. Only 4 trains departed South Station in the outbound direction in the same timeframe.

That's 14 trains on the OC mainline between 7:15 am and 9:35 am during the 2019 AM peak.

As of Summer 2024, there are only 4 inbound or outbound Greenbush trains, 4 in or out Kingston trains, and 4 Middleborough trains heading inbound or outbound from South Station between 7:15 am and 9:35 am.

That's a total of 12 trains in both directions on the OC mainline in 140 minutes, 2 fewer trains than in 2019.

 

[Teban54]

MBTA provides new details on Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton South Coast Rail Service

The following details were released by the MBTA regarding SouthCoast Rail service in Fall River and New Bedford: “Initially, 26 trips were expected to be part of revenue service daily for the Fall River and New Bedford lines. The team has since increased total weekday trips between South Station...

fallriverreporter.com

To clarify: Are the East Taunton short-turns operating all day or just during late night hours? The fact that both ideas (late night and East Taunton) are mashed together in the second paragraph doesn't help with the clarity.

 

[Koopzilla24]

To clarify: Are the East Taunton short-turns operating all day or just during late night hours? The fact that both ideas (late night and East Taunton) are mashed together in the second paragraph doesn't help with the clarity.

It reads to me like the East Taunton short turns are going to be midday in the off peak direction like how the Fitchburg short turns at Littleton every other hour. The "This allows for even more frequent service, which is consistent with the All Day Service model across the rest of the Commuter Rail network," line is what suggests that to me. Maybe that's how the increase from 26->32 trips through Middleboro is achieved. If they're still 13/13 direct to the Termini but 2/4 additional shuttles from East Taunton

 

[TheRatmeister]

In 2019, 3 Greenbush trains, 4 Kingston trains, and 3 Middleborough trains all arrived at South Station between 7:15am and 9:35am. Only 4 trains departed South Station in the outbound direction in the same timeframe.

That's 14 trains on the OC mainline between 7:15 am and 9:35 am during the 2019 AM peak.

As of Summer 2024, there are only 4 inbound or outbound Greenbush trains, 4 in or out Kingston trains, and 4 Middleborough trains heading inbound or outbound from South Station between 7:15 am and 9:35 am.

That's a total of 12 trains in both directions on the OC mainline in 140 minutes, 2 fewer trains than in 2019.

But if Middleborough service doubles, which I think is a reasonable assumption since currently there are 14 daily round trips and the number given for SCR was 32 in total, then that would suggest at least 4 new trains on the OC mainline during the peak, 2 more than 2019. So I'll ask again, where are the extra trains coming from? Is the OC mainline going to be busier, or will Kingston not have any outbound trains until 9:30 and Greenbush no outbound trains between 6:25 and 9:12? (Or some other equally drastic cut)

 

[The EGE]

I believe the numbers they are giving are for both directions - so it's really just 14 round trips going to 16.

 

[TheRatmeister]

I believe the numbers they are giving are for both directions - so it's really just 14 round trips going to 16.

The press release states "The project team expects 70 minutes between trains on weekdays."

Assuming that relates to the terminals and not just East Taunton which would be really weird, 8 round trips on each branch is not enough to cover that. In fact it's about half of what's needed.

 

[The EGE]

Maybe I'm reading between the lines here, but I'm imagining that (most) every train would have a meet with a shuttle train at East Taunton - such that each terminal has ~8 direct round trips and ~8 more with transfers.

 

[KCasiglio]

What is the max ops for the Quincy/Dorchester pinch? I was distraught Wednesday seeing the CR train pull out of Quincy Center right as I got to the station...only to find out there was another inbound train coming less than 5 minutes behind it.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

What is the max ops for the Quincy/Dorchester pinch? I was distraught Wednesday seeing the CR train pull out of Quincy Center right as I got to the station...only to find out there was another inbound train coming less than 5 minutes behind it.

Depends on how peak-oriented you want the service to be. Multiple outbounds or multiple inbounds can ride each other's taillights at basically 5 minute frequencies, but once you start introducing opposite-direction meets it gaps out in a hurry. If the goal is to have something regular going in each direction you hit a very hard cap at about today's service levels. They do a very precarious dispatching mix of ride-the-taillights for multiple branches before switching to the opposite direction, and it doesn't allow for very full reverse-peaks.

