Regular scheduled passenger train service over the former Boston & Albany railroad returns to the Allston / Brighton neighborhood on Monday, May 22, 2017, for the first time in over 50 years. With a groundbreaking on May 12, 2015 and the "Grand Opening" on Wednesday May 17, 2017, the construction of the new "Boston Landing" station took almost exactly 2 years. 

I'll focus this blog post on four different topics:
1. Service schedule for Boston Landing
2. Track arrangement 
3. Grand Opening celebration (with pictures & video!)
4. Odds & ends...

1. Schedule

As many of you are aware, the MBTA postponed making changes to the Framingham-Worcester schedule in November 2016 in order to embark on a more comprehensive process of implementing a new schedule. The addition of the Boston Landing station was a major factor in that approach. To recap, the process was:
September 2016: Worcester Working Group formed
December 2016: Draft Schedule for May 2017 published
January-March 2017: Public hearings & public comment period
March 2017: Worcester Working Group meeting to review comments and finalize schedule

I'll write a separate blog post to cover schedule changes dealing with stations other than Boston Landing. 

1A. AM Schedule

1Ai. Inbound AM Schedule

As I noted in the December blog post about the new schedule, Boston Landing was added to only the local Framingham-originating trains. This actually allows everyone to get to Boston Landing relatively easily without adding more time to the duration of the express trains. For anyone west of Framingham wishing to go to Boston Landing, they can de-board in Framingham and transfer to the next inbound local train. Each Framingham-originating local departs Framingham only about 8 minutes after the express, so the transfer wait is not onerous. This transfer process actually allows reasonable service for anyone west of Framingham going to any of the stations between Natick Center & Boston Landing. 

This transfer process was discussed at the Worcester Working Group, and it was certainly my understanding that there would be no fare penalty for making this transfer. For example, a passenger travelling to Boston Landing from Ashland should only have to pay the zone 6 one-way fare ($10.00) rather than a 2 zone interzone fare ($3.25) plus a zone 5 one-way fare ($9.25). I have not followed up to find out if there has been any official policy change or procedure implemented for train crews to be able to implement the transfer process. This is only an issue for someone buying a single ticket, since monthly passes allow unlimited usage (and therefore unlimited transfers). 

The only exception to the 'only Framingham-originating trains stop at Boston Landing' rule is P510. This is because the Heart to Hub train prevents a Framingham originating local train from leaving right after P510 comes through Framingham. Passengers on P510 originating west of Framingham would face a 40 minute wait at Framingham to transfer to P590 to get to Boston Landing if P510 didn't stop at Boston Landing. ​

There were very few comments received during the public comment process regarding the inbound AM service. Some express train passengers NOT going to Boston Landing did like the idea of not adding the Boston Landing stop to the express trains (since it would increase the overall duration of those trips). Since the publication of the final schedule in late April, I have heard some comments from passengers intending to get to Boston Landing from west of Framingham and those comments have been critical of the need to make the transfer in Framingham. 

1Aii. Outbound AM Schedule ("reverse" commute)

A number of comments were received during the public comment period from passengers intending to travel from downtown Boston (or connecting transit services) to Boston Landing. Four trains make stops at Boston Landing to accommodate these passengers. However, a number of comments noted the long gap between P589 (arriving at Bostong Landing at 7:45 AM) and P509 (arriving at Boston Landing at 9:06 AM). This gap is the result of the 'end' of peak inbound service from the suburbs - the P589 equipment turns at Framingham to become the last inbound peak train, P590. P509 goes to Worcester as essentially the first 'mid-day' train. 

1B. PM Schedule

1Bi. PM Outbound Schedule

As with the morning commute, only local Framingham terminating trains will stop at Boston Landing. This does present a minor problem for Boston Landing passengers bound for destinations west of Framingham, since the express-local sequence at Framingham is not conducive to a transfer there (transfer times of ~20 minutes). There are a number of solutions for this issue:
1Bi.a) Boston Landing passengers can get to P521: P521, the 5 PM South Station express to Worcester, is the most popular evening train. Although it doesn't stop at Boston Landing, those passengers can take INBOUND P520 from Boston Landing at 5:04 PM and get off at Yawkey at 5:09 PM. They can then board outbound P521 at Yawkey at 5:11 PM. 
1Bi.b) Boston Landing added to P525: A stop at Boston Landing has been added to P525 since there is no corresponding inbound-outbound trick for Boston Landing passengers to access P525.
1Bi.c) Use bus 57 to access outbound trains at Yawkey: The other option to access either P519, P521, or P523 is to use the inbound 57 bus along Brighton Ave and Comm Ave to Kenmore and then walk over the MassPike to the Yawkey Commuter Rail station. The 57 bus operates about every 5 min around the time of those trains. 

