Cape Flyer

I don't know what Mr. Cahir might be trying to do, but it is not the CCRTA's mission to funnel people to the transportation center in Hyannis rather than to other towns.

"The Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA), is one of 15 Regional Transit Authorities within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has been providing public transportation services since 1976 to residents and visitors as well as consumers of state agencies and human service organizations for all 15 Cape Cod communities. Cape Cod (Barnstable County) towns include Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Mashpee, Orleans, Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro" (CCRTA website).

RTAs are funded by assessments on the member towns (paid, IIRC, by the state out of their local aid allocations). The CCRTA wouldn't belong to Hyannis even if Hyannis were a town. (OK, maybe politically the Hyannis merchants are important, and maybe the outer Cape towns want to get more people to take train to bus and go stay our there, but theoretically and practically the CCRTA serves the whole Cape. Sandwich has a CCRTA bus route. Falmouth has one. Etc. And people without cars staying in Sandwich would be more likely to take the bus to Barnstable or Hyannis or whatever than people with a car.)

I would say the best way to get an answer to this discussion about adding additional stops on Cape for the Cape flyer would be to send your comment's to Tom Cahir himself, seeing that he is a public official as the head of the CCRTA. Perhaps he may answer or you'll probably get a vague response from his office staff, but it's always worth a try.
Send comments / ideas to [email protected]

Would be interesting to hear what the reasoning is for the resistance to adding stops, which would make the Flyer more attractive for riders to use.

Thanks for the email address. I just wrote. I will report.

I wrote specifically about Sandwich. Mr. Cahir replied quickly and directly. Just as several posts predicted, he said that the idea of an additional upper cape stop is interesting but that except for the new stop that will open under the Bourne Bridge they have no plans for a stop in Sandwich or anywhere else before Hyannis. His reasons were that making platforms accessible to people with disabilities and long enough for the trains would be be quite expensive and that they have always planned to limit stops to keep the trip to Hyannis under 2 hours.

So there we have it.

The problem with that is there is no platform under the Bourne Bridge and it would have to be newly constructed which would be equally expensive to do the same at any other location, so that is BS. And of course nothing new has been mentioned to the Town of Bourne or the abutting property owners about it's construction status since it was shelved after opposition to it back in July 2015. So we shall see if it actually gets constructed or not as the Rink location is the ideal place to locate it, not under the bridge as proposed. Have added links to local article's about the platform from 2015, hopefully it will open so it can be read. Back in 2015 it was to cost $2.3 million to build, so I guess Cahir thinks that's inexpensive as compared to all other possible options ? Needs to be re-evaluated by someone higher up in MassDOT who has some common sense, if that's possible.

https://www.capenews.net/bourne/news/pl ... 387b2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.capenews.net/bourne/news/bo ... 66cca.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The State has an online survey regarding input of various transit projects on the Cape:

http://ccc-plans.org/rtpsurvey" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.capecodcommission.org/index. ... ncatid=48/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I suggested the return of rail service to Falmouth and even Woods Hole for the hell of it.

Sorry to report, but rail service is never returning to Woods Hole.

I better suggestion would be a new station platform in Falmouth with (a) plenty of room for parking, and (b) designed for CCRTA buses and shuttle buses that could serve the ferry docks.

Put in suggestion to construct a Rail Platform in North Falmouth on the Otis spur before the Rte 151 rail overpass.There is a large parcel of vacant land between the highway and the Rail line that looks large enough to accommodate parking and all other needs.
Can be seen on earth explorer below use zip code 02556 Lat: 41 degrees 38' 29" N then Lon: 070 degrees 36' 05" W

Other well known ideal option would be to bring the Rail line back to Falmouth Station as it is located right next door to the Steamship Authority main parking lot & new Administration building. People could exit the train walk across the parking lot and board a Steamship Authority bus direct to Woods Hole




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Was passing through Buzzards Bay this morning and noticed equipment / supplies being staged for the Cohasset Narrows Rail bridge reconstruction project by JF White construction, who was the lowest qualified bid. Preliminary track work is already underway with ties / ballast being replaced leading up to the bridge and the entire project is supposed to be completed before the Cape Flyer season begins. With 3 month's to go it will be interesting to watch as it's a total bridge replacement with pier & abutment rehabilitation as well and you will know when that part is underway as a Crane on a barge will be on location to perform that part of the project.

To give you a peek at how long some of these infrastructure replacement/repairs can take from identification to consummation in the Commonwealth, the Mass DPU reccomended replacement or heavy repair of the Cohasset Narrows bridge back in 1978. 40 years later, mission almost accomplished.

How long will the rail line be out of service? What is the freight impact?

I'm betting that it will be safe for traffic and back in service by memorial day or heads will roll. Very little rail freight on the Cape especially in the winter and early spring months.

And, whom do you think might be in charge of the guillotine if it's not back in service?

I would imagine that the staff who are involved with insuring that the cape flyer schedule is kept.

I have included the link for the Cohasset Narrows RR bridge reconstruction. You will find that the 2 track bridge will be in service on a determined schedule to allow freight service to continue. As to who will be in the hot seat if it doesn't get done in time that would be JF White Construction who is the awarded bidder for the project with MassDOT overseeing it. After opening the link go to the file attachments section then go to Cohasset Narrows Bid Docs specifications.pdf. Other related info is also available in that section as well. Will be interesting to watch as the window of construction is getting shorter every day with a specified completion date of May 10th 2019

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