Southcoast Rail

I honestly feel like the south coast is going to be a repeat of wickford junction expansion and won’t be successful at bringing in lots of new riders. Let’s look at it this way, the frequency will be terrible just like the current middleboro schedule is now, most is single track, except for certain points like myrick junction, and it’s all zone 8 which for some, will be expensive vs commuting by car. I still think phase 2 would have been much better. Not only is the stoughton line frequency a little better, but it makes major Boston stops such as ruggles and back bay. Middleboro doesn’t except for jfk for the school folks. Most of south coast rail where there is a second track is for csx and mass coastal. Let me know if you disagree with anything that I said.

Whats so terrible about the current Middleboro schedule? Trains come by my house almost every half hour.

Because during peak hours it's still limited to every hour. Lots of single track with small passing sidings every so often as well as the single track in Braintree, part of Quincy and near JFK/UMASS where all 3 lines merge. I've tried to make a "fan-made" schedule for the old colony a few weeks ago and i had to give up

Add that with the fact that the schedule will most likely alternate in a pattern in which one train going to Fall River, and the next goes to New Bedford, which will mean that all the stations beyond East Taunton will only see a train every 2 hours.

Unless the middleboro line sees more trains, I don’t see south coast being any success with new riders.

And it’s practically impossible to add trains to the Middleboro line, unless you start doing regular short turns at Braintree.

Another great point about the 90s and 2000s MBTA planning

Wicked, that’s exactly why I’m saying that the middleboro extension to two branches will end up in total failure. It’s this same schedule split onto 2 branches. That means during peak, each branch would get a train about every 2 hours. 1 hour for everything before the split. This is just my opinion and not stated as a fact.

Failure might be strong. But the service won’t meet its full potential until the swamp routing is implemented and done correctly.

The idea of having additional trains (perhaps every other train) short turning at Braintree might not be a bad idea to at least try. It’s still suboptimal since the Red Line takes 45 minutes and the train takes 20 minutes from Braintree to South Station and most commuters coming from the South Coast aren’t going to stops within that zone, but that double track ain’t going in for another 5-10 years if ever.

double tracking really should be a high priority project rn...

East Taunton is an island platform. Presumably shuttles could be run between there and the southern cities (probably alternating so that nobody feels slighted). Train 1 goes to Fall River with a New Bedford shuttle, train 3 goes to NB with a FR shuttle, train 5 goes to FR with a NB shuttle, etc. While transferring isn't ideal, it would double the overall service frequency to each city.

Commuterrail1050 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 7:15 pm Wicked, that’s exactly why I’m saying that the middleboro extension to two branches will end up in total failure. It’s this same schedule split onto 2 branches. That means during peak, each branch would get a train about every 2 hours. 1 hour for everything before the split. This is just my opinion and not stated as a fact.

How are you calculating a limit of one train/hour on the line between Middleboro and Boston? Looking at the track diagram, there are passing sidings (which can be used at full passenger train speeds) about every 5 miles all the way between Boston and East Bridgewater. Even the section between Braintree and Boston could manage three trains/hour in each direction with a meet as they cross over the Neponset River.

The track between Boston and Braintree already handles six trains per hour (three in each direction), an inbound and outbound for each Old Colony branch. With five or six miles of single track between Boston and Braintree, that’s about all it can handle.

MBTAVideoClips wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 11:19 am double tracking really should be a high priority project rn...

They could solve the Dorchester issue relatively easily, if they cared.

Quincy would be a mess, and it would cost a fortune. The T can’t afford to keep the system as-is running, never mind take on what would be a 10-figure project to add extra trackage in Quincy.

I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt I’ll see the double tracking in my lifetime.