MBTA to serve T.F. Green next month

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Mayor Menino's Crohn's

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Another viable option to Logan...

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2010/11/23/mbta-will-serve-tf-green-next-month.html

The MBTA will begin commuter rail service to T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island on Dec. 6.

?Expanded commuter rail in Rhode Island is just two weeks away,? said Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Michael P. Lewis in a written statement. ?This service gives enhanced options to get to your office or T.F. Green Airport or wherever your final destination is.?

Ticket fares will vary by distance. Travel between Boston and T.F. Green will cost $8.25 each way, with a discount for seniors and the disabled.

See the full announcement from Rhode Island's Department of Transportation here.



Read more: MBTA will serve T.F. Green in December | Boston Business Journal
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Good to see. Should be beneficial all around. Every little bit helps us get to a better national public transportation.
 
While it is a start, I find it kind of useless for airport service. It's not terrible if you live in Providence, since they have to two positioning runs in the morning. That allows people to catch flights departing around 6:45-8:00am, but if you're coming from anywhere outside of Providence, your flight has to be no earlier than about 7pm, and that's arriving at the airport about 30 minutes before the flight, assuming you're not checking bags. Furthermore, if your flight gets delayed past the last northbound train at the wee hour of 7:51p, you're screwed; insofar as you'll have to take Peter Pan back to Boston, or RIPTA to Providence and catch a later CR train from there.

It's a good start and it's certainly beneficial to people in Warwick and points south in RI. They now have a train with a parking lot south of Providence so they can avoid having to drive to South Attleboro station. But, as far as this station being a convenient means to get to PVD, they're going to need to add trains, at least hourly in order for that to happen. Even if they just run a shuttle from Warwick to Providence and then having connections onward to Boston. Given that the layover yard is in Pawtucket, I don't see why they couldn't allocate a locomotive and a coach or two operate between Providence Green.

It would have been nice if Amtrak stopped there as well - Amtrak didn't want to pay the cost of electrifying the siding track where the platform is. That way people from places like Boston (realistically), New Haven, New London or Westerly could take the train to PVD. Seeing as the last southbound Amtrak from Providence is at 10:20 (so about 10:30 passing Green) and the first northbound leaves New Haven at 4:40am, hypothetically arriving at Green around 6:50ish. That would allow for essentially the entire day's flights to be available. Of course, that would also require people to put their faith in Amtrak being on-time, something I sure as hell wouldn't do where non-refundable tickets are concerned.

It's too bad, too, since other airports like Newark and Baltimore are fully able to take advantage of their location along the rail corridor.
 
erikyow said:
It's too bad, too, since other airports like Newark and Baltimore are fully able to take advantage of their location along the rail corridor.
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True, but as you said, it's a start. My understanding of this project is that the commuter rail will be extended further, at least as far as Wickford, and that more trains will be added to the schedule over time. I can envision that eventually MBTA and Shoreline East will meet up, and perhaps either overlap service areas (both serving parts of RI) or be supplemented by an overlapping RIDOT train service. this is a good baby step in that direction.
 
Yeah, Wickford Jct. is next, though I'm not sure of the timeline. I wonder if East Greenwich would be more useful, but maybe that's too close to T.F. Green. You're right that the Shoreline and MBTA line should meet. Westerly would be a good spot for that.

WARNING: Geek alert. Proceed at your own discretion.

The transit geek in me once wanted to see how far one could go along the East Coast via public transit. As it stands, one could, theoretically, take public transit (not Amtrak) from as far away as Newburyport all the way to Virginia (via MBTA/RIDOT, Shoreline East, Metro-North, NJ Transit, SEPTA, MARC and VRE). Right now, one would only need to take a 17-mile cab ride between Westerly and New London and a 20-mile cab ride from Newark, DE to Perryville, MD to link up with MARC to Washington and the VRE to Fredericksburg, VA. Pretty impressive that public transit covers what in a car would be about 550 miles with only 37 miles of gaps. Not that I'm suggesting anyone actually do it, it's still cool that one could if they wanted to. And closing the gap between Westerly and New London would make it that much easier.

Anyway, at the very least I'd like to see an extension to Kingston, serving URI and South County. A stop at East Greenwich might be useful as well. Then the service can be a true commuter system for Rhode Island rather than just serving what's arguably (though don't tell Rhode Islanders. I don't know how many times living in Providence I heard, "But that's all the way down in Warwick!") an inner suburb of Providence with adequate RIPTA service.
 
