MassDOT is hosting a series of meetings in January and February to seek public comment regarding proposed MBTA fare increases and proposed changes to commuter rail schedules, including one at Bigelow Middle School Auditorium on Feb. 4 from 6-8 p.m.
The full schedule can be found here.
Written comments about the MBTA Fare Proposal will be accepted through Feb, 12, 2016, and can be mailed to: MBTA, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116, Attention: Fare Proposal Committee. You may also submit your comments on the MBTA website, by e-mail at[email protected],
Thank you for posting this, Greg. I am very interested in sharing some concerns about the commuter rail schedule. I take the 7:50am from West Newton to Boston. I rarely find a seat, I am never charged (because the conductor cannot get through), and there is not another train for 43 minutes. As people may know if they drive through Natick, that town (also on our rail line) has recently added hundreds of housing units; presumably many of those new residents are taking the train to work. I think the The Framingham/Worcester line needs more trains at rush hour. But equally as frustrating is the fact that during the bulk of the day, the trains literally skip over all three Newton stops and go straight to and from Wellesley. Could they not make ONE stop in our city??
Barbara, the scheduling issues are complex. Dave tries to make sense of it on his blog Lots of issues with shared tracks, limited storage, and very little room for failure in the current schedules. It would be great if someone, perhaps in the planning department, could help figure out what the constraints are that would enable more service to Newton in the future so Newton had something to lobby for. It seems that the new Worcester bullet train isn’t helping things any. Present management/equipment failures aside, would it be possible to add more stops or even more train runs? Do the existing single-track stations in Newton prevent that from happening? Would a new Riverside terminal help? Etc.
Thanks, I didn’t know about Dave’s blog.