1Bii. PM Inbound Schedule ("reverse" commute)

During the public comment period, a number of comments were received from passengers intending to travel from Boston Landing back into downtown Boston during the evening commute. All seven trains passing Boston Landing inbound from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM will stop at Boston Landing to accomodate these passengers. However, there is a large gap between P518 (departing Boston Landing at 3:07 PM) and P520 (departing Boston Landing at 5:04 PM). Most of the comments submitted noted this large gap. This gap is due to the gap in outbound midday service from P513 (departing South Station at 11:55 AM) and P515 (departing South Station at 2:00 PM). These trains turn at Worcester to become P518 and P520). With no other equipment west of Boston during those times, it is impossible to generate inbound service between those sets of equipment. Adding an outbound train departing South Station at 1:00 PM would generate a return inbound trip that would stop at Boston Landing at around 4:05 PM - cutting the two hour gap to one hour between trains. Something that we may want to advocate for in the future. 

1C. Midday and Evening ("Off-Peak") Service

This initial schedule for Boston Landing service focuses on 'typical' 9-5 (approximately) workers at Boston Landing - arriving at Boston Landing from the west or the east. There are a number of inbound and outbound trains that skip Boston Landing in the middle of the day, and no service inbound or outbound for Boston Landing after 8:01 PM. 

Although I advocated for adding Boston Landing to all of those trains, only ONE other person submitted a comment during the public comment period advocating for this expanded service. I was amazed and was expecting an outpouring of comments from the Allston-Brighton community requesting more service - especially for evening service to and from downtown Boston. Faced with a lack of public demand for more service than what was shown on the draft schedule in December, the Worcester Working Group agreed to keep the service level at what was published on the draft schedule. We all agreed that this can be revisited and service added to the next schedule revision (November 2017) if there is a public demand for more service.

I'm definitely interested in hearing about your experience if you're a new Boston Landing commuter! Leave some comments below. 

2. Track Arrangement

One of the biggest benefits that will affect ALL riders of the Framingham-Worcester line is the replacement of the 50+ year single track section between Yawkey and the location of Boston Landing station with a double track main line. This will improve the reliability, resiliency, and schedule flexibility for ALL train trips. 

In early December 2015, the track arrangement near the (then future) location of Boston Landing station was reconfigured for the first time since the 1960's when the MassPike extension was built. From the 1960's to 2015, the tracks reduced from 2 main line tracks to one single track at "CP 4" (the interlocking just to the west of the current location of Boston Landing). This "original" configuration is shown below:  

Although I can't be sure, the reason for only maintaining one track towards South Station is probably due to fact that in the 1960's, with most commuters switching to car travel, commuter rail service had been reduced to a single set of equipment that made a few trips back and forth to Framingham each day. With only one commuter rail train in service, it could easily operate on one track (track 2) from South Station to Framingham - leaving track 1 available for freight train service. This would also explain why the platforms at the three Newton stations were constructed on track 2 only - it was going to be the "passenger" track while track 1 was used for freight. Clearly the thinking in the 1960's (with the construction of the MassPike extension) was that the auto was the future. 

By December 2015, CSX had relocated all of their freight service out of the Beacon Park yard. This allowed the freight leads to be removed and replaced with a "shoo fly" track to enable the construction of the Boston Landing station to proceed without trains directly alongside the new station.

With CSX moved out of Beacon Park yard, land was now available to reconfigure the tracks so that a second mainline track could be added to eliminate the only gap in double track mainline between Worcester and Boston. Since Boston Landing was being constructed by the developer, an arrangement was made that stated if the MBTA constructed the second track through Beacon Park before Boston Landing was completed, the Boston Landing construction crew would connect their two station tracks to the 2 mainline tracks going east through Beacon Park. The result is the final configuration of Boston Landing station. The track work was actually completed with a shutdown of service over the weekend of 4/29/2017-4/30/2017. 

