TomNelligan wrote:BandA wrote:So the station should be called Foxborough, unless the railroad spelled it the other way before.
Just as a historical note, both the New Haven and Penn Central identified the station as "Foxboro" when they owned the line. Football specials began running there in the early 1970s under PC.
F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Yes. The whole line from Framingham to Mansfield is being upgraded right this second to Class 2 standards. Go spotting the line and you'll see Iowa Pacific-contracted crews out there right now doing track work on the southern end of the line (after doing the north end last year). These upgrades will allow for 30 MPH passenger MAS and 25 MPH freight MAS, and also a much smoother and quieter ride now that the shot trackbed and crossing surfaces are getting a long overdue full renewal. Crossing protection is also being upgraded to full gates, meaning Boston trains won't have to slow up at formerly flashers-only crossings like Summer St. in South Walpole and the Providence game-day trains won't get slowed up on the 7 flashers-only public crossings in Foxboro coming up from the Mansfield end.
The board on Monday also approved a one-year pilot service on the commuter rail to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. Partially subsidized by the Kraft Group, which owns the stadium and the New England Patriots, the service would launch in spring 2019.
The Foxborough proposal had drawn opposition along the Fairmount Line, where riders worried that extending the train service along their tracks to Foxborough increased the risk of delay. Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack argued the pilot could help boost ridership and increase parking options along the commuter rail. As part of the Foxborough service, the Krafts will provide 500 parking spaces at the stadium for T commuters.
“They are all-star, hall-of-fame caliber when it comes to screwing things up,” state Rep. Shawn Dooley (R-Norfolk) said of the MBTA. “The fact that they’re willing to sacrifice more taxpayer dollars to make their argument (for this pilot) possibly work is beyond me. It just shows a total disregard for the public trust.
“That means the folks riding from Foxboro will be sitting and the folks getting on board on the Fairmount Line will be standing,” said Rafael Mares of the Conservation Law Foundation. “And if you know the demographics, that means that most white people coming from Foxboro will be sitting while black people will be standing, which is a terrible image.”
The MBTA has chosen a tentative start date of May 20, 2019 for their commuter rail pilot program in Foxboro, according to Planning Director Paige Duncan.
Duncan will also be working on Operation Lightsaber, an MBTA program committed to ensuring public safety around train tracks.
Should the Fairmount Line be a traditional commuter rail service, running from the city to a distant suburb and back again during rush hours?
Or is it better used as a rapid-transit service that provides a faster-paced link to downtown for Boston’s minority neighborhoods?
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