Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Issues on the Haverhill Commuter Rail Line are Similar to the Worcester-Framingham and Franklin Lines

From last week's North edition of The Boston Globe, an article about the issues on the Haverhill commuter rail line.

Even though the Haverhill line goes into North Station, the issues sound really similar to the same ones that plague the Worcester-Framingham and Franklin lines. These issues include:
  • Lack of consistent collection of fares.
  • Difficulty in getting on/off the train - passengers are sometimes limited to only using a few of the train's doors.
What did the MBCR have to say in regards to the fare situation:

When notified of the complaint, Mass. Bay Commuter Rail spokesman Scott Farmelant said, "An operations manager has been alerted to the concern. The performance of the train crew will be observed to ensure that fare collection is completed."

Maybe the MBCR/MBTA needs to monitor all of the commuter rail trains. Revenue collection should be a priority.

Train Rider returns to the United States tomorrow. If all goes well, Train Rider should be back riding the rails this Friday.

3 comments:

DJHeini said...

Hi Train Rider/Commute-a-Holic. The blog is still great.

I just wanted to give you a heads up and suggest that you might want to write a post about the changes to the Framingham/Worcester line schedule next week. Because of the poor on-time record of our line, the Commuter Rail is adjusting the schedule to better reflect how long it takes to get to Boston. It looks like they are adjusting (at least some of) the inbound trains to leave earlier instead of arrive later. For example the P508 will be leaving Grafton at 7:09AM instead of the current 7:19AM.

I have no idea how well the T will publicize this (I only went to look when I read a small blurb about upcoming changes), so I figured I'd give you and hopefully your other readers a head's up.

You can find the new schedule on the MBCR's site.

AJ said...

I was actually going to give you guys a heads up about the new schedule as well. Incase Train Rider doesn't hit the rails on Friday, it's a Saturday schedule on President's Day (Monday) and then the new RIDICULOUS schedules on Tuesday! Hoo-ray for the MBTA!

Commute-a-holic said...

DJHeini and AJ,

Thanks for the update. Today's snowstorm/rain made me late for work and I was late in posting about the commuter rail schedule changes.

Train Rider is supposed to be in the air somewhere and should be in Massachusetts tomorrow. The plan is to return to the office on Friday. I know Train Rider does have the President's Day holiday off.

But I agree - it is really stupid to be implementing a new schedule the Tuesday after a holiday.

I also wonder if this schedule change will "improve" the February on-time performance stats. Even with the time adjustment, it still appears that there is something wrong with the Worcester-Framingham line.

Thanks for visiting!

Commute-a-holic