Train Rider Didn't Miss the P508

Train Rider is in a car heading home, maybe still in downtown Boston, maybe on the Mass Pike. In any event, Train Rider is driving home, wishing the commute home was on the MBCR Commuter Rail line, not on the Mass Pike.

BUT maybe Train Rider will be happy that today's commute was a forced drive on the Mass Pike. Since the "Manic Monday" post was first added today around 1:26 p.m. EDT, six comments have come in. All with updates about what really happened this morning.

Today was the first day of the "new" Worcester-Framingham line commuter rail schedule. There was a ton of press coverage. The Lt. Governor supposedly even took the train into Boston. Yet, the train was delayed. The P508 that Train Rider "missed" wasn't even the P508 running 5 minutes late. It was the P506 running about 20 minutes behind!! Good grief. I guess it certainly was a Manic Monday commute.

Thanks to everyone who shared an update with us.

Not a Surprise

Train Rider has been tied up with some corporate training initiatives so hasn't had a chance to post. Tomorrow I know Train Rider will be out of town on a business trip.

Yesterday The Milford Daily News published a follow-up to last week's article about the Draper Mill complex. State Senator Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) has warned that the extension probably won't happen anytime soon.

"Given the MBTA's current financial problems and their long list of existing priorities before extending commuter rail, a study funded by the T is probably not something that will be well-received in the short term," he wrote.

In other news, Switchback posted yesterday about the staircase at the T's Park Street station. The staircase, on the outbound side of the Park Street station, is expected to cost $1.4 million. Geesh!

USA Today's Travel blog ran a piece today about business travelers using Amtrak. The take-away: Amtrak is great if you're traveling on the East Coast, especially on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, DC. But in Northern California and in other parts of the country, the service could be better.

On the subject of Amtrak, today's The Boston Globe reports on the Acela train. More cars may be added because Amtrak is out of capacity. Ridership on the Acela has climbed 7.7% in the first ten months of fiscal year 2008. The Acela contributed to Amtrak's total rider gain of 11% nationwide. A ticket surcharge may be added to cover the new cars. USA Today reported that rail advocates want the US to look into developing more train projects.

Along the Line - Worcester Haunts

This is an off-transportation post about fun things "along the line" so to speak. Of course, I'm speaking about things along the Worcester-Framingham commuter rail line. Feel free to contribute some suggestions.

I live in the 'burbs, the Worcester suburbs. Worcester has changed a lot - I think it is a much better city today than it was back in the 1980s. There is a good vibe in the city and a lot of wonderful places to go out for a bite to eat. I know Train Rider and I have both waxed poetic about The Corner Grille.

Earlier this summer, Train Stopping received a comment about KJ Baaron's (I think Grafton Train Rider left it, but I don't know for sure).

KJ Baaron's is a fun wine & spirit shop located at 220 Summer Street in Worcester, directly across the rotary from Union Station. They host periodic tastings for things beyond just wine, including a Monday night Whiskey Witch whiskey tasting. If you come off the train some night and you want to try something interesting, go into KJ Baaron's. I don't think it will disappoint.

At tonight's Whiskey Witch tasting, KJ Baaron's was also featuring cupcakes made by The Sugar Girls. Sugar Girls is new . . . so new they don't have a website. They may not need a website because their cupcakes are that good. Yes. The cupcakes Are. That. Good. Utterly amazing. I'm having a small party in a few weeks and I will be ordering some cupcakes from the Sugar Girls. The flavors are out of this world and I really should know, as I consider myself a connoisseur of the cupcake. If you're interested in ordering cupcakes, they can be reached at sugargirlcupacakes AT yahoo.com.

Rounding out some downtown Worcester fun, we capped off our evening at Armsby Abbey. This place was fantastic. It is only a few weeks old and it was opened by the team who operates The Dive Bar on Green Street. Armsby Abbey has an extensive menu of artisan beverages, not just artisan beers but artisan spirits too. And the food menu features locally grown produce. The place, located at 144 North Main Street (so there is a lot of available street parking) is a really great joint. Amazing atmosphere, great service, a fantastic menu, and great cocktails. Check it out - especially after a bad commute, Armsby Abbey will make you smile.

So that's it for the first Along the Line post. We'll be covering other haunts that we like.

