Worcester Service to Boston "Heart to Hub"

Not so "express" anymore: Telegram.com

Express train from Worcester to Boston? Not so fast

WORCESTER — The trip to and from Boston for commuters will take longer soon, with the latest schedule changes on the Worcester/Framingham commuter rail line to include more stops.

Effective Monday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportaton Authority's Heart to Hub express train will have added stops between Worcester and West Natick, adding to the trip time.

The new schedule also changes morning and evening departure times from Union Station and South Station.
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Currently, the 6:30 a.m. train from Worcester makes one stop at Framingham before going directly to Lansdowne station in Boston, arriving at 7:24. The new schedule’s additional stops will add on as much as half an hour to the commute.
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The article is a little misleading. It's not an adjustment to the express schedule, it's a replacement by a regular local schedule. My understanding is that ridership on the express has been anemic at best, so it makes sense to try to attract some more riders by switching to a local service pattern. The final sentence is an outright lie, as it adds 16 minutes to the trip time, not half an hour.

As of 1965 after the completion of the MassPike, there was one Worcester express round trip (plus a second
westbound only express), with a 65 minute running time (60 outbound). Stops were Framingham, Newtonville and Back Bay.

Today's express actually has a faster running time than 1965!

HenryAlan wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 8:54 am The article is a little misleading. It's not an adjustment to the express schedule, it's a replacement by a regular local schedule. My understanding is that ridership on the express has been anemic at best, so it makes sense to try to attract some more riders by switching to a local service pattern. The final sentence is an outright lie, as it adds 16 minutes to the trip time, not half an hour.

While the piece is sensationalized doom and gloom garbage, where that sentence was written intentionally to mislead people, what they meant was that it adds up to half an hour roundtrip as the outbound express/semi-express is now a local as well.

As a former rider of the original heart to hub(before the added Framingham stop), and before that a rider of 508/523 I have so many mixed feelings about the loss of the current incarnation of heart to hub.

I said many times, both in person, on this forum, Worcester City Govt and MBTA CR management positions who I'd known, that the a sub hour commute with original is a game changer for 50% of the 508/523 riders from Worcester, but they were missing the other 50% by having it so late in the morning and evening. That Worcester could boom if they'd give it the 508/523 slot.

Worcester is booming because of remote/hybrid work, and because of that there's no need for that train anymore. If work ever goes back to five days a week in office for the majority of Boston employers, I think it'll come back, and hopefully in tandem with upgrades for east west rail that'll get the average speed above 65mph and trip time down below 50 min.

In order to have Local "milk run" service, "express" service and Interurban or Limited service coexist on the same line, they need to fix the infrastructure!!! High level platform at BBY. Fix the three Newton stations, and the Wellesley stations, so that trains can use both tracks!!! Dedicated tracks at BOS for Framingham / Worcester Line, "midday" layover tracks at Beacon Park so that Framingham / Worcester Line trains don't have to cross over the NEC to reach a yard. Add more crossovers and flexible blocks. Add Station tracks so that express trains can overtake the local trains. Very little of this is happening on the Framingham / Worcester Line.

Powered trainline doors. Charliecard 2.0 integration, conductors with portable terminals, proof of payment systems at stations, such as machines that debit the ticket & issue timed seat tags. Rounding out the proof of payment system with RFID/camera passenger counters at the train doors.

No disagreement here. The existing infrastructure on the line corresponds to demand 30 years ago, not the demand from 5 years ago and even not the demand now. There's some hope, Natick got it's new station after all, but there's historically been at turns ambivalence and opposition to improvements in Wellesley and Newton(eg the fence saga at Wellesley farms and the current state of the Newton Stations). It'd be nice if the T used a stick in addition to a carrot to rebuild those stations, but sometimes those towns act like they'd rather see the line put out of service than have anything change.

I don't know about the Wellesley stations, but Newton wants their stations rebuilt with access to both tracks. There was resistance to the stupid plan to rebuild only the Auburndale station for ADA access for millions of dollars but only one platform. Touting the handicapped access yet providing about 3 HP spaces. Meanwhile the bridges crossing the Mass Turnpike have sidewalks that are unsafe for wheelchairs (too much slope and rather narrow sidewalks).

Since the Mass Turnpike Authoritys' Turnpike Extension caused these problems, 100% of the state costs should come from the Metropolitan Highway fund.

Newtonville can probably be fixed by putting in a center platform, and moving the southernmost track to where the platform is now. The bridge piers are in the way, but Newtonville's platform is excessively long, and a Boston Landing sized platform would totally fit with plenty of space for the tracks to come back together where the bridge piers are. Elevated walkways or Boston Landing style bridge/towers would be needed to exit the station.

West Newton is a little tricker, but the space is much wider. They may be able to move the tracks apart a little and have a narrower (than Newtonville) center platform. If not, then the abutment to the north can easily be cleared and a side platform installed.

Auburndale is another ridiculously long platform that can probably be replaced with a shorter center platform, with elevated walkways or Boston Landing style bridge/towers to exit the station.

Given there's no regular freight service east of Framingham (except for the temporary Beacon Park dirty dirt removal activity), I would hope that any new platforms at Newton and Wellesley would be high level platforms to shorten station dwell.

I'm of the opinion that center platforms at the existing three Newton stations are not practical. Replacing Mass Pike bridges would cost more than the extra elevators required for side platforms. I'm sure full-high platforms would be required, with platform heaters to melt snow and full awning covers. Maybe they can use ramps for Track 1 with only one elevator? And there might be enough room in Auburndale for ramps for Track 2. Track 1 platform, they should be able to emergency evacuate by climbing onto the embankments, Track 2 evacuation zone should be easy in Auburndale. Auburndale is curvy making platform design hard.

Auburndale would most definitely need to move east onto straight track to be converted to high-level. Also possible the other stations might shift a bit to accommodate larger high-level platforms.

All in all not a bad thing, as in some cases the old station may be able to remain in service while the new one is built.

The real opportunity to redo the Newton stations would be to both add high levels that allow for bi-directional service, and to take a clean sheet approach to their locations. West Newton is an absolute dumpster fire of a location and should be removed (I know, that's a live wire that'll never get touched), Auburndale and West Newton could be moved to locations that would be cheaper to construct. Maybe even pick locations where the ROW could be expanded north to fit in a passing track, then you open up the opportunity to mix express and local trains inside 128.

Is that last bit a pipe dream, sure, but the lack of ROW inside 128 is what really kills the potential of the line.

Given Auburndale’s proximity to Riverside, is it even needed anymore?

My potentially hot take is yes. If you're commuting from Auburndale to Fenway, Back Bay or even DTX, the commuter rail will be at least 20 min faster than taking the green line from Riverside. Yes CR is more expensive, but the 2020 median income for all the census tracks in that part of newton is >$100k, so I'm going to call the $9.20 in fare difference a minimal consideration for a lot of those folks.

If the T wanted to improve green line operations to reduce the travel times on the D and get that difference in travel time down to 10 min or less, that'd make a really good case for eliminating Auburndale and maybe even Newtonville.