Tag Archives: commuter rail

Restoring passenger service to the Agricultural Branch

Posted on 2018-10-15 by

I’ve written here a few times in the past about the prospect, under Regional Rail, of operating passenger service on the former Agricultural Branch Railroad through Framingham. Twitter user @h100gfld convinced me to take another look, and I identified a … Continue reading →

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Next steps for Regional Rail

Posted on 2018-10-04 by

At the October 1 meeting of the MBTA’s Fiscal & Management Control Board, there was an extended discussion of capital investment planning. The presenter, in the capital projects department, noted that in past years, the MBTA had been unable to … Continue reading →

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Service delivery standards for Regional Rail

Posted on 2018-10-01 by

Relax, this is not going to be another 2,500-word opus, just a few thoughts on how the MBTA’s service delivery standards need to change for Regional Rail. The Regional Rail concept encompasses a significantly expanded rail service over existing MBTA … Continue reading →

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The cost of implementing Regional Rail

Posted on 2018-09-26 by

I just finished watching the video replay of Monday’s MBTA control board meeting, which was mostly about buses and bus drivers, and I found very little notable about it other than the fact that the MBTA’s Chief Engineer hates catenary, … Continue reading →

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Tying up the past week’s Twitter threads on (you guessed it) transportation

Posted on 2018-09-23 by

I guess I’m a transportation blogger now, which was certainly not my intent, but here we are. Last Monday, September 17, I took the day off from work and went to the joint MassDOT and MBTA board meeting at the … Continue reading →

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Transit funding for Massachusetts (and how to spend it)

Posted on 2018-09-06 by

Sorry folks, it’s going to be another long rant about public transportation in Massachusetts. I know this isn’t exactly what you signed up for, but it’s what you’re going to get until I manage to write something else. As I … Continue reading →

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Coda: commuter-rail modeling and what’s next

Posted on 2018-08-15 by

Just about a year ago, I went to Worldcon 75 in Helsinki. Because Worldcon 76 in San Jose (which I’m not attending) is about to start, I was reminded that I still have a whole bunch more photos from Helsinki … Continue reading →

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More modeling for the Framingham/Worcester Line

Posted on 2018-08-13 by

In our last installment, I talked about how I wasted an entire weekend developing a not-very-good model of a way to make the commuter-rail line that serves my city suck less. Well, it’s been another nasty rainy weekend here in … Continue reading →

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In which I waste an entire weekend modeling one line of Regional Rail in AM peak

Posted on 2018-08-05 by

A draft of the MBTA’s “Focus 40” long-term plan was release on July 30, and I spent a little while reading it (it’s rather thin) and sending comments (both officially and on Twitter). If you’ve been reading this blog lately, … Continue reading →

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My comments on passenger rail infrastructure to MassDOT

Posted on 2018-02-28 by

The comment period for the State Rail Plan ends on Friday, the advocacy group TransitMatters just released their report on Regional Rail, and MassDOT is currently in the process of two separate planning exercises related to the MBTA and the … Continue reading →

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