When Gas Gets Expensive, Americans Use Public Transportation

So it looks like our first heat wave of 2008 might have broken. It feels a lot better today than it has over the past few days.

How did everyone's commutes go last night in the horrendous heat?

Due to a post-work meeting tonight, Train Rider did not take the commuter rail into Boston this morning.

At the risk of dating myself, I would like to reference the 1992 movie "Singles." In this movie, about a bunch of 20-somethings living in Seattle in the early 90s, actor Campbell Scott portrayed Steve Dunne. Steve worked as a transportation architect and he was pitching the idea of adding a monorail line to the city of Seattle. The city decided they didn't want to add a monorail line.

Now if "Singles" were real life and Seattle still decided to pass on funding a monorail line in the early 1990s, I bet if they could roll back the clock and fund it now, they would. Because guess what, Americans not only want mass transit, they're using it. And our municipalities are having a tough time funding our transportation systems and keeping up with the demands of new riders.

With the rising cost of gas, it seems like public transportation is becoming an emerging issue. Too bad so many metropolitan areas never made public transportation an important service. That is probably because tax payers didn't see the need to fund it. MSNBC ran an interesting article this morning about "Jammed transit systems running on fumes."

Boston/Massachusetts was mentioned in this article.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, mass transit ridership is at its highest point in 50 years. Why? It has become too expensive to drive. This is a trend that is happening coast-to-coast. For the first three months of 2008, Americans took 85 million more trips via bus, subway, commuter rail, and light train rail than during the same period in 2007.

The American Public Transportation Association is concerned that our nation's public transportation systems may not be handle the rising amount of passengers.

While some metropolitan areas have been investing in their public transportation infrastructure, other areas have not. Now that there is an increased demand for public transportation, the infrastructure to provide it might not be there.

“We’re seeing it in a lot of other metropolitan areas where there just [aren’t] viable transit options — places like Indianapolis, Orlando or Raleigh,” said Robert Puentes, a transportation and urban planning scholar with the Brookings Institution, a public policy association in Washington. “They haven’t put the money into it. They haven’t put the resources into it.”

“There are major challenges in most of the older, established transit systems, places like New York or Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston — places that are really starting to show their age,” he said.

The article even mentioned that Washington, DC's Metro system (which I think is one of the best transit systems in this country), is one of the systems showing its age.

For the first time since 1980, the number of miles driven last year fell. This is the point of public transportation - to get cars off the roads.

The rising cost of gas can impact public transit in another way beyond more additional riders. Many transit systems are funded through gasoline taxes. If fewer drivers are filling up, that could mean less money for transportation systems. Some states are increasing their gas tax to help fund their public transit operations. Plus, with more riders, it costs more money to fuel the buses, trains, etc. that the public is using.

It all adds up to a conundrum for government officials — high fuel prices send passengers to mass transit but drive down tax revenue and strain fuel budgets.

Answers aren’t expected any time soon, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. He added:

“We need a dramatically different energy policy for our country, and that’s not going to happen overnight.”

Wow!

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day. Riding the rails is one way to help save resources and cut down on car traffic.

Train Rider did not ride the rails today. Instead, Train Rider had to fly to an out-of-town meeting. So we do not have any updates about the MBTA/MBCR commuter rail. And neither does the traditional media/blogsphere - there is nary a story today.

I hope everyone gets to enjoy this lovely spring day. Usually it rains on Earth Day.

Happy Commuting.

No Updates Today

Hello.

Train Rider is on a business trip, so there aren't any MBTA/MBCR Worcester-Framingham commuter rail updates today.

Also, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of news about the MBTA, MBCR or commuter rail in genereal.

Cheers!

Commute-a-holic

Wormtown Taxi and I'm From Worcester

Commute-a-holic and I would like to thank Jeff of the Wormtown Taxi blog and Claudia Snell of I'm From Worcester each individually recognized Train Stopping on their "excellent blogs" list.

Wormtown Taxi said the following about Train Stopping in the "Excellent Blogulation" post:

Commute-a-holic and Train Rider tell it like it really is in the Train Stopping blog. You can read about the Worcester to Boston commuter rail PR in the T&G, but when you read this blog you find out what's actually going on.

I'm From Worcester made the following comments:

TrainStopping
Oh my... this one made me totally re-think my previous thinking about possibly using the commuter rail to get to Boston for work. I'm not loving the Pike but it doesn't look like the train will cure everything either. Great information and much more realistic than stuff written by folks that don't actually use the thing.

