Tag Archives: commuter rail

More comments on the MBTA’s capital plan

Since my last post, the state legislature has gotten down to work in earnest on the FY23 budget, but unfortunately I have not had time to do a dive into the Senate version of the budget before the logrolling started … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the B&M New Hampshire Main Line/MBTA Lowell Line

As I’ve neared the end of this series of posts, I’ve gotten a bit better at procrastinating, so most of the photos this post is based on (see the associated photo gallery) were taken a month ago now, and I’m … Continue reading

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Automatic generation and validation of train schedules

Passenger railroads throughout the world have mechanisms to generate timetables for both service and capital planning purposes. The way I’ve done this in the past is with the Mk. 1 eyeball: you come up with a schedule, maybe draw some stringline … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Old Colony Railroad (MBTA Kingston and Middleboro Lines)

Of all the passenger routes bringing commuters from Boston’s suburbs into the city, none were hit quite so hard by the automobile age as those of the former Old Colony Railroad. The construction of the Route 3 and Route 24 … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the B&M Western Route/MBTA Haverhill Line

It’s been nearly two weeks since I took this trip on a windy Saturday in March, and since that time I’ve seen nearly all of the remaining stations in the MBTA system, so if I’m a little hazy on the … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Eastern Route/MBTA Newburyport Line

Attention conservation notice: another 3,000 words about an MBTA commuter rail line and its stations, which could easily have been 5,000 words if I hadn’t gotten tired of writing and skimped on the exposition towards the end. Already more photos … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Franklin Line

It’s getting on nine days since I actually did most of this travel, and in the mean time I’ve also seen stations on three other lines (although one of them has historic connections to this one), so I’ll at least … Continue reading

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Weekend mini-excursion: Stations of various south-side lines

I had hoped to publish my thoughts about the Franklin Line by now, but photo editing took a bit longer than usual, and I wanted to wait anyway for a sunny day when I could go out and get pictures … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Greenbush line

Well, after two very opinionated posts about the two next-nearest MBTA rail lines to me, what could I say about the Greenbush Line? Turns out, there isn’t very much to say. The Greenbush Line is, strictly speaking, the newest MBTA … Continue reading

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Needham Line

This is the first of three posts about MBTA commuter-rail stations I went to see on the weekend of March 13–14: on Saturday I saw all of the Needham and Greenbush lines, and then on Sunday I saw nearly all … Continue reading

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