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The MBTA's worst commuter-rail station
By adamg on Thu, 10/06/2016 - 8:37pm
Miles on the MBTA, who usually tries to find the good in even the dowdiest T stop, finds absolutely nothing worthwhile about pitiful Hastings, a tiny little stop on the Fitchburg Line in Weston, right down to the Sharpie-drawn station sign on a plank of wood:
They...they even drew a little sign around "Hastings" and gave the MBTA website and everything! So...this is the signage. THIS IS THE ONLY INDICATION THAT PEOPLE ARE WAITING AT THE HASTINGS COMMUTER RAIL STATION ON THE FITCHBURG LINE IN WESTON, MASSACHURSETSTES! HASTINGS? MORE LIKE HATE-STINGS, BECAUSE THIS STATION IS THE WORST!
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Comments
Who says privileged white suburbs get the best of everything?
Not the case here!
Spoken in the most haughty, Brahmin voice
"In Weston, WE have the most EXCLUSIVE train station in the ENTIRE system."
FREE Parking?!?!?
Someone at LAZ just woke up in a cold sweat.
Hey Adam, my comment text is missing
Page not found
The requested page "/comment/557610/edit" could not be found.
You hit Submit and nothing showed up?
Let me know, I'm trying to track that down; has happened to me, too.
It didn't at the time
But now it does. The error text I posted was when I tried to edit the nonexistent body. Only the title was visible.
Disagree
I love MotMBTA, but I have to disagree with what he says about Hastings. Boarding the train in the middle of the street makes it seem like an old interurban stop which is quaint. (Safe? Convenient? ADA accessible? Not really. But this was how you boarded the train back in the '50s. Both 19 and 18.) What would it take for the T to build a short platform with an ADA ramp? A few thousand dollars? This shows how important actually serving customers is to the T.
As for the passengers: 44 people board here daily from six parking spaces. It serves the community: and it's likely that a number of people live nearby and walk to the station. More than Silver Hill ("Service since June 12, 1844" which should really be "18 passengers per day, but the right 18 passengers."). The worst stations are the planning debacles of Westborough, Ashland, and especially Kingston and Newburyport: don't put the station near where anyone could walk, but put a parking lot in the middle of a field and everyone can drive. I'd take Hastings any day.
Newburyport is a bit different
You can actually roll right up and onto the platform from the bike path that ends at the station, and roll right off to get downtown without much roadway interaction.
That path goes to the waterfront and to points north. Getting to the town area and waterfront -1.25 to 1.5 miles each way - may be more than many pedestrians care to walk (although it does cut through residential neighborhoods for commuters), but it is certainly a great way to get to the downtown area by bike (and getting out to Plum Island is fairly simple, too).
planning debacles
Don't forget the planning debacle of the non-station in Hingham Center too. They have a Station Street with NO station!!! Snobs.
Kingston is a crime, think of the property values in downtown Plymouth if the train actually came downtown. And the tourists that would take a day trip from Boston on the train, direct to the Plymouth waterfront.
Counter Point
The Old Colony and Greenbush Lines were designed to take cars off of the Southeast Expressway, The Kingston station accomplishes that and very well for that matter.
You what keeps property prices down in Plymouth? It isn't the lack of a train to downtown. It is the low sperm count potential from the nuclear power plant, not the lack of a train. I bought my house outside of the 10 mile radius for a reason.
The people of Hingham did not want a station downtown. They protested and won. Victory for the people. West Hingham station still does not fill up and Nantasket Junction has never been at more than 30% capacity. The bulk of the riders get on in Weymouth.
Hingham has a ferry that takes people to and from the city. It works very, very well and operates with much more frequency than the train. It is also far more reliable and is a great ride.
Public transportation policy is and should be geared towards the everyday user, not in case Ralph and Dolores from Grand Rapids want to take the train down to see a ship built in 1957 and a rock.
The people of Hingham did not
And now the people have decided they do want a station downtown. Unfortunately, it can't be built because of how the line was constructed to meet the demands of the previous people, who put their own snobbery above the common good. Yep, that's really a victory for the people - not.
The people of Hingham are spoiled
They get sleek boats with deck chairs and a beautiful waiting area or the option of taking a double decker train with free wifi. In the inner city the T paints buses silver with a dedicated bus lane that has more illegally parked trucks than buses.