​The final configuration of the tracks throughout the entire former Beacon Park freight yard:

Here are some pictures from 4/30/2017 showing the (almost) final track arrangement (construction of the freight lead is not yet complete in this picture, and it's still unknown to me if there will be two freight leads under Cambridge Street). 

​3. Boston Landing Station Grand Opening

I was privileged to attend the Grand Opening ceremony for the station on Wednesday 5/17/2017 (with my wife!). Quite the ribbon cutting with what seemed like an endless line of politicians and dignitaries!

Boston City TV made a nice report and compilation video of the ceremony speeches and entire event: 

Some of the tweets from the event:
​

​Although Gin's pictures at the link above probably give you a better tour of the station, I did grab some of my own pictures (click on each of them for a larger version):

The historical photos they found for the station posters are fabulous. 
​

4. Odds & Ends:

4a. "Areas of Refuge"
Many of you have asked me about the fenced in areas at either end of the station, as shown here:
​

The two areas at each end of the platform are accessible via a ramp that is normally blocked by an "emergency exit" gate. These are "areas of refuge" and their implementation at Boston Landing station is somewhat of an odd artifact of a code requirement. Fire code now requires an "area of refuge" for people unable to use a stairway to escape a potential fire in a space that is not protected by a sprinkler system. The area of refuge is intended to be a safe space (equipped with two-way communication, hence the blue post with the call box on it) where people can shelter away from a fire danger until they are able to be rescued. It is not intended to be a path or route OUT of a building or the area of danger, but rather just a temporary holding place.

Since it would be difficult to equip the Boston Landing station with a sprinkler system (there aren't many ceilings and the station is outdoors), the areas of refuge were apparently required for compliance with building and fire code. The irony of course is that there is essentially nothing combustible or flammable in the station, with the exception of perhaps the equipment associated with the elevators. And even if an elevator caught fire, it would be quite easy for people to 'shelter' away from the fire at another end of the station. I have a hard time imagining a scenario where the entire platform was in flames and people needed to use the areas of refuge. But better safe than sorry I guess...

4B. Why is the station that Boston Landing paid for not even adjacent to Boston Landing? 

The Boston Landing station is well to the east of the main portion of the Boston Landing development. In fact, the main entrance to the station is down a path about 100 feet east of the northeastern corner of the Boston Landing development. Once the Stop & Shop is torn down and replaced with the upcoming development there, the station will appear to be more a part of that development than Boston Landing!

The answer is track geometry and available land. First, the available land between the Boston Landing development and the MassPike is too narrow for a station. 

Second, even if there were enough land, the area directly north of the Boston Landing development has tracks still curving out of the curve just to the west. It is much better and much easier to put a station on a straight section of track, primarily because it is much cheaper and easier to build things at right angles rather than with customized curves. In addition, building a platform on a curve increases the 'gap' between the train and the platform since the ~80' long coaches can't conform to a curved shape. 

Finally, the additional land available to the east of the area north of the Boston Landing development allowed space for the 'freight lead' switch.  

​
Any other questions? 

There have been a number of articles recently about the poor on-time performance of the Framingham-Worcester line. 

Boston Herald article
Boston Globe article
NECN report
WCVB report

One of our Twitter friends, Meghan, even had her letter published in the Boston Globe. 

The longest article was in the Telegram & Gazette, and it does the best job at explaining the difference between the "Worcester Working Group" and the "Worcester Line Rapid Action Group" (and that's not only because the article quoted me!). More on the Rapid Action Group below. 
 
With regards to the delays, the data doesn't lie, and kudos to the MBTA for being transparent with the on-time performance data. Take a look for yourself at: 

http://www.mbtabackontrack.com/performance/index.html#/detail/reliability/commuter_rail//Worcester%20Line

In general, delays are unacceptable. In reality, it's a bit more complicated than that. I'll offer my thoughts on the on-time performance and some potential reasons for the delays. But first, I'll offer one criticism of the data being provided by the MBTA and reported in those articles: the data provides no information about the MAGNITUDE of the delay. A 5 minute delay is the same as a 90 minute delay for the purposes of reporting how many trains were on time. I think that is an important fact - I'm not happy when my train is 6 minutes late, but it also doesn't ruin my whole day. But a 30 or 60 minute delay has the potential to really screw up my work or evening schedule. 

