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

millerm277 said:
It's where the line goes + the closest they can easily get it to downtown. SCR isn't creating a new right of way.

That said, there are plans to road diet/redesign MA-18 in the area as well, that's just out of scope of this and years off. https://www.southcoasttoday.com/sto...it-traffic-lights-changes-planned/6280795001/
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Yeah, it's the existing right of way. Something a bit closer to downtown and better connected to the city around it would have been ideal, but that's not doable without being substantially more disruptive. The location really isn't that awful. It's still walkable to downtown, and the city/state have plans to continue to improve connectivity over the years.
 
king_vibe said:
1) Do this at the Northern Avenue Bridge
2) Why did they put a train station in the middle of a traffic island
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Hot takes....
First, yes and yes.
Second, we would need two of those bridges (295ft) to span Fort Point Channel (605ft)... which would look cool.

I'd like usage stats for the existing ped bridge first. As pretty as it is, I'd bet the new one will get the same amount of use as the one it's replacing. Rail or no rail, it's going from an established car centric neighborhood to a featureless parking lot over a loud-ass highway. This is a stupid waste of resources. If there has to be a quick state payoff, spend the cash on extending the rail to downtown!
If they want to connect the Career Center (the only other thing there) to the people it serves... well, move the Career Center to the people!
This whole project is full of half wishes and slush. If could have been so much better. Nobody is walking to that station.
Somebody already said to put the rail downtown. It just seems like a no-brainer. Connects to the ferries, the museum, local businesses, a walkable neighborhood, etc... Just do it!
 
BeyondRevenue said:
I'd like usage stats for the existing ped bridge first. As pretty as it is, I'd bet the new one will get the same amount of use as the one it's replacing. Rail or no rail, it's going from an established car centric neighborhood to a featureless parking lot over a loud-ass highway. This is a stupid waste of resources. If there has to be a quick state payoff, spend the cash on extending the rail to downtown!
If they want to connect the Career Center (the only other thing there) to the people it serves... well, move the Career Center to the people!
This whole project is full of half wishes and slush. If could have been so much better. Nobody is walking to that station.
Somebody already said to put the rail downtown. It just seems like a no-brainer. Connects to the ferries, the museum, local businesses, a walkable neighborhood, etc... Just do it!
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I'd like to see the usage stats too. But I would be surprised if the new one didn't perform better almost right off the bat. The existing bridge is a pretty forlorn experience. Even if it served a practical purpose (like connecting a walkable urban neighborhood to a transit station), I think people might be reluctant to use it. That "established car centric neighborhood" is already fairly dense and walkable. The new bridge will be a drastically improved experience, and even if only a handful of people in the neighborhood use the train, I doubt they're driving to the station (it's a bit circuitous to drive there) instead of walking. The new one is also a few blocks closer to downtown. If the city invests in improving the bike/pedestrian experience along Acushnet Avenue, it would also be a great connection to the ferries and waterfront businesses.

For all of the city's issues, that pocket of New Bedford (between downtown and Clasky Common Park) is actually fairly in-demand due to it's relatively sizeable and well-kept historic housing stock. It's reasonably affordable and within walking distance to downtown (and the station). I actually know two different couples who have purchased homes there in the past 3 years and walkability to the commuter rail station was on the list of reasons the neighborhood was appealing. And while inventory is limited everywhere, historic single family homes in that neighborhood don't turn up for sale too often. And when they do, they go fast. SCR isn't going to turn the city into the next boom town, but it's already had an impact on that particular neighborhood. I don't see that stopping any time soon.

I also would love to have had a station closer to downtown, but I'm just not sure how that gets done without drastically disrupting existing businesses along the waterfront and requiring major infrastructure reconfiguration. As it is, Whale's Tooth isn't that far (still walkable), so I don't know that that level of upheaval required to get it closer would be worth it. And no matter what opinions are on the station location, the nearby neighborhoods, etc., the defining factor of SCR's impact is going to be the ride time. The ~90 minute Phase 1 trip just isn't going to move the needle drastically.
 
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BeyondRevenue said:
Hot takes....
First, yes and yes.
Second, we would need two of those bridges (295ft) to span Fort Point Channel (605ft)... which would look cool.

I'd like usage stats for the existing ped bridge first. As pretty as it is, I'd bet the new one will get the same amount of use as the one it's replacing. Rail or no rail, it's going from an established car centric neighborhood to a featureless parking lot over a loud-ass highway. This is a stupid waste of resources. If there has to be a quick state payoff, spend the cash on extending the rail to downtown!
If they want to connect the Career Center (the only other thing there) to the people it serves... well, move the Career Center to the people!
This whole project is full of half wishes and slush. If could have been so much better. Nobody is walking to that station.
Somebody already said to put the rail downtown. It just seems like a no-brainer. Connects to the ferries, the museum, local businesses, a walkable neighborhood, etc... Just do it!
Click to expand...

My hope is that the pedestrian access to Downtown is at least better than it is in Lowell for the Gallagher Terminal. In Lowell, the station isn't far from Downtown, but it's a very awkward pedestrian route. You have to cross an arterial road, negotiate an overpass, cross a canal until Downtown is somewhat accessible. It's not an intuitive or pleasant experience at all. The overpass is currently being converted to at-grade intersections, which will be better for sure, but it still involves crossing a lot of intersections and I'm not sure it will qualify as a pedestrian friendly experience. In Lowell, the pedestrian access would have been much more straight-forward if the station had been built just 0.4 miles north beyond the canal and overpass. I'm not familiar enough with New Bedford to really comment on their station location, and I'm sure extending the rail line closer to Downtown would have been significantly more expensive/disruptive, but I just hope it's not a repeat of Lowell, where people will come away thinking 'This would have been much easier if it was just a little bit closer...'
 
