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

Until relatively recently, South Acton was where the double track ended.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Just keep it for the layover, because there really isn't anywhere else good to put that. And even if you are rapid-rotating sets for :30 service you're still going to have to swap sets every few trips for basic cleaning, which will necessitate a layover trip. The backup move from Cordage or Downtown would be somewhat annoying, but isn't off-scale disruptive relative to other layover locations on the system. Deadheads could easily clear the junction switch within the headways of :30 all-day service.
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Looking on Google, there is an immense amount of "tunneling" or at least cut & cover to get under all the highway ramps of Route 3. That whole spur to Kingston must have been a significant piece of the budget for the line back in the day. It certainly makes sense to keep it as a layover facility. I would love to see the 30 minute all day service to Plymouth downtown, but I'll probably be long gone by the time this happens.

In 1989, as part of a job interview, I did a whole Informative Public Speaking presentation on the restoration of the Old Colony train lines. Look how long that took to get to completion. 2007! That's almost 20 years!

I'll be in some nursing facility in Scituate and we will have all day 30 minute electrified service, bar closing hours at 4am, and a vibrant and healthy village around every train station. I won't ever be able to enjoy it. :)
 
The 30% Design submission from the 3/4 South Attleboro presentation is out; its got a surprisingly fussy wavy roof and canopy treatment, which I fully expect to be VE'd out - notably, the renders already disagree.

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I'm surprised that they don't appear to want to tie into the Newport Ave/Rt 1 bridge, from which this station will definitely looks as if it should be accessible; instead, there will be a solid gap between the bridge and the station access structure, which will be at near enough the same elevation. Why not encourage walkability and access from the south/RI, and attendant population density? It'd be, by far, the most visible access point.
 
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Stlin said:
I'm surprised that they don't appear to want to tie into the Newport Ave/Rt 1 bridge, from which this station will definitely looks as if it should be accessible; instead, there will be a solid gap between the bridge and the station access structure, which will be at near enough the same elevation. Why not encourage walkability and access from the south/RI? It'd be, by far, the most visible access point.
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Guessing the trailer parkers don't use the CR.
 
Providing access from the overpass expands the walkshed much deeper into Pawtucket: 10 minutes gets you past Benefit Street, and 15 minutes gets you past Central Ave (compared to now where it takes 8 minutes just to get to Cottage St.) And South Attleboro was built to serve Pawtucket residents, so presumably they still use it.

My wild guess is that there is some combination of the following that's leading them to avoid connections to the overpass:

1) Turf issues: I assume the T does not own the overpass and doesn't want to work/is discouraged from working with the agency who does

2) Narrow sidewalk and other pedestrian hostile aspects of that overpass. I mean, seriously, that sidewalk is terrible, and would be worse with a stream of commuters walking down it.

3) Something to do with the structure of the overpass itself -- i.e. "if you even just barely touch it, you'll then be required to do a lot of deferred work"

I mean, none of those are good reasons. But...
 
Riverside said:
1) Turf issues: I assume the T does not own the overpass and doesn't want to work/is discouraged from working with the agency who does
2) Narrow sidewalk and other pedestrian hostile aspects of that overpass. I mean, seriously, that sidewalk is terrible, and would be worse with a stream of commuters walking down it.
3) Something to do with the structure of the overpass itself -- i.e. "if you even just barely touch it, you'll then be required to do a lot of deferred work"
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1) Owned by MassDOT, 2) Its a lot better than what was there before, and 3) that overpass was fully rebuilt in 2009-2011, so there really shouldn't be any significant deferred maint.
 
Stlin said:
3) that overpass was fully rebuilt in 2009-2011, so there really shouldn't be any significant deferred maint.
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Ha, I wonder if that's the reason. "We just spent eleventy thousand rebuilding that bridge which is supposed to last 50 years -- no way are we spending money to rebuild part of it before then! We're gonna get all fifty years out of those eleventy thousand dollars..."

But yeah -- I can understand them opting for like-for-like in this case in order to bring the station back into service as fast as possible, but still. It is lamentable all around.

Glad to at least get the full-length high-platforms though, that'll be nice.
 
Stlin said:
The 30% Design submission from the 3/4 South Attleboro presentation is out; its got a surprisingly fussy wavy roof and canopy treatment, which I fully expect to be VE'd out - notably, the renders already disagree.

View attachment 11061
View attachment 11062
I'm surprised that they don't appear to want to tie into the Newport Ave/Rt 1 bridge, from which this station will definitely looks as if it should be accessible; instead, there will be a solid gap between the bridge and the station access structure, which will be at near enough the same elevation. Why not encourage walkability and access from the south/RI, and attendant population density? It'd be, by far, the most visible access point.
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Note that the way this is structurally laid out, the southbound platform forms an island with future NEC Tracks 3 & 4 eating the loop portion of the kiss-and-ride road. So at least they found a way to do this reno without needing to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" with Amtrak over future NEC capacity allowances..which is most definitely inhibiting any rebuild action at the other low-platformed stations on the Providence Line. They can just truncate the road and slap down another side platform whenever that day comes. And I suppose having the southbound platform transformable into an island, even though Amtrak will just be blowing past, makes this a potentially very useful terminal stop for RIDOT Intrastate commuter rail on the Wickford-Pawtucket urban zone of maximum service overlap. In-state constituency right down the street, and the old East Junction layover yard just 2 miles north for turning service.


As for the lack of ped accommodations on the bridge...I doubt it's leaving that much walkup traffic on the table. This is pure terrorscape. And MassDOT arguably has it easy, as that extra right-turn only lane could be made expendable to buffer out the sidewalks. But doing so is only a drop in the bucket because it gets absolutely no better at the state line. Sidewalk in Pawtucket is just as terrifyingly narrow all the way to the Cottage St. intersection, and gets little better at all for the whole 3+ miles slicing through the city. Manifold challenges for RIDOT just trying to make it a safe walk within Pawtucket. It must be hell for busy RIPTA Route 35, since they don't even have turnouts for any of the bus stops along that road.

