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

[F-Line to Dudley]

Awesome news! “The project is expected to take four years to design and five years to build at a cost of about $400 million. Construction funds have not been secured yet.” 9 years? I know this stuff takes a while, but maan thats a long time.

Given the utterly glacial progress on nü-Chelsea Station--which isn't even an in-situ replacement--9 years for 3 stations seems almost generous by their standards.

 

[ceo]

Awesome news! “The project is expected to take four years to design and five years to build at a cost of about $400 million. Construction funds have not been secured yet.” 9 years? I know this stuff takes a while, but maan thats a long time.

Just to clarify, that estimate is for the third track between Wellesley and Framingham, which also necessitates major work on several stations.

 

[jklo]

Just to clarify, that estimate is for the third track between Wellesley and Framingham, which also necessitates major work on several stations.

That's right. The Newton project won't be cheap either. Might have to do 4 elevators per stop. There really isn't much room available on the Pike side either.

 

[Riverside]

Any bets on whether the T will institute any new or enhanced services or other changes in response to today's accident on I-93 and the apparently several months of ensuing delays?

On Tuesday, state Department of Transportation officials were urging drivers to steer clear of I-93 and to expect delays on Route 1 south, Route 16, Route 28, and Roosevelt Circle for the next several months due to the work that must be done to fix the bridge.

All lanes of I-93 south in Medford will reopen âat some pointâ Wednesday, officials say - The Boston Globe

Transportation officials warned drivers to expect delays on Route 1 south, Route 16, Route 28, and Roosevelt Circle for “the next several months” while permanent repairs are made on the bridge.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Arlington]

Thanks packs of robust young unmasked Sox Fans talking at the top of your voices on Pvd line Train 830 for leaving a little part of yourselves

 

[The EGE]

Last day for the Newton Connection Railbus is this Friday. The 505 returns on Monday, and rumor has it that ridership on the Railbus was not exactly booming.

 

[Jahvon09]

Thanks packs of robust young unmasked Sox Fans talking at the top of your voices on Pvd line Train 830 for leaving a little part of yourselves
View attachment 15627

Not to mention being Superspreaders of covid-19!!!

 

[jklo]

Last day for the Newton Connection Railbus is this Friday. The 505 returns on Monday, and rumor has it that ridership on the Railbus was not exactly booming.

I'm not sure what they were thinking in the first place. Any potential ridership has a car and would just drive to their burb job.

 

[The EGE]

Actual bidirectional Worcester Line service to the Newton stations will have decent ridership - there are a not-insignificant number of jobs around the Newton stations, and also jobs around stations further west that Newton residents can commute to. It's why every-15-minute service terminating at Newton or Framingham is one of the "urban rail" services in the commuter rail transformation program, and why rebuilding the Newton stations with two accessible platforms is a worthy capital project.

But a slow, awkward bus service was never going to capture that ridership: riding the D Branch to Newton Highlands just to hop a bus is a long ride (the 505 is much faster), and anyone going further west would just drive to Wellesley Farms.

 

[jklo]

there are a not-insignificant number of jobs around the Newton stations

Not really. The theoretical Newton Corner stop does but the actual Newton stops are all basically residential with a bit of light retail.

Riverside does have some (and would have more if the construction goes through) but you already have Green. Maybe you could justify bus service between it and Auburndale.

 

[themissinglink]

rebuilding the Newton stations with two accessible platforms is a worthy capital project.

Weren't the designs for the Newton stations revised to include two full length high-level platforms at each station? As the original design only had a single high-level platform at each station.

 

[Stlin]

Riverside does have some (and would have more if the construction goes through) but you already have Green. Maybe you could justify bus service between it and Auburndale.

Ooc, why is Riverside- Auburndale seemingly always posited as a bus or a CR short turn? Why not a +1 on the GL? The connection would be nice for the sake of completism, and any reverse commutes out to Worcester/Framingham, especially with 15min Regional Rail.

 

[Brattle Loop]

Ooc, why is Riverside- Auburndale seemingly always posited as a bus or a CR short turn? Why not a +1 on the GL? The connection would be nice for the sake of completism, and any reverse commutes out to Worcester/Framingham, especially with 15min Regional Rail.

Is there even room to physically do that?

 

[Stlin]

Is there even room to physically do that?

