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

But with flights out of BOS on Cape Air and B6, why tack on the 90 minute commuter rail trip?

Side note, I work at EWB and we had weekend regulars that lived in Rowes Wharf (with a direct water taxi to BOS) and they had their driver bring them to EWB every Friday to fly to MVY.
 
Side note, I work at EWB and we had weekend regulars that lived in Rowes Wharf (with a direct water taxi to BOS) and they had their driver bring them to EWB every Friday to fly to MVY.

I don't doubt it, but do you think they'd ditch the driver for the Commuter Rail?

Awesome you work at EWB, by the way. I'm still hopeful that they end up with meaningful scheduled service beyond the Islands.
 
I don't doubt it, but do you think they'd ditch the driver for the Commuter Rail?

Awesome you work at EWB, by the way. I'm still hopeful that they end up with meaningful scheduled service beyond the Islands.

No, I don’t think they would, they were an older couple.
I hope for the same! It was a tease when Elite operated for that month span. I can’t believe how well they did despite announcing the service only weeks ahead.
 

Another update.
 
I've got a question regarding the proposed single-track sections in Phase II/Full Build SCR.

Hypothetically speaking, if the sections of single-track mainline proposed to be built in Easton, Raynham, and Taunton were to be double tracked, would the currently proposed layout for Easton Village preclude the addition of a second track and platform? I'm unsure of whether it would be possible to add a second track and platform if the single track was to be sandwiched between the historic depot building and the side platform.

Proposed Easton Village Layout:
easton village.PNG


Proposed SCR Phase II track map:
south coast rail track map.PNG
 
Another welded rail train for SoCo Rail enroute. Now in Selkirk. Think its mostly destined to be dropped on the New Bedford mainline.
 
East Taunton Station Site (8/27/21)
East Taunton Station.JPG


Freetown Station Site (8/27/21)
Freetown Station.JPG


I also recorded a short video of the Freetown station site and a section of the Fall River Secondary if anyone wants to get a closer look here.
 
Last edited:
I wish I knew how to copy You Tube videos to this page but I'm sure someone else knows how to. If you search William Sternitzke's You Tube page you will find a fascinating video of the South Coast route. It starts at Stoughton Station, proceeds to No Easton Station and then shows a back of the train video through the Hockomock Swamp. I think it answers the question that a right of way exists for two tracks through the Swamp. The next shot is Whttenon Jct in Taunton.
 
I wish I knew how to copy You Tube videos to this page but I'm sure someone else knows how to. If you search William Sternitzke's You Tube page you will find a fascinating video of the South Coast route. It starts at Stoughton Station, proceeds to No Easton Station and then shows a back of the train video through the Hockomock Swamp. I think it answers the question that a right of way exists for two tracks through the Swamp. The next shot is Whttenon Jct in Taunton.

I assume it's the first 25 seconds or so of this Youtube video.
 
Does anyone know where I could find station-by-station ridership projections? The MassDOT documents library is... not super easy to use.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it, slide 13 in this presentation (Capital Programming Committee, South Coast Rail Phase 1 Service Project Briefing, February 6, 2018).

View attachment 18289
These numbers aren’t new, but provide an opportunity to once again say, I just can’t fucking believe we are spending such a vast amount of money for such a tiny number of new riders. Billions of dollars could’ve been spent on much, much, much more utilitarian projects that would’ve benefited many more people than this.
 
These numbers aren’t new, but provide an opportunity to once again say, I just can’t fucking believe we are spending such a vast amount of money for such a tiny number of new riders. Billions of dollars could’ve been spent on much, much, much more utilitarian projects that would’ve benefited many more people than this.
I keep wondering what would have benefited New Bedford and Fall River more -- this really lame rail connection to Boston vs. a south east coastal light rail system for better local transit. I tend to think the most transit dependent folks there aren't likely to ride commuter rail to Boston very often, but might well benefit from a better RTA option for getting to their actual job.
 
I keep wondering what would have benefited New Bedford and Fall River more -- this really lame rail connection to Boston vs. a south east coastal light rail system for better local transit. I tend to think the most transit dependent folks there aren't likely to ride commuter rail to Boston very often, but might well benefit from a better RTA option for getting to their actual job.
While I don't necessarily think that LRT is the best choice for these two cities, given that I don't think there's an SRTA route with the ridership to justify it to a funding committee, it would have cost less than SCR. I will say that the SRTA can stand some bus service and route improvements; running on Sundays, for one.

And why are Seekonk, Swansea part of Gatra anyways? Especially now that RIPTA is running a weekday peak only Newport - Fall River - Providence, I think the SRTA can extend it's intercity Express to Providence, and maybe a parallel local on 6 to the state line, especially since that would neatly pass by the new CR station site. Or, work some sort of funding formula via Pilgrim Agreement where payment for RIPTA service into MA, since they have the waivers in place to cross state lines, offsets against RI funding for MBTA CR.
 
Last edited:
I keep wondering what would have benefited New Bedford and Fall River more -- this really lame rail connection to Boston vs. a south east coastal light rail system for better local transit. I tend to think the most transit dependent folks there aren't likely to ride commuter rail to Boston very often, but might well benefit from a better RTA option for getting to their actual job.
I can’t remember exactly but somewhere in the threads there’s discussion with usual weigh ins from the transit geeks about light rail — my fantasy was to run a light rail exactly as you envisioned, but among other comments it was shredded in minute detail by F Line. And the critiques were valid, as they usually are.

Thinking about it now, probably the most effective use of money to benefit the south coast cities would be BRT, but real BRT that didn’t add bus lanes to those empty stretches of overly wide 1960s highways only to let the buses get stuck in the same old choke points, but truly build out a BRT network that worked. And since NB and FR aren’t that dense, you could probably execute this pretty handily. Getting to providence might be a later phase since that would be trickier but It doesn’t take a genius to know that most people don’t wanna travel 80 miles to work and providence is way closer than Boston.

From a broader view of what really is equitable on a regional level, I also think it’s both arrogant, unfair, and unrealistic to assume that every low income employee is breaking down the door to get into the Boston markets. Why does Boston have to be the hub for every line? How about we actually build a network of cities and employment hubs that looks at the actual geography of the population and transit needs, and accelerates those patterns with transit? We could accomplish the south coast network and it would build jobs and resiliency and save people a 2 hour expensive train ride, too.
 
From a broader view of what really is equitable on a regional level, I also think it’s both arrogant, unfair, and unrealistic to assume that every low income employee is breaking down the door to get into the Boston markets. Why does Boston have to be the hub for every line? How about we actually build a network of cities and employment hubs that looks at the actual geography of the population and transit needs, and accelerates those patterns with transit? We could accomplish the south coast network and it would build jobs and resiliency and save people a 2 hour expensive train ride, too.

That's an excellent point. I find myself wondering if this'd be a much easier solve if transit to Providence wasn't so much of a jurisdictional minefield compared to transit to Boston. Though I suppose the state doesn't have nearly so many incentives to help people get to jobs in other states as they do to make all roads lead to Boston, unfortunately.
 
There was a hybrid proposal of buses(I believe with at least SOME lane separation) and and a somewhat extended Stoughton line
 
and a somewhat extended Stoughton line

They really should have just extended the Stoughton line to Taunton as Phase 1 from the start and waited to see if ridership was high enough to justify a later Phase 2 to Fall River/New Bedford, but instead we're left with the ass-backwards Middleborough routing which will only introduce more problems due to the single track Old Colony mainline.

Oh well.
 

Back
Top