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Riders rejected in Readville
By adamg on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 9:22am
Jeremy Bushnell reports from Readville station:
We need more trains on the Franklin line; one just stopped at Readville & refused to admit anyone due to overcrowding.
The developer of a proposed 492-unit residential project on one side of the station and the developer of a proposed 305-unit project on the other both point to convenient commuter-rail access as reasons their projects will not have all that much impact on neighborhood roads.
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T just posted on Facebook that
mTickets for tonight's Patriots game trains are sold out, but you can still get tickets at the windows at North and South Stations or Back Bay.
Which raises a question: How the (expletive) can mTickets actually sell out?
The trains have capacity limits
So the T probably allocates X tickets for sale via mTicket, Y for sale at Back Bay, Z for sale at South Station, etc. I'm guessing they're not set up to have the sales agents checking seat availability for each ticket sold, so once the allocation of mTickets for mobile sale or paper tickets at the window is gone, it's gone.
Simple
The T knows the capacity of the train. The mTickets are event specific. When they sell the number of mTickets equivalent to the capacity of the train, they are sold out.
In related news, the Patriots report that the game against the Colts tonight has sold out. How the (expletive) can the game actually sell out?
But
Waquoit, your reply ignores the fact that there are still tickets available at North and South stations, so apparently they haven't sold "the number of mTickets equivalent to the capacity of the train."
My bad
That is odd.
In a semi-related note, someone recently said that I would delete comments to save face. They might be a bit obsessed with my comments, but not enough to admit that I leave these ones up as my shame.
Easy
The same way the Red Sox "sold out" for almost 10 years straight: resellers. The Patriots, i.e. the primary market, sold out. Stubhub has just under 700 tickets available; then there's Ace, Ticketmaster resale, etc.
What about the Fairmont line
Which is always empty. Couldn't Keolis make an announcement to Readville riders to board the Fairmont line at Readville station to get in town?
"Get in town?"
We don't want to "get in town". We want to go to Back Bay or Ruggles as the Keolis schedule promises. We pay Zone 2 fares, $6.75. Should we also pay for an Uber to get to Copley Square or Longwood just because Keolis can't or doesn't feel like doing its job?
Make an announcement? Not possible.
None of the expensive signs or loud speakers have worked at Readville for years.
You must be riding the Fairmont Line
when I am not, then. Plenty of folks taking it in the am.
The Fairmont line is on a different time schedule than Franklin, #1 and takes longer to get into the city, #2 and does not stop at Back Bay or Ruggles, which many riders utiilize (totally different line, right, you knew that?)
Ruggles
It's a great idea, but I was stranded yesterday trying to get to Ruggles. I had students waiting for me, and I didn't have time to ride all the way into South Station and then back to Ruggles. Franklin line needs more trains, and the trains need more cars.
The Patriots Train
Is a shiny example of how Public Transportation should work. Yes the train is packed but the crew and the transit police who actually ride the train are courteous and professional.
Its a shining example when its on time
Under this MassDOT admin its usually late
I was there
Let let on about 4 people. The problem was it was only 5 single decker cars, while the next one which was virtually empty had 7 cars with 4 doubles.
Fairmount Line
Plenty of extra seats on the Fairmount line!! I know that doesn't solve the problem for the Ruggles/BB people, but a shame more South Station folks refuse to take it because "it takes too long" (30m vs 20m). Time savings are usually negated by the fact that the franklin line can never seem to run on time outbound in the afternoon.
Ok, stop.
It is not only because it takes longer or has seats it is also because it does not stop at Back Bay and Ruggles which for many is the stop they need.
Ok, read
Precisely why I said the people going to south station in my statement. I get that people need to go to Ruggles and Back Bay, but if the people going to South Station got on the Fairmount Line, there would be more room for people who have to take the Franklin line out of necessity rather than the luxury of saving 7 minutes off their commute time.
I've never ridden a train from Readville
But as a casual observer, the 50 minute gap between the 7:55 train and the 8:45 train might be the reason people prefer the Franklin Line. Were the Fairmount line your only option, if you missed the earlier train, it would be in your best interest to grab the 32 bus to Forest Hills at that point.
Seriously, though, how do you have a 50 minute gap during rush hour? And the train before the 7:55 train leaves at 7:15. For a double tracked line.
Fair Enough
Both lines are going to have pros and cons. The trains schedules do line up with relatively similar departures until 8 for the earlier commuters, but options are definitely limited to the Franklin line if you are looking to get in closer to 9. Being at the end of the line at least provides some reasonable assurance of being on time, which is another factor to consider. I spent far to many days last winter waiting in the cold for the 7:40 Walpole train to show up 15 minutes late. I'm defensive because sometimes I feel like the Fairmount line gets over looked over because of the communities it goes through which is probably too wide of a net to cast on my part.
Some Franklin trains run on the Fairmount tracks but do not stop
The Fairmount is approximately 90% bypass. 10% service
Ironic: if the Fairmount received their smaller DP diesel trains
These issues would have disappeared by 2018. The current locomotives that run on the Fairmount could have been dispersed to the other commuter lines by now. Deval Patrick was on top of it.
Train Access?
You will always have convenient access to the rail, but the trains may be a different story.
World class transport
World class transport
I will once again note
That in "world class" cities like New York and London, these things happen, too.