MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

jklo said:
11% less trains than Fall 2019 sounds pretty generous given how low the ridership is right now.
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Then call it what it is: cuts. Or transitioning towards a much longer-term slog of reduced service.


The problem here is that they're incredulously pitching this as a service enhancement...nay, even a transitional step towards Regional Rail...when it's anything but. Singing the language of woke best-practices while actively undercutting them. How are we going to look problem-solves in the eye when this level of disingenuity is now the rule? It's almost like by asploding everyone's BS detectors they're reaching for an end goal of "Problem solved! There are no functioning un-asploded BS detectors left in the populous! Tra-la-la la-la...bullshit ahoy!" We are deeply fucked on this recovery on a level that transcends far beyond mere transpo policy if this is the Baker Admin's prevailing attitude right now.
 
Universal vaccine availability is only a few months away, it'll be interesting to see how quickly T ridership rebounds.

And the an 11 percent reduction from fall 2019 levels is still an increase compared to current service levels.
 
And, for the second time this year, a commuter rail station closes because it's too deteriorated to be safe.

MBTA alerts page said:
Due to concerns about deteriorating structural conditions on the pedestrian overpass at South Attleboro Station on the Providence/Stoughton Line, the station will be closed effective at 10 PM this evening, Friday, February 26, 2021.

The remaining trains today will still stop at the station for passengers to disembark only. Passengers should consider Attleboro Station as an alternative. Thank you for your understanding.
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Pawtucket/Central Falls is still scheduled to open next year; it'll probably be open before South Attleboro can be rebuilt.
 
I've been wondering (and shaking my head in wonderment) at the state of the South Attleboro station -- in particular that overpass -- for years.

That entire station boggles my mind. The inbound platform is literally in people's backyards, and yet it's a ten minute walk from the front yard of such a house to the platform, much of it along a noisy 5-lane boulevard. The bus stop is on a piddly piece of sidewalk so marooned from the station that there's actually a desire path leading directly to it from the parking lot. And because the staircases to the platforms have been "closed for construction" for years, most commuters coming from the parking lots enter on the north side of the street, meaning they're just walking in the traffic lane through the underpass to the east.

As commuter rail station locations go, it's actually (in theory) a pretty good one. You've got a decently walkable shopping plaza immediately to the north, a reasonably dense urban residential neighborhood to the south, and feeder bus service from multiple directions. Heck, on occasion, on my commute back from Boston to Providence, I'd get off at South Attleboro, pick up some groceries at Market Basket, and then hop on the next train.

South Attleboro should be a huge success story, and yet...
 
To their credit, the surrounding community and their politicians forced the MBTA to commit to a full station rebuild, rather than the bandaid fixes they were originally offered. That means (per news articles) full-length high-level platforms, a modern footbridge with elevators instead of lengthy ramps, changes to the parking lot, and a respectable bus stop. Other than the access from the south, most of the issues with the station will actually be corrected by the rebuild if it's designed by someone intelligent.
 
Oh yes, I'm very excited for the rebuild, and definitely give the local community + politicians a lot of credit. And as for the access from the south, I definitely grant that there are understandable reasons why local residents might not want walk-up access directly from their local streets. There's consensus-building that would need to be done there, for sure, if it were to happen. To me, it's more just lamentable that such a process wasn't started 30 years ago.

Also, it really is unfortunate that, as far as I know, even with the rebuild, there still won't be direct access from the Route 1A overpass. That would provide reasonable access from the south, without getting close to people's backyards, and moreover could double as the overpass from outbound to inbound. I assume that would significantly increase the complexity of the project, so I'm not saying that the rebuild should be delayed to incorporate that. But still, I feel that overall South Attleboro is a good example of how we often get transit design wrong in the US.
 
Given that S. Attleboro was built quickly and cheaply in an era of cutbacks to capture the pawtucket catchment after RI discontinued support, I can forgive some sins there.
 
Um why is the MBTA closing Plymouth ?

plymouth.png
 
That is a pretty big slap in the face to TOD.

Not sure if the developer has any right to sue, but that change just dropped the value of the complex probably 20%. Yes you have to live with the trains passing. No you cannot get on the trains passing.
 
JeffDowntown said:
View attachment 10781
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Ah, I did look to see if that changed with Spring but didn't find it. Kingston isn't that far away and looks like it does have plenty of parking.

re: Retention, while I do think there will soon be a push to force people back in, there will be resistance. People with crummy commutes will complain the most and CR riders have an extra incentive because of how expensive it is. Ultimately I do think the employer will win out. But if the end result is replacing expensive older employees who live in the burbs with cheap college grads who take the subway or real remote workers, that doesn't exactly help CR ridership.
 
