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

Some numbers and facts:
  • 16 weekday RT between East Taunton and Boston, up from the current 14 between M/L and Boston
    • A handful of weekday trains don't have connecting shuttles: one early-morning train from each terminal, an AM peak Fall River inbound, and a PM outbound to each terminal.
    • Fall River gets 5 direct and 10 transfer inbound, and 10 direct / 6 transfer outbound. New Bedford gets 11 direct / 3 transfer inbound and 6 direct / 9 transfer outbound
  • 13 weekend RT, up from the current 10
    • Strangely, there are almost no shuttles, vastly reducing frequency to the terminals.
    • New Bedford gets 7 inbound / 8 outbound; Fall River gets 6 inbound and 5 outbound plus an outbound shuttle
  • Weekend and weekday direct schedules are very similar, except for the earliest/latest trains and some peak service
  • Scheduled transfer times are between 4 and 10 minutes, mostly between 5 and 8. (There is one 23-minute transfer for a 7:07 pm weekday inbound from New Bedford.)
  • Reverse commuting to Fall River and New Bedford is not easy. The first outbound arrives at each at 8:34, and there are no inbounds between 5 and 6 pm.
  • Direct inbound trips are 89-101 minutes from Fall River (92 typical), and 94-107 from New Bedford (95 typical). Outbound direct trips are 93-109 minutes to Fall River (98 typical) and 93-101 to New Bedford (95 typical). That corresponds to average speeds (including stops) in the 34-38 mph range. Trips that include a transfer are typically in the 32-35 mph range.
 
Last edited:
  • The majority of meets south of Braintree are at Brockton, East Taunton, and Myricks. There are a handful of meets at Braintree, at the siding just west of Middleborough, and at the siding between Montello and Bridgewater. On the branches, there are a few meets at the siding north of New Bedford and south of Freetown.
  • There are going to be some very tricky meets at East Taunton. For much of the day, you have a northbound shuttle arrive, a southbound through arrive/depart, a northbound through arrive/depart, and a southbound shuttle depart in a 15-minute timespan. That also means that transfer passengers in both directions will be on the platform at the same time - I hope there aren't too many that get on the wrong train.
1741074295118.png

  • It looks like base service requires 5 sets, plus 2 sets that only make a single peak-direction round trip. Three sets based in New Bedford, four in Fall River. Relatively few deadheads needed - just 2 early-morning deadheads from East Taunton to the terminals, and 2 late-night from the terminals to East Taunton. (This is of course all speculation based on the schedule.) Current Middleborough/Lakeville service appears to require 3 sets.
    • Per the NETransit roster, existing service requires 62 of 89 active locomotives and 348 of 449 active coaches (including 95 active cab cars). An additional 4 locomotives and ~24 coaches would leave a 25% spare ratio for locomotives and 17% for coaches. FWIW, in November 2019 peak service required 65/91 locomotives (29% spare) and 367/417 coaches (14% spare).
1741074260415.png

Also attached is a ZIP file with the Excel document I used for these graphs. I'll get to plotting weekend service later this week.
 

Attachments

  • SCR initial schedule.zip
    41.3 KB · Views: 8
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top