Cape Flyer

[craven]

Any updates on ridership, equipment performance and/or on time deliveries??

[GP40MC1118]

Some recent Cape Flyer counts out of Boston: July 4th/97 & 7 bikes, July 6/207 & 7 bikes, July 7/171 & 11 bikes, July 8/82 & 7 bikes, July 13/284 & 10 bikes, July 14/182 & 21 bikes, July 15/91 & 2 bikes, July 20/297/6 bikes, July 21/125 & 12 bikes, July 22/55, July 27/205 & 2 bikes,July 29/145 & 11 bikes, August 3/202 & 5 bikes, August 4/143 & 2 bikes and August 5/129 & 13 bikes.

Not the greatest numbers, but not bad either...

D

[Noel Weaver]

Nothing on here since August 7th?????
I would love to hear the latest from this fascinating operation, if I were still in the northeast you can bet I would ride this one at least once and probably more than once.
Thanks folks.
Noel Weaver

[Rockingham Racer]

They need a second Friday down and Sunday back schedule to give people more flexibility.

[Noel Weaver]

They need a second Friday down and Sunday back schedule to give people more flexibility.

What is really needed here is multiple daily service between Boston and Hyannis, lets say 5 or 6 trains each way a day on a schedule of not over 2 hours end to end,f track and signal upgrades to allow for this to happen. If and when it ever does happen then you'll see the crowds heading for South Station. One or two daily through trains to and from New York would help a lot here as well.
Noel Weaver

[Rockingham Racer]

Couldn't agree more.

[Arborwayfan]

I wonder how many families rent/own/stay in cottages on the inner Cape for several weeks in the summer but one parent or other commutes to work in Boston for part of that time. Maybe there is a seasonal commuter market.

[Noel Weaver]

I know and remember back in the 1950s my aunt and uncle lived in Westchester County, New York and he went back to New York to work during the week and came to Hyannis on the Friday PM train and went back on the Sunday PM train out of Hyannis. He did it every week all summer while she stayed on the Cape with the young ones all summer. My father did it in 1956 but only that one year. I think there is a very good passenger potential on the Cape just waiting for a good train service to emerge, maybe someday it will. It would be a lot cheaper than building new bridges over the Canal.
Noel Weaver

[Safetee]

The biggest problem with expanding cape rail service is probably the canal bridge.

Originally dating back to 1936 or so, full control of the bridge resided with the railroad aka the new haven, who gave up their deeded right of way to make way for the bridge. So if the railroad wanted to run a train to gather clams, they did it and the canal traffic waited. Back in the 1990s?, the Mass DOT folks gave up those rights to the Army Corp of Engineers ostensibly in exchange for the 80 mill the ar corps was going to spend rehabbing the bridge.

As an upshot of that transaction now, any operating railroad has very restrictive windows to negotiate in order to operate trains over the canal. The Army Corps interpretation of the new agreement is that any and every boat no matter how insignificant takes precedence over any train at any time. The boat/ship traffic is very steady all the time. It would literally take an immense amount of congressional pressure to change it back to the rail oriented way it used to be. And, you can bet that the sailing yachts and commercial shipping would raise hell if anything was going to slow them down..

The ultimate solution to the canal crossing problem would be a tunnel, but i don't see one of those happening in my life time.

[smsullivan11]

It feels like things have stabilized when it comes to the ridership numbers. That is a good sign, but the state is really taking a lot longer than then should be improving the tracks. The bridge is far from a problem, down the road if things are going crazy good then sure we can go crazy transit pitch levels with tunnels and such. If they could cut that run time down another 15 minutes that would be big. However, even that will not boost ridership. It will get a few more people on the one train that is being run, but why are they not trying a second train and seeing if it cannibalizes the first run or adds on more. There also needs to be a major change in how the train is handling Falmouth and Martha's Vineyard. There is a massive untouched market here that is dying for a solution to fighting all the way down to Wood's Hole. Also, the young city professionals are the ones leaving work late and catching the last boat to meet the family over on MV. That is a market that would be all over the train.

Want some real improvement? Get some high class riding stock, like the new Brightline trains. That will attract a whole new crowd. Make it a special train at first so even railfans really have to ride the Flyer to ride this rolling stock. Then utilize the set(s) onto the Worcester line midweek as a premier commuter train... No one wants to ride the craptastic T rolling stock.

[BostonUrbEx]

but why are they not trying a second train

Crew and equipment availability would be my guess. The system is already at its breaking point when the Cape Flyer and Patriots' Train are running concurrently. Even when rebuilt engines start coming back home, politicians will be cracking the whip for regular Foxboro service next year.

[atlantis]

I agree! I haves said this before but in my humble opinion, the state should seriously consider rebuilding the Falmouth Line back to the abandoned investment at Falmouth station. The original plan was to have the bike path running alongside the rail line to Falmouth station. Today, a sick part of me takes pleasure in telling people who complain about traffic in Falmouth: " We tried to restore rail service but you vetoed the rail line for a bike path. Have fun"

[Falmouth Secondary to Otis]

Fortunately MassDOT must have learned a lesson from Falmouth, Bourne Bike path activists have been denied any further discussions about removing the tracks from N Falmouth to the Canal and have to settle on trying to build a path running alongside the tracks. They tried to shutdown the reopening of the UCRTS transfer station on Otis last summer, didn't happen and the facility is shipping out C&D waste to out of state landfills along with residual trash to SEMASS exceeding MassDEP"s recycling expectations. Also Joint Base Cape Cod said no way as well as they need it for heavy equipment transport and of course the Cape Cod Central runs there tourist train on the Falmouth secondary as well. Take all that into consideration and add MassDOT's CIP plans to rehabilitate the Falmouth Secondary line, along with doing a study of the Rehab of the Otis spur the future looks promising. As to if it will ever be put back in place to reach downtown Falmouth who knows ? In the meantime hope they enjoy sitting in the traffic congestion trying to get to Falmouth !

Now that the Cape Flyer season is over, the Cohasset Narrows railroad bridge located just before the Buzzards Bay stop is scheduled for reconstruction soon as it was put out to bid this spring for $8,500,000 to be ready for next years season. While being reconstructed it still has to be able to allow Train passage as well. Hopefully link below will show bid details of project.

https://www.commbuys.com/bso/external/b ... entUrl=bid" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TomNelligan]

I agree! I haves said this before but in my humble opinion, the state should seriously consider rebuilding the Falmouth Line back to the abandoned investment at Falmouth station.

That would be great of course, but why stop there? The original Old Colony/New Haven line ran three miles farther to the Woods Hole dock and an across-the-street connection with the island ferries. Unfortunately, the line south of Falmouth was torn up by Penn Central in 1969, five years after the end of seasonal passenger service, and I assume that any attempt at reclaiming the right-of-way from the trail people now would be like kicking a hornet's nest.

The NHRHTA photo of Woods Hole below was taken in 1957 by William T. Clynes.

[BostonUrbEx]

Spot checking the ROW in Falmouth, the few bridges I saw seem to be wide enough for double track AND the path is clearly to one side so as to allow rail-with-trail. (both Palmer Ave bridges, for example)

The ROW also seems wide enough throughout to allow for passing sidings anywhere you want, some places better (60' property line-to-property line) than others (45').