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I've been riding the commuter rail on the Worcester line 1-2 days a week during the Pandemic. As more people go back into Boston what's seems to be clear is that the commuter rail isn't running well in many dimensions. 1) Most times my fare is not collected. I get when trains are packed this is hard...

The delays are the worst I have ever seen. Over 90 minutes late.

In my line of work we write "corrections of error" when things don't work out operationally. I suppose you can state the Keolis did an OK job today at the Pats parade given the large demand, but I'd like to see them talk about what worked and what didn't work.

As a daily rider I have a hypothesis that the schedule for semi-express trains could be tightened up *before* Boston Landing. It seems that the express and semi-express trains frequently slow down a couple of miles before Boston Landing. In the cases of trains that stop at Boston Landing, it seems t...

Framingham seems to have some interesting bike lockers. Not so in Ashland, Southborough, Westborough AFAIK.

The problem with raising rates is that they are aiming to steer people to where there are more spaces. There are no more spaces on the Worcester line, and all of the newer stations are in the middle of nowhere so it's not convienient to walk to them.

There seems to be a decent up tick in ridership on the Worcester line. Parking lots are at capacity. Ashland is almost completely full where it used to have 100+ empty spaces. Yet sadly the MBTA rates have gone up 350% since the 90's while we only have had a small increase in the gas tax. The uptick...

It has been reported that with the GC out of commission for quite a while (year+?), that cars requiring maintenance on the south side must go worcester-fitchburg-BEW. We've also been seeing on the south side shorter sets and general delays with less trains, smaller trainsets, etc, presumably because...

That's great. But you know, trees grow, especially towards sunlight. If you really want to protect lines you burying them. Our electrical infrastructure is so error prone in New England because of above ground lines. On a right of way with a straight and clear access , using trenching equipment seem...

Well, by having these poles & wires above ground these will be the first things that fail when we have trees fall on the right of way. And after last year, we can guarantee that will happen.

It looks like some of the PTC work being done involved on the worcester line involves putting up wood poles at various places. It looks a bit.... dated

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/14/who-driving-your-commuter-train-likely-someone-with-wreck-record/sLRyElPMFvZqDoe6Je8YFI/story.html The article discusses that many Keolis engineers have a poor driving record based on DMV data. The implication is that poor driving would lead to poor safet...

South station is a mess because of "Amtrak signal" issues. I am sure this is covered elsewhere, but wondering why the MBTA can't take over the signaling here - it seems to be a colossal failure point.

It was confirmed that Keolis / MBTA has increased the speed limit on several sections of the Worcester line to 70 mph. This was enabled by the improvements to the track and is part of their effort to increase on time performance (duh?). In any case, it sounds like they are continuing to tweak things...

to be very specific: For a long long time there was single track through beacon yard. There was no track 1 between the switch after yawkey and around the Boston Landing area. With the Boston Landing development track one was extended through beacon yard. And then a new switch was recently completed ...