Thanks Jeff and Claudia!

Train Rider

North Grafton Commuter Rail Rider's "Letter to the Editor" Published in Today's Boston Globe.

Is this any way to run a railroad? is the title of North Grafton resident Alex Edleman's excellent letter to The Boston Globe editorial board. Alex - Train Rider would not have been able to articulate any better your concise argument about the "new" MBTA schedule that became effective today for the Worcester-Framingham line.

Here is the letter in it's entirety:

I WOULD like to congratulate the MBTA on raising government-think to a level even the old Soviet bureaucracy would be proud of ("T Tweaks a train schedule to reflect reality: Says added minutes are due to longer stops," City & Region, Feb. 13). Instead of working to fix the problem of habitually tardy trains on the Worcester/ Framingham line, the T decided to extend the scheduled arrival times, and in essence pretend to have reliable service. This is analogous to turning up the volume on your car radio whenever the engine makes a strange noise. But for T executives, appearing to solve the problem is just as good as solving it.

In a year, no one will remember this little con, and the T management will congratulate themselves for achieving a 95 percent on-time performance - at which point they will promptly raise the fares. Bravo, comrades!
ALEX EDELMAN, North Grafton

The Globe also published a letter written by Doug Tillberg of Somerville who is the Director of the Association for Public Transportation. This was also an excellent letter addressing the issues surrounding the MBCR. Here is Doug's letter:

SOMETHING WAS missing from the article about the MBTA's decision to relax some commuter train schedules to account for the chronic tardiness of its contractor, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. Since as early as 2004, Mass. Bay Commuter has paid penalties in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for its consistent inability to run on time.

Now we see a crude fix for the problem: Train performance will not change; the scheduled time will.

The decision raises questions. Among them: Will the contractor, Mass. Bay Commuter, receive a windfall from avoided late-train penalties?

Particularly in light of the MBTA's distressed financial condition, perhaps the contractor should not receive an effective monetary reward for failing to abide by existing schedules.
DOUG TILLBERG, Somerville
The writer is a director of the Association for Public Transportation.

Alex and Doug - well done!!

Train Rider and I encourage commuters who are not satisfied with the new Worcester-Framingham commuter rail schedule to write letters to their local newspapers, their elected officials, the MBTA, and the MBCR. If you're shy - just post an "anonymous" commute here to the Train Stopping blog. The noise needs to continue - the MBTA and the MBCR should not be "congratulated" for implementing a "realistic" schedule. These entities - designed to serve the public commuters - need to work with CSX to design a truly "realistic" schedule that meets the needs of commuters who rely on the commuter rail as a form of transportation.

I found the "Starts & Stops" column that Train Rider mentioned yesterday. The Boston Globe's "Starts & Stops" column is published on Sunday's. It can be found online at http://boston.com/starts. Worcester-Framingham commuter Rail rider Christina O'Neil contacted "Starts & Stops" regarding the new WiFi available on the this commuter rail line. Christina's comments, published in the Sunday, February 17 issue of The Globe, can be found below:

Christina O'Neill was excited when the MBTA announced last month that it launched a free wireless Internet program on her commuter line from Worcester to Boston. She spends nearly three hours a day on the train and likes to get a jump start on work.

But O'Neill has not been able to log on for long, even when she finds a train with a Wi-Fi sticker identifying it as a wireless carrier.

"Consistently, I can't get connected until around Wellesley," about an hour into her 90 minute inbound trip, she said.

O'Neill has been checking every day, and asking her neighbors, but the system has been sluggish even when it works, she reported in a series of e-mails.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority says riders should expect some bugs as the project remains in its pilot phase. General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said in an e-mail that the vast majority of the 90 people who have e-mailed the T have been successful connecting. Other data gathered by the T shows 1,407 different visitors have logged on for an average of 32 minutes.

If you have a Wi-Fi problem or a suggestion, and want to e-mail the T, be sure to include the coach number, the date, time, and a full description of the issue. (wifipilot@mbta.com).

If you have a complaint, comment or story idea related to transportation issues, contact starts@globe.com.

I am sure that Train Rider will have an update about the first commute on the "new" schedule.

