2014 Discussion for Commuter Rail Delays

Since the MBTA now owns the line can't you just talk to the dispatcher directly?

Somewhat off topic but I wonder why the MBTA couldn't get its hands on some of the high speed rail money to upgrade the Worcester line track to class 4.

Look for delays this afternoon South Side due to a derailment that has just occurred...already popping up as I type...Fairmount, and Old Colony

In addition to the speed restrictions today(all along the line this time) 529 got cancelled tonight and 527 got it's equipment. Maybe related to the derailment today?

harshaw wrote: Somewhat off topic but I wonder why the MBTA couldn't get its hands on some of the high speed rail money to upgrade the Worcester line track to class 4.

They did substantial tie replacement on track 1 between Southboro and bridge over rt 20 in Worcester, and I was told that this was to bring it up to class 4. Before they finished though Keolis took over and the remaining work hasn't been completed. Given the fact that the contract for the work to fix the heat restrictions only mentions class 3 track, I'm not holding out for that class 4 upgrade any time before they finish that bit of track work.

Edit: got my tracks mixed up

Trk 1 received the tie and ballast work from CP 28-MP40. Trk 2 is scheduled for next summer

Komarovsky wrote:In addition to the speed restrictions today(all along the line this time) 529 got cancelled tonight and 527 got it's equipment.

I'm not sure where you got that from. 527 actually got 719s equipment right around 5pm. 527 left 6 min late because of the late equipment, that came over the main line instead of the dorchester branch.

Ah, thought it looked like 529's equipment from the high in Back Bay. I stand corrected.

Rockburyport service is currently being bustituted between North Station and Lynn due to a 5-alarm fire adjacent to the Chelsea station:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... ingNewsBox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The worcester line is running under speed restrictions despite the fact that it is only 79 degrees outside and just rained. I thought water cooled steel, but what do I know.

^You could thank CSX for that.

Today's restrictions on the Boston-Framingham portion of the Worcester line has me curious about something.


The MBTA owned the stretch of track between Framingham and Boston since they bought it from Penn Central in the 70s. The T claims that it has no records from CSX on what temp the rail was set at for the entire line. Did the T either not keep records from their purchase/maintenance of the section they purchased on this? Or did the state contract out all the work on the entire line to another RR since the initial purchase? Or did the T never bother to de-stress the Boston-Framingham portion through regular maintenance in the first place?

CSX did some of the maintenance, and I think CSX replaced all of the PC era stick rail with CWR.

So CSX did maintenance/CWR work on the Boston-Framingham section while the state owned it? Interesting.....

Boston Line CWR was a Conrail installation, sometime around '83 to '85. That was also the time of large-scale Boston Line single-tracking. The Framingham-area gang -- from Ohio, if memory is accurate -- worked 4-day weeks and had camp cars in Framingham North Yard when working from Westboro to Beacon Park. Again, if memory is accurate, the installation was done in the warmish part of the year but a rail-heater was also part of the operation. Whether CSX did some installs after takeover or whether they didn't trust the original CWR because the work was done by non-CSX crews is something I don't know.

Train 1170 appears to have gotten caught in today's nasty storm. Tracking doesn't show it, but T-Alerts say 60 min delay due to "track problem", and I observed it sitting south of the Linebrook Rd crossing north of Ipswich station earlier.

Hundreds of trees are down across Ipswich, so it wouldn't surprise me if the line was blocked.