I'm not trying to minimize any delays in the recent past, but my own completely subjective feelings are that:
1) There have been too many epic meltdowns recently (see blog posts about 10/24, 11/4, and 11/8. I didn't even write blog posts about some of the severe equipment shortages around 11/4 and the week of 11/7). 

2) Those epic meltdowns result in some huge delays for many of us. 

3) But overall, those epic meltdowns don't represent 40% of the trips I'm taking. Maybe 10%? That would be one per week on average. Maybe it's 2 per week? The other 2-3 delayed trips per week (to get to ~40% delays) are probably less than 10 minutes. Again, that's just my experience, and feel free to open the debate in the comments below...

Why are the delays happening at all? I think there are a number of factors to blame. ​

1) Bad luck. A fatality in Wellesley relatively early in the rush hour one evening not too long ago delayed some trains by hours. The train involved in the buffer strike at South Station being a Worcester train was bad luck (the incident itself wasn't bad luck - I'm just saying it was bad luck it was one of OUR trains). 

2) The slippery rail season seems to have been bad this year. With only one 'wash train' for all the lines on the South Side, combating slippery rail is difficult. And it isn't clear to me that the wash train operated as much as it could, either because of equipment issues or other factors. This was what I was alluding to in my quote in the T&G article - slippery rail is bad luck, but was everything possible being done with the wash train to "make our own luck" to mitigate the related delays?

3) Equipment availability & mechanical issues. It is no secret to anyone that the last few months have seen a periodic shortage of coaches, locomotives, and/or entire train sets. The extensive delays and cancellations around 11/4/2016 could only have been caused by equipment issues. 

What's the good news? Believe it or not, Keolis actually cares about these delays. Perhaps it's our advocacy, perhaps it's the political pressure, or perhaps it's the fines for late trains, or perhaps it's them just doing their jobs, but they're trying to fix it. They have created the Worcester Line Rapid Action Group to work on short-term solutions for the delays. 

David Scorey, the Keolis General Manager (and a fellow Framingham-Worcester commuter) recently spoke about the Worcester Line Rapid Action Group. Watch this video - it has some nifty footage from some of the recent construction projects.

The Rapid Action Group is an internal Keolis-only group, focused on creative solutions to reducing the delays for our trains. Some of the solutions they have implemented include:

1) Adding conductors / crew members to the trains with the highest ridership. P508 actually went from 4 assigned conductors to 5 on the new crew rotation which was implemented on 11/21/2016. Other morning trains have had extra staff added on a temporary basis. Adding staff allows for more doors to be opened, speeding up passenger loading. Dwell time (the time a train is stopped in a station), especially at our stations which don't have full height platforms, can be a significant source of delays. Just 1 minute longer at five stations is 5 minutes - delays add up quick. 

2) This next one is a little technical, but it's a great idea and it has been very effective. The basic idea is to have inbound express trains switch tracks well before Boston Landing - therefore avoiding a slow switch there. 

"CP 4" is the interlocking / switch just west of Boston Landing. This is the switch where the two tracks from Worcester become one to get past the Boston Landing construction. Switches are not all the same - there are different switches with different geometries that allow for different speeds through them. A switch with a shallower angle off the straight track allows for higher speeds through the switch. Unfortunately, the switch at CP 4 is only rated for 15 mph. 

As many of you know, rush hour trains (both inbound and outbound) usually use track 2. There's a long story behind that, but here at CP 4 the basic story is that the Newton stations have platforms only on track 2 - so trains making the Newton stops have to be on track 2 (there are no crossovers between CP 4 and the Newton stations). Trains not making the Newton stops don't have to be on track 2. 

As shown on the diagram, going to or from track 2 to the single "shoo fly" track requires going through the 15 mph CP 4 switch. The 15 mph speed limit through CP 4 is effectively enforced by the fact that the 'best' signal a train can get going to or from track 2 is a "slow clear" ("Proceed at Slow Speed [15 mph] until entire train clears all interlocking or spring switches, then proceed at Normal Speed [maximum authorized speed for the track]").

Passing through CP 4 to or from track 1 avoids the effective 15 mph speed limit. Trains on that routing remain on a straight path. There is a 30 mph speed limit adjacent to the Boston Landing construction zone, so trains still have to slow down there, but the slow down is not as dramatic. 

