Cape Flyer

Friday

Boston 253 + 20 bikes. Into Hyannis - 189 + 20 bikes

Saturday

Boston 152 + 22 bikes. Into Hyannis - 129 + 18 bikes

Sunday

Boston 56 + 3 bikes. Into Hyannis 58 + 5 bikes.

To bump this back up where it can be easily checked, is there any news as to what the situation with the Cape Flyer will be in the summer of 2018?
Noel Weaver

Schedule's usually released 1st week of April, so a little early yet. Fully funded for the '18 season, so no major changes.

MassDOT has 4 years worth of funded Cape Rail-related capital upgrades scheduled. 2017 saw major track work begin on the Middleboro Secondary, and '18 should see continuation of M'boro Sec. progress and new hardware being dropped on the mainland Cape Main. They're expanding Rochester Yard, doing state-of-repair closeout of all chores still leftover from previous Flyer construction seasons, and preparing for the scheduled 2019 replacement of Cohasset Narrows Bridge just west of BB station. '19-20 seasons will cross the Canal and work state-of-repair on that side of the Main, do some major Falmouth Branch work, and rehab the Yarmouth spur. Big stuff, and a lot of it.

Has the state recently purchased Rochester yard?

Is this the yard the F40 "screamers" were sent for storage before scrapping?

Yes. The yard reconfig/expansion is to enhance flexibility for dual use w/ Mass Coastal trash train freight and for letting various T subcontractors set up shop down there to do outsource work. There isn't much detail available about scope-of-work with Rochester beyond the MassDOT TIP line item, but it's a substantial earmark at $6.8M so whatever they're doing there is pretty extensive.

Right now all the Screamers and most of the MBB's are out on the Main second iron in eyesight of the yard, and the new MassDOT ballast cars get parked between jobs on the first track inside the yard. However, the switch layout in the yard means most of the rest of the space at/around the yard is unusable for T storage in order to give the MC trash train passage through the crossovers and through the rear yard tracks into the trash plant siding. Two other groupings of 15xx cabs (looks like 7-8 total) are stuffed a full half-mile south bookending the County Rd. grade crossing, attached to strings of rusted derelict work cars: one grouping just north of the crossing on a stub track, and the other grouping just south of the crossing on a passing siding/runaround. Doesn't appear either string has moved in the last 18 months based on contrasting Google views. Since both are in near-effortless tagging access to trespassers from the County crossing, that's probably a vulnerability they're trying to correct with the yard project. They'd have more space inside the yard to work with if a switch reconfig gave the trash train more fluid passing access around the storage tracks, and it looks like by cutting down a row of trees between the main and first yard track there might be space to lay another 1800+ ft. yard track.

I was told many years ago that the SEMASS yard was actually owned by SEMASS and not
the railroad at the time (Bay Colony). Not sure..

D

Anyone know the final numbers for 2017? Never saw them here or on CF site.

Since the Rochester yard was constructed, with the exception of the adjacent long passing siding, it was all the property of and maintained by the power plant. I am unaware of any change in ownership since that time..

On Tuesday 3/20/18 the US Army Corps of Engineers announced at a public meeting held at the Hyannis transportation center that the Sagamore bridge will be under construction 4/2/18 to 5/25/18 with one lane each way and the Bourne bridge will also be under construction 9/6/18 to 11/28/18 with one lane each way also. I have heard through local sources here on the Cape that the Cape Flyer's operating season may be extended later into the fall to give people a option to get around the traffic congestion as a result of bridge construction. Due to many reasons ( not made public ) it was said the Cape Flyer cannot start any earlier than Memorial day weekend unfortunately, which if it could would have given people a alternative option to getting to the Cape instead of sitting in traffic at the Sagamore bridge.

Jeez, pretty sad how much interest has collapsed in the Cape Flyer going into year 6. I remember a few years back when people were talking about it all the time almost year round and it was a sticky! Now it looks like the 6th year for the Flyer will get going in just over a couple weeks kicking off Memorial Day weekend. Friday's 5:50PM departure scheduled to arrive in Hyannis at 8:15. If they ever want to improve or grow this little operation they need to get that time down to two hours. I think another good change would be adding a Friday train that is a little earlier than the current 5:50. I'd push that 5:50 to maybe a 6:30 and the earlier departure as close to 4 as possible. On the back end of the weekend, the current 6:40 departure for Boston getting you to a dead South Station at 9PM on Sunday is totally useless and probably holding riders back. A nice earlier, say 3:00PM return home that gets the family to south station at 5:30 and home eating dinner by 7 with work the next day would be much more successful. This is another spot where a second set would be great to change things up.

Before people go crazy yes I know there are kinds of problems with what I just suggested because of the commuter rail aspect of the whole thing, but it is still fun to dream and discuss.

I agree that those would be good. I would think that twice as many trains would mean at least twice as many riders and therefore twice as much revenue. Maybe 3x more riders, if the flexibility attracts more pax. If CCRTA is paying for the whole thing with ticket revenue, why not expand? Even just another pair of trips on Sunday--or a double draft eastbound in the morning that came back as two separate trains later in the day -- should make the return to Boston feel more flexible to potential passengers -- those who want as much time as possible and those who want an early bedtime. In fact maybe the market would support three pairs of trains a day on Sat and Sun: one morning westbound and two morning eastbounds, with one evening eastbound and two morning westbounds. When people say why they don't ride the train in general they often say they want flexibility. And there is plenty of equipment idle on Saturdays and Sundays, and plenty of capacity to run a couple more trains. They don't need a snack bar on every train.

They could experiment with reversing the weekend westbound trains in S. Sta. and running them over to Back Bay. That's closer to residential areas and might make the ride more attractive to people.

They could also add a section to the website directing people to the bus during the week -- added flexibility.

And I still think Sandwich and maybe Barnstable would be worth the time to stop. At 30 mph or whatever they run they would not lose much time by slowing down -- five minutes a stop including station dwell? Sandwich is walkable to the center of town and some inns and whatnot; it is a good rail destination.

They should run the Flyer further east.

There isn't much further east they can run it. The tracks terminate at Station Ave in Yarmouth; beyond there, the ROW is now a bike path.

But the bike path is still a ROW. I hereby advocate for PTown service. Probably doible politically if you let the Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway Co. in on the action.