So, my commute last night was pretty much on time. The P529 departed South Station at 6:15 p.m. and I think we got to Grafton at 7:17 p.m. (scheduled arrival time 7:19 p.m.). That's not bad, especially since it was slushy outside. I heard it had been snowing in Central Mass earlier yesterday afternoon. By the time I was in my car, the snow had turned to rain and the roads were slushy at best.
This morning, the P508 departed Grafton at 7:09 a.m. and we were at Back Bay at 8:13 a.m. (scheduled arrival time of 8:17).
Sweet! Two on-time commutes ... knock on wood!
I know
Commute-a-holic wrote a post about this while I was away on my extended business trip. But since it is near the end of the end of the month (and because I was away when the article first came out), I would like to revisit something the Worcester
Telegram & Gazette wrote about on 2/5/2008. Plus, I noticed that the
T&G only keeps their articles live for 14 days.
The article was title "
On-time T trains pick up steam; Commuter service to Hub cuts delays." I found another site that appears to archive some of the
T&G articles.
Here are the things I would like to highlight (and again, sorry if this is repetitious):
In 2007, 66 percent of commuter trains on the Framingham-Worcester line arrived on time, according to the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., which runs the Commuter Rail for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
In 2006 and 2005, about 86 percent of trains on the Worcester line arrived on time. MBCR calls trains on time if they arrive within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time.
Officials could not pinpoint what caused delays to soar 20 percent last year, but blamed everything from bad weather and extensive track work to unproductive employees.
Over the last few months, on-time performance has improved for all rail commuters. Performance on the Worcester line, though still lagging behind the rest of the system, has improved from only 58 percent of trains arriving on time in November to 69 percent arriving on time in January.
CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan said CSX initiated the now-regular phone conversations between transportation officials to improve on-time performance on the Worcester line.
He declined to elaborate what has surfaced in those meetings and directed questions about any specific changes made to improve service to MBCR.
"The important thing is MBCR, the MBTA and CSX started meeting, basically, daily to review the performance of the trains," he said. "At that point the objective is to find out ... what the issues were. There were a lot of issues."
The Framingham-Worcester line stops 17 times from Union Station in Worcester and South Station in Boston. It is one of the best-traveled lines on the Commuter Rail, carrying more than 18,000 passengers each weekday.
I wonder what the February 2008 on-time performance stats for the Worcester line will be? Will the 29 days of February show an improvement over January 2008? I don't know, but we'll know in a few days.