I think it's a victory in itself if RIPTA bus service levels simply get pulsed up for the new stop. Shooting for a non-discouraging walkshed probably isn't a realistic ask for the next couple decades with all the problems RIDOT & City of Pawtucket would have to grapple with in trying to make lemonade out of that high-speed strip of hell.
 
Stlin said:
The 30% Design submission from the 3/4 South Attleboro presentation is out; its got a surprisingly fussy wavy roof and canopy treatment, which I fully expect to be VE'd out - notably, the renders already disagree.

View attachment 11061
View attachment 11062
I'm surprised that they don't appear to want to tie into the Newport Ave/Rt 1 bridge, from which this station will definitely looks as if it should be accessible; instead, there will be a solid gap between the bridge and the station access structure, which will be at near enough the same elevation. Why not encourage walkability and access from the south/RI, and attendant population density? It'd be, by far, the most visible access point.
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jklo said:
Guessing the trailer parkers don't use the CR.
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The "Emergency Access Path" that is being built according to that presentation + is going to have ramps to the south/inbound platform would provide nearly as short of a walking distance for access from much of the neighborhood to the S/SE as tying into the bridge would, at far less cost/or possible future complexity/unpleasantness. There should be some sort of push to stick a couple streetlights on that and make sure it's not going to be fenced off from public access, IMO.

(SW is going to have similar access via the path to Colvin St that looks planned for public access).
 
jass said:
Now would be the time to build it as station to accommodate connections onto the green line.
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I agree.

What, in your opinion, does a full-build look like for Winchester?

To me, it looks like:

  • Amtrak: passing through Winchester without stopping
    • ...
    • Anderson/Woburn
    • North Station
    • ...
  • Commuter/Regional Rail: stopping at Winchester Center
    • ...
    • Anderson/Woburn
    • Winchester Center
    • West Medford
    • Gilman Square
    • North Station
    • ...
  • Green Line: stopping at Wedgemere and Winchester Center
    • Anderson/Woburn
    • Mishawum
    • Winchester Center
    • Wedgemere
    • Mystic Lakes
    • West Medford
    • ...
 
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Pretty much, although the green line going to downtown Woburn (former branch line) would be a good option instead of Anderson. Good downtown district.
 
If Mystic Lakes and Mishawum get a stop, why not bring Winchester Highlands back! Kidding aside, by the time Winchester Center is done it will be closing in on 70 years since anything of significance was completed at the station. So, Green Line to Woburn looks to be on the 22nd century wish list.
 
There aren't any structural dependencies up atop the viaduct for a GLX later-phase extension. If Anderson is the ultimate destination X many construction phases later, Green has to switch sides of the ROW from west to east past Winch Ctr. because freight sidings start on the west side soon after. And the easiest way to do so is to ride in at ground level into the parking lot while CR stays up high on the viaduct...then portal-under at Wakefield Rd. into a very shallow tunnel just below the pavement. Rip up & re-pour the Lavarway Rd. and Shore Rd. frontage parking strips for the roof of this duck-under, and physically cross under the viaduct smack in the middle of the rotary. Portal back up on the easterly side of the ROW when Shore Rd. peels off. Those two parking frontages are all 1955 nuke zone from when B&M did the original grade separation and viaduct construction, so are utility-few.

And with that being the someday-provision...if Winchester is merely a Phase I to be continued to Woburn later in some Phase 2 TBD...you can just stub-end a cheap temp surface station in the parking lot next to the CR entrance ramps (maybe just reserving a length of parking lot real estate downwind for a linear center pocket track yard), and not structurally touch anything until it's time to burrow under for switching sides on the Woburn phase.
 
Getting a bit off the CR track (hah), one of the pitches from the town and push-back requests from the the FCMB to move ahead with the rebuild has been a TOD at the Waterfield Lot which is immediately adjacent to the current and future inbound CR entrance (west side). The existing CofC building would be razed to make way for a fancy new mixed use development. RFP here.
 
New schedules are out. Looking at Providence/Stoughton schedule:
  • All trains (inbound and outbound) now stop at Ruggles
  • Only 2 inbound and 3 outbound trains run all the way to Wickford Junction
  • There are about daily 7 round trips exclusively between Providence and Wickford Junction, most of which are timed transfers of 10-15 minutes, though a couple are as few as five minutes; all are marked with a fancy icon on the schedule now to show the transfer
  • South Attleboro has been removed from the schedule; compared to the pre-pandemic schedule, I see virtually no time savings
  • Canton Junction and Route 128 are now served by virtually all trains
  • There are now two AM super-expresses from Mansfield (prior to the pandemic, there was only one)
  • Service to Hyde Park is still very uneven
  • The midnight train to Providence, last seen in the Nov 2020 schedule, remains unrestored

    and, last but not least

  • Forest Hills appears on the Providence schedule for the first time in (to my knowledge) at least 10 years; in fact, it's may be that it's been over 30 years since a Providence line train stopped at Forest Hills for scheduled service
(Of course, it's one outbound trip. On the last train of the night. Arriving at 11:13pm. But still.)

(Aaaaand I just figured out why it's stopping at Forest Hills. They're doing a timed transfer with the last Needham train of the night, which apparently is going to start at Forest Hills. They are also deploying a similar trick on the last Kingston train of the night, and are continuing the practice they previously had in place for the last Rockport train of the night -- though they are now advertising it much more clearer.)

(And I guess they're doing all this late-night timed transfer silliness in order to squeeze all late night departures into a window between 10:50 and 11pm.)
 
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