Newburyport/Rockport (Beverly)

It's been a long time since I've been on this board, as I've moved and started working from home, so no commuting, and little traveling via train.

I've checked and re-checked the Newburyport/Rockport schedule, and while it SEEMS that the 10:40 out of North Station drops you at Beverly where you disembark and catch a second train to do the Newburyport branch, there's no actual note about it. Is this indeed the case?

37 views and no replies? Does anyone know the answer? I'd rather not put my wife on the train if she's going to be left in Beverly.

The answer is yes. If you look closely at the schedule you see they do this with a few other trains - and in both directions. It also helps to look at the inbound schedule too to see where the equipment comes from.

#143 (the 1040pm out of Boston) runs through to Rockport.
#98 is an inbound out of Newburyport departing 1045pm and arriving Beverly 1111pm. These passengers connect with #142 (1045pm inbound from Rockport) to continue on in to Boston.
#98's equipment then hangs out for a few minutes, and turns as #97 at 1130pm (after #142 and #143 make their stops at Beverly) to head back to Newburyport with passengers from #143.

This connection is made every night Mon-Friday. If any of the trains involved are late, trains are held so everyone can connect to their final destinations.

Do the passengers have to pay for the zone fare out to beverly, and then an interzone fare from beverly to Newburyport, or can they get there on a single zone 8 ticket?

Great, thanks for the info! Really though, how many people do you think read the schedules and have zero idea about how the system works. They have notes about F trains, why not just put a note on this too?

I believe it's a single Zone 8 fare, though the most recent time I made the connection at Beverly (a couple of years ago) I was using a pass. I got the idea that the crew Beverly - Newburyport either knows the punches the Boston - Beverly crew uses or just asks passengers. Generally, passengers boarding outbound trains other than at North Station don't face a really intense fare-collection effort anyway...

jbvb wrote:I believe it's a single Zone 8 fare, though the most recent time I made the connection at Beverly (a couple of years ago) I was using a pass. I got the idea that the crew Beverly - Newburyport either knows the punches the Boston - Beverly crew uses or just asks passengers. Generally, passengers boarding outbound trains other than at North Station don't face a really intense fare-collection effort anyway...

I assume it works like any other railroad transfer -- you keep your punched ticket when you leave the first train, and show or give it to the conductor on the second train, with no questions or punch shape identification involved.

That is pretty much how this transfer works, but your word will also work.

Technically on the MBTA commuter rail, there are no transfers or stop overs. And there is no official way to deal with transfers t these trains. I used to work the connecting train from Beverly. Most people retained the tickets from Boston.

What gets me about the new train information boards at North Station is how it isn't used to make "unusual" trains more obvious. I was waiting for #237 last night, and I seem to recall that #185 (which connects with #95 at Salem) is listed only as Newburyport - I missed the PA announcements, so hopefully those included the connection info. I have to imagine the system that runs the displays can display more information than one single destination, either in the destination field or train status area. Simply just including "(Rockport Connection at Salem)" after "Newburyport" would be an improvement.

For that matter, it'd be nice to see #237 get listed as "Haverhill via West Medford" or "via Anderson/Woburn" again, too. You could really get bold and list say #231 as "Haverhill (Express to Wakefield)." But I digress...as I tend to do...