This should probably be in one of the pitch threads, but... With the exception of the I-90 Bridge. (admittedly a very big exception - although it's in fairly marginal condition and presumably would be in a future round of bridge replacements.) The MassDOT inventory has that listed at 35ft wide, but the RoW is otherwise wide enough. GLX set the minimums at 55.5' for 2 CR paralleling 2 GL, and 24.5' for 2 GL alone, so I'm going to use that.

The branch RoW serving Riverside appears to be at least 25' wide by Google earth measurements, and had 2 tracks at least up until the 1960s. South of the pike it's still intact 4 track legacy width, North is dodgier, having been swallowed up by pike construction, but by Google earth measurements there's at least 55ft widening out to over 100 at Auburndale. But would probably require reconstructing the woodland rd bridge and losing the Auburndale parking lot, if not shifting everything to the south closer to the pike.

 

[jklo]

Ooc, why is Riverside- Auburndale seemingly always posited as a bus or a CR short turn? Why not a +1 on the GL? The connection would be nice for the sake of completism, and any reverse commutes out to Worcester/Framingham, especially with 15min Regional Rail.

The time to get anywhere would make ridership not great. You could do Indigo service from Riverside.

 

[Highwayguy]

This should probably be in one of the pitch threads, but... With the exception of the I-90 Bridge. (admittedly a very big exception - although it's in fairly marginal condition and presumably would be in a future round of bridge replacements.)

That bridge is being reconstructed as a component of the Pike -128 interchange improvements project. Complete superstructure replacement but more or less retains the existing abutments. Existing 37' horizontal clearance to remain. Unless that changes, GLX Auburndale is probably dead for the next 50+ years.

 

[The EGE]

Riverside works well as a terminal - it has space for layovers, existing operator facilities, and existing maintenance facilities (and you could add a pit track for quick repairs on the CR side). Adding CR service there is pretty cheap - upgrade the interlocking and the spur track, and build a platform.

Auburndale is space constrained - as mentioned above, it would take some heavy construction to make space for the Green Line - and you'd have to turn CR trains on the mainline. There's no operator or maintenance facilities there either.

 

[Highwayguy]

The T is finally replacing the ancient jointed rail on the Haverhill line from Oak Grove to N. Wilmington. No inbound service south of Balardvale from 8 AM to 5PM for the rest of the fall.

Haverhill Line Rail Replacement | Projects | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.

www.mbta.com

 

[DBM]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09...uld-be-coming-everetts-industrial-riverfront/

"DeMaria said he is going to reach out to the state’s congressional delegation to seek federal funding to help clean up he ExxonMobil site. Meanwhile, he is pushing state leaders to install one or two commuter rail stations in his city; the trains run through Everett, and pass by the Encore and ExxonMobil properties, but do not stop within the city limits."

Although it's certainly true that the Newburyport line runs through Everett, the length of its transit is relatively short--just 1.5 miles from when it touches-down near the Encore property, after having crossed over the Mystic, until it exits Everett basically where 2nd Street crosses into Chelsea.

Of that 1.5-mile transit, though, much of it is consumed by a big curve, as the corridor arcs from heading north-northeast to east-southeast. That curve is nearly 3,000 feet, in fact--.6 miles.

So, assuming a prerequisite is that a new station would have to be on a straight section of track, you're left with just .9 miles of the corridor that's buildable.

Of that, 2,200 feet is frontage bracketed by the casino to the east and the Costco/Home Depot, etc. retail complex to the west. Could it go there? I suppose.

Alternatively, it could go right at the 2nd Street crossing, here?

The thing is, if you put it there, it's just 3,800 feet from the Chelsea Station. Does it make sense to have two commuter rail stations so closely bunched like that?

(Perhaps there are other examples in the CR system...)

Anyway: methinks Mayor DeMaria is going to have a hard time living up to this promise, due to in part some of the challenges outlined above.

 

[Scalziand]

A new stop can't go next to the casino because of the grade for the Mystic River bridge, supposedly.
It seems like it would be much more effective pushing for another extension of the Silver line through to Sullivan.
Thinking ultra long term, now would be the time to (p)reserve a north/south ROW through the redevelopment zone. Nothing may come of it for a long time, if ever, but if a new core subway line were ever to happen(say, along the congress st corridor), it would be awfully convenient for Everette to have something to point to to say here's where the line should go north of the city.