Gillette Stadium Transportatio Improvements

MrDee12345 said:
Damn New Yorkers! Always trying to outdo us with their absurd prices! ;)
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Is FIFA demanding a cut, lol.

I'm not going to bother looking up why, but I don't see why you couldn't just get off at Walpole/Sharon/Mansfield and do some combination of walking and Uber to get to the stadium. It's not that far... maybe for Americans because they are sooo Fat but not Europeans.
 
jklo said:
I don't see why you couldn't just get off at Walpole/Sharon/Mansfield and do some combination of walking and Uber to get to the stadium.
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Interesting idea, and I decided I would take a look. Here are the walking distances in miles per Google, with straight-line distance in parenthesis:

  • Walpole: 4.4 (3.5)
  • Sharon: 6.5 (4.5)
  • Mansfield: 6.7 (4.8)

Walpole seems the most promising in terms of distance, but all three suffer from being very pedestrian unfriendly routes, with lots of walking on high speed streets or weedy shoulders. I can't speak for Europeans, but as an American who enjoys active transportation, these are not walks I would want to take. As for Ubering from the stations, maybe. But I suspect there will be huge uppricing for Uber activity around the stadium on match days. That charge plus the regular MBTA zone charge might work out to a similar cost as just buying the event specific ticket. I'm not even sure there will be any non-event trains at those stations at times that would work, given the schedule adjustments.

Fundamentally, World Cup attendance is going to be super expensive. People who are able and willing to pay that cost will probably also be willing and able to pay $75 to get to the stadium.
 
HenryAlan said:
Interesting idea, and I decided I would take a look. Here are the walking distances in miles per Google, with straight-line distance in parenthesis:

  • Walpole: 4.4 (3.5)
  • Sharon: 6.5 (4.5)
  • Mansfield: 6.7 (4.8)

Walpole seems the most promising in terms of distance, but all three suffer from being very pedestrian unfriendly routes, with lots of walking on high speed streets or weedy shoulders. I can't speak for Europeans, but as an American who enjoys active transportation, these are not walks I would want to take. As for Ubering from the stations, maybe. But I suspect there will be huge uppricing for Uber activity around the stadium on match days. That charge plus the regular MBTA zone charge might work out to a similar cost as just buying the event specific ticket. I'm not even sure there will be any non-event trains at those stations at times that would work, given the schedule adjustments.

Fundamentally, World Cup attendance is going to be super expensive. People who are able and willing to pay that cost will probably also be willing and able to pay $75 to get to the stadium.
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Speaking for myself, I’ve taken the commuter rail to Walpole and Uber’d to Gillette to get to a pats game early before. It was fairly easy but slightly annoying as you have to buy the round trip event train ticket (for the ride home after the game) and an additional outbound CR trip + uber fee. Walking from Walpole would’ve taken too long (I promise I’m not lazy!).

Maybe this is something Uber or Lyft drivers could pick up on and plan ahead of time for one of the stations you listed. I’m sure it would be complicated to advertise for but would be an interesting hack to take advantage of.
 
The more I look at it, I guess I didn't consider how much of an impact the fans' luggage and need for hotels would impact their travel plans. I was thinking that because Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are all hosts, a large number of fans would be taking Amtrak up and down the Northeast Corridor. For example, Norway's first game is in Foxborough, their second one is in New York, and their third is back in Foxborough. In this case, it would make more sense for the fans going to or from New York to take a bus and train via Providence. However, since they will have luggage and will need a hotel in the area anyway, then Boston isn't really a detour.

HenryAlan said:
Interesting idea, and I decided I would take a look. Here are the walking distances in miles per Google, with straight-line distance in parenthesis:

  • Walpole: 4.4 (3.5)
  • Sharon: 6.5 (4.5)
  • Mansfield: 6.7 (4.8)

Walpole seems the most promising in terms of distance, but all three suffer from being very pedestrian unfriendly routes, with lots of walking on high speed streets or weedy shoulders. I can't speak for Europeans, but as an American who enjoys active transportation, these are not walks I would want to take. As for Ubering from the stations, maybe. But I suspect there will be huge uppricing for Uber activity around the stadium on match days. That charge plus the regular MBTA zone charge might work out to a similar cost as just buying the event specific ticket. I'm not even sure there will be any non-event trains at those stations at times that would work, given the schedule adjustments.

