Keolis to introduce new schedules by 11/1/15

Rockingham Racer wrote:This is all well and good, but one must wonder why this particular line gets such good service compared to the others. Is there a lot of money out that way? A lot of political pull? Both?

The Worcester line has the 2nd highest ridership on the system, after the Providence line.

chrisf wrote:

Rockingham Racer wrote:This is all well and good, but one must wonder why this particular line gets such good service compared to the others. Is there a lot of money out that way? A lot of political pull? Both?

The Worcester line has the 2nd highest ridership on the system, after the Providence line.

That's a good reason. Just wondering.

Rockingham Racer wrote:

chrisf wrote:

Rockingham Racer wrote:This is all well and good, but one must wonder why this particular line gets such good service compared to the others. Is there a lot of money out that way? A lot of political pull? Both?

The Worcester line has the 2nd highest ridership on the system, after the Providence line.

That's a good reason. Just wondering.

And Providence line has some advantages and disadvantages that prevent it from getting the same 'tweaking' attention as Fram / Wor:

1) Higher track speed, so trip over same distance is already shorter.
2) Less stations closer to Boston. Also less total stations, and way less stations per mile.
3) Really no opportunity to setup 'leapfrog' moves due to heavy usage by both commuter rail and Amtrak. ('Leapfrog' is my term - having an express pass a local when both are travelling same direction (in or outbound).
4) Higher overall 'usage' esp. since parts of the Providence line 'feed' Stoughton, Franklin, and Needham lines.
5) Need to schedule commuter rail trips to stay out of the way of the Acela, which can do 150 mph on same stretches where commuter rail is not that fast.

Providence is approximately the same distance as Worcester, and Mansfield about the same (3 miles further) as Framingham. With the current schedule, AM peak travel times to South Station are:

Worcester: 99, 88, 102, 75, 99, 93
Providence: 73, 75, 72, 72, 64, 76, 77

Framingham: 55, 44, 58, 33, 55, 44, 55, 50, 55
Mansfield: 44, 45, 41, 41, 41, 32, 46, 48

So the Providence Line is already reaping the benefits of fast track speed and wide station spacing, with massive ridership (1000 to 2000+ riders per day) at every station from Route 128 to Providence. The Worcester Line has higher population density and arguably a worse highway (with few local exits); there is a massive ridership potential that faster and more reliable service can and will unlock.

my wild and probably inaccurate speculation on the Framingham Worcester bullet train and other schedule changes:

http://dbperry.weebly.com/blog/the-biza ... w-schedule" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dave

Somewhat related, but people talk about how there is growth opportunity on the Worcester line and a better schedule could facilitate it. However, for the first time I have ever seen, the parking lot at the Westborough station was completely full. I had to drive in today.

harshaw wrote:Somewhat related, but people talk about how there is growth opportunity on the Worcester line and a better schedule could facilitate it. However, for the first time I have ever seen, the parking lot at the Westborough station was completely full. I had to drive in today.

Time to build a multi-level!

harshaw wrote:Somewhat related, but people talk about how there is growth opportunity on the Worcester line and a better schedule could facilitate it. However, for the first time I have ever seen, the parking lot at the Westborough station was completely full. I had to drive in today.

Westborough and Southborough are always higly utilized, vs Grafton and Ashland which always have quite a lot of capacity it seems.

Rockingham Racer wrote:

harshaw wrote:Somewhat related, but people talk about how there is growth opportunity on the Worcester line and a better schedule could facilitate it. However, for the first time I have ever seen, the parking lot at the Westborough station was completely full. I had to drive in today.

Time to build a multi-level!

''

The thing is, the Westborough station is basically at the intersection of Shrewsbury, Northborough, and Westborough on a pretty deserted road. Of course, on the very wide access road there are tons of signs saying no parking. Go figure.

The actual entire draft new Framingham Worcester schedule is available on my blog. Along with my 2 cents, of course:

http://dbperry.weebly.com/blog/new-draf ... -available" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dave

Thanks for posting that. The more I look at it, the more I can't help but think that MassDOT and the MBTA were pressured into the "Worcester Bullet" concept, and the long lead time on the announcement is simply to get enough cold water poured on the idea by folks outside, in order to quietly do something more useful with the train.

The biggest problem I have with this schedule is that there is a *GIANT* gap between 510 and 512.

There is a 90 minute gap between trains. I don't know about other people, but the period of time between 8-9 AM is a pretty prime commuting time.

I can't help but imagine that the "Bullet" is really intended to fill that gap, once the bullet concept is shown the door.

and a 7:40 PM bullet? Has anyone who put this schedule together ever used this line?

Outbound Rush hour is clearly from 4PM until around 6:30. A late express is useless.

An off-peak express is useless as a commuter train. But it's possibly useful as more of an intercityish train.

Consider a hypothetical intercity service on the B&A: South Station - Back Bay - Framingham - Worcester (perhaps also with room for a Riverside stop as a counterpart to RTE, especially if it becomes viable somehow to change to/from the green line). The only change I'd make to the "bullet" trains is to add Framingham as a stop.