Getting Beaten to the Punch and My Commute Updates

Commute-a-holic - you beat me to the punch regarding the CSX line maintenance announcement!

First, before I recap my latest commutes, I want to comment about next week's maintenance work.

Wow. I'm stunned by today's announcement that CSX is going to initiate track work on the Worcester-Framingham line this Sunday.

This is absolutely ridiculous that they can announce this a week ahead of time and expect there to be no uproar. How are they able to make an announcement like this five days before the work begins? While I understand that a majority of the work will take place during non-peak commutes, who determined what is a peak time? Call me silly, but there are a lot of riders taking the 7:15 p.m. (P533) train out of South Station. So we're just poor unfortunately souls who have to work "non-peak" hours at our jobs?

I give Amtrak some credit in announcing their maintenance work, scheduled for June, so far in advance. Amtrak made their announcement last Thursday - months in advance.

I thought CSX, the MBCR and the MBTA met "regularly" to discuss the issues plaguing the Worcester-Framingham line. What do they do at these discussions - figure out what they're going to have for lunch or chat about the last night's Patriots/Celtics/Red Sox/Bruins game?

Let the blog complaints begin!

Last night's commute was fine. I took the P527 which leaves at 5:35 p.m. out of South Station. This is the local train. Got to Grafton at 6:59 p.m., so almost right on time (the "on-time" arrival to Grafton is 6:58 p.m.).

I didn't ride the rails this morning. I drove in because I missed my train (the P508) and I would have been late to work if I waited for the next one. And thanks to the "new" MBTA/MBCR schedule for the Worcester line, if I miss the P508, the next train doesn't depart the Grafton station until 7:49 a.m. (the P512) , arriving into South Station at 9:08 a.m. I would be over 40 minutes late to work if I had waited. With my company's new work hours policy, I'm trying to be a good doobie and get to work right on time.

There is nothing better than driving on the Pike into Boston on a raining morning!! Better than what, you can only imagine. Sarcasm can serve a purpose, right?