Railway Age: Massachusetts Studies Post-COVID Work and Travel

Pretty interesting article. I feel that commuter rail will eventually make a comeback with more vaccinations. The floor is open.

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/co ... annel=news

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts on July 13 released a report on work and travel patterns, along with other issues, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 82-page study, “Preparing for the Future of Work,” addresses what work could look like in Massachusetts in both the near term (to 2025) and the longer term (to 2030), as well as “what the implications might be for the Commonwealth and its residents across its regions, economic sectors, commercial centers, local downtowns, transportation, and public spaces.”

On April 5, new schedules went into effect on the MBTA rail system that began the move toward a “regional rail” approach. Summer schedules, which took effect on June 28, completed the transition. There is a lot of good news for riders on the T’s trains to and from the suburbs in the schedules, but that could change in the future, according to the report.

The term “commuter rail” has become a misnomer in Boston. The schedules now in effect have not only reversed the service cuts that hit the system last year, but provide the most robust weekday service on the region’s rail lines in recent memory—possibly the most frequent off-peak service ever. In essence, the Boston area no longer even has “peak-commuter” service. The standard on most lines is hourly service throughout the day in both directions, although some lines have a train running every 75 or 90 minutes during mid-day, with service less frequent during the evening. As examples, MBTA’s Fairmount Line to Dorchester runs the most frequently, every 45 minutes, up from pre-COVID hourly service. The last trains of the day leave North or South Station at or about 11:00 PM, early by New York City (NJ Transit, Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North) standards, but not by those prevailing in Beantown.

Cannot load that page in my browser. Here is the link to the explanation of what it is https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito- ... s-findings and a link to the actual report, which should be in the public domain: https://www.mass.gov/doc/future-of-work ... t/download