JeffDowntown said:
That is a pretty big slap in the face to TOD.

Not sure if the developer has any right to sue, but that change just dropped the value of the complex probably 20%. Yes you have to live with the trains passing. No you cannot get on the trains passing.
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Not really the case here (and there will not be any trains passing).

Plymouth Station has never had any useful service (other than maybe for a day trip tourist?....but the station's nowhere near downtown) and was doing 21 riders a day in 2018.

Pre-COVID schedules were 4 inbounds a day, with the first trip not until 10:08AM. And since they're not on the same branch and had a ridiculously time-inefficient reverse move.....the trips that also served Kingston hit one of the two with a ~40min time penalty.


I can't picture anyone was moving there with an expectation of taking the train, at least if they'd ever checked the train schedule.

And for potential other ideas: I don't see how the line is ever going to run a dense enough schedule that you could split terminal frequencies without cannibalizing total ridership.
 
jklo said:
Ah, I did look to see if that changed with Spring but didn't find it. Kingston isn't that far away and looks like it does have plenty of parking.

re: Retention, while I do think there will soon be a push to force people back in, there will be resistance. People with crummy commutes will complain the most and CR riders have an extra incentive because of how expensive it is. Ultimately I do think the employer will win out. But if the end result is replacing expensive older employees who live in the burbs with cheap college grads who take the subway or real remote workers, that doesn't exactly help CR ridership.
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Kingston is the problem. Thers nothing there. You cant walk to it. Plymouth is next to 600+ housing units and theres a trail into downtown. And they opt to close it and not Kingston? Is this 1986?

millerm277 said:
was doing 21 riders a day in 2018.


I can't picture anyone was moving there with an expectation of taking the train, at least if they'd ever checked the train schedule.
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Yeah, before they built the big apartment buildings! No shit!

The developer stated that he hoped by adding 600+ new potential customers, the MBTA would wake up and put in a reasonable schedule. Which makes sense based on everything else the state is saying in regards to TOD and what not
 
jass said:
Kingston is the problem. Thers nothing there. You cant walk to it. Plymouth is next to 600+ housing units and theres a trail into downtown. And they opt to close it and not Kingston? Is this 1986?
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Kingston did ~650 riders/day and based on 2018 parking occupancy, had ~400 cars/day parked there.

I think it's a tall stretch to say that the 600 new apartment units are going to generate more riders in total than Kingston does as a parking sink for the wider area. Next to a train line or not, I don't think you can say that the average person moving to a new apartment in Plymouth is planning to become a daily CR rider to a job downtown.

Yeah, before they built the big apartment buildings! No shit!
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The point is that one has a long-standing ridership base and one doesn't.

The developer stated that he hoped by adding 600+ new potential customers, the MBTA would wake up and put in a reasonable schedule. Which makes sense based on everything else the state is saying in regards to TOD and what not
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If the developer felt this was an important factor to the success of his project, I would say that it's a dumb idea to build things without an actual commitment from the MBTA to do that.

The line doesn't run a dense enough schedule to provide useful service to both termini, and while I'm not the expert, I suspect there isn't enough slack capacity anywhere to do that either.
 
millerm277 said:
Not really the case here (and there will not be any trains passing).

Plymouth Station has never had any useful service (other than maybe for a day trip tourist?....but the station's nowhere near downtown) and was doing 21 riders a day in 2018.

Pre-COVID schedules were 4 inbounds a day, with the first trip not until 10:08AM. And since they're not on the same branch and had a ridiculously time-inefficient reverse move.....the trips that also served Kingston hit one of the two with a ~40min time penalty.


I can't picture anyone was moving there with an expectation of taking the train, at least if they'd ever checked the train schedule.

And for potential other ideas: I don't see how the line is ever going to run a dense enough schedule that you could split terminal frequencies without cannibalizing total ridership.
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OK, but the T is playing the schedule game of "look, no one uses this station". Of course not, the schedule is crap at Plymouth. How do you justify killing a stop -- make sure it has no usable service.

Is this all because Kingston has some layover tracks and Plymouth does not? Or is it about Route 3 access and parking? Because it sure feels like all Kingston does as a terminus is generate auto trips (albeit local).
 
JeffDowntown said:
Because it sure feels like all Kingston does as a terminus is generate auto trips (albeit local).
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That seems to be the main reason - the parking lot at Kingston has 1030 spots versus 96 at Plymouth. Plus the layover facilities. It does reek of the MBTA trying to kill it long before the virus.
 
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