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Perhaps the continued reduced service levels on the Orange Line are a reason for keeping Oak Grove open for Haverhill Line trains as well. Since it's unlikely that issue will go away any time soon, this is a way to try to divert some riders to CR and CR-to-Green Line to relieve pressure on the Orang...

And once the Riverside Line is done, gotta assume the Red Line is next (as they already hinted at and withdrew). Lotta backed up issues on the northern end (like Alewife crossover, never-ending floating slabs, etc.).

Considering that at it's low point, the Framingham service was down to what, three round trips a day? We're lucky any station facilities survived in Newton. Until recently, freight clearance requirements to/from Beacon Park, combined with the expectation that all remaining passenger service would wi...

They can continue to allow riders to use the track 1 platforms in Wellesley because they were never removed from service. Since the Newton stops had the platforms closed and access removed, even if remains are still there, they would be considered to be opening new facilities, which would require th...

It comes from the old B&M names for the lines. The Western Route was the primary Boston-Portland route, and carried that identifier all the way through to Portland. It's the Pan Am (now CSXT) main through NH and Maine. Eastern Route was today's Newburyport Line, which continued all the way to Po...

(Off-topic portion): Seashore has sightseeing car #2. All four were saved - #1 &#3 are at Exporail outside Montreal, and #4 is at the Connecticut Trolley Museum. #4 and one of the Exporail cars are operating, #2 at STM is close to operational (it needs some truck and wheel work done to address w...

Track speeds are lower through Reading, Wakefield, Cedar Park and Wyoming, and IIRC overall the line maxes out around 60 mph (maybe less). Most of those restrictions are due to congested station areas with frequent grade crossings. Much of the inner Western Route is speed up for a couple miles, then...

Fewer speed restrictions on the NH Route means a much faster trip.

No, the mixed-use redevelopment at the Andover DPW site was NIMBYed to death. The plans were for the private developer to pay for some or all of the station expansion, since it would be right next to it. No reason the T couldn't do it themselves, but they'd have to pay for it themselves now.

The Oak Grove CR platform is usable. It's been used many times over the years for diversions.

I honestly fear that they won't get nearly as much work done during this shutdown that they're promising given how short of a lead time there is.

Shutdown runs August 19 to September 18. Return to school, return to college, and return to office (maybe?) will all be heavily impacted by this. I would imagine about 2.5 weeks from now is about as fast as they could start this, since we're talking about a not-insignificant scale here. Given the nu...

What's the deal with Ballardville? Brand new track has been laid that just terminates on either side of the station, and no work has been done in at least two years. I don't get it. If they simply re-lay the former second track, the existing platforms at Ballardvale and Andover will be on opposite ...

Lest we think we're not into WMATA territory, the news doesn't get much better tonight: https://mass.streetsblog.org/2022/08/02/100000-riders-in-the-lurch-mbta-considers-shutting-down-entire-orange-line-for-several-weeks-later-this-august/ Apparently still under consideration, but clearly an unprece...

Keolis has been pushing towards clock-face headways where possible in the wake of the pandemic. This is part of a push to switch to more regularly scheduled, all day service, versus service focused mainly around the 8-4 or 9-5 downtown worker. I haven't perused all of the schedules, but Lowell and F...

I love the rendering of the new High Line bridge. The train on it appears to be an A-B-B-B-B set of F-units pulling a single 40' boxcar.