Yeah but they aren't the ones who ride the CR.
Fall River/New Bedford Commuter Rail (South Coast Rail)
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Yeah but they aren't the ones who ride the CR.
TheRatmeister
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That's not what the data says. Yes, CR riders are on average richer than MBTA riders as a whole. But the biggest part of this difference comes from middle to upper middle income families earning $75,000-$93,000 per year. This makes sense, as this is the main demographic that would be commuting into Boston in the first place, people who have jobs in the biotech, university, healthcare, finance, or other sectors highly concentrated within Boston.
But of course, it should be noted that to some extent people are self-selecting here. People than can pay $250-300+ per month upfront for a pass are buying the passes, and the ones who can't aren't. Lowering transit fares could increase the accessibility of higher-paying jobs in Boston for less well off residents in further out suburbs and allow them to potentially even save money on car-related expenses.
For reference, these are the charts the T used last 2 times they did a Title VI analysis of the CR fare system. I can't find the full presentation anymore, but those high non-minority / non-low-income numbers are what catches the T every time on a Title VI equity analysis. (It did get quite a bit better on the 22 data, but that may reflect higher car ownership and usage during COVID)
Unless it's packaged as part of a much larger overall fare restructuring, or the T changes it's policy to look at opportunity equity/ population (which I'm not entirely sure is within its ability to do so,) it's hard to see how lowering fares on the CR wouldn't decrease fares less for protected populations.
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JeffDowntown
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But isn't the whole point of Regional Rail to change the ridership mix on the Commuter Rail routes?
If you don't implement a fare structure that attracts the different mix of riders, Regional Rail will fail. Regional Rail is not about the current riders, it is about the non-users today.
I don't disagree, but that's a fundamental issue with the Title VI policy as currently formulated. The system allows you to include potential riders, but it fundamentally looks at what is, not what could be. The FTA allows you to do a title VI analysis by either population geography (minority census blocks) or ridership. The T has, since inception, used ridership, which I do actually think is the right choice. My understanding is that when it came into force, it functionally froze things in amber, as the DB/DI analysis only looks back at the ridership impacted before the change.
It doesn't really let you do things like "smooth the zone 1 to 1A cliff" without creating that DB/DI finding, because today that would disproportionately benefit non-protected populations like folks commuting from Winchester and Belmont, not the EJ community up in Lynn. To overcome that you'd have to do things in stages (to stay below the threshold), or as a major package, because ridership is fungible. For example, by providing additional Regional Rail service to EJ communities would count as a major service change. The catch is, a lot of the EJ CR ridership is already in 1A, (Fairmont) so you'd have to get creative with the fare /service package. That, or accept the DB/DI finding but include enough mitigation or justification in it to make it worthwhile.
TheRatmeister
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And this is the big caveat. A reformed fare structure wouldn't just mean taking $1 off every fare zone, for example. It would mean changing fare zones for the lower income cities served by the network like Lynn, Fitchburg, Brockton, Worcester, Leominster, etc to provide lower fares. It would mean allowing less frequent riders to connect to an MBTA bus without being charged extra. It would mean expanding the half-fare program to the Commuter Rail (Which as far as I can tell has basically no low-income fare program currently).
And there is no shortage of mitigation options. Increasing funding to local transport agencies to provide better feeder services, building new stations and prioritizing upgrades to existing stations to better serve low income cities and neighborhoods, and of course there's always the 'brute force' approach of just funding rapid transit expansions. (Or 'Rapid transit' in the case of the Fairmount Line)
The EGE
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On another forum, someone complained that East Taunton station doesn't have any pedestrian access from the southwest side of the tracks, and likened it to Anderson/Woburn. While I do agree that the lack of access is unfortunate for the few people who live off Plain Street, it's amazing just how different it is from Woburn. East Taunton is entirely a park-and-ride station - it's just 2.5 miles from downtown Taunton, yet there is no safe way to walk or bike to the station. (Route 140 doesn't even have sidewalks.) The one bus route that will be extended to the station will take 25 minutes to reach the station from downtown.
themissinglink
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Taunton is really getting screwed over with the Middleborough routing, especially since the East Taunton stop had to get relocated south of Cotley junction instead of the previously planned location north of the junction. Phase 2 is essential for Taunton because of the planned stop close to downtown, but I'm not getting my hopes up since there's been no word on Phase 2 since like 2017.
