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Now? It has a great downtown and awesome food scene. With rail service to Boston a lot of people are living in Downtown Worcester with the emerging Biotech scene so its making the area sooo much better.
In 5 years? Kelley Square will be redone, 1 million more square feet of Office Space, Polar Park redevelopment and hotel compelx will be finished, and a lot more projects that are shaping up this once crappy downtown.. to be much better.
However, with COVID, the future stuff might be off the table soon. IDK what the slowdown will look like.. but right no Worcester is pretty decent.
But Providence and New Haven are better for sure.
Interesting—are there any plans to extend regular service west of Worcester or to up frequencies to Worcester?
Interesting—are there any plans to extend regular service west of Worcester or to up frequencies to Worcester?
Yeah theres this whole thing going on, back and forth between the state and local governments. East-West Rail is trying to make rail connections from Boston-Springfield in 90 minutes, with Worcester at the 35 minute mark. It would increase current 6-7 daily services to up to 20 times a day I think. Will it happen? Probably not.. we still dont even had the NSRL or BLX.. but its great to fantasize on the what could be.
However, I do see Worcester holding out growth a little more.. its 1/2 the price of Boston and i still relatively close and on the pike. With amazing universities there, I see no reason why it doesnt slightly outpace Providence or CT cities in getting better.. but with the COVID crisis I have no idea waht will happen.
I just wish MA and all of New England would better fund transportation.
Yeah theres this whole thing going on, back and forth between the state and local governments. East-West Rail is trying to make rail connections from Boston-Springfield in 90 minutes, with Worcester at the 35 minute mark. It would increase current 6-7 daily services to up to 20 times a day I think. Will it happen? Probably not.. we still dont even had the NSRL or BLX.. but its great to fantasize on the what could be.
However, I do see Worcester holding out growth a little more.. its 1/2 the price of Boston and i still relatively close and on the pike. With amazing universities there, I see no reason why it doesnt slightly outpace Providence or CT cities in getting better.. but with the COVID crisis I have no idea waht will happen.
I just wish MA and all of New England would better fund transportation.
I'd think that the North-South Rail link would be crucial if they want to be running a massive number of trains to Boston--it'd certainly beat trying to continuously expand the interlockings and terminal berths in downtown Boston.
One thing I'm curious about is how uncommon it is for people to use MBTA Commuter Rail outside of the commute itself. I'm in NYC and there's certainly quite a few "reverse" peak direction scheduled commuter trains and there's a large bridge and tunnel crowd that come to the city from elsewhere to hang out on nights and weekends though less of the city crowd going out to the nearby satellite cities or suburbs to hang out. I'm curious about what that dynamic is like for Worcester and Lowell which are at the ends of their lines that link them to Boston.
Yea, I think actually throwing in a bit of upstate New York with New England (and the Northeast Corridor, of course) for a good regional rail network would be pretty sensible. I lived in parts of East Asia for a bit and one of the great things about it was making little side trips on the trains to countless mid and small cities / towns.
I'd think that the North-South Rail link would be crucial if they want to be running a massive number of trains to Boston--it'd certainly beat trying to continuously expand the interlockings and terminal berths in downtown Boston.
One thing I'm curious about is how uncommon it is for people to use MBTA Commuter Rail outside of the commute itself. I'm in NYC and there's certainly quite a few "reverse" peak direction scheduled commuter trains and there's a large bridge and tunnel crowd that come to the city from elsewhere to hang out on nights and weekends though less of the city crowd going out to the nearby satellite cities or suburbs to hang out. I'm curious about what that dynamic is like for Worcester and Lowell which are at the ends of their lines that link them to Boston.
Yea, I think actually throwing in a bit of upstate New York with New England (and the Northeast Corridor, of course) for a good regional rail network would be pretty sensible. I lived in parts of East Asia for a bit and one of the great things about it was making little side trips on the trains to countless mid and small cities / towns.
Things unthinkable before pandemic is happening. Worcester would be a net receiver for this for work-from-home renters or house buyers fleeing downtown Boston. Hopefully western mass too for that.
The same trend is happening in NYC metro. NYers are fleeing and escape to suburb of CT and even to rural area shore line east of New Haven and litchfield county CT, unthinkable before the pandemic.
work-from-home new type of commuters may only take several trips per month to downtown NYC or Boston, they do not need to live too close. They can be in CT or Western Mass, and for sure, Worcester.
I'm curious about what that dynamic is like for Worcester and Lowell which are at the ends of their lines that link them to Boston.
It would happen, but more often than not the commuter rail is too slow and infrequent for that purpose. For example, to get from Haverhill to Boston right now would take 35min by car and 1hr8min by train. It’s not cheaper, it doesn’t allow for a more flexible schedule. It doesn’t make sense except during rush hour.
It would happen, but more often than not the commuter rail is too slow and infrequent for that purpose. For example, to get from Haverhill to Boston right now would take 35min by car and 1hr8min by train. It’s not cheaper, it doesn’t allow for a more flexible schedule. It doesn’t make sense except during rush hour.
Right, that's what I figured. I assume there are regions of interest between Haverhill and Boston so it's not like the full trip needs to be done to find something outside of your immediate neighborhood to do, but I also figured that as a non-electrified system based around commute times, it wouldn't quite offer the kind of flexibility of just getting on and going for a night out kind of thing.
I'm hoping that electrification and the NSRL and something that operates like a RER or S-Bahn system for New England, or even just the Greater Boston area, comes to fruition soon.
Right, that's what I figured. I assume there are regions of interest between Haverhill and Boston so it's not like the full trip needs to be done to find something outside of your immediate neighborhood to do, but I also figured that as a non-electrified system based around commute times, it wouldn't quite offer the kind of flexibility of just getting on and going for a night out kind of thing.
I'm hoping that electrification and the NSRL and something that operates like a RER or S-Bahn system for New England, or even just the Greater Boston area, comes to fruition soon.
Could be wrong but I’m pretty confident the Commuter rail never runs later than 10 PM (stopping much earlier on Sundays)
Right, that's what I figured. I assume there are regions of interest between Haverