Cape Flyer

What was the typical passenger count just before the NH discontinued cape service?

Apples-oranges because South Station-Hyannis was a daily commuter rail schedule with 8 round trips per day (vs. the Middleboro Line's current 10 round trips per day) until Old Colony service was suspended in 1958. 1957 schedule: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... 8_1957.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

There were additional seasonal trains on the schedule timed for the weekender surge, as the New Haven did layer on a bunch of in-season intercity service from New York. But the options from Boston weren't special-event in nature because of the daily commuter schedules. Most late-era Old Colony service was run on RDC's, so per-train ridership metrics also are also very hard to compare because some of those off-peak trains on the regular schedule were just single Budds. You wouldn't be able to determine farebox recovery ratios without knowing what the average-size consist was back in the day. If you look on the PDF schedule above, the only possible trains on the schedule that ran with anything loco-hauled or of substantial multi-car RDC capacity were the few trains not asterisked with the "No Baggage Handled" diamond symbol. In-season the weekender patronage would've certainly been spread more diffusely because the schedule had so many more options and traffic at the bridges wasn't so acutely bad at certain hours as it is now. But it's hard to get a read on how that translates in demand to today because schedules, per-train capacity on the schedule, and traffic spikes are so very different.

You can still tell how many people used the service regardless of how many trips were run or what the equipment was. Utilization pre abandonment and post revival is certainly something worthy of note, especially with the service being run differently.

Consider also the alternatives - as late as 1958 Route 3 only existed in portions, so we are talking a lot of non limited access highway driving if you wanted to jump into the '56 De Soto and head for the Cape. That would have made the train a lot more competitive. I think it was 1963 before it was completed at least as far as 128.

Jon

What good is a limited access highway if it is frequently bumper to bumper and you still have the same old highway bridges built in 1935 with two narrow lanes in each direction? Incidentally the New Haven made it with some trains from Boston to Hyannis in a bit less than two hours. Could this be done today? Probably with signal and some track upgrades. Would it help, you bet it would. The biggest day for passenger service to and from the Cape was Friday with 8 trains from Boston and two from New York. I am talking the mid 1950's here.
Noel Weaver

I wonder how the drive time from say Boston to Hyannis today on a weekend compares with say 1950.

It it was secondary street,s but not traffic jams I would have preferred the drive in 1950 verses today. Sitting in the traffic and dealing with all the aggressive drivers makes me consider the train a much more attractive option any day.

BandA wrote:I wonder how the drive time from say Boston to Hyannis today on a weekend compares with say 1950.

You can get a good approximation from Google Maps directions if you check the "Avoid Highways" box: https://goo.gl/maps/fgnAv1xajLF2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Basically, 3 hours.

The southwest Boston to Wareham drive in the '50s was essentially Routes 138, 106 and 28, those dangerous 3-lane highways where playing "chicken" in the middle lane was a common test of nerves. Friday nights took from 1:20 to 1:30 or more - the Cranberry did it in 1:05. The same automobile run today using Routes 138, 128, 24 and 495 can be done in 1:05 or almost exactly 1:00 with no traffic. Of course Canal bridge back-up traffic was not a factor in the '50s.

Any Counts for last weekends trips ??

StefanW wrote:I hope someone at the MBTA / MassDOT will also commit to getting the CapeFlyer real-time tracking more reliable. Two seasons in a row now the CapeFlyer trains have been mostly absent from the MBTA data which feeds all of the third-party applications (including mine). If / when the CapeFlyer train does show up in the data, it doesn't have any of the stop names. Also the entire data feed goes down once the CapeFlyer reaches its destination. (If you've ever seen my map app reporting "There may be a problem with this MBTA data feed right now" that's the reason 99% of the time.)

Trinnau wrote:Probably the only reason MBTA actually provides the data is because the train is setup with it so why not? Also, the only visibility MBTA/Keolis has on the train beyond Middleboro is the GPS. Everywhere else on their network they can see approximately where a train is on the dispatcher's screen.

I'm again disappointed that the CapeFlyer isn't supported in the data feed for tracking this year (so far) either. Worse though is the main data feed still craps out completely when the CapeFlyer reaches its destination... in both directions. This continues to interfere with tracking of any Keolis train after (approximately) 8:30 PM Fri. Sat. Sun. and after 10:30 AM Sat. & Sun.

I guess I'm going to have to contact someone at the CCRTA to push the issue. If the CCRTA knew that real-time CapeFlyer was possible if only someone would work out the bugs, I'm betting they would put pressure on MBTA/MassDOT to make it happen. Even though the CapeFlyer is a scheduled charter service as Trinnau pointed out, the real-time tracking ought to be a standard part of the service.

101 Friday
100 Saturday
44 Sunday

Those are from Boston...

D

Last weekend...Hope it gets better...

Friday 132 & 3 bikes
Saturday 150 & 20 bikes
Sunday 48 & 2 bikes

There's a intra-seasonal dip in ridership in the June weekends between Memorial Day and July 4th. While people's summers are gearing up, and the kids are getting out of school, they haven't quite gotten to the beach yet or because they're busy at graduations and weddings.

One of these days I'm going to find all historical ridership and we can compare Junes-to-Junes

No spin zone!

D