The Rapid Action Group came up with the idea to route morning express trains onto track 1 through CP 4. Since they don't need to stop at the Newton stations, they can switch to track 1 at CP 11 (the "Weston Switch"). This is the closest interlocking that allows for changing tracks west of CP 4. This change can save ~2 minutes for those trains, and every minute matters. This routing has been used for trains P502, P504, P508, and P510 for the last couple of weeks, and it appears to have helped with on-time performance. Believe it or not, P508 was actually early on Tuesday 12/6/2016. 

3) Another change that Keolis has made involves the sequencing of the tie replacement project. In addition to the limitations described in this blog post, they are also not allowing the construction work to occupy track 2 until P512 passes through. As many of you recall, the tie replacement project in May and June did not have this restriction placed on it, and P512 was frequently substantially delayed due to the construction work. P512 is not technically a rush hour train, but it does have relatively high ridership, so this change helps those passengers. Mid-day trains after P512 are also less affected by the construction work, since the schedule through the mid-day has been structured to allow for areas of single track operation without dramatically affecting the schedule. 

I'm sure there will be those of you who claim that the Rapid Action Group is just making changes that should be normal operational corrections, and there is an element of truth to that. But regardless of how it's happening, they are trying to make changes to improve on-time performance. 

There are probably a combination of factors at play, but on-time performance has improved over the past few weeks. Those factors include:

1) End of slippery rail season;
2) Better equipment cycles with the new 11/21/2016 schedule (even though they didn't change our schedule, the changes to other lines allows for better equipment rotations); 
3) Better equipment availability (apparently); and
4) the work of the Rapid Action Group. 

Specifically, here is the on-time performance for peak trains for the following weeks:

10/17/16: 45%
10/24/16: 33%
10/31/16: 53%
11/7/16: 55%
11/14/16: 58%
11/21/16: 65% (Thanksgiving week)
11/28/16: 79%
12/5/16: 74%

We're still a long way from 90%, but at least the numbers are going in the right direction. 

I've gathered some great information over the past few weeks. Here's an update on the following topics:
1) Rail Destressing & Tie Replacement Projects
2) Boston Landing & Allston single track
3) Turn Table for new schedule
4) Track assignments for new schedule

1) Rail Destressing & Tie Replacement Projects

It was a race to the heat and the weather won. The MBTA was trying their best to accelerate the rail destressing construction so that it would be completed before the hot weather arrived. Our little late May heat wave dashed those hopes.

As I've previously reported, the funding for the completion of ALL rail destressing between Boston and Worcester was only approved in late March. Until that point, there was one large section of rail that would never have been destressed. So along with the tie replacement project, the last portion of the entire rail destressing project has been ongoing throughout this spring.

The last sections of track that needed destressing are typically used for inbound trains in the afternoon. All of the 'outbound' tracks have already been destressed. So how do outbound trains become delayed in that scenario?

As you may recall, the new schedule eliminated the idea of 'interlining' trains. Meaning that there are now 8 sets of equipment dedicated to the Framingham-Worcester line. They just go back and forth from Worcester (or Framingham) to Boston. In the middle of the day, some of them are parked in yards or go for service, since 8 train sets aren't needed for the reduced service in the middle of the day.

With no interlined trains, a delayed inbound train can delay an outbound train since that inbound equipment is needed for outbound trips. The inbound/outbound non-interlining system is also a reason why evening trains are delayed even though the construction ended before rush hour.

That's why it was so important to get all of the tracks destressed. So kudos again to however they came up with the money for these construction projects - we've gotten a big influx of money and the payoff will be good.

The other good news is that both the rail destressing project and the tie replacement project are ahead of schedule and will be completed in June. So only a few more weeks of construction and heat restrictions. After the projects are complete, there will be no more heat restrictions and no more construction delays west of Boston Landing. Hang in there, we're almost there!

Actually there will be construction later this year. The tie replacement project will continue on track 2 west of Framingham in the fall. So we're not completely done with construction delays. But the summer should be much better than recent weeks.

To be specific, the current status of the rail destressing project is:

Track 1:
CP 4 (near Boston Landing) to CP 11 (Weston switch) - destressing completed this spring.
CP 11 (Weston switch) to CP 21 (Framingham) - destressing completed late 2015.
CP 21 (Framingham) to Worcester - track replaced during 2014 and 2015.