Thank you!
Commute-a-holic

New Worcester-Framingham Commuter Rail Schedule Finally Posted to MBTA.com

I'm back from my extended business trip.

Thank you to all the Train Stopping visitors who shared their commuter rail experiences and insights over the past two weeks.

I noticed that the new Worcester-Framingham commuter rail schedule, effective on Tuesday, February 18th, was finally posted to the MBTA.com website. It was posted as a PDF.

My observations:

• Funny - the 7:19 a.m. (P508) inbound train will now leave Grafton at 7:09 a.m. and apparently will arrive at South Station at 8:23 a.m. Um, 1 minute earlier than the old schedule? That's such a change!!
• The P512, which now departs Grafton at 7:49 a.m., still departs Grafton at 7:49 a.m. but will now get to South Station at 9:08 a.m. as opposed to 9:00 a.m. Huh?
• At night, the outbound P523 now leaves at 4:58 p.m. It's new departure time is 5:00 p.m. and it will arrive to Grafton at 6:05 p.m. the 5:30 p.m. (P527 - the local train that stops at every stop) will now leave at 5:35 p.m. and won't arrive to Grafton until 6:58 p.m. The 6:05 p.m. (P529) will now depart at 6:15 p.m. and it is supposed to get to Grafton at 7:20 p.m.

This is crap. Sorry for the harsh language, but this new schedule is crap.

The onus is on the riders now. We really need to let our voices be heard to let the Governor, the MBTA, the MBCR, and our state and local elected officials that this new schedule is not acceptable.

Why should the Worcester-Framingham line be a second rate line?

Train Rider is back and I'm ready to for some action. I would like to thank Commute-a-holic for maintaining the blog in my absence.

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.

MBTA/MBCR Commuter Rail News from the Websphere

Train Rider missed an article that ran in the January 31st issue of The Boston Globe about commuters who are using the real-time alerts to help them cope with late commuter rail trains.

I know Train Rider has mentioned this blog before, but Dave of The Franklin Line does a great job posting updates about late trains and other comical situations he encounters as a MBTA/MBCR commuter rail rider on the Franklin commuter rail train. Dave and fellow Franklin line commuters are even Twittering about their commutes. So if you ride the Franklin line, you may want to follow Dave and company's Tweets.

Another blog about the Franklin commuter rail line that is worth checking out is Charlie on the Commuter Rail. The Franklin line sounds about as much fun as the Worcester-Framingham line.

Train Stopping has received some great comments during Train Rider's absence.

AJ recommends that MBTA chief Dan Grabauskas get an apartment in the Worcester area and start commuting into Boston on the Worcester-Framingham line. Train Rider picked a good week to be away on an extended business trip. The P527 train on Monday night ran 20 minutes late and the P508 train on Tuesday morning didn't have heat.

Anonymous gave some props for Train Rider's response from the MBCR.

Anonymous (could be the same person or a different person) felt that the MBTA/MBCR conductors need to collect fares. Fare collection could be a way for the T to get out of their fiscal deficit.

Bon Voyage Train Rider, Train Vestible Photo

Train Rider is off on a business trip.

In Train Rider's absence, I will be posting news articles and comments from MBTA/MBCR commuter rail riders.

I received an image taken of the vestible of the 707 train from the p508 inbound commuter rail. This photograph was taken by Mike (usally a Franklin Line guy) this morning. He said that "there had to be 20 people standing in that tight space." That is probably way too close for comfort.

Mike also said "at least the train was on time." I guess we have to be thankful for the little things when riding the rails.

Train Stopping Blog Update

I am going to be traveling out of the country for a few weeks on an extended business trip. Tomorrow will be my last day riding the commuter rail trains until I return in mid-February.

Since I am dedicated to this blog and because I'm going to be in a time zone that essentially puts me almost a day ahead of EST time, a friend of mine who loves to stay abreast on a medley of current events, will be posting news or blog articles about the MBTA/MBCR/Commuter Rail trains during my absence.

Watch for submissions from Commute-a-holic. Commute-a-holic once rode the Worcester-Framingham commuter rail line into Boston, so we have a person sympathetic to the travesties of daily commuter rail commuting in our corner. However, during my absence it would be fantastic if everyone could provide updates on what is happening (commuting wise) on the commuter rail lines.

Thanks!

Train Rider