Smuttynose said:
My hope is that the pedestrian access to Downtown is at least better than it is in Lowell for the Gallagher Terminal......but I just hope it's not a repeat of Lowell, where people will come away thinking 'This would have been much easier if it was just a little bit closer...'
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~3/4 mile (including the bridge) or so to really get to Downtown, but should be just a mellow walk over the bridge and the sidewalks. The Purchase/Hillman intersection could probably use pedestrian improvements but that's the only spot that looks questionable to my perspective. Some possibility for general streetscape improvements, but in terms of being unintuitive or feeling dangerous/unfriendly to walk, I don't think it's that. "Cross bridge, follow this street to the downtown area"
 
Smuttynose said:
But I just hope it's not a repeat of Lowell, where people will come away thinking 'This would have been much easier if it was just a little bit closer...'
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I think it would be easier if it was just a little closer, but I do think the walk in New Bedford is a good deal more straightforward than Lowell. The 90 minute ride is going to be the most off-putting aspect of the trip.
 
Lrfox said:
I think it would be easier if it was just a little closer, but I do think the walk in New Bedford is a good deal more straightforward than Lowell. The 90 minute ride is going to be the most off-putting aspect of the trip.
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It takes 90 minutes to drive from NB to Boston if you're lucky, and that's not even counting parking.
 
king_vibe said:
It takes 90 minutes to drive from NB to Boston if you're lucky, and that's not even counting parking.
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Oh yeah, definitely. I'd rather commute 90 minutes on the train than in a car or bus. But 90 minutes commuting each way is still 3 hours per day spent commuting. It's certainly more palatable than driving, but I don't think it's appealing enough to have an outsized impact on the the city in terms of attracting a ton of Boston commuters. The people it'll appeal to are the people who already do the commute (there are good number of them), and a handful of people who work hybrid schedules only requiring a few days per week in the office and/or people who can work on the train and count those 3 hours as part of their work day. It's a fairly small group. If the trip time were 50-60 minutes, the appeal would be a good deal broader.

FWIW, I lived in Dartmouth for several years and did the Dartmouth-Boston commute. No matter how I tried to make it better (taking the bus from New Bedford, driving to Quincy for the Red Line, driving to Middleborough/Lakeville and Commuter Rail, carpooling, van share, etc.), it was not worth it. Not even for the lower cost of living. SCR would have been an improvement and easily the preferred method, but it's still a loooong day.
 
Im not very familiar with New Bedford but it appears that if rt-18 was put on a road diet and de-highway-itized they could have pretty easily brought the commuter rail right in front of downtown. Rt-18 seems way overbuilt for being an access road from 95.

As far as the station where it is at least theres a lot of empty/industrial land around it that could be redeveloped.
 
stick n move said:
Im not very familiar with New Bedford but it appears that if rt-18 was put on a road diet and de-highway-itized they could have pretty easily brought the commuter rail right in front of downtown. Rt-18 seems way overbuilt for being an access road from 95.

As far as the station where it is at least theres a lot of empty/industrial land around it that could be redeveloped.
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Totally agree. I lived in New Bedford in the early 1970s when Route 18 was designed and built, unfortunately, as a freeway with sweeping ramps and interchanges. Transform it into a boulevard with at grade intersections and there would be ample room for CR tracks and a station.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Totally agree. I lived in New Bedford in the early 1970s when Route 18 was designed and built, unfortunately, as a freeway with sweeping ramps and interchanges. Transform it into a boulevard with at grade intersections and there would be ample room for CR tracks and a station.
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They already changed Rt 18 from highway to boulevard south of downtown. The next phase is from downtown north to I-195.
 
If they coordinated the downgrading of Route 18 with the commuter rail project, I guess they theoretically could have extended it another 1,500 feet or so to the edge of downtown without disrupting too much. That would have been nice. But I don't think the current location is a killer.
 
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A good chunk of people already make 90min commutes from Fitchburg, which is a small city, and Worcester (on the local train). I don’t think the commute time is much of a barrier especially with the job market accessibility for those without a car in FR/NB. Tens of thousands do that daily on the Redline from Braintree.

Bus service to and from downtown looks like it’s every 10-15min along Purchase and Achusnet.
 
Really hope Mbta improves old colony line…one delay and everything turns into a sht show…no wonder everyone just decides to take chances on 93. Worst highway/worst train line. Mbta is great if you don’t care about being on time.
 
Greenwood Industries

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“Boston isn't the only place Greenwood is working on major infrastructure. The South Coast Rail project will connect Boston and Fall River by commuter rail for the first time since 1958. Greenwood has been installing metal roofs at each of the new stations. This one at the Fall River station wont just make the commute to Boston easier, it will also benefit people visiting Fall River, as its just a short walk to Battleship cove.”

Link


Church street station
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Middleborough station
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East Taunton station
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https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:South_Coast_Rail_construction_in_2023
 
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Expected opening for SCR is pushed back to summer of next year. Which was seeming inevitable. They kept saying it would be late 2023, but there haven't been any big updates in a long while.

fallriverreporter.com

South Coast Rail now expected to be ready next summer

Chris Lisinski Passenger service on a commuter rail expansion to southern Massachusetts is not expected to begin until next summer, MBTA officials said Thursday, which would be about half a year later than prior forecasts. During a wide-ranging presentation about the status of the highly...
fallriverreporter.com

I've been wanting to visit New Bedford for a little while and was hoping to take the train. I guess I'll be driving.
 
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