Framingham/Worcester Line Questions

Q: when PTC & cab signals are implemented between CP-21 Framingham and Boston (CP-Cove?), will the existing intermediate signals be removed?

johnpbarlow wrote:Q: when PTC & cab signals are implemented between CP-21 Framingham and Boston (CP-Cove?), will the existing intermediate signals be removed?

Yes.

Gonna miss those "searchlight" signals. If they were planning to remove them, why did they repaint them?

Update on the Natick station redesign.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/ ... er-station" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That design should be finished next spring for a station that serves about 600 passengers each weekday, Pesaturo said. Work includes high-level platforms, elevators and ramps.

“Any public entity should be handicap accessible,” selectmen Chairwoman Amy Mistral said of the station.

The state, which will pay the $2.5 million cost, will also be picking up the tab for construction, which should be released in December when design completion reaches the 60 percent mark, Pesaturo said.

The design is 30 percent complete.

The Natick Center station design will also include a third track, according to Joshua Ostroff of the Natick Transportation Advisory Committee. A third track is called for in a $1.1 million study conducted by the state Department of Transportation to explore possible improvements on the Worcester Line, Pesaturo said.

Does anyone know what the configuration of the third track will be and what its impact on Worcester Line operations will be?

Okay, where can I look at the 30% design? $2.5M sounds too good to be true for elevators, ramps, high-level platforms and a third track. Can they do Auburndale, West Newton and Newtonville for $2.5M also??? Kthanks. Or is it $2.5M just for the design??

Is 600 daily passengers really "one of the busiest on the MBTA system?"

The $2.5m is for the design.

Hopefully the new Natick station will have a solution for the track flooding that occurs when a cloudburst occurs. Water tends to accumulate over the rails under the Main St bridge area in very heavy rainfall.

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/08/21/ ... es-delays/

BandA wrote:Okay, where can I look at the 30% design? $2.5M sounds too good to be true for elevators, ramps, high-level platforms and a third track. Can they do Auburndale, West Newton and Newtonville for $2.5M also??? Kthanks. Or is it $2.5M just for the design??

Is 600 daily passengers really "one of the busiest on the MBTA system?"

According to the 2014 Blue Book, Natick is the 15th busiest station and has 1,077 daily weekday boardings. Not sure where the data in the article came from.

The cost is just the design. And the 600 number probably comes from the 2012 CTPS counts, which show 558 inbound and 36 outbound boardings for a total of 594. It's a big difference in 2 years to go from 600 to almost 1100, so one (or both) of those numbers doesn't make sense. Either way the data is a little out of date.

Related to the Natick station work, the article mentions the design has a provision for a 3rd track. I've seen a 3rd track study for the line mentioned a few times, but have been unable to find it. Would love to see this when it comes out.

Potentially good news for T patrons at Worcester Union Station: http://www.telegram.com/news/20180928/m ... on-station

But if WUS platform design project is approved by MBTA, it wouldn't be completed until 2022

Good news for the new CP-6. As seen from the Mass Pike: the new gantries are still sitting on the ground, but have C boards installed. So a signal system upgrade is in the work to add cab signals (and upgrade to 562 territory) east of Framingham is coming.

I'm confused, why do you need signal gantries for cab signals where there are no wayside signals? When are they retiring the wayside signals?

Wayside signals remain at Control Points to permit dispatchers to run trains with non-functioning cab signals. But all the intermediate non-controlled signals are removed. Net: if a train’s cab signals fail en route, the space between CPs is treated as a single block for controlling the movement of the affected train. That is, between CPs there can’t be a train ahead of the one operating without cab signaling.

99%+ of the locomotives will have functioning cab signals, so loss of many wayside signals won't matter most of the time.