Fitchburg Line Upgrade Discussion

How are crew swaps performed with the new layover location? I don't know about the South Side, but for North Side this is the first layover facility that isn't immediately adjacent to the revenue line.

Nice to see the 3-way "snit fit" between MBTA,PAR,and NS was settled quietly.

BostonUrbEx wrote:How are crew swaps performed with the new layover location? I don't know about the South Side, but for North Side this is the first layover facility that isn't immediately adjacent to the revenue line.

Last night on 417, I noticed an assistant conductor going up the stairs with his bag as the train was going Up Da Hill to the layover, so at least some crew swaps happen at Wachusett rather than the layover.

I've ridden from Wachusett 3.5 days now (410, 412, 414, 415, 417) and for the PM trains there's been 30 or so pax getting off at Wachusett, so I'd place the station right now at about 120-150 inbound boardings on a typical day. There are pax from west of Athol boarding.

417/419 have trainmen that finish at the Station. Other trains go west to do a full crew swap that do no put away.

I was on 419 yesterday and we had 2 passengers. One came from South Acton and told me she connects to a bus there.

It'll be very interesting to see what Thursday brings. I imagine there are some current Littleton/South Acton boarders - and some who drive all the way to Alewife to avoid the congestion at those lots - who will be switching to Wachusett with the new calendar month.

The EGE » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:05 pm
It'll be very interesting to see what Thursday brings. I imagine there are some current Littleton/South Acton boarders - and some who drive all the way to Alewife to avoid the congestion at those lots - who will be switching to Wachusett with the new calendar month.

At 0605/12-02-2016 and 15 minutes before 404's 0620 departure, there were 11 vehicles in the Wachusett parking lot plus some drop-off activity.

The EGE wrote:It'll be very interesting to see what Thursday brings. I imagine there are some current Littleton/South Acton boarders - and some who drive all the way to Alewife to avoid the congestion at those lots - who will be switching to Wachusett with the new calendar month.

Also will be interesting to see if Wachusett cannibalizes riders from North Leominster - I would imagine people driving from points west on Route 2 would previously have gone to North Leominster but can now go to Wachusett.

Dave

jaymac wrote:

The EGE » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:05 pm
It'll be very interesting to see what Thursday brings. I imagine there are some current Littleton/South Acton boarders - and some who drive all the way to Alewife to avoid the congestion at those lots - who will be switching to Wachusett with the new calendar month.

At 0605/12-02-2016 and 15 minutes before 404's 0620 departure, there were 11 vehicles in the Wachusett parking lot plus some drop-off activity.

At 8am (410) and at 5pm (415) there are typically several dozen cars parked at Wachusett.

I doubt there's anybody switching from South Acton to Wachusett, if only because anybody from west of Acton who drove to South Acton before probably switched to Littleton due to parking and ease of access.

Even then, I don't see many switching from Littleton to Wachusett, the parking savings (until MART sets up the infrastructure to charge for parking) get eaten up by the gas.

As dbperry notes, to the extent that Wachusett cannibalizes further-in stations, North Leominster is the big source, which isn't surprising: North Leominster isn't a great situation for a park-and-ride: the lights and rush hour congestion between there and Rt 2 make it unappealing to anyone coming from Rt 2 west. From the east and south, North Leominster isn't that bad if you take the connector and Nashua St, so I guess North Leominster could still effectively serve the knowledgeable from Lancaster, Sterling, and Princeton.

I suspect, given the level of ridership from quite far out on Rt 2 (not just west of Gardner, west of Athol/Orange!), that Wachusett sees a more intercity/less rush-hour oriented demand pattern.

Where, oh where and what has become of the 400 daily rider increase projected by MART honcho Mohammed Khan and echoed by T personnel?

Abe Froman wrote:Where, oh where and what has become of the 400 daily rider increase projected by MART honcho Mohammed Khan and echoed by T personnel?

It generally takes a little while for ridership to build. "Several dozen" cars and some drop-off activity is pretty good for a station that just opened.

What date was that 400 new riders forecast for? 6 months out? 1 year out? 2040?

deathtopumpkins wrote:

Abe Froman wrote:Where, oh where and what has become of the 400 daily rider increase projected by MART honcho Mohammed Khan and echoed by T personnel?

It generally takes a little while for ridership to build. "Several dozen" cars and some drop-off activity is pretty good for a station that just opened.

What date was that 400 new riders forecast for? 6 months out? 1 year out? 2040?

See https://blog.mass.gov/transportation/mb ... extension/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Ridership on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line between Boston and Fitchburg has grown steadily since 2004. This ridership growth, coupled with at capacity parking facilities demonstrated a need for the service extension. The Wachusett Station will serve an estimated 400 new commuter rail passengers in 2012, and divert 824 vehicle trips from Route 2." (Bold as emphasis)

A total, complete con job from the get go, not to mention astoundingly expensive and well over budget. "400 new commuter rail passengers" expected to board at Wachusett was also mentioned by ex-Congressman Olver, ex-US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHoud, ex-Lt Gov. "Crash" Murray, ex-Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong in addition to Mohammed Khan over at MART.

PREDICTION-Chances are, I'll be long gone prior to 2040 but one thing is an absolute certainty-there will not be "400 new commuter rail passengers" boarding daily at Wachusett before 2040.

Less than a month after opening with a major holiday in there. Counts by rail fans. Maybe we should wait until after the holidays and maybe dare I say it the official numbers from the T? I almost forgot in this time the full schedule wasn't fully implemented yet. I'm optimistic that this station will be a good addition, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks or even months.

In case anyone is curious, here is an example of aspects of the east facing continuously lit CPF-334 interlocking signal for the station track and main two, and the approach lit distant signal for main one. I'm guessing a T train on the station track could use the Diverging Approach aspect to head to the Westminster layover facility at CPF-335.

Update: improved my grammar to eliminate my misleading and confusing description of the signal.

johnpbarlow wrote:In case anyone is curious, here is an example of aspects of the east facing continuously lit CPF-334 interlocking and approach lit distant signals for the station track, main two, and main one. I'm guessing a T train on the station track could use the Diverging Approach aspect to head to the Westminster layover facility at CPF-335.

Left-to-right (all signals are also distant signals to CPF-335)
Station track CPF-334 westward home signal (Aspect is Medium Approach in NORAC - correct that this is the lineup to the facility or to a stop at CPF-335)
Track 2 CPF-334 westward home signal
Track 1 automatic signal (staggered heads instead of aligned vertically).

CPF-334 is only an interlocking on track 2 and the station track.