Fundamentally, World Cup attendance is going to be super expensive. People who are able and willing to pay that cost will probably also be willing and able to pay $75 to get to the stadium.
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Day of game, Walpole isn't really an option as the Franklin Line is losing all service. To get to Walpole they have to get on the 34E or a train to Canton Junction, then a shuttle bus. However, a combination of the Franklin Line and Ubers would work to get them to and from their hotels in Walpole, Sharon, and Norwood, then they can take the fan busses from there.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
people rightly question the political priorities at work here
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The last MBTA update had a "this is historical" tone to the press release but the actual statistics seem a bit middling. The MBTA's announced numbers for the Scotland v Ayiti match - 6,200 tickets of 20,000 train seats - and of 65,000 spectators. This looks like transportation to this stadium in the southwest metro on game day is going to be (1) very bad and (2) make the expensive rail tickets look quite foolish. Seeing the Xfinity Center schedule already makes me concerned about the 2 Friday night matches - 19 and 26 June.
Arenacale said:
This is anecdotal, but when I'm attending races I choose hotels based on price and location to the venue, not what is the best tourist spot.
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I took a look at a few of the game day hotel rates in the area (Walpole, Mansfield, Foxboro) have overnight rates of $380 to $1,900. At two months out, I can only imagine that rates will go up up up. As of last year, the entire region apparently had only 62,500 hotel rooms. And the FIFA WC will take almost 4,000 of those rooms. I have a feeling there will be people coming from far-afield who will have no clue how to travel around the metro.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
As predicted, all of the WC regular service disruptions are causing the T to lose money on event service. :(
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And the service is going to be complete shit for anybody not going to Foxboro. The new schedules are out, and they aren't good. Just looking at my local train, Needham drops from 17 to 14 daily round trip trains for the duration of the event, and down to six daily round trips on game days. That is completely horrendous, and kind of grating when we consider that the resource diversion is largely to service something that isn't even of any particular value to local residents.
 
HenryAlan said:
And the service is going to be complete shit for anybody not going to Foxboro. The new schedules are out, and they aren't good. Just looking at my local train, Needham drops from 17 to 14 daily round trip trains for the duration of the event, and down to six daily round trips on game days. That is completely horrendous, and kind of grating when we consider that the resource diversion is largely to service something that isn't even of any particular value to local residents.
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It's like the worst of both worlds. Routine riders will be disrupted with much worse schedules and fans going to games are having to pay much worse prices. The only lasting transit legacy of this will be a new platform to serve the interests of almost Kraft exclusively. And somehow he only paid for the design of the station while FIFA paid nothing.

It's been 8 years since they knew the world cup was coming to the US, and 4 years since we knew it would be at Gillette, but the only transit improvement (which has been severely downgraded from the early ideas of Providence trains as well) started only last year. Maybe it's also a factor of the particular set up of the world cup and these inaccessible suburban stadiums. NJ/NY seem to be taking the same approach of destroying service across the network (although they have reduced train prices), while city center stadiums in Philly, Seattle, and Atlanta are increasing frequency on their lines, running them later, and in some cases reducing regular fares during the event.

It makes me want to reflect negatively on the Olympics bid but it's incredibly hard not to be jealous of LA and all the transit momentum they have in preparation for 2028. If the idea was for the World Cup to leave some sort of lasting legacy and impetus for improvements here, there is none. The city will have lots of alternative programming facilitated by the T, but Gillette's location seems to only ever benefit Kraft and no one else in this state (maybe the town of Foxboro every once in a while? idk). There should have been a lot more concessions from Kraft and FIFA in order to get the World Cup in Foxboro, they should've funded some lasting frequency improvements/extensions/infrastructure on the Foxboro line or something.
 

MBTA will complete a major Foxboro Station upgrade just in time for the World Cup​

The MBTA expects to complete a major facilities upgrade in Foxborough, described as essential to the success of its World Cup transportation plan, just in time for the tournament.
[...]
Full service will resume at the station next week, Phillip Eng, the MBTA general manager and Massachusetts transportation secretary, said Thursday at a meeting of the T’s Board of Directors. “We look forward to a ribbon-cutting shortly,” he said.
The MBTA clarified Friday that midday train service to the station would resume on June 1. Four inbound and four outbound trains that were replaced by shuttle buses during the construction will return to the schedule.
The new permanent, high-level platform at the station, as well as other temporary high-level platforms, allow the T to board or unload more trains at once.
With trains expected to arrive or depart every 15 minutes, the full operation could take over three-and-a-half hours. But without the upgrades, it could have taken as long as six hours, Rod Brooks, a senior adviser to Eng, told the board of directors on Thursday.
“We could not have done the level of service that we anticipate to need without the accelerating of Foxboro Station,” Eng said.
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www.wbur.org

Kraft paid more than $5 million toward new MBTA station in Foxborough

The Kraft Group has been secretive about its financial arrangements related to the World Cup, including whether it would help pay for the Foxborough train station overhaul.
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org
The Kraft Group's financial arrangements around the World Cup have been kept largely under wraps thus far. The company, which owns Gillette Stadium, had also not said publicly if it was helping fund the new MBTA train platform that will deliver fans to the matches — and also to Kraft events year-round.
But on Tuesday, as state officials were in Foxborough to announce the new station was completed on time, just two weeks ahead of the first World Cup game, Robert Kraft said his company was "proud" to " contribute over $5 million dollars" toward the T's $35 million project.
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Scott said:
Gee thanks Bob! How about you pay for the whole thing?
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I'm entering the 'yelling at the TV' era of my middle-age -- when they quoted Bobby saying this - I yelled, much to my spouse's chagrin 'just like you paid low for the handy!'
 
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