Commuter rail ridership

My morning walk this morning brought me to Wellesley Farms commuter rail station, a place I used to go with my grandfather back in the 1960s to watch NYC Alcos pulling the commuter rail trans of the day.

I got to Wellesley Farms at quarter to eight on a Friday morning. There were only three cars in the parking lot, and no one on the platform waiting for the inbound train that showed up a few minutes later.

How many people are actually using MBTA commuter rail these days? I notice there is now plenty of traffic on the highways; are we seeing a permanent shift away from commuter rail?

right now, i think that any kind of public transportation looks a lot less safe than the family automobile when it comes to covid 19. will it be a permanent shift? Until things settle down and a working vaccine has proven its effectiveness, i don't think that people will willingly leave their cars any time soon. for those people who don't have a car and need daily transportation, i think they'll increasingly put on their masks, wash their hands, and take the risk.

i walk/drive past the Needham stations regularly, and the parking lots are 90-95% empty as are the platforms, so it's not like folks are walking.

Are they bothering to collect parking fees at commuter stations?

It's going to take time for commuting to return to pre-covid times. We could have a vaccine by the end of this year but it may be available to at risk individuals. I am not surprised that the Needham Stations aren't seeing many riders as with the rest of the MBTA commuter rail system. The Needham Line compares to NJT's Montclair-Boonton Line between Montclair State University and Newark Broad St where the stops are very close to each other with parking. However, many of the parking lots at the train stations in Montclair aren't owned by NJT. Much of the cars there are parked for purposes other than using trains. Like the MBTA commuter trains, since I started riding NJT trains again, I haven't seen many people using the trains to and from Montclair.

I rode to work on Needham train 7606 this morning (the 7:53 inbound.) One coach was closed off, and there was not more than 10 people on the upper level of the car I was riding by the time we got to Forest Hills. I came home on 7619, the 5:42, so a bit late for a peak train on a holiday weekend, and there were 2 other passengers on the top level of the coach where I rode. Ridership is definitely way, way below normal.

Given that many Boston-based employers are having their employees work from home well into 2021 (with the encouragement of Governor Baker), I think T commuter rail ridership will remain low for at least 6-12 months.

In an August 30 WBUR interview, MBTA's Steve Poftak said:

"Ridership is somewhere between 15 and 20%. But I would say it is very variable between mode. The bus and the Blue Line and the Ride are all at about 40% of the ridership that we had in late February. The the rest of the subway system — Red, Orange, and Green — is clustered around 20%, and then commuter rail and the ferry is down closer to 10% ridership."

And I think some companies who seem to be content with employees using Zoom etc to conduct business might permanently downsize their expensive downtown and suburban footprints. Net: commuter rail ridership may never attain pre-pandemic patronage. Here are a couple of excerpts from an early August survey of Boston area employers published in a Boston.com article a week ago:

The findings offer a glimpse at some of the long-term impacts the coronavirus pandemic may have on the workplace in the Bay State, with 47 percent of the employees at these companies anticipating continuing to work remotely even after a COVID-19 vaccine is in place.

and

Sixty percent of respondents indicated they are considering moving or allowing more work to be conducted out-of-state, and 54 percent said they are considering reducing their office space footprint. A mere 8 percent said they are considering moving a portion of their urban office space to a suburban location.

https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus ... ome-survey

Yet T management insists on operating full length commuter trains at pre-pandemic service levels, a major waste of public $ as well a putting wear and tear on expensive rolling stock assets. Perhaps T should simply replace the trains with buses for the foreseeable future to handle the small passenger loads.

No to buses during winter weather . Buses are too unpredictable.

Terrible ridership on the Fitchburg Route. Used to be cars parked along the north side of the track as well as next to the shelter. Now only a few cars parked next to the shelter. Very sad. We just opened a new CR garage in Ayer. They can't even fill in the limited free parking for Ayer residents. Plenty of rail trail parking though.

Same sparse parking on the extension to Wachusett. It took years to bring up commuter rail. One wonders if it will ever come back.

The PowerPoint from the most recent FMCB meeting is telling.

https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/file ... anager.pdf

The chart on page 3 shows that ridership on the Commuter Rail network has been a steady 10% of normal for about the past two months.

The FMCB meets again on Monday so we should know more then.

I havent seen more then maybe 4 cars on the Holbrook side of the Holbrook/Randolph station since april

From everything from non political persons only. Donot believe any political peesons or appointees. It will be at least December 2021 before most persons will be able to get a vaccine shot. That is if a workable vaccine is developed and the virus does not mutate into a specis that a vaccine will not help persoons who get the mutated virus.

I don't think it is going to take that long to get the vaccine; multiple candidates are in stage 3 trials right now, and they have ordered manufacturing even before testing is done, which is unprecedented. The companies that get their vaccines out first will get the most orders & make the most money, so that is their private-sector motivation.

On WBUR This morning they were talking about MBTA service cuts, most likely targeting more affluent areas where car ownership is assumed to be more universal.

That almost certainly means commuter rail cuts.

FMCB presentation from this morning indicated that peak ridership is 7% of normal, off-peak 11% of normal. November 2 service changes are adding service overall, and pushing a lot of peak service to fill midday gaps. Providence gets 60-minute all-day headways, Fairmount 45, Brockton 60-70, Lynn 30.

There is an article on boston.com discussing proposed MBTA service cuts, including commuter rail:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/ ... oronavirus

A chart about 40% down the page is telling: the Fitchburg, Greenbush, and Haverhill lines have only 8% of their pre-Covid ridership, and the Needham line is down to 12%.