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F-Line to Dudley
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The north-of-Cotley station siting at Mozzone Blvd. at least would've had the adjacent big-box shopping center for some TOD potential. But that assumes that the locals are capable of executing on TOD. The 2009 Corridor Plan tried to do ambitious mixed-use infilling with housing, new sidewalk buildouts, and greenspace...but all of that disappeared from the plans by the 2013 FEIR. While there were/are still empty lots around the shopping center ripe for infilling, the environs are car-centric to the max with seas of parking, poor sidewalk coverage, the same disconnection from Plains St. residential, and the same inferior bus connection. Either site makes the Kingston sand pit look borderline progressive on TOD. So I doubt the ridership needle moved much with the flip to the sparser surroundings south of the junction. It would be 90% park-and-rides at either site, and that's all the locals seem to be shooting for nowadays.
The 2013 FEIS for Phase II projected 400 daily boardings for East Taunton and 670 daily boardings for the downtown stop at Dean St. At Phase I frequencies the East Taunton boardings are likely to suffer a little.
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Commonwealth has blown several opportunities to push back against Army Corps. Phase II without a viaduct becomes reasonable.
F-Line to Dudley
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Per Keolis employees on RR.net, the signals on SCR are still not operational. There's a freight bulletin out for CSX and Mass Coastal to outright ignore the signal readouts and continue operating as if it were dark territory given that field techs apparently have a lot of debugging left to do with the system. No T test trains are operating for the foreseeable future; they haven't even started signal tests, let alone crew qualifications.
If they haven't even started live testing reps as of June it's almost impossible that they're going to make service starts by Fall 2024. This is increasingly looking like Winter 2025 or later.
Yup. Slip sliding away. But I'm sure the project management team is being held accountable.
I wonder how much the cost overruns have been with these delays...
HBH
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Test trains will start on June 17th according to an update posted today by the MBTA.
They are hosting two public meetings tomorrow where I'm assuming they will be announcing the start of test trains to the public for ROW safety.
They are hosting two public meetings tomorrow where I'm assuming they will be announcing the start of test trains to the public for ROW safety.
"MBTA general manager to break agency’s silence on South Coast Rail Thursday
"Phil Eng will speak at Bristol Community College in Fall River and later at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, two months after the MBTA delayed the project without announcing a new timeline."The general manager of the MBTA is taking the unusual step of visiting New Bedford and Fall River on Thursday to make an announcement about South Coast Rail..."
Full New Bedford Light article here.
And from a project email received yesterday:
Please Join General Manager Phil Eng at
South Coast Rail Public Meetings
Thursday, June 13, 2024
FALL RIVER - 5:30 PM
Bristol Community College
NEW BEDFORD - 7:30 PM
Whaling Museum
South Coast Rail Public Meetings
Thursday, June 13, 2024
FALL RIVER - 5:30 PM
Bristol Community College
NEW BEDFORD - 7:30 PM
Whaling Museum
You are invited to join MBTA General Manager Phil Eng and the South Coast Rail (SCR) team at a public meeting on the project. Please join us on Thursday, June 13, in Fall River or New Bedford. The same update will be presented at both meetings.
The Fall River meeting will be held at 5:30 PM at the Bristol Community College campus, building G, located at 777 Elsbree St, Fall River, MA 02720. Parking is available in Lot 12.
The New Bedford meeting will be held at 7:30 PM at the Whaling Museum, located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740. Free parking is available at the Elm Street Parking Garage at 51 Elm Street.
Visit the Fall River event page or the New Bedford event page.
"New South Coast Rail timeline: May 2025
"The MBTA’s general manager and project manager provided the first update in months: Tracks are certified, testing to begin Monday and the agency is confident it can meet its new deadline."Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated following the public meeting in New Bedford.
"South Coast Rail will start in May 2025, the MBTA announced on Thursday in the first update since the project was delayed for the second time two months ago..."
Full New Bedford Light article here.
