Commuter Rail To Millis and Milford

[wicked]

Globe West also had an article today about this:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/region ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cosmo]

Then all is truly lost.
*sigh*

[MBTA1016]

109 will continue to remain a mess at medfield center during rush hour even with a ROW right there.

[GP40MC1118]

Actually Tresca got cement cars in 2012 and this year, plus there was one dimensional
load that was brought in.

D

[atlantis]

109 will continue to remain a mess at medfield center during rush hour even with a ROW right there.

GOOD! hopefully those areas will choke in traffic and when they start whining about traffic and air pollution, they can be reminded about their decision to veto the rail line. This may sound harsh, but at least in a democracy, people get (for the most part anyway) what they deserve!

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Oh, Millis was always for it bigtime. They're the ones who get screwed here. And Medfield was indifferent more than it was opposed thanks to the presence of the always-active Framingham Secondary still keeping their future passenger options in-hand (with potentially better station placement than Medfield Jct.). They just didn't see the urgency. Needham is pro-rail, but simply didn't have any skin in the game because they have service at Needham Jct. and the last restoration proposal wouldn't have restored the tiny pre-'67 Charles River intermediate stop way out in the woods. So this was all driven by the trail scammers and the same Dover NIMBY's who wanted service gone way back when it was still running 4 decades ago. The precedent set by this is awful. The NIMBY's ran totally roughshod over the ROW from Day 1, and couldn't have been any more obvious about broadcasting their intent to salt over the ROW. And now they're stabbing their own trail lobby in the back NIMBY'ing that. The ease with which they got away with it and were enabled by their local Legislators is scary, and emboldens every other spoiled-brat little 'burb in the state that much further. The wag-the-dog effect is out of control.


Unfortunately it now makes no sense to run a branch to Millis off Walpole Jct. via the Framingham Secondary to try to give them some token rail service. That leg of the wye misses the Walpole platform altogether, and getting to Medfield Jct. then Millis requires a few miles of very inefficient backtracking on track that lacks the geometry to ever go that fast (unlike the much more direct and grade crossing-few lower Framingham Sec. to Foxboro). There's an MPO study about better bus connections from Medway and Millis to Norfolk station via Route 115. That's probably the only viable way to improve their transit access. For Medfield a bus down Route 27 to Walpole is their best option, since the long-term passenger potential and schedule practicality of running a Franklin-Worcester connecting branch on the upper Framingham Sec. is negligible at best.


And, really, it no longer makes sense to hold the Needham Line open for future restoration now. A Millis branch wouldn't have solved the NEC congestion that's leaving the Needham Line odd man out on any meaningful service increases. A far, far greater audience gets far, far better served doing the Orange + Green extensions they were supposed to have done decades ago.

[madcrow]

And, really, it no longer makes sense to hold the Needham Line open for future restoration now. A Millis branch wouldn't have solved the NEC congestion that's leaving the Needham Line odd man out on any meaningful service increases. A far, far greater audience gets far, far better served doing the Orange + Green extensions they were supposed to have done decades ago.

Yep. I'm not convinced that Orange Line service would fly with the people of West Roxbory or Needham, though. A branch off the Green Line taking over the whole line would probably be policitally more popular than the Orange Line, though it would be operationally "odd", to say the least. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if, thirty or forty years from now, trolleys would be running to Arborway again: by way of Needham.

[MBTA1016]

109 will continue to remain a mess at medfield center during rush hour even with a ROW right there.

GOOD! hopefully those areas will choke in traffic and when they start whining about traffic and air pollution, they can be reminded about their decision to veto the rail line. This may sound harsh, but at least in a democracy, people get (for the most part anyway) what they deserve!

Agreed lol.

[BandA]

And, really, it no longer makes sense to hold the Needham Line open for future restoration now. A Millis branch wouldn't have solved the NEC congestion that's leaving the Needham Line odd man out on any meaningful service increases. A far, far greater audience gets far, far better served doing the Orange + Green extensions they were supposed to have done decades ago.

[OT] If you are going to extend the Orange Line to Needham, how about converting Highland Branch to Orange line service, recreating the Needham Loop.

In order to make this work, outer platforms at Kenmore converted to Orange or platforms extended creating partial high level for boarding the different types of equipment. Hynes stop (whatever they call it these days) would be modified too. Then duck under the pike to connect to a new Back Bay lower level. All Orange line service would be to this lower level, freeing existing platform for additional NEC tracks.

[highgreen215]

Yep. I'm not convinced that Orange Line service would fly with the people of West Roxbory or Needham, though. A branch off the Green Line taking over the whole line would probably be policitally more popular than the Orange Line, though it would be operationally "odd", to say the least. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if, thirty or forty years from now, trolleys would be running to Arborway again: by way of Needham.

Sure, with a connection to the Orange Line at Forest Hills. Then another connection at Arborway with the new Silver Line RAIL that will run down Washington Street all the way to the airport - using the new tunnel in downtown Boston, of course. Hey, this dreaming really is fun, isn't it?

[BigUglyCat]

Hey, this dreaming really is fun, isn't it?

"Well, maybe I like daydreaming. The payments are lower." --Philip Eliot (Nick Nolte) in North Dallas Forty

[dohertyk3]

You know paving doesn't necessarily mean the idea of Millis to Boston train service through Needham is completely and irreversibly dead.

While it is completely disheartening to learn the Doverites "are too good for train service" by paving the section before Medfield they will be kicking themselves in the butt in the future. Traffic from Millis through Dover is exceptionally bad, at times actually worse in the morning than Rt. 109 to Rt. 128. They will begin complaining; and once they do then it will be an issue. Would you rather see a huge line of cars on the roads in the morning not moving, or a train moving mostly through wooded areas not seen to the naked eye for most of the trip?

If I had big bucks and won the lotto I'd turn this around in a heartbeat!

Train service to Millis would make our town more attractive, property values go up, and solve a lot of traffic problem THROUGH DOVER TO BOSTON, and THROUGH RT. 109 T0 BOSTON.

Now with the Framingham secondary rail being bought by the MBTA on June 17th 2015 from Framingham to Mansfield there is some slight hope. There is already talks of passenger service to start between 2016 and 2017. Plus we have the Cape Flyer now with trips from Boston to Hyannis. I have used the Cape Flyer several times and it is really convenient!!! Service to Wickford, RI from Boston has also been restored as well as train service to Wachusett. New Bedford reconnection in the works.

Make it happen people!!!

[johnpbarlow]

Topic bump: Wayne Johnson captured a number of photos of an MBTA "Geometry Extra" inspection train that ran to Milford on September 11, 2016. Consist included Amtrak's Corridor Clipper.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... rder=new99
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... rder=new99
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... rder=new99

Any idea what this activity was about?

[BostonUrbEx]

Pretty sure they go to Milford every year when they're testing the Franklin Line. A couple days later they went all the way into Plaistow NH and the next day out to Westminster or beyond.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

One of the conditions of the 1988 lease with Conrail on the Milford Branch for the Forge Park extension was taking on share of maint responsibilities for the whole branch. That's why their geo train and not CSX's handles the scheduled inspections.