Some Commuter Rail Riders Will Face Longer Waits, Slower Rides During World Cup

The MBTA’s plans to run 14 dedicated express trains between downtown Boston and Foxboro during World Cup matches will come at the expense of reduced service on nearly every other commuter rail line, according to a new World Cup service announcement the MBTA issued on Monday.

The MBTA is planning to operate 14 express trains between South Station and Boston Stadium in Foxborough on seven match days this summer to transport up to 20,000 soccer fans to the stadium and back to the city.

Those service plans are going to tie up a significant portion of the MBTA’s commuter rail equipment: roughly 15 percent of the MBTA’s active diesel locomotives, and roughly one-third of the T’s bi-level passenger coach cars.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that six of the seven scheduled matches at Boston Stadium this summer will take place on weekday afternoons and evenings, overlapping with the MBTA’s typical evening rush hours.

Last week, the Healey administration and the MBTA announced a series of summer fare promotions, including fare-free Fridays and half-price monthly passes, for the commuter rail system.

On Monday, the other shoe dropped.

The MBTA is planning to run reduced commuter rail schedules not only for the 7 World Cup match days, but for the entire 5-week period between Monday, June 8 and Sunday, July 12.

Some of the most impactful changes include:

• On the Fall River/New Bedford lines, the T will suspend the East Taunton shuttle trains where riders can typically transfer across the platform to access New Bedford or Fall River. From June 8 to July 12, the T will only run direct trains, alternating between each branch. This will reduce the number of daily trains to Fall River’s and New Bedford’s stations by half.
• On the Fairmount Line, waits between trains will get considerably longer. Today’s schedule generally has trains arriving every 30 minutes, but during the five weeks of the World Cup, trains will arrive hourly. On match days, there will be no Fairmount Line service to Readville, and Fairmount trains will turn around at Fairmount station instead.
• The Worcester Line will also get reduced service on the six weekday match days, with no express service between Worcester and Boston.
• On the Haverhill Line, most trains beginning or ending at Reading will be canceled for the five weeks between June 8 and July 12.
• On the Newburyport/Rockport Line, the T is cancelling trains that begin or end at Beverly for the five weeks between June 8 and July 12.
• On the Needham Line, trains will be reduced to depart every two hours during the middle of the day on most weekdays from June 8 to July 12. There will be no weekend service on June 13-14.
• The Stoughton branch of the Providence Line will not operate at all on match days; instead, shuttle buses will connect riders from Stoughton to the Providence main line at Canton Junction. Additionally, most Providence Line trains will make extra stops between Canton Junction and Hyde Park on World Cup match days.

Specific train schedules are not yet available, but the T expects to finalize and publish timetables later this month or by early May.

In the meantime, the T is putting thousands of tickets on sale for the first five matches at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8. Information on service to Foxboro can be found at MBTA.com/WorldCup, and information on commuter rail service impacts around the rest of the system will be posted on mbta.com/service-changes/service-changes-during-the-world-cup.