Re: Fall River/New Bedford Commuter Rail
The benefits of rail service are that you get cars off the road (good for the environment and traffic), you can sleep or get work done on the train, and you don't have to be driving/sitting in traffic. Between parking fees and the actual fare, its not much cheaper. If anything, it's more expensive. Wasn't there just an article about CR ridership declining because its cheaper to drive?
So NB/FRs poor, unwashed masses are not going to be riding the train. Even if they were, where are these jobs in Boston? Brockton and Lynn are both shitholes, and they have pretty great rail access, and are one hell of a lot closer to Boston to boot. They have real bus networks and walkable downtown stations as well.
Just for fun, lets say the train does come, there are a few thousand magical open positions in Boston for work, and their employers give them a T pass for free out of the goodness of their hearts. How are they getting to the stations? They are not going to be walkable, so you need a car or a vastly improved bus network to get there. I see no urban planning going on for TOD around the station sites, or a promise to create a real bus system. I see nothing other than a magical train that will somehow bring wealth and prosperity down there, even though there is no plan to make that happen.
Case-in-point, spending the 3 billion this is likely to cost after a million overruns and fiasco is NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING TO HELP THE SOUTH COAST. The residents will not be able to afford to ride or even get to the train. No one is going to commute from there when there are many other shitty cheap cities much closer to Boston they could settle in. The train line itself is being built with a single track trunk that will cripple the service from the get-go, eliminating the possibility to run frequent service without dumping even more millions into the line.
The really horrible part, though, is that its going to be the big-dig mentality all over again. When the train is built, and it doesn't rejuvenate the economy or make anyone's life easier, and they see what actually would need to be done to make it useful, they won't get any funding to do it because they just spent 3 billion for nothing. The pols will be focused on some other batshit crazy idea (rail from Palmer?), and the south coast will be stuck with a useless, expensive train and no money to make it work.
Spend a billion to get a really awesome two track mainline to Taunton. Dump 250mil into buying a gigantic fleet of buses for the South Coast. Create feeder lines that loop around the neighborhoods, and then use the shoulder of 24 to cruise to the Taunton terminal. Maybe even run a train from Taunton to Providence in addition to Boston. COMMIT another half billion to future improvements, but don't earmark anything specific.
Once that is running, ridership is primed, and commuting trends start to appear, start slowly clearing brush and upgrading track. I would say go to Fall River first with the trains, redirecting the NB buses there first. Then after a few years bring trains to NB. Or maybe the other way. Or maybe it would make more scene to restore the E-W line between FR and NB instead. The thing is, no one knows what would actually be best, because the south coast hasn't had transit in ages. Don't spend 2.3 billion on something that has unproven demand and will be a complete and utter flop. Do what you know will work, and make changes once trends start to appear. Just like the Downeaster and Cape Flyer.
