Commuter rail chief unhappy with delays on Worcester Line
By Ben Terris
Town Correspondent
On Friday, June 26th, a switch failure delayed ten rush hour trains on the Worcester and Needham Lines, four of which were stalled for two hours, according to the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company.
Now, the General Manager of MBCR, Richard Davey, wants answers from the line’s owner, CSX, on why it took approximately 90 minutes before maintenance was at the site.
In a letter dated Tuesday to Chip Dobson, the Manager of Commuter Operations at CSX Transportation, Davey wrote to express “MBCR’s extraordinary disappointment at the response time of CSX” to a failure that “caused major disruption to evening services.”
In his letter, Davey said, “This is not the first occasion that CSX’s response time has been a source of delays to MBTA service.”
Davey cited the distances that maintenance staff must travel as being a factor to the lengthy waits for their arrival.
“If qualified CSX maintenance staff is not located close to the service area, we cannot provide our customers the service they expect,” Davey wrote. “While we understand that discussions are currently underway to enhance certain maintenance functions along the line, in the interim, we request that CSX provide assurances that repair personnel will be posted no more than 20 minutes travel time from the service area to protect the delivery of reliable rail service, especially during the rush hour.”
Davey ended his letter by requesting a meeting with CSX staff to “discuss the steps required to assure improved response time for the signal, track and switch issues on the Worcester Line.”
Bob Sullivan, a spokesman for CSX said that the company has received the letter and that the “certainly regret the inconvenience caused by the delay.” He also said that they were “more than willing to have a meeting to further work with [MBCR].”
Were you delayed on the commuter train last Friday? Tell us your experiences with commuter rail by posting a comment below.
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At least with delays like this the people who collect fares would have time to do their job unlike many days where people only going a few stops get a free ride.
I wasn't directly affected, but a friend of mine was. The maddening thing was not just the time it took to fix the switch. The maddening thing was that people were stuck on the train for 2 hours, when the train was just a couple hundred yards from Yawkey station. Also, there was already a stuck train ahead of them. Why did the MBTA permit the second train to leave when they should have already known the second train was stuck? Ideally they should have been able to back up the train to Yawkey station to allow passengers off (or allow them to walk) but it seems that communication between trains should have been better, and only the first train should have been stuck in the first place.
I was on the train headed into BackBay Station. We were only a mile away. Behind us was another train. Stuck.
To the front of us was a train leaving backbay. Stuck.
After the announement "folks we are gonig to be here for a little bit" (which Ive heard before) I got up and went to the doors and looked around About 6 other people in my car came up and and we all just looked at each other and before I knew it we were had all jumped off the train and started walking between the train and the mass pike.
.I found a hole in a fence with a couple of the others and we found our way to the Number 57 Bus Stop. lI was home while they still sat there.
I took the Worcester line for years and for a long time was a big proponent of train commuting, but I finally gave up a year and a half ago. The constant delays, lack of information, and excuses made it impossible for me to know if I was ever going to get to work on time (or even at all) some days.
Not last Friday, but 3 yrs ago at just this time of year, we had been at a 5 day meeting in central Boston. Friends in Worcester kindly offered their driveway to our car from another state, and we were pleased to use public transportation into the city. Near the end of the conference, one of us came down with a feverish bug, and we had to stay another night. In this weakened state, with more to carry out than we had brought, we boarded a mid-afternoon train west.
In Wellesley the engine, which had been going very slowly, gave up. We are forever grateful to the caring fellow passenger who carried our heaviest bag up & down a high pedestrian bridge, as my husband was about to pass out from the fever. As we left the train, the engineer was heard to be swearing, all but kicking the wheels and yelling, " this piece of sh*t is older than God!" in total frustration. We were grateful he had gotten us into the station area where we could get another train (an hr later) and didn't have to walk for miles from the middle of nowhere on a hot afternoon.
So it's more than the track and switches & texting/talking young bloggers. I am hoping some of the transportation money will put people to work repairing and replacing some of the aging equipment.
I was delayed last Friday. I arrived at South Station at 6:55 only to find out at 7:15 PM my train was delayed. Every 10 minutes they kept saying it was delayed due to a switch problem. However, no one could tell me if a train was ever coming at all! By 8:30 PM I could not just sit and wait when there was no assurance a train would ever arrive. They had no information for me (or wouldn't give me any) and I had to take a cab home.
Why didn't they dispatch MBTA buses to get us home. My ride along the pike took me past the problem and it was severe. I felt bad for the people trapped on the trains.
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