Track 2:
CP 4 to Framingham - destressed in 2015.
Framingham to Worcester - destressing will be completed in June.

CP = "Controlled Point." You can read about the definition of CP in the glossary.
CP 4 = The interlocking just west of the new Boston Landing construction. CP 4 is where the two tracks from Worcester become a single track through the Beacon Park freight yard.
CP 11 = What I call the "Weston switch," this is the interlocking between the Wellesley Farms and Auburndale stations, right next to the Leo J. Martin golf course and just west of Route 128.

You can see the precise locations of all these places on my map.

Until Track 2 is fully destressed, certain sections of track 2 between Framingham and Worcester will have a 30 mph speed restriction imposed in hot weather. The previous rule was that ambient temperatures above 85 degrees at Worcester, Framingham, or Boston triggered the heat restrictions and that appears to be what happened on Tuesday 5/25. The temperature spiked above 85 degrees at Framingham and the heat restrictions were imposed. I'm not sure if Boston is still a part of the rule since the section of affected track is far from Boston. And who knows, the entire rule could have changed.

If you're a first time reader and would like the background on heat restrictions and rail destressing, read this post for an introduction to the topic. Also don't forget to use the 'category' links on the right side of this page to read all the posts about certain topics.

Astute readers may notice that I don't spend much time talking about the tie replacement project in the above discussion regarding heat restrictions. That's because the tie replacement actually has nothing to do with removing heat restrictions - the rail destressing is performed FIRST, and then the ties are replaced after the rail is destressed. The tie replacement is important, but it won't affect heat restrictions, regardless of what politicians and the mainstream media try to tell us.

The tie replacement project is proactive maintenance that maintains the track in good condition. Rotted ties are one of the most common causes of speed restrictions. Some of you may recall a 5 mph speed restriction just west of Yawkey at the CP 3 interlocking for about a week in April or May. That speed restriction was imposed after the FRA (Federal Railway Administration) inspection car came across the line and found TWO rotted ties at that location. That was enough to impose a speed restriction for safety purposes. So proactive tie replacement is very important to avoid the imposition of those speed restrictions (and keep the system safe!), but it doesn't really have anything to do with heat restrictions.

However, tie replacement is actually more disruptive to the rail bed than rail destressing. Therefore tie replacement results in speed restrictions that last longer (on the calendar) and affect more trains over more days. Areas where the ties are replaced have new ballast (stone) spread and tamped, which takes time to settle and stabilize. This results in a requirement for temporary speed restrictions related to the amount of tonnage (number and weight of trains) that pass over the modified railbed.

Most of the tie replacement has been completed (obviously, since they only have a few weeks left of construction!). The remaining few sections for tie replacement include a section on track 1 in Wellesley and Natick, a section within and near Framingham station on track 1, and a section on track 1 in Ashland and Southboro. Track 1 through Wellesley and Natick never carries rush hour trains (AM or PM), so temporary speed restrictions there don't affect most of us. Track 1 from Framingham to Worcester is the outbound track (all day), so temporary speed restrictions have affected lots of passengers on that stretch and will continue to affect us. It should also be noted that the temporary speed restrictions related to the tie replacement project will last PAST the completion of construction - again, the speed restriction remains in place until a certain amount of tonnage passes over the disturbed railbed. So expect delays through the Ashland and Southboro areas through June on track 1 (outbound track).

2) Boston Landing & Allston Single Track

The background on Boston Landing station is in this post. More good news to report today - the construction is ahead of schedule and the station should be completed before the end of this year. The original schedule put construction completion in the spring of 2017. With both the Celtics and Bruins practice facilities being built at Boston Landing, maybe we'll see players taking the train to practice this winter?

As most of you are aware, the section of track from CP 4 (near Boston Landing) to CP 3 (just west of Yawkey) has been the only section of single track between Worcester and Boston since the Mass Pike extension was built in the 1960's. That foolish decision is now being corrected, with the MBTA and Keolis starting construction on a second mainline track through this section.

