Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about Rail

Easy commute, no place to live: the MTBA commuter rail station at West Hingham on the Greenbush Line.

Who’s Allowed to Live Near Transit?

By Christian MilNeil | Oct 21, 2020 | No Comments

Wellesley is the kind of place lots of people would love to call home – it’s got great schools, beautiful parks, and three commuter rail stations that give the town’s residents an easy 45-minute ride into downtown Boston. Unfortunately, Wellesley’s town government has enacted policies that make it almost impossible for ordinary people to move […]

An Amtrak train waits to depart from Springfield Union Station in January 2020. Photo by Trains in the Valley, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.

MassDOT Multiplies Ridership Forecasts, Narrows Alternatives for East-West Rail

By Christian MilNeil | Aug 5, 2020 | No Comments

The three remaining service options under study would upgrade and double-track an existing freight rail line between Worcester and Pittsfield to support between 7 and 9 round trips a day between Pittsfield and Boston, with travel times between Springfield and Boston reduced to under two hours.

Advocates say that these upgrades to the commuter rail network would allow trains to run every 15 to 30 minutes on most lines. Courtesy of TransitMatters.

TransitMatters Issues Detailed Game Plan for Regional Rail Upgrades

By Christian MilNeil | Jun 22, 2020 | 1 Comment

Advocates from TransitMatters have released a detailed, $2.6 billion strategy for upgrading key commuter rail lines to attain 15-minute, all-day service to Beverly, Providence, and along Boston’s Fairmount Line. Last November, the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) endorsed an aspirational vision to electrify the MBTA commuter rail network to provide all-day, rapid-transit-style service […]

Central Square in Lynn. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Kcboling, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA-4.0.

Lynn Will Get Subway Fares From Its Commuter Rail Station This Summer

By Christian MilNeil | Jun 16, 2020 | No Comments

Though it’s just a 20-minute bike ride from the end of the Blue Line, catching an MBTA commuter train from downtown Lynn has traditionally cost nearly three times more than a subway ticket. That will change for a 2-month pilot this summer, when one-way fares from Lynn to North Station will be reduced to $2.40 […]

The Blue Hill Avenue Fairmount Line stop, pictured in spring 2019. Courtesy of the MBTA.

T Restores Early-Morning Commuter Rail Trips For Health Care Workers

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 23, 2020 | No Comments

Responding to issues raised in a StreetsblogMASS report last week, the MBTA has announced that it will bring back early-morning commuter rail trains that will allow health care workers to get to work for their 7 a.m. shift change, even as the rest of the transit system continues to run on a reduced schedule. Last […]

An Amtrak Lake Shore Limited train passes through Chester, Mass. Photo by Benjamin Turon, licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license.

MassDOT Will Revisit Its East-West Rail Ridership Projections

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 2, 2020 | No Comments

A coalition of regional planning groups wrote that the East-West passenger rail study's low ridership projections "require more explanation, clarity and re-analysis."

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