May 22, 1017 CR Schedules

This thread documents changes to the CR schedules effective with the May 22, 2017 revision. Per the MBTA:

Spring 2017 Commuter Rail Schedules
Please note there are no schedule changes on the Lowell, Needham, Franklin, Fairmount, Middleboro/Lakeville, Kingston/Plymouth or Greenbush schedules. These schedules are only being re-printed without severe weather train designations.

OK, I'll start. On the Providence/Stoughton line:

• Train 806 (5:45am inbound from Providence) arrives at Ruggles, Back Bay, and South Station one minute later than previously.

• Train 820 (1:05pm inbound from Providence) leaves Providence through Sharon five minutes later, and makes all subsequent stops to South Station six minutes later than previously.

• Train 919 5:50pm outbound to Stoughton) arrives Hyde Park, Route 128, and Canton Junction one minute later, and Canton Center and Stoughton two minutes later than previously.

A handful of Rockburyport reverse-peak trains had their schedules lengthened and/or shifted by 1-2 minutes.

As the topic creator said, all I noticed on the Providence line was 820's departure time bumped up 5 minutes later (from 1:00 to 1:05). I assume this is to give an Amtrak ahead of it some breathing room? Seemed like this train operated late frequently.

For Fitchburg:

403 lengthened by 4 minutes
- added 1 minute between Waltham and Brandeis/Roberts (avoiding 408?)
- added 1 minute between Concord and W. Concord (reverse commute dwell?)
- added 1 minute between S. Acton and Littleton (reverse commute dwell?)
- added 1 minute between Shirley and North Leominster (doubt it's reverse commute, is it padding, or allowing for PAS operations or... ?)
405 shifted 5 minutes later
412 shifted 5 minutes later (cf. 403)
409 shifted 5 minutes earlier, lengthened by 1 minute
- added 1 minute between Ayer and Shirley
411 shifted 15 minutes earlier, lengthened by 1 minute
- added 1 minute between Ayer and Shirley
418 lengthened by 2 minutes
- added 2 minutes between Brandeis/Roberts and Waltham (slack for the meet with 413 between Lincoln and Kendal Green?)
420 shifted up to 5 minutes earlier, lengthened by 2 minutes (cf. 411)
- added 2 minutes between Waltham and Belmont (avoiding 415?)
422 shifted up to 1 minute earlier, lengthened by 1 minute
- added 1 minute between Porter and BON

It looks like the deadhead from Boston to Worcester that turned into P552 is being combined with P585 into new P505 (Dp BOS 6:10).

P500 <- layover
P502 <- layover
P504 <- layover
P506 <- P501
P508 <- layover
P510 <- P503
P552 <- P505 (was deadhead from Boston)
P512 <- P507 (was P505)

]

Correct. The P500 equipment currently deadheads back to Worcester to become P552 (as 6501). After May 22, it will deadhead to Framingham as 6585 and turn to become P586.

I'll update my "Turn Table" sometime this week.

Dave

A nice addition to the new schedules (at least on Lowell which is the only one I've seen so far):

Quiet Car: The coach closest to the locomotive on all weekday peak hour trains will be designated as the cell phone free and brief/quiet conversation location.

Yup, It's on the Newburyport / Rockport schedule as well.

Though, I still swear most people still don't know that there is a quiet car or care.

It really depends on the conductor. For example, on the regular train I take home from work, the conductor makes 2 to 3 announcments reminding everyone about the quiet car. He also mentions to any on their phone or talking as he checks fairs.

However, on other trains I take with diffrent conductors, there is no reminder and it's like the quiet car does not exist. Especially in the morning.