As you pass through the former Beacon Park freight yard you can see this construction. The first step in the process is the removal of the 40 foot sections of 'stick rail,' which will be replaced with continuously welded rail. All of the switches connecting into the freight yard are also currently being removed. The path of the new mainline 'second track' will follow the existing path of the freight lead closest to the existing single track mainline. This includes going up onto the little 'rise' and under the Mass Pike viaduct since there is a column supporting the Mass Pike preventing the second track from being directly adjacent to the existing single track.

The only bad news is that this second track construction will be synchronized with the completion of the Boston Landing station, so the second track won't be completed as soon as we would all like. The new second track will be 'stubbed out' to align with the new tracks alongside the new Boston Landing station and only connected once the tracks alongside the station are completed.

For fellow rail nerds, part of this overall project will be the decommissioning of CP 4 (it will no longer exist as an interlocking). It will be replaced with a new interlocking at CP 6, which will be on the straight / tangent rail section along the Mass Pike near the Staples store on Soldiers Field Road. A freight lead switch will be included somewhere near Boston Landing station and the former location of CP 4 to allow freight trains to access the parts of Beacon Park yard still in service.

3) Turn Table for New Schedule

I've updated the "Turn Table" for the new schedule. Theoretically, with 8 dedicated sets of equipment, we should be able to figure out the 'turns' at South Station as well as the 'turns' at Worcester. I gave it a try but it is impossible since all of the equipment goes to storage or service in the middle of the day. How that equipment returns to service in the afternoon is where I couldn't 'reverse engineer' the schedule. We'll see if I can't get some additional information and create a more comprehensive table of equipment usage and all equipment turns.

4) Track Assignments for New Schedule

As detailed in previous blog posts, the 'inbound' and 'outbound' tracks are really not labeled properly or helpfully. Based on the new schedule, I've updated my table of track assignments, which includes the status of the rail destressing as of now. As explained above, this table will soon be covered entirely in green!

For information on which track is which, see this blog post.

I'm NOT 100% confident this is correct, so please let me know if you notice any errors or changes. Click on the image for a PDF version.

Compare the table above to the corresponding table from September 2015 in this blog post. Notice the lack of red - everything has been funded. And we're almost to all green!

Also note that there are no leapfrog moves with the new schedule, and the Newton stretch is kept more consistent than with previous schedules (at the expense of reverse commute options for Newton passengers). Overall an operational improvement that should result in better service and less delays (remember, the current delays are primarily related to construction, and those should be gone soon). 

Rail destressing! Tie replacement! CP4! CP11! Construction!

What is this all about?

Keolis has just announced upcoming construction work for the Framingham-Worcester line. They published this press release this afternoon and published a video with Rich Murphy explaining the work.

Let's dive into the details of what they have announced and provide some context.

First, the background. If you haven't already read it or just want to get a reminder on what heat restrictions are all about, read this post. As Rich points out in the video, the Framingham-Worcester line has the dubious distinction of being the most recent rail line brought under the complete control of the MBTA. The MBTA has invested quite a bit of money into construction projects to eliminate heat restrictions, and that work continues this spring.

Rich (and I) talk in railroad jargon about track 1 and track 2, and things like CP 4 and CP 11. Let's translate those into terms you can use to follow this story:

Track 1 = the northernmost track, or the track closest to New Hampshire. This is called the "outbound" track by Keolis customer service.
Track 2 = the southernmost track, or the track closest to Rhode Island. This is called the "inbound" track by Keolis customer service. But note that between Boston and Framingham, rush hour trains use track 2 for BOTH the inbound and outbound legs of their journey. Hence why I hate calling the tracks "inbound" and "outbound."
More about track numbering here.

CP = "Controlled Point." You can read about the definition of CP in the glossary.
CP 4 = The interlocking just west of the new Boston Landing construction. CP 4 is where the two tracks from Worcester become a single track through the Beacon Park freight yard.
CP 11 = What I call the "Weston switch," this is the interlocking between the Wellesley Farms and Auburndale stations, right next to the Leo J. Martin golf course and just west of Route 128.

You can see the precise locations of all these places on my map.

The last time I posted an update about the rail destressing projects was in September of last year. At that time, the MBTA had either completed or planned for work on most of the tracks, but not all. Back then, I got the scoop on an expansion of the scope of the project. With that expanded scope, all of the rail was due to be destressed (or replaced) with the exception of track 2 from Worcester to Framingham.

