I mean even peak stops have one, two, or no people getting on/off. Absolutely not worth it in its current state. Mishawum gets more ridership and it doesn't receive any peak direction trains.
Of course with new development it might be popular. But I won't hold my breath.
The developer of the 1200 new apartments on the south side of the tracks is proposing to build a brand-new ADA station--to be called "Lynnport"--with 80 parking spots and a busway:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/busines...built-there/niWa9JzdRE8B9yHP2mb1mN/story.html. The only state expenses, which still have to be approved, are for construction and staging inside of the actual ROW property lines...basically just the platform slabs.
The trial with the existing River Works stop is just this quickie thing they're trying to fast-track once the site access is established, since the platform pour for "Lynnport" will probably be the very last thing done as all else (parking, busway) is site prep -related and being done in conjunction with the apartment construction. With the developer having so much of his own money on the line, "a" stop needs to be open for Day 1 his units go out for rent even if that stop is the crappy old River Works and not its ADA replacement. That's the primary rationale behind it: ensuring "a" stop even if the state drags its feet on doing its responsibilities within the ROW envelope for "the" ADA stop.
True demand isn't going to show itself in the trial opening, as what commuters from the neighborhood do stop by will have to go past a busy, dirty construction site to get there. It'll still be handfulls of passengers. But that's not really the point, much like going by anemic off-peak train counts isn't the point when trying to picture how RER service levels will work. There's going to be 1200 apartments fronting this thing, 5 bus routes passing in front (2 of them distended expresses to Downtown Crossing via the tunnels), and the thrust of the Lynn Harbor revitalization land directly across the Lynnway from this stop's access driveway. And that doesn't even count what's on the
other side, where if a second entrance were built to Bennett St. the whole THICK residential neighborhood near Market Square would get tied in, along with another 6 bus routes running down MA 107, and direct access to the Northern Strand Trail.
All of that is in the catchment, just needing *access* where there once was none. And off-peak frequencies that don't stink so badly it sends people back to their cars (stinky all-day frequencies less of a problem on Rockburyport than elsewhere, but obviously RER practices would be a huge assist here). A private developer is proposing to pay for all of it; it's not even a financial risk. As long as the state doesn't hopelessly screw it up by deferring the second entrance to the north off until some later century, there's nothing to hand-wring about it failing. The riders
will come. They're largely already there as this is a highly transit-dependent area by bus, and a whole lot more housing is going up. The ridership is there strong enough even if the Harbor revitalization sputters out.
For all intensive purposes this in its final form will be the replacement for the B&M West Lynn stop shifted west about 2000 ft. Think of it that way rather than as a lipstick job on what we've known for the last 40 years as River Works.
