Proposed Revised CR Schedules for 2016

[dbperry]

Printed schedules were being handed out to deboarding passengers at South Station, Back Bay, and North Station this morning according to rider reports via Twitter.

Schedules are also available at the South Station information desk and presumably at Back Bay and North Station also.

[octr202]

The purple vests handing out schedules were in such concentration at North Station when I got off 200 this morning, I thought I was going to need to show my pass again.

[Komarovsky]

Printed schedules were being handed out to deboarding passengers at South Station, Back Bay, and North Station this morning according to rider reports via Twitter.

Schedules are also available at the South Station information desk and presumably at Back Bay and North Station also.

Got mine this morning at Back Bay and this evening they had 2 people handing them out at the bottom of the stairs.

[Diverging Route]

Overhead this morning at the door to 1/2 at BON after 352 had platformed:

Purple Vest #1 to Purple Vest #2: "This is the train from Anderson. Hand them the Lowell schedule."
Purple Vest #2 to Purple Vest #1: "Why? Don't we have any Anderson schedules?"

SMH.

[Rockingham Racer]

Overhead this morning at the door to 1/2 at BON after 352 had platformed:

Purple Vest #1 to Purple Vest #2: "This is the train from Anderson. Hand them the Lowell schedule."
Purple Vest #2 to Purple Vest #1: "Why? Don't we have any Anderson schedules?"

SMH.

Two words. Oh boy..

[dbperry]

I guess I know I've hit the big time when the MASSDOT Media Relations office sends me media advisories...got this on Friday in my inbox...

For Immediate Release:
May 20, 2016

MEDIA ADVISORY: Monday, May 23

Inaugural HeartToHub Nonstop Train Service
7:15am Worcester Event
9:07am Boston Event

Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Congressman James McGovern, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, and Worcester’s elected and civic leaders to launch inaugural “Heart To Hub” train

Lt. Governor Karyn Polito will be joined by other dignitariies on Monday, May 23, for the inaugural ride on “Heart to Hub,” the first nonstop train service between Worcester and Boston. Media events will be held at Worcester’s Union Station and upon arrival at Boston’s South Station.

Non-stop weekday service between Worcester-Boston begins on May 23. The train’s nonstop service results in a net savings of time of approximately 30 minutes for riders. When service begins on May 23, a train will depart Worcester on weekdays at 8:05 a.m. and will make stops at Yawkey Way, Back Bay, and South Station. On weekday evenings, the Boston-Worcester nonstop train will depart South Station at 7:35 p.m., stopping at Back Bay and Yawkey Stations and then arriving in Worcester at 8:40 p.m.

Monday, May 23, 2016:

Who: Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Congressman James McGovern, Secretary Stephanie Pollack, local elected and MBTA/MassDOT officials, business leaders

What: Celebrating the Launch of the HeartToHub Nonstop Train Service between Worcester and Boston
When: Monday, May 23: Worcester media availability, Union Station, 7:15am. The Heart to Hub train leaves for Boston at 8:05 am.
Monday, May 23: Boston media availability, South Station, train arrives at 9:07 am, media availability at 9:15am
Where: Union Station, 34 Washington Square, Worcester. South Station is located at 700 Atlantic Avenue in Boston.

[Komarovsky]

The Heart2Hub set is a set of 5 flats and a 46, guess they're either planning on more ridership on the inaugural run or that 3 car set never passed testing.

I recognized several fellow 508 riders this morning, as well as lots of Worcester folks I know. Should be interesting to see how the makeup changes or stays the same over time.

Edit: Apparently fare is fair is not applicable to press, government officials and those connected with them, at least in car 623.

[octr202]

Just to interrupt the Worcester fun with Northside stuff, but so far kind of hard to tell how it's going as the data feed powering Stefan's tracker (http://sites.harvard.edu/~wuensch/T/com ... l-map.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) was offline until just now.

Lowell was hit hard, 306 took a 25-30 min delay in/out of the station due to signal problems. T alert said it was expressed, no doubt because 308 was right on its markers.

[chrisf]

I rode in on Needham train 606. It was 6 flats, all filled to standing room only; train 604 was apparently equally jam packed. The 606 was on time to Forest Hills but was trailing another train so was 10 minutes late by the time it got to Ruggles. I got on at Forest Hills and nobody checked a fare. It seems like nobody at Keolis has any idea what sort of ridership is on their trains, based on what I'm seeing on Twitter this morning.

[johnpbarlow]

The Heart2Hub set is a set of 4 flats and a 46, guess they're either planning on more ridership on the inaugural run or that 3 car set never passed testing.

I recognized several fellow 508 riders this morning, as well as lots of Worcester folks I know. Should be interesting to see how the makeup changes or stays the same over time.

Edit: Apparently fare is fair is not applicable to press, government officials and those connected with them, at least in car 623.

That's good that the T didn't commit an entire 7-8 car train for the initial phase of this non-stop run. I'm guessing this train will be adequate for many non-peak midday runs as well. Will this shorty express consist concept be expanded to other rush hour routes? Or is there insufficient capacity at South Station to do so?

[MBTA F40PH-2C 1050]

3 car sets did not pass the testing phase, and a question was asked a few pages back about train sets, Southside had 41 operating sets this morning. An interesting note as well, there is an entire set of 500's-----1075-522-509-516-526-1529 and one four car set

[GP40MC1118]

Some of those MBB's came up from Rochester this weekend. The 1075 was brought out
of BET last night to the Southside by the "Fuel Crew" after dropping off the 1052.

D

[BandA]

"HeartToHub" train - avg scheduled speed 48MPH from Worcester to Yawkey. That's way too slow for a non-stop run!!!

vs. 33MPH for the 7:30 local that skips the Newtons.

Another problem not mentioned here is the archaic road network in Worcester. It can take 45 minutes at rush hour to travel the 15 miles from the hill towns over state highways that were designed about 1930 just to get to the train station. It (only!) takes a tedious (and dangerous) 2:00+ to go around Worcester and drive in on the Taxxachusetts Turnpike, or just an hour+ to get to Hartford.

[leviramsey]

"HeartToHub" train - avg scheduled speed 48MPH from Worcester to Yawkey. That's way too slow for a non-stop run!!!

To be fair, it's scheduled faster than the Lake Shore Limited, which only stops in Framingham between Worcester and Back Bay (though no small part of that is padding for delays further west), and the Framingham stop shouldn't add too much to the LSL's run time (I noticed a longer dwell than MBTA norm, but being in a 30 mph section of track, the braking/acceleration penalty is minimal.

[johnpbarlow]

FWIW, a commenter to today's Worcester Gazette article about the first heart2hub train operation said only about 40 patrons rode the outbound train Monday.