With today's announcement from Keoils, that section - track 2 from Framingham to Worcester - is now scheduled to be destressed. So when these construction projects are complete, all the rail on both tracks will have been destressed, and heat restrictions will no longer be imposed on inbound OR outbound trains.

Here are the precise details:

Track 1:
CP 4 to CP 11 (Weston switch) - will be destressed this spring
CP 11 to CP 21 (Framingham) - destressing completed late 2015.
CP 21 (Framingham) to Worcester - track replaced during 2014 and 2015

Track 2:
CP 4 to Framingham - destressed in 2015
Framingham to Worcester - will be destressed this spring.

You can use this map from last year to visually see what is happening. On that map, the dashed pink / orange line indicates track 2 where the rail destressing had not been scheduled (and hadn't even been funded until recently). Now, with today's news, that section of track will be destressed.

As you probably know, the heat restrictions usually only have a big impact on outbound rush hour trains. Outbound rush hour trains usually use track 2 from Boston to Framingham and then track 1 from Framingham to Worcester. As Rich mentions in the video, and as you can see from the list above, those tracks have already had destressing completed. So even without today's announcement, the prior work that has been completed will mean that heat restrictions this coming summer will have much less of an impact on the majority of daily Boston commuters.

But having heat restrictions on the other tracks can delay other trains, primarily because equipment that is delayed arriving in Boston can't leave ("turn") on time. So if an inbound afternoon rush hour train is delayed due to a heat restriction, an outbound train may be delayed even if it doesn't have a heat restriction on the path it is scheduled to follow. This is much more likely to happen now that they plan on keeping all equipment dedicated to a particular line with the implementation of the new schedules in May.

Other important tidbits from the video:

1) 30,000 ties to be replaced.
2) a new interlocking at CP 6 will be created and constructed.
3) a second track along the single track through the Beacon Park freight yard will be constructed, eliminating that single track bottleneck.

Although Rich doesn't state it in the video, I've been told that the second track through Beacon Park is part of this spring's construction project! That tidbit is probably the biggest news of the day. And buried here at the bottom so only you nerds that read this whole post will find out.

"Bustitution" - the substitution of buses for trains - was in effect all this weekend between Wellesley Farms and Boston. Why? We're getting our very own "shoo fly" track at the location of Boston Landing station! Boston Landing station is the station completely financed by the developers of the new Boston Landing complex, which includes the new headquarters for New Balance along with the new practice ice rink for the Boston Bruins. Don't confuse Boston Landing station with West Station - West Station is further to the east near Boston University. More about West Station here. 

Simply put, a "shoo fly" track is a temporary track constructed to rearrange train traffic for some temporary condition - usually construction. In this case, it is simply to move the mainline Framingham-Worcester track away from the Boston Landing station construction. 

The details after the read more...

Did you know that the Framingham / Worcester Commuter Rail is getting two new stations? Boston Landing (under construction) and West Station (in planning stages) will be in Allston / Brighton. Here is a diagram:

This image is taken from a presentation (available here) which provides a wealth of information regarding possible track layouts and station arrangements. Although the document is titled "February 2015," it appears that it might only recently have been published since the file name said "May 2015." 

I found this presentation linked from an invitation to an upcoming public meeting regarding the I-90 Allston interchange. The meeting is June 17th at 6:30 PM and the invitation is available here.

West Station is part of the I-90 Allston Interchange project. More information about that project is available at the links below:

Mass DOT page about project

Documents available from Mass DOT 

Boston Globe article about West Station

December 2014 presentation

The groundbreaking for new "Boston Landing" station was held yesterday:

http://www.boston.com/business/news/2015/05/12/construction-starts-new-allston-brighton-commuter-rail-station/RsxvjmSp2dFRVANmdv7mOM/story.html?p1=feature_stack_3_hp


http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/real_estate/2015/05/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-mbta-s-new.html


https://twitter.com/KarenWBZradio/status/598133614249914368/photo/1


http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/05/12/mbta-commuter-rail-boston-allston-brighton-boston-landing-station/



website for the development:
http://bostonlandingdevelopment.com/



according to this development figure, the station will be directly behind the existing Stop and Shop:
http://bostonlandingdevelopment.com/sites/default/files/u8/Boston%20Landing%20Website%20Site%20Plan%2012.9.14.pdf_Page_1.jpg