State looks at eliminating all weekend commuter-rail service

I for one am shocked that such a proposal would arise under a Republican Governor. Shocked.

It's not like people do any work, go shopping, or travel into/out of the city on weekends; we all just curl up in the fetal position and wait for Monday, like sensible folk. Thus, there's no possible way this insane plan could backfire on the state in the form of decreased tax revenues, job losses, or a horde of angry voters who finally realize that the big (R) next to his name stands for "(R)emoving all useful public services in order to afford tax breaks for wealthy friends."

...if we stop running those pesky purple trains on weekdays, too, think of all the real estate that could be sold off for development. So what if 42% of commuters use it on weekdays?

http://amateurplanner.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-man...

Will be real interesting to see how this one develops. This is at least the second time, maybe third, that this has been floated in the last 10-12 years.

They are gonna shut down the Mass Pike on weekends too, right? After all it loses money and fewer people use it then.

/s

I'll bring up that time the MBTA said it wouldn't know what to do with more money. Good times for all.

The real kicker:

Officials say that Keolis has been challenged to rethink weekend service in a way that would save the MBTA more money.

I guess cutting it outright is one way to save money on it!

this is so so so so so so so so so so so stupid.

I work in a job on the South Shore on the weekends and take the train. I would be screwed.

I have some friends who don't drive due to medical reasons but they still need to get around. They too would be screwed.

This move would only raise housing prices in Boston as living in cheaper commuter suburbs becomes harder.

In short, it's a horrible idea that screws people over.

Good news is that you can't have any delays in service, if you have no service at all.

MA Pays a Keolis a fixed amount to run a set number of trains. That's a long term contract signed years ago. So by cutting the service Keolis stands to save a ton of money and the state is out whatever fares they might be received?

Even if the contract is modified, Keolis stands to be the biggest winner with this change. The 12,000 weekend riders would be the biggest losers.

Oh, wait, that's profitable.

Of course, if you apply the accounting methods that make the Cape Flyer profitable, weekend service breaks even, too.

(Most—2/3 to 3/4—of the costs of running Commuter Rail are fixed, and based on the need for peak rush hour service. That's why we have as many tracks as we do at South and North stations, why we maintain two tracks on most lines, why we have the number of train sets that we maintain. Running on weekends uses trains which otherwise just sit doing nothing. There's a small cost to the wheels turning round and round, but otherwise the costs are basically for staff and fuel. Those are pretty minimal. Basically, the Cape Flyer carries the same number of passengers per mile, passengers per hour, runs at the same speed, etc as every other weekend Commuter Rail line the T runs. So if they want to make it seem like it makes money, they can do so pretty easily.)

Someone is going to have to go to an FMCB meeting and teach the FMCB how marginal costs work.

And remember, the T even admits as much! The numbers they float here are alternative facts of Trumpian proportions.

For years, people have questioned why the T runs 7-car commuter trains on the weekends, with only one car open to riders. It's been questioned here, at MBTA hearings, everywhere. No one could figure out why locomotives were pushing around thousands of tons of empty steel coaches every weekend, wasting fuel and increasing wear while not generating any revenue.

Turns out, they were doing the most MBTA thing ever: being inefficient on purpose. Now it's time to declare weekend commuter rail a failure and walk away.

Same as the Night Owl bus (killed 2003).
And the Night Owl subway (killed 2016).
And (fill in the blank).

It's pretty embarrassing for Massachusetts. Anything related to transportation is still stuck in an early 70s mindset. Weekend commuter rail could be run very efficiently with DMUs, but Chahlie already killed those off.

As a final thought, and to counter some of the other posts here: people are not going to move into the city because the public transportation sucks. They're going to move to another city.