I started off the Facebook page by posting my collection of pictures of the December 2003 derailment of a freight train on the 'station track' (the short track connecting the Framingham-Worcester mainline to the CSX Framingham North Yard along the "banana" parking lot just north of the Framingham station). The derailment didn't have a huge effect on Commuter Rail operations, since that's not a track Commuter Rail trains travel on. But there was a 'slow' order getting by that one white boxcar that was stranded on the mainline. And having 'single track' only operation past that boxcar resulted in some delays to morning trains. But it could have been worse had any cars derailed or damaged the mainline.
Our own Facebook page to broaden the conversation! Easier to post collections of pictures there also. I've had some requests to add a Facebook page for those folks who don't use Twitter. This blog will continue to be my primary method of communicating detailed information, so I'll use the Facebook page to link back to posts here as well as share pictures and engage in dialogue with Facebook folks.
I started off the Facebook page by posting my collection of pictures of the December 2003 derailment of a freight train on the 'station track' (the short track connecting the Framingham-Worcester mainline to the CSX Framingham North Yard along the "banana" parking lot just north of the Framingham station). The derailment didn't have a huge effect on Commuter Rail operations, since that's not a track Commuter Rail trains travel on. But there was a 'slow' order getting by that one white boxcar that was stranded on the mainline. And having 'single track' only operation past that boxcar resulted in some delays to morning trains. But it could have been worse had any cars derailed or damaged the mainline.
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The petition for an alternate morning schedule now has 559 signatures! For more information on the petition, see this previous blog post. Earlier today, I hand delivered the petition to the Governor's office at the State House. I also e-mailed the petition to all of the politicians listed on the blog post. While at the State House, I stopped by to drop off copies of the petition with the press corps there - hopefully we can get a little publicity and some added pressure from that angle. For a copy of the actual final petition as it was delivered, click here. The package that I delivered included all of the comments collected on the blog, the change.org petition site, and on the SurveyMonkey web survey. The first news story has been posted with coverage of the petition: http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2016/09/should_hearttohub_nonstop_trai.html I'm not going to close down the petition, since it can't hurt to gather more signatures while we wait for action on the proposal. Many commuters provided great comments and it was difficult to choose which to highlight in the cover letter that went in with the petition. In addition to the great comments, the SurveyMonkey web survey got 111 responses. Some of the interesting statistics from those 111 SurveyMonkey respondents: Responses were well distributed from the stations between Worcester and West Natick (with a few from Natick Center and none from east of that): Question 4 of the SurveyMonkey survey asked "would you consider switching from 508 to either of the new express trains that Dave proposes (you can choose more than one answer)?"
The possible answers were: - No - Yes, I would consider switching to Dave's new proposed P506 - Yes, I would consider switching to Dave's new proposed P510 - Yes, I would consider switching to a local train (that starts in Framingham) - Not applicable - I'm not a P508 commuter Only 13 people (of 111) said they would not consider switching. 87 people said they would consider switching (the remaining 13 responded with "not applicable - I'm not a P508 commuter"). Of the 87 who would consider switching to a different train, 54 chose only 1 alternate train, 28 chose 2 alternates, and 5 people chose all three alternates. These results indicate that there might be some validity to the idea that my proposed schedule will help to alleviate overcrowding on P508. It is impossible to completely model ridership choices - and what people answer in a web survey is not necessarily an accurate estimation of what they will do in real life - but this does show some willingness to change trains. It is also NOT statistically valid to examine the ratio of 87 out of 111 respondents (nor to extrapolate that ratio to the entire 1400-1600 passenger load of P508) since the respondents self-selected to answer the survey - but if all 87 of these people actually DID switch to another train, that clears out one entire level of a double level coach. Even moving 40-50 people off of P508 is not insignificant. updated 12/18/16 with actual signal progression and potential for improvement
I've answered this question at least a few times via e-mail and Twitter DM, so that means it's clearly time for a blog post about it. Many of you have noticed that eastbound trains go relatively slow when approaching the Framingham station. Why is that? The simple answer is that there is a 15 mph speed limit from CP 22 (the signals just west of the Fountain Street bridge) to the Bishop Street grade crossing. The more complex answer (and the reason that adjusting that speed limit really wouldn't help) is that it is an artifact of the signalling system and the Concord Street grade crossing in Downtown Framingham. So no BIG fix is really (easily) possible - but the MBTA is now (as of December 2016) looking into some minor improvements. Long explanation after the read more... |
LinksAuthorAs of late October 2017, the author is an MBTA employee. Blog posts prior to that time were created when I was NOT affiliated with the MBTA nor Keolis and therefore were my own opinion. Blog posts after October 2017 are my own personal statements and do not represent any official position or opinion of the MBTA and should not be construed as having been endorsed by the MBTA. Archives
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