The Morning After Lester's No-Hitter

How exciting that Jon Lester threw the Red Sox's first no-hitter by a lefty pitcher in 52 years. Amazing, huh? What's even more amazing - I was supposed to go to last night's game. But a severely sore throat caused me to go home and watch the game on NECN like most of the other Red Sox nation fans. While I'm disappointed I wasn't at the game, at least my sore throat is now just a plain head cold. I wanted to make sure I am well for the Memorial Day weekend.

This morning, to mix things up a bit, I took the P512 in from Grafton. This train departs Grafton at 7:49 a.m. and we arrived to South Station at 9:06 a.m., about two minutes ahead of schedule.

Thanks to my head cold, I had to visit my doctor yesterday. Since I am now working on the waterfront, I had to take the Silver Line into South Station. As I was walking through South Station, I saw that the April 2008 on-time performance stats were posted. The Worcester-Framingham line on-time performance stat last month was roughly 90.38%. This was slightly lower than the March 2008 performance. If either Commute-a-holic or I receive the MBCR's on-time performance stats, we'll post them to the blog.

In other transportation-related news, it sure seems like I-93 will eventually have toll roads added. According to this article from today's The Boston Globe, the top transportation official in the state has said that he would like to look at tolls as a way to raise revenue to maintain the state's major roads. Perhaps because I live west of Boston and may be a bit biased because I need to use the Pike to travel through much of Massachusetts, why should the Pike be the only major toll road? It sure seems like the North Shore and South Shore residents receive a "free ride" for using the highways. On the other hand, I can't even fathom how they would incorporate toll booths anywhere on 93. Can you say "traffic cluster f*ck?"

Yesterday's Standard-Times published an article yesterday on the increase use of the Middleboro Commuter Rail Line, especially at the Lakeville station. This increase is being attributed to the high cost of gas and the challenge of driving on Route 24 into Boston.

Finally, a press release posted last week to the MBTA's website has photos of the new commuter rail cars with the new bike cages. The T is also looking to perhaps expand the times for when commuters are allowed to take their bikes on the subway. Commute-a-holic just returned from a trip to Ottawa, ONT Canada. Ottawa encourages commuters to travel by bicycle by providing bike racks and bike trails throughout the city. Biking is a great way to conserve resources and stay in shape.