 

[Java King]

My Greenbush 8:10am train this last Thursday was delayed almost 30 minutes into South Station because of outbound train traffic and delays. (…..according to the announcement.) I’m worried about additional traffic on the Quincy-Dorchester main line with additional Fall River and New Bedford service. One small delay turns into a domino impact on all the Old Colony lines!

 

[Riverside]

Alright, so here's a reasonable transit pitch to enhance SCR: allocate one additional trainset, and double frequencies to each branch by coordinating a timed transfer in East Taunton.

Holy shit, they actually decided to do this!

From https://www.mbta.com/news/2024-09-18/mbta-general-manager-shares-south-coast-rail-updates-taunton:

Train schedule

Initially, 26 trips were expected to be part of revenue service daily for the Fall River and New Bedford lines. The team has since increased total weekday trips between South Station and East Taunton to 32. This includes 15 trips on the Fall River line (increased from 13) and 17 trips on the New Bedford Line (increased from 13). There will be a total of 26 trips between South Station and East Taunton on the weekends. The project team expects 70 minutes between trains on weekdays and 120 minutes between trains on the weekends.

Late night service will be offered to South Coast Rail stations with the last train leaving Boston just before midnight.

In addition to direct service, there will also be shuttles operating between each terminus point and East Taunton Station. This allows for even more frequent service, which is consistent with the All Day Service model across the rest of the Commuter Rail network.

My full analysis here: https://archboston.com/community/th...mmuter-rail-south-coast-rail.1553/post-414879

 

[okin15]

Post-script: and if anyone is wondering why SCR Phase 1 makes one-seat Commuter Rail to Bourne basically impossible until Phase 2 is built, check out that schedule grid I put together above. No trains available to extend to Bourne, and each branch already contending with 1 hour peak headways.

Do you think they'll skip a NB trip on Friday evenings to do the Cape Flyer?

 

[Koopzilla24]

Holy shit, they actually decided to do this!

From https://www.mbta.com/news/2024-09-18/mbta-general-manager-shares-south-coast-rail-updates-taunton:


My full analysis here: https://archboston.com/community/th...mmuter-rail-south-coast-rail.1553/post-414879

With how far away Bourne is for how sparsely populated the communities are would there be the track capacity and feasibility to run service only as far as Braintree for a future improved Red Line or cross-platform at the center island transfer? On the Cape Flyer schedule that’d be 69min to Braintree + 25-30min on the Red Line or Commuter Rail which puts it in line with a local Worcester or Fitchburg. Not sure if this has already been discussed extensively

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

With how far away Bourne is for how sparsely populated the communities are would there be the track capacity and feasibility to run service only as far as Braintree for a future improved Red Line or cross-platform at the center island transfer? On the Cape Flyer schedule that’d be 69min to Braintree + 25-30min on the Red Line or Commuter Rail which puts it in line with a local Worcester or Fitchburg. Not sure if this has already been discussed extensively

The Buzzards Bay CR Feasibility Study concluded that a couple of Middleboro Branch passing sidings would need to be lengthened and that another couple would need to be added to extend an equivalent of today's Middleboro/Lakeville schedules to Buzzards Bay. If you're increasing service levels beyond that to include a new service branch, you'd need a lot more siding work on top of that.

Braintree is a very poor place to turn a train. The double-track platform is crucial for timing inbound-outbound meets on the adjoining single-track, so if the platform gets bogarted by a turning train that's down for 10-15 minutes for changing ends it could gap out schedules further. The OTP reliability is already threadbare because of how close the meets are, and likely to degrade a lot with SCR Phase I. Second, it's a pretty long and weather-unprotected walk from the Braintree CR platform to the Red headhouse (let alone the Red platforms). They aren't positioned well relative to each other for facilitating easy transfers, like JFK and Quincy Center are. So the transfer penalty is likely to dull the utilization quite a bit, especially in bad weather.

 

[Riverside]

Do you think they'll skip a NB trip on Friday evenings to do the Cape Flyer?

I really have no idea. Based on ridership predictions, I would guess that it would be a Fall River train that gets dropped, rather than a New Bedford one.

 

[thepixelnation]

I really have no idea. Based on ridership predictions, I would guess that it would be a Fall River train that gets dropped, rather than a New Bedford one.

I think there would be more of Friday/weekend rush for New Bedford than Fall River. Areas surrounding New Bedford have more of a "summering" population than Fall River, as well as the ferries to Martha's Vineyard/Nantucket/even cuttyhunk.