Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos
There were a lot of construction disruptions on the Fairmount last year as they did bridge replacements. The ridership crash is fully understandable.
While they're a little behind schedule, they
are finishing everything. The neighborhood snafus on some of the stations got them off to a late start. But drive by some of the new ones...they are taking shape impressively fast. This isn't nearly as galling a blown deadline as the Haverhill improvements, where new rail, piles of ties, and construction equipment have been rotting for months with no activity.
Yes, they have been negligent on schedule details. And have undercut all the planned step-ups so far. It is going to be artificially capped until they can expand South Station. There simply isn't enough room for a train every 25 minutes. But they have got space for an increase in service...Fairmount and Old Colony use the far platforms, not the NEC/Worcester/Amtrak ones that are really really stuffed.
They're also not done-done and have some minor unfunded items to chase. Mainly, the low platforms at Fairmount and Readville. Those were not covered in the project because they're already ADA-accessible mini-highs, but until those are raised to full-high they can't use the automatic door coaches on the line. That incurs a large dwell time penalty when the conductors have to work all the doors and flip the high/low platform trap doors manually, making it impossible to achieve desired headways. It's not major expense (especially at Fairmount, which is already regulation 800 ft. length), but they have to chase it. At Readville they've also got to plan the platform relocation to a
double-track island north of the switch. It's the only way they'll be able to stop or lay over 2 trains at once at the station for headway maintenance, the only way they'll be able to intermingle a substantial increase in Franklin thru-routes on the line (or future Foxboro service), and the only way they'll be able to access the NEC for future extension to 128 station. They're limited if they keep going to the current 300 ft. single-track mini-high platform.
And I do think they're never going to achieve the ridership desired unless they get the commuter rail Charlie'd like was promised years ago then abandoned. For a rapid-er transit line passengers need
fast access to farecards and automated proof-of-payment so the conductors don't have to collect tickets. Charlie machines on the platform...tap surfaces at the doors. That may make more of a difference than if the line gets put on subway fares or if it retains a commuter rail fare structure.
I also think they're not firing on all cylinders without a Westwood/128 terminus. Which will be possible without fouling Amtrak or Providence whenever Amtrak restores the 3rd track from Readville to 128 and turns the current outbound platform into an island. Readville itself doesn't exactly set the world on fire with bus connections, and there's massive park-and-ride revenue to tap at 128 with the more frequent service. They've at least got to study a phase-in plan for this and get their Readville platform construction house in order. Note: if/when congestion at 128 makes it hard to short-turn on 3 tracks, there's room on the easterly side to add a turnout with 2 more side platforms. So that's where the stub turnback can be in 12-15 years when it needs to get booted off the thru tracks.
As for the DMU's...that's not gonna happen. There just aren't viable enough models for purchase. The future looked rosier 5 years ago before Colorado Railcar ended up in bankruptcy, but the market is still murky at best and no manufacturer has yet approached the scale to mass-produce FRA-compliant DMU's at a price point that makes them worth it. The T can be a little more nimble than today on start/stop performance if they run the new locomotives (which are...yay!...on-schedule as of last update). Then of course this makes the most sense to be the first additional line they electrify after they go electric with the Providence Line. EMU's of course the perfect ideal, but they probably are going electric push-pull. It still beats the pants off diesel push-pull and gets halfway to DMU performance.
