Cape Flyer

MickD wrote:One practical suggestion I think would be to add a morning and afternoon return Cape Flyer run, at least on Saturdays
for tourists and local day trippers to Boston.. That would probably do well..I'm sure lots of out of state
vacationers would relish being able to visit Boston ihe summer w/o the aggravation of traffic on and off
here..

That's my conclusion.The July-August population of the Cape is 500,000. They can definitely find 500 to 1000 on any given day that would need to "get back" for a one-day meeting in Boston, or, as a tourist, visit Boston for a day. Given that weekday trains would run as extensions of pre-existing Marlboro trains, their cost is lower and the bar for success is lower. See much earlier in the thread for proposed schedules.

I think as each new year of CapeFLYER service starts you'll see more tweeks to the schedules.

MBTA3247 wrote:Any bridge with both road and rails would either have to be a lift bridge, or have very long embankments/viaducts for the tracks approaching it in order to provide the necessary clearance over the canal.

Not necessarily. It would have to depend on exactly where the third bridge would be constructed. Between the Bourne and Sagamore bridges, for example, the canal cuts through what is more or less a canyon of sorts. If a bridge was built there the roadway and tracks wouldn't need much (if any) ascending/descending approaches on either side due to the topography of the area.

What others have said though is true a second rail crossing is unnecessary (and a waste of money unless a rail link connecting the bridge to the commuter rail is also constructed). Now a new road bridge to eventually replace one or two of the existing spans wouldn't be unreasonable given their age and out-of-dateness, if you will, in regards to keeping traffic flowing from the surrounding highways. BUT tis for another time far into the future

I also concur that it's not unreasonable for DMU's to be used on the Cape at some point. Currently, there is a project in California underway known as the "SMART" train, for Sonoma, Marin county that will link places in the San Francisco Bay area (http://www.sonomamarintrain.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )
The service will use DMU's built in Rochele, Illinois. Perhaps this same company who's building the Smart trains could be commissioned to build DMU's for the Cape. As there is also a plan for a DMU rail service to link Downtown Boston with the South Boston waterfront, perhaps the cars for this service could be part of the same order.

The "plan" for DMUs on the Waterfront consisted of the Convention Center Authority tag-teaming with Richard Davey to float a trial balloon on Page 1 of the Globe. There has been no talk of where DMUs would be maintained, never mind any thoughts of an order for them or an RFP.

atlantis wrote:I also concur that it's not unreasonable for DMU's to be used on the Cape at some point. Currently, there is a project in California underway known as the "SMART" train, for Sonoma, Marin county that will link places in the San Francisco Bay area (http://www.sonomamarintrain.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )
The service will use DMU's built in Rochele, Illinois. Perhaps this same company who's building the Smart trains could be commissioned to build DMU's for the Cape. As there is also a plan for a DMU rail service to link Downtown Boston with the South Boston waterfront, perhaps the cars for this service could be part of the same order.

That company would be Nippon Sharyo, which has come up in several other threads here recently. The general consensus is that it's not worthwhile for the T to buy a handful of relatively expensive DMUs now when there's an FRA rule change coming in a few years that will permit existing overseas DMU designs to be used here.

DMUs would make sense mostly for a Falmouth run. It is estimated that about 25% of the
people getting off at Hyannis are headed that way. The total number would rise if there
were a Falmouth branch DMU train. However, that's a long ways off.

trainhq wrote:DMUs would make sense mostly for a Falmouth run. It is estimated that about 25% of the
people getting off at Hyannis are headed that way. The total number would rise if there
were a Falmouth branch DMU train. However, that's a long ways off.

CCCR. Outsource on a public-private partnership, use the state's new ownership of the Otis Branch to set up a park-and-ride at the transfer station slab of pavement, get Iowa Pacific to procure a working RDC they can trainline with CCCR's non-operating RDC trailer, and run a Buzzards Bay commuter shuttle.

I agree the state's going to have little to no interest in the Falmouth Branch as presently constituted and has years of much bigger priorities to settle. But this isn't hard to swing with a willing local partner like CCCR.

The state is showing almost zero interest in establishing commuter rail any further than BB. Restoring the Falmouth line would be very expensive and it would mean the bridge being opened more and longer.

Word has it that construction of a high level platform at the new Wareham stop will start soon.

Clean Cab wrote:Word has it that construction of a high level platform at the new Wareham stop will start soon.

Very exciting! Thanks for the update!

Clean Cab wrote:Word has it that construction of a high level platform at the new Wareham stop will start soon.

Wow they're not wasting any time!

Any word on construction of a stop on the Cape side of the canal near the Bourne Bridge? According to fall press accounts, Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority administrator Tom Cahir wants this stop added, as it would significantly reduce the transit time of shuttle buses to Woods Hole and the ferries, compared to last year's route from Buzzards Bay station.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote: ... get Iowa Pacific to procure a working RDC they can trainline with CCCR's non-operating RDC trailer, and run a Buzzards Bay commuter shuttle.

Although it has been done by other railroads in the past, Budd frowned upon using a RDC to pull a trailer, as it was not designed for such.

The DRAFT 2014-2018 MassDOT Transportation Investment Plan that was released yesterday includes this text in the Rail & Transit section:
"$31 million to complete track and signal projects necessary for the restoration of permanent, seasonal passenger service to Cape Cod."

The plan details the following annual expenditures in support of the Cape Cod Rail Program:
FY2014 - $1.5 million
FY2015 - $8.5M
FY2016 - $9M
FY2017 - $6M
FY2018 - $6M

Here's a link to the full plan:
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/ ... 4_FY18.pdf
DRAFT FY2014-2018 MassDOT Transportation Investment Plan
113 pages
01/09/2014