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

A year ago, Ratmeister posted an image of the MBTA commuter rail map with South Coast Rail posted at Ruggles.

Several commented on the Ruggles map. I noted a couple of days later
-- The CapeFlyer service east of Middleborough should be labeled by it's name "CapeFlyer" and not just "Hyannis (seasonal)."
-- The CapeFlyer will not be using the new Middleborough station -- it should be depicted as branching off north of the station.

Unfortunately, it appears the Ruggles depiction is repeated at East Taunton (and presumably the other new SCR stations) as seen in the recent WBUR article.

WBUR_EastTaunton_0314_south-coast-rail-5-1-1920x1220.jpg


An aside: the MBTA's SCR project page has a bit better map. It shows the CapeFLYER departing the Middleborough line just north of the new Middleborough station, and the old (and now seasonal) Middleborough/Lakeville station renamed simply "Lakeville." Unfortunately, the purple line to Lakeville incorrectly suggests this will still be a year-round commuter rail stop.

View attachment 2025-03-04-fall-river-new-bedford-line-map.png
 
I've put off finishing my revised CR redesign for a while, probably time to get around to it. I should just have the zones left to do.
 

In Westerly, progress for an upgraded train station, chugs along. Why there's new hope​

www.yahoo.com

In Westerly, progress for an upgraded train station, chugs along. Why there's new hope

After decades of advocating for improved rail services to Westerly, RI, residents may finally be seeing some progress to their efforts.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com



The Westerly Station is a Spanish Colonial Revival structure with an under the tracks tunnel built in 1913. It is within sight of the CT state line. Amtrak, which still makes stops there, unfortunately abandoned use of the station building back in 2016. It has since been turned into an art gallery.

1742914593723.jpeg
 
themissinglink said:
Line by Line passenger counts:
View attachment 61267

Fairmount going from 2,652 to 4,402 is great! I can't wait until the Fairmount Line has electric trains (EMUs, not BEMUs please) running every 15-20 minutes.
Click to expand...
Coming back to this a bit: I have no intentions of sounding like a downer, but -- Does anyone else feel that Fairmount's ridership still feels too low, compared to other CR lines?

We can generally agree that Fairmount is the only (fully) "urban" CR line. Its area served is also very dense and transit-dependent. By now, Fairmount also has the best headways in the entire CR system by a mile: Every 30 minutes, weekdays and weekends. (The only other remotely comparable stations are: Canton Junction and Route 128 on weekdays; Beverly through Chelsea, weekday rush hour peak direction; Framingham, West Natick, Boston Landing and Lansdowne, weekday rush hour peak direction.)

Yet, Fairmount is still the 10th -- third to last -- in 2024 ridership. Even lower than Kingston, a typical suburban line; and Needham, a similarly short line. While Fairmount's massive ridership growth from 2018 to 2024 is impressive and not surprising, its raw numbers still... Leave much to be desired to me?

Granted, Fairmount obviously still has a lot of room for growth, and there are many reasons to explain its lower rankings. Every Fairmount stop has alternative, and often frequent, buses to get to downtown Boston. It's also a short line with few stations, after all.

But historically, the transit-crayon-sphere here often focus a lot more on urban areas when discussing transit expansions. The much lower focus on suburbs almost exclusively come from Regional Rail and NSRL, and even those often prioritize inner-128 areas. (A frequent proposal is "15-min within 128, 30-min outside".) Seeing Fairmount's current performance, despite the best service levels in the entire network, makes me wonder:

Are we systematically underestimating suburban ridership?
 
Teban54 said:
Coming back to this a bit: I have no intentions of sounding like a downer, but -- Does anyone else feel that Fairmount's ridership still feels too low, compared to other CR lines?

We can generally agree that Fairmount is the only (fully) "urban" CR line. Its area served is also very dense and transit-dependent. By now, Fairmount also has the best headways in the entire CR system by a mile: Every 30 minutes, weekdays and weekends. (The only other remotely comparable stations are: Canton Junction and Route 128 on weekdays; Beverly through Chelsea, weekday rush hour peak direction; Framingham, West Natick, Boston Landing and Lansdowne, weekday rush hour peak direction.)