From The New Bedford Light Facebook page:
"Join The New Bedford Light for a Community Conversation about what's next for transit on the South Coast at 6 p.m. on June 18 in the third floor meeting room at the downtown branch of the New Bedford Public Library. Admission is free, but please register here: https://forms.gle/EKkGfyvRWNxaLhj97
"Participants include: The New Bedford Light transportation reporter Grace Ferguson, State Rep. Bill Straus, officials from the SRTA, the City of New Bedford, South Coast Rail, and the Realty Association of Southeastern MA."
"Join The New Bedford Light for a Community Conversation about what's next for transit on the South Coast at 6 p.m. on June 18 in the third floor meeting room at the downtown branch of the New Bedford Public Library. Admission is free, but please register here: https://forms.gle/EKkGfyvRWNxaLhj97
"Participants include: The New Bedford Light transportation reporter Grace Ferguson, State Rep. Bill Straus, officials from the SRTA, the City of New Bedford, South Coast Rail, and the Realty Association of Southeastern MA."
themissinglink
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'MBTA owes this region an apology': South Coast Rail start is delayed another year
The MBTA said South Coast Rail is now going to open next year, unveiling a new timetable and the ticket price — but no daily schedule yet.
www.heraldnews.com
I'm surprised (but glad) that South Coast Rail will be Zone 8. I expected Zone 9 for East Taunton and Zone 10 for Freetown, Fall River, and both New Bedford stations.
I am also glad that it will be Zone 8. The only Zones 9/10 stations are the ones south of Providence, which seem like special cases to me, given Providence's size. (If the Worcester Line were extended to Palmer or Webster, I'd expect its additional stations to also be in Zones 9 and 10.)
TF Green Airport's Zone 9 station is about 47 miles from Boston, compared to Fall River's 45 and New Bedford's 47. Wickford Junction's Zone 10 station is 58 miles from South Station; there's no way you could justify FR/NB paying that fare.
Wachusett is 43 miles and in Zone 8, which creates precedent for Fall River being in Zone 8, in my opinion. New Bedford is harder to justify based on distance alone, but the way this whole thing has gone down... yeah it seems reasonable enough to cut them a break. FR/NB are anchor cities, akin to Providence, Worcester, Lowell, Haverhill -- they aren't +1 suburbs like Warwick; every other anchor city is in Zone 8 or lower.
So, it seems reasonable enough to me.
The weekday schedule is something I raised two years ago. The earlier iterations of the SCR proposal simply extended the then-existing Middleboro/Lakeville runs, alternating between Fall River and New Bedford. That would have meant headways of 70-100 minutes:
Simply extending today's trains would/will result in even 120-minute headways (clockfacing in the AM, a little skewed in the PM):
(Also worth noting that both schedules will provide exactly 1 peak direction train from each city arriving/departing Boston during 7:45am-9am and 4:45pm-6pm.)
As I've explained previously, this sucks:
If I were Phil Eng (who apparently earlier "changed" the team managing the SCR project -- I doubt he fired anyone, but sounds like a shakeup), I would have sat the team down, showed them the above numbers and told them this wasn't acceptable, and note that the DSEIR's "just extend the existing schedule" logic was obviously done as a reasonable effort to simplify planning -- refactoring the entire Old Colony system's schedule would have been well out of scope of the DSEIR. "But," he/I would say, "it's not out of scope for us." And directed the team to investigate refactoring the entire Old Colony schedule to create something more reasonable for South Coast Rail. Based on other changes he's made (e.g. single track service at South Attleboro), I am guessing he would have told them to get creative and try to squeeze as much juice out of this goddamn lemon as possible.
The need for creativity is my guess for why they aren't announcing a weekday schedule yet. Getting maximally creative will depend on the eccentricities of the moment, including knowing exactly how many locomotives are being used across the system, exactly how many coaches are available, and potentially even how many conductors and engineers are available. Given, you know [gestures broadly at everything at the T], planning at that level of detail for a full year from now seems dicey enough that I wouldn't want to announce anything yet.
(I do wonder if the current flirtations with transfers at Readville are an experiment for testing OCR cross-platform transfers at Braintree or something similar. And it would not shock me if Eng is investigating supplementing FR/NB through-runs with shuttles doing transfers at East Taunton, which would suck but maybe suck less than do-nothing.)
That all being said, the evasiveness about weekend service is concerning. That seems like it should be more managable to swing.