Equilibria
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And they couldn't have asked for better weather...
The cold rainy weather did not dampen the event or the enthusiasm of the many hundreds of attendees at the opening ceremony. They had a large tent in the parking area for the speaking portion before moving over to the station for the ribbon cutting. Nearly every top city, state, and federal politician in RI was on hand. Many from the engineering and construction trades that worked hard to make it possible were also well represented. This station was a long time in the making and today it was finally realized.
Photos from the event:
Pawtucket Mayor Grebien Speaks
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The official ribbon cutting
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Except...it wasn't the MBTA that built Pawtucket. It was RIDOT. RI follows the MBTA design guide for things like platform dimensions and accessibility, but the actual architecture was their own bag.Besides the color this seems to be the first real look at the type of station that the mbta plans to build along the pike in newton. If this is the case then those should turn out really good as wel.
Not that here is the right place to discuss this, but they did publish the 30% design renders for the Newton Stations back in 2021. Now, admittedly, to my eyes W. Newton and Newtonville look wildly overbuilt - I would have imagined that being relatively deep in the I-90 trench they could have gotten away with a "close to street level" bridge that doesn't necessarily require an elevator - and a single Headhouse.Besides the color this seems to be the first real look at the type of station that the mbta plans to build along the pike in newton. If this is the case then those should turn out really good as wel.
As far as TOD goes, there is a plan, ca 2016/2017, for substantial development around the station including on the site of the current parking lot. The problem is, afaik, no developers have yet bit - I think Pawtucket rents might not yet support the business case, so I think until the old mill buildings north of the station get redeveloped, parking is probably a "best interim use" of otherwise hard to redevelop land (being the old P&W rail yard, no telling what sort of environmental nastiness would need remediating.)How about some Transit Oriented Development instead of acres of free parking?
Also how's ridership on the R-Line and should it be extended North?
Honestly, I got the numbers from the Providence Journal and the NBC10 articles about the pilot. Where they got the numbers I have no idea - probably by being the local paper and asking, as while the T isn't great about transparency, RIPTA is worse.@Stlin where are you getting the 6,000 number? That looks vaguely on target with the numbers from 2008.)
In April and May 2022, the R-Line averaged 6,041 trips per weekday, 3,644 per Saturday, and 2,915 per Sunday,
No public explanation that I can see - old Providence Line schedules I have from 2016/2019 range between 9-11 minutes between S. Attleboro and Providence, so whatever this slowdown is it's recent. Is Amtrak doing work on the Southbound track in this area?Looking at the schedule, I am confused. Northbound journeys are pretty consistently timed at 6 minutes. Southbound journeys -- even on weekends -- are timed at anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes, which is 200-250% as long as northbound. Is there any public explanation for this?
The Pawtucket station has certainly had a far better start than the Wickford Junction Station. Wickford to this day ten years since its opening still gets few passengers.
Wickford to this day ten years since its opening still gets few passengers.