Yet, Fairmount is still the 10th -- third to last -- in 2024 ridership. Even lower than Kingston, a typical suburban line; and Needham, a similarly short line. While Fairmount's massive ridership growth from 2018 to 2024 is impressive and not surprising, its raw numbers still... Leave much to be desired to me?

Granted, Fairmount obviously still has a lot of room for growth, and there are many reasons to explain its lower rankings. Every Fairmount stop has alternative, and often frequent, buses to get to downtown Boston. It's also a short line with few stations, after all.

But historically, the transit-crayon-sphere here often focus a lot more on urban areas when discussing transit expansions. The much lower focus on suburbs almost exclusively come from Regional Rail and NSRL, and even those often prioritize inner-128 areas. (A frequent proposal is "15-min within 128, 30-min outside".) Seeing Fairmount's current performance, despite the best service levels in the entire network, makes me wonder:

Are we systematically underestimating suburban ridership?
Click to expand...
travel pattern shifts take time. The Fairmount Line has seen an increase in ridership of 66% over the past six years, while all other lines have seen a decrease.

Patience is imperative here.

While I don’t expect these trends to continue their exact trajectory unchanged, it’s worthwhile to consider what the ridership numbers would look like if they did.

If all other lines’ ridership stays the same, and the Fairmount Line experiences the same growth rate ‘24-‘30 as ‘18-‘24, the Fairmount Line would be the fifth highest ridership line behind only the Providence, Worcester, Franklin, and Newburyport/Rockport Lines.

If all lines experience the same rate of ridership change ‘24-‘30 as ‘18-‘24, the Fairmount Line would be the fourth highest ridership line behind only the Providence, Worcester, and Franklin Lines.

Patience. Fairmount is in a growth phase.
 
bigeman312 said:
travel pattern shifts take time. The Fairmount Line has seen an increase in ridership of 66% over the past six years, while all other lines have seen a decrease.

Patience is imperative here.

While I don’t expect these grands to continue their exact trajectory unchanged, it’s worthwhile to consider what the ridership numbers would look like if they did.

If all other lines’ ridership stays the same, and the Fairmount Line experiences the same growth rate ‘24-‘30 as ‘18-‘24, the Fairmount Line would be the fifth highest ridership line behind only the Providence, Worcester, Franklin, and Newburyport/Rockport Lines.

If all lines experience the same rate of ridership change ‘24-‘30 as ‘18-‘24, the Fairmount Line would be the fourth highest ridership line behind only the Providence, Worcester, and Franklin Lines.

Patience. Fairmount is in a growth phase.
Click to expand...
To clarify, the thesis of my comment wasn't saying "Fairmount is underwhelming", but "other CR lines -- which are more suburban-centric than Fairmount -- may be exceeding the expectations of transit crayonists who are often focused on urban areas".
 
OldColony said:
A year ago, Ratmeister posted an image of the MBTA commuter rail map with South Coast Rail posted at Ruggles.

Several commented on the Ruggles map. I noted a couple of days later
-- The CapeFlyer service east of Middleborough should be labeled by it's name "CapeFlyer" and not just "Hyannis (seasonal)."
-- The CapeFlyer will not be using the new Middleborough station -- it should be depicted as branching off north of the station.

Unfortunately, it appears the Ruggles depiction is repeated at East Taunton (and presumably the other new SCR stations) as seen in the recent WBUR article.

View attachment 61325

An aside: the MBTA's SCR project page has a bit better map. It shows the CapeFLYER departing the Middleborough line just north of the new Middleborough station, and the old (and now seasonal) Middleborough/Lakeville station renamed simply "Lakeville." Unfortunately, the purple line to Lakeville incorrectly suggests this will still be a year-round commuter rail stop.

View attachment 61326
Click to expand...

This map looks fine
 
They would have had to drive up this ramp, despite a gate, yellow crossbars, and no indication it is open to the public. Then they would have had to drive about 200 feet along what is clearly a platform to get to that point. That's an extra level of cluelessness compared to, say, the people who manage to drive onto Green Line tracks at intersections.
 
Question because I think I’m misunderstanding this. I was looking through the MBTA’s coach option procurement slideshow from November, and they said that the additional 80 cars would allow for full replacement of the 260 car single level fleet. Assuming that they are including the 83 that have already arrived, it leaves about a ~2,000 seat loss replacing 260 single levels with 163 bilevels. Are they just taking the loss or am I missing something?
 
CheapLeak said:
Question because I think I’m misunderstanding this. I was looking through the MBTA’s coach option procurement slideshow from November, and they said that the additional 80 cars would allow for full replacement of the 260 car single level fleet. Assuming that they are including the 83 that have already arrived, it leaves about a ~2,000 seat loss replacing 260 single levels with 163 bilevels. Are they just taking the loss or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
There's only 152 active single-levels right now, with 85 stored (some of them languishing out-of-service since before COVID) and a couple dozen sold or scrapped. They haven't been using 260 single-levels' worth of capacity for a long time now. The "discrepancy" gets squared by culling the out-of-service glut.
 
Will the Commuter Rail be able to run at 90 mph once all of the single-level coaches are gone?
 
themissinglink said:
Will the Commuter Rail be able to run at 90 mph once all of the single-level coaches are gone?
Click to expand...
Sort of, but not likely. Only the HSP-46 locomotives are rated for 90; the F40PH-3C's and GP40MC's are still capped at 79 MPH. The 33 unrebuilt 900-series Kawasaki coaches are also still capped at 79, though they're coming due for a (still yet unfunded) rebuild that would uprate them. And of course the HSP's are going out for rebuild soon, so there will be a numbers crunch to wade through for a few years.

You'd have to segregate the HSP's to Providence/Stoughton service exclusively with no F40's or Geeps taking a turn and keep the 900's bottled up north in order to refactor those schedules for 90 MPH running. It doesn't matter if you run the schedule at 90 whenever there's a capable consist, because you'll get bunching and delays whenever there's a slower 79 MPH-capped consist taking a turn. It has to be complete throughout the schedule day. Maybe we'll be in a spot where that can be done in a few years after the HSP's are rebuilt and back to full strength, but right now there's still enough 79 MPH equipment on-rotation that it's not really possible.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
There's only 152 active single-levels right now, with 85 stored (some of them languishing out-of-service since before COVID) and a couple dozen sold or scrapped. They haven't been using 260 single-levels' worth of capacity for a long time now. The "discrepancy" gets squared by culling the out-of-service glut.
Click to expand...
Ah, my apologies.
 
FYI - There was a NEPRA/Amtrak/MBTA-Keolis OSC Train out of North Station today for Portland. MBTA 1027, Amtrak 90, three T coaches (Revolution Car [218]), T OCS Coaches and Amtrak's Theater car. I believe CSX is on board for this too. Should be up in Portland around 1-130PM.
 
GP40MC said:
FYI - There was a NEPRA/Amtrak/MBTA-Keolis OSC Train out of North Station today for Portland. MBTA 1027, Amtrak 90, three T coaches (Revolution Car [218]), T OCS Coaches and Amtrak's Theater car. I believe CSX is on board for this too. Should be up in Portland around 1-130PM.
Click to expand...
Is this just a general "Kumbaya"-moment run celebrating the working relationship, or are they actually hashing out some serious business? I know CSX has been hitting them up for permission to install their I-ETMS positive train control system on top of the T's on the Freight Main overlap so they can run at 60 MPH instead of the 40 the T's ACSES PTC system limits them at, so that's one thing that ends up affecting all 3 parties' schedules.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Is this just a general "Kumbaya"-moment run celebrating the working relationship, or are they actually hashing out some serious business? I know CSX has been hitting them up for permission to install their I-ETMS positive train control system on top of the T's on the Freight Main overlap so they can run at 60 MPH instead of the 40 the T's ACSES PTC system limits them at, so that's one thing that ends up affecting all 3 parties' schedules.
Click to expand...
Not sure. Some sort of NERPA conference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top