TransitMatters Report: All Day Frequent Service on Old Colony Lines Can Be Achieved for $630 million
BOSTON, MAY 18, 2021 -- TransitMatters today released its latest report detailing how the MBTA’s commuter rail lines could be transformed into fast, frequent Regional Rail, this time focused on the Old Colony Lines -- Greenbush, Kingston/Plymouth and Middleborough/Lakeville lines.
Speeds of 100 mph are attainable, allowing one-way trips to take 45 minutes or fewer, while today they take about an hour. In addition, vast increases in frequency are possible through double tracking the Dorchester bottleneck and Quincy Center station. Whereas each line today sees a train once every two hours at best, TransitMatters’ recommendations make service every 30 minutes possible, a fourfold increase. Fixing the bottleneck will also make regular service to Cape Cod communities, subsuming the CapeFLYER service, possible, boosting tourism and allowing residents to travel to Boston by train year-round. Work on the bottleneck and Old Colony lines, along with electrification and new stations, brings the total investment to $630 million.
"Brockton, Plymouth, Randolph, and other South Shore communities have dealt with slow, infrequent rail service for too long,” said Ethan Finlan, TransitMatters’ Regional Rail campaign director. The steps in this report will make the South Shore's rail transit much more accessible and useful."
Residents of Brockton, the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts, will especially benefit. Currently it is both faster and cheaper for Brocktonians commuting to Boston to take a two-seat journey involving a bus to Ashmont and change for the MBTA Red Line, but the improvements proposed in the new report will allow for a single seat ride to South Station in 25 minutes. With fare integration, so that Regional Rail riders would be charged similar fares to MBTA rapid transit riders, it would be cheaper as well.
The most recent addition to the MBTA’s commuter rail system, the Old Colony lines serve important Gateway Cities like Brockton and Quincy, Boston’s bigger suburbs like Weymouth and Randolph, the college town of Bridgewater and the major tourist destination of Plymouth. In addition, the CapeFLYER uses the Middleborough/Lakeville Line to take passengers to Wareham and Hyannis, while Phase One of South Coast Rail, currently under construction, will also use it to take riders to New Bedford and Fall River.
TransitMatters is a Boston-based nonprofit advocacy group committed to making public transit affordable, accessible and reliable for all. ###
Contact: media@transitmatters.org
Press Package (graphics, photos, statement):
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Gy_QrcwEq27ilE104tpC6JnHmOU0q8V3