The MBTA has set an opening date for its South Coast Rail project: pending final approval from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the agency will start running passenger trains to Fall River and New Bedford on Monday, March 24.
The effort to bring MBTA commuter rail service to those communities has lasted over three decades: planning for the project began way back in 1991, under former Republican Governor William Weld.
When the South Coast Rail project started construction in earnest in 2019, the T had predicted the service would start carrying passengers in late 2023. But challenges related to the pandemic delayed construction, and testing on the new tracks didn't begin until last summer.
“Six stations are complete, over 800 safety functions have been tested on the trains, and now operators are beginning to get ready to learn the routes,” said MBTA South Coast Rail Program Executive Karen Antion in a press release earlier this month.
The March ribbon-cutting will restore passenger rail service to the Bristol County cities of Taunton, Freetown, New Bedford, Middleboro, and Fall River for the first time in 65 years.
More service than initially planned
Under the T's initial service plans, the agency would have run 14 trains per weekday to New Bedford, plus 12 to the Fall River and Freetown branch.
Those service levels would have required waits of over an hour between trains in New Bedford and Fall River for most of the day.
Now that the project is nearing completion, though, the T is planning to offer considerably more service to both cities.
The T is now planning to run 32 daily trips on the line: Fall River will get 15 direct trains to and from Boston, and New Bedford will have 17.
Additionally, the T is planning a connecting shuttle service between East Taunton and Fall River or New Bedford, with cross-platform transfers at the East Taunton station, so that passengers in those cities can catch additional trains to or from Boston even when a direct train isn't available.
For instance, if you're at South Station in Boston and want to ride to New Bedford, but the next South Coast Rail train is going to Fall River instead, you'll be able to take that train to East Taunton, then transfer to a shuttle train to ride to your final destination.
At a public meeting earlier this month in Freetown, MBTA Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan said that trains would depart every 70 minutes on weekdays and every 2 hours on weekends.
