General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[F-Line to Dudley]

The Fairmount Line will have 26 trips on weekends. Notabily 30 minute headways are only from 9:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 1:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. On weekdays 30 minute headways from 6:15 to 10:15 a.m. and from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. There are 50 minute gaps in service on the Fairmount Line middays.

The headway gaps are likely for fitting in freight slots, since the late-morning off-peak is when the Readville yard-stocker job runs on the Franklin Line, with somewhat variable departure times from Walpole (depending on how much work the train has to do in Walpole Yard). The return trip runs in the mid-evening, also when the passenger headways are longer. There's even a couple slots in that period where trains turn at Fairmount and drop Readville altogether.

This is going to have to be a concession until the state moves forward with plans to relocate the Readville platform off the Franklin-Fairmount Connector and reconfigures the interlockings so the freights miss the new platform. You can't have the single-track Connector occupied by too many reversing passenger trains when CSX could be running at any point during that 3-hour midday period.

 

[TheRatmeister]

Schedule oddities:

• They've really ramped up the late night outbound "Get on this other line then change at X to the one you want" trains. Newburyport, Kingston, and Needham all have this now.
• Kingston has the privilege of the last inbound train doing that but with the RL at Braintree (I have no idea how to map this.)
• The weird Lynn/Swampscott morning outbound express is gone
• ...and has been replaced by a new weird two-thirds-of-Wellesley/Natick Sq morning outbound express
• A bunch of inbound (And only inbound?) Haverhill trains going via Wildcat and stopping at Anderson/Woburn
• A single Franklin Line train that runs non-stop over the Fairmount Line
• Some Fairmount Line trains short-turning at Fairmoun
• The first inbound Haverhill Line train starts at Lawrence, not Haverhill
• Forest Hills/Hyde Park stopping pattern is as bananas as ever

Formatting mistakes:

• Franklin Train #757 says "VIA FAIRMOUNT LINEE" lol
• Franklin/Foxboro also has the "Bikes Allowed" text in the wrong font
• Worcester Train #541 has its departure time from Ashland in bold
• Not new but the symbol for the high level platforms on the legend and by the trains doesn't match

 

[The EGE]

• All weekend Franklin trains will now run via Fairmount, with timed transfers with Providence trains at Readville. Transfers are timed for 7 minutes inbound and 9-16 minutes outbound. On weekdays, 6 IB and 4 OB also run over the Fairmount Line; all but 1 in each direction have timed transfers at Readville, but these are not indicated in the schedule.
• The last Needham inbound turns at Forest Hills for the next-to-last outbound. It then seems to run deadhead back to Forest Hills to become the last outbound. Why not run in service for that trip? I have no idea.
• Some of these late-night transfers make some sense for train positioning. Some don't. The last Newburyport train is particularly weird - it must deadhead from Newburyport to Salem.
• The South Attleboro service isn't great. IB at 4:23 am, 6:11 am, 7:21 am. OB trains leaving Boston at 2:20, 3:52, and 5:40.
• This may be the final Middleborough/Lakeville Line timetable. The next general timetable update is due in late October; it's still unclear whether South Coast Rail will open by then.

 

[Riverside]

David Perry, who, among other things, is the curator of the online archive of historical commuter rail schedules, and who ran a super fascinating blog about the Framingham/Worcester Line (from which I learned, among other things, about timetable turn tables) has been appointed Director of Commuter Ferry Services! (If you read this, Dave, congratulations!)

 

[TheRatmeister]

David Perry, who, among other things, is the curator of the online archive of historical commuter rail schedules, and who ran a super fascinating blog about the Framingham/Worcester Line (from which I learned, among other things, about timetable turn tables) has been appointed Director of Commuter Ferry Services! (If you read this, Dave, congratulations!)