End of the Week Commutes on the Worcester MBTA/MBCR Commuter Rail

TGIF!

Due to an extra early work meeting, this morning I took the P502 train which departs Grafton at 5:57 a.m. This is an express train from West Natick and it stops at Yawkey. My usual train, the P508, is express from Natick and bypasses Yawkey. I think we arrived into South Station at around 7:14 a.m., but it was really early and I'm not sure if I was really awake. The "on-time" arrival for this train is 7:12 a.m., so I don't know why it would be a few minutes late so early in the morning.

Last night, something was going on at South Station. The Fairview-Readmont trains were all out of whack and canceled due to "mechanical" issues. There were MOBS of people at the station. I think this may have been related to the unfortunate Acela train accident. An Acela train heading from Providence to Boston hit workers who were inspecting the tracks yesterday afternoon. Two workers were Amtrak employees and a third worker was a contractor. One of the workers was killed.

My P529 train last night was on time leaving South Station. We were a bit delayed in our arrival to Grafton. I think we got to Grafton around 7:24, 5 minutes later than the "on-time" arrival time.

Grafton Train Rider sent me an email about a Boston.com article that Commute-a-h0lic and I missed. This was about the firing of the T's Chief Transportation Officer, MBTA Operations.

In next month's Southborough town meeting, the town will have a vote to decide if they want to spend $112,000 to spruce-up a park that was part of a parcel of land given to Southborough by the MBTA. The Boston Globe reported on this yesterday.

The debate about the South Coast commuter rail line continues. Today's The Sun Chronicle published an article about a new proposal to improve bus service. Some elected officials think that improved bus service makes a lot more fiscal and general sense than just extending the commuter rail line, especially when the state doesn't have the money to extend the line. If the point is to get more commuters off the roads, perhaps buses are the way to go.