I too have tried to plot out long distance trips entirely via public transit. Ever since I read Rag Time (EL Doctorow) which has a segment in which a man rides trolleys from New York to somewhere North of Boston (can't recall the final destination) I've been intrigued by this idea. What I'd love to do (and I would actually do it if possible) is ride from Boston all the way to DC entirely on commuter rail. Right now there are three gaps, all short, all something that should be filled in eventually.
 
HenryAlan said:
True, but as you said, it's a start. My understanding of this project is that the commuter rail will be extended further, at least as far as Wickford, and that more trains will be added to the schedule over time. .
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Thats correct, once Wickford opens, a few more trains will be added, and possibly weekend service.

It depends on what RI wants, not the MBTA, because they pay for all service.
 
Not to mention, MBCR doesn't own an inch of track anywhere. They're an operating company.
 
Where did MBCR come from anyways? I don't understand how they sprang up once Amtrak called it quits. What did they do before the MBTA contract? Scenic railroad somewhere?
 
The MBCR is a consortium of transit service operating and management companies. It's made up of Veolia Transportation, Bombardier Transportation and Alternate Concepts, Inc. They only provide the service and maintain the system. All the infrastructure and equipment is owned by the State.

Veolia Transportation is huge and runs a decent percentage of American and European commuter rail systems.
 
I see, so they did actually spring up after Amtrak stopped doing the maintenance? Or did they work for any other railroads in the area before that?
 
Nope, I believe they (the three above named companies) came together to tender the contract once it became apparent that Amtrak would no longer be running the Commuter Rail. This is also the only system they're collectively involved in. Veolia runs systems throughout the world. I imagine Bombardier is involved in the maintenance aspect, since I haven't heard of them involved in the operation of any transit system, just providing the rolling stock and technical support.
 
erikyow said:
Right now, one would only need to take a 17-mile cab ride between Westerly and New London and a 20-mile cab ride from Newark, DE to Perryville, MD to link up with MARC to Washington and the VRE to Fredericksburg, VA.
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I believe MARC has long-term plans to get their service up to Newark, Del. at some point, not sure when it'll happen...that, of course, would link MARC with SEPTA leaving only the Shoreline East (or even Metro North!?) to meet up with the T. Imagine if the T extended north into New Hampshire. :)
 
There is still the gap between Grand Central and Penn Station, but I've read that LI RR trains will eventually reach Grand Central. Anybody know whether NJT trains will do so? It would really bog things down to have to ride three different systems within Manhattan.
 
They are currently extending the LIRR into Grand Central via the East Side Access project but NJT trains won't... probably ever. Now that the ARC project is dead there won't even be a future ability to connect Grand Central and Penn Station to New Jersey.

It doesn't really matter since no one from New Jersey is trying to get to Long Island, and if they do they can just transfer.
 
erikyow said:
It would have been nice if Amtrak stopped there as well - Amtrak didn't want to pay the cost of electrifying the siding track where the platform is. That way people from places like Boston (realistically), New Haven, New London or Westerly could take the train to PVD. Seeing as the last southbound Amtrak from Providence is at 10:20 (so about 10:30 passing Green) and the first northbound leaves New Haven at 4:40am, hypothetically arriving at Green around 6:50ish. That would allow for essentially the entire day's flights to be available.
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Given all the money that has been appropriated for rail projects during the last couple years (not to mention those dollars now given up by New Jersey and Wisconsin), if I were Rhode Island's senators, congressmen, and governor, I would really have a fit until Amtrak made the necessary improvements to stop at TF Green. Seriously !

Besides, stopping at popular destinations (such as TF Green) is ultimately in Amtrak's best interests too. TF Green may not be a proper stop for Acela Express, but is for Northeast Regional. That alone would add eight trains per day in each direction.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
They are currently extending the LIRR into Grand Central via the East Side Access project but NJT trains won't... probably ever. Now that the ARC project is dead there won't even be a future ability to connect Grand Central and Penn Station to New Jersey.

It doesn't really matter since no one from New Jersey is trying to get to Long Island, and if they do they can just transfer.
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And you can think the Goodyear Blimp Gov. (Chris Christie) for that. He banned the NJ Rail Extension because it contained "earmarks." Funny, he seems to have no issue keeping the stimulus money!
 
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