New commuter-rail station to open on Fairmount Line in Mattapan tomorrow

The Zone 1A monthly pass is the same price as the "Link" (subway-bus) pass and is therefore valid on all subway and local bus lines. Plus it's valid on the Charlestown Ferry.

The big drawback is that you can't load a commuter rail pass onto a Charlie Card. If you buy a Zone 1A pass at one of the T's vending machines, you get one of those paper tickets. And often, halfway through the month, the ticket's magnetic stripe gets damaged and it's no longer readable. So you have to convince every bus driver and subway "ambassador" to let you ride with the ticket that's legible to the human eye but not to their machines. I once had that happen for several months in a row.

If you go to North Station, South Station, or Back Bay Station, you can buy a commuter rail pass onto a plastic magnetic-stripe ticket, which tends to last longer. And supposedly there's a way to get a one-time Charlie Card every month with the commuter rail pass printed on it in ink, but they don't advertise how to do that.

Oh yes, you can also use the T's app to load a commuter rail pass onto your smart phone. But the buses and subway stations don't have anything to read the pass off of your phone.

If you get a weekly printed Link pass or a zone 1A monthly pass, you get a free transfer. Still will be faster to take the 31 north to Forest Hills for most people than take a bus south to transfer to commuter line.

Low ridership?
Attract more riders?

Increase service. Increase frequency.

THAT will be more attractive, and having more people/activity more often will help the environment of the stations.

I don't ride the line much these days. My hours and especially after-work needs generally don't work well with it. I'd love to be able to reduce car expenses (and avoid the havoc of bus/subway transfers) and take the train at least once a week. The SERVICE just isn't up to it, though. Look at the rush hour timetable - 45 to 50 minute headway. That just doesn't cut it.

I'd love it to be an actual rapid transit line where service was so frequent (peak 5-10 minutes, off-peak 20 minutes) and reliable that I'd almost never take my car to work, but that's not gonna happen. Not in the 15-20 years I have left before retirement, anyway.

This crappy service - this is AFTER they rebuilt the whole line 15-16 years ago. Yes, they've added stations, made things ADA-compliant, and added weekend service - and yes, safer/better lit. Those are all improvements. That doesn't excuse reducing peak service. Yes, reducing. In 2002, rush hour service was 30 minute headway.

I know we're not going to turn that into a real rapid-transit line, but still running regular-size train consists (locomotive & and at least five coaches (three of them locked)) on this line is ridiculous. They should do the signal work and get the DMUs or whatever else is needed to run more frequent, smaller consists.

Three days in

We need good (i.e. frequent) service from Dorchester to downtown. Not bad service from Dorchester to Woburn.

With zero concern of what the cost and ridership would be. People babble about trains from Lawrence to Brockton (those drugs don’t mule themselves), but how would that work? What if you want to go from Lawrence to Providence? Do you have one train from every northern line do one trip down a southern line? Now you have frequency problems much larger than those above and everyone is still unhappy. I recommend working closer to home or moving.