Surprise, Surprise (well, not really)

Today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette ran an article about how the Worcester-Framingham line had the worst performance out of all the commuter rail lines in 2007.

Shocker!!

Well, not really. As a commuter on this line, I do not find this shocking or surprising. I've lived through the delays this year.

Just for the month of November 2007 alone, while all the other lines had 69% on-time performance (which is pretty bad), the Worcester-Framingham line experienced a dismal 57% on-time performance rate.

Thus far in 2007, the Worcester-Framingham line has had an on-time performance rate of 78%. In 2005 and 2006 the on-time performance rate was 86%. Yikes!!

A MBCR spokesperson gave the following quote: "Historically the Framingham-Worcester line has performed the worst and continues to perform well below the overall system."

Unfortunately for those of us who rely on this line to commute into Boston, weekday peak ridership on the Worcester-Framingham line continues to increase. Nearly 11,000 commuters took the train in October 2007 (10,991 to be exact), while in May 2005 10,094 commuters were on this line. I'm sure the increase in gas prices and the fact that the auto traffic into Boston is horrific are two main reasons why more people are commuting by train. I know that the $250 pass (for the Grafton stop at least) isn't what is drawing people to the commuter rail.

The Worcester-Framingham line is one of the best used lines in the Commuter Rail system. I love how the citizens who actually use the train and rely on this service (for lack of other options) are being forced to endure pretty poor service.

The blame game continues. During most of 2007, CSX has been replacing 33,000 rail tires on the Worcester-Boston line. The maintenance work was supposed to be done at night, so commuters weren't impacted. But for whatever reason, the worked backed up into the daylight hours, impacting commuters.

A CSX has this to say about the maintenance work: ""This was major work. We did almost all of this work at night. Normally when we do maintenance work like this - heavy work where you are replacing a lot of rail and thousands of crossties - it's work that you do during the day."

Excuses, excuses.

Supposedly the maintenance work was completed on October 12th. So if the maintenance worked finished almost two months ago, why was the November on-time performance so dismally bad?

The alphabet organizations (CSX, MBCR, MBTA) meet several times a week to "determine" the causes of the delays. No one will say what exactly is causing the delays. Wow - talk about a waste of time. I know if I had to meet several times a week on a work matter that wasn't resolved, I would be pretty upset.

If the on-time performance rate is supposed to be at 95% and the Worcester line has never really done better than an 83% on-time performance rate, why won't someone figure out why the performance is so bad?

Central Massachusetts cities and towns should be up in arms about this poor performance rate. With the declining cost of housing in Massachusetts, why would someone move to Central Massachusetts if they could purchase a comparable house somewhere else in the state? So often I see real estate ads touting a home's proximity to a commuter rail station (whether the home is near the Worcester, Grafton, Westborough or Southborough station) as a key selling point.

If commuter rail service continues to perform as poorly as it did in 2007 and if real estate prices continue to drop, Central Massachusetts could be severely impacted.

I want to see the government officials in Worcester, Millbury, Grafton, Shrewsbury, Sutton, Westborough, Southborough, Hopkinton, Upton, and Northbridge come together to force some changes for the Worcester-Framingham line. The success of the Central Mass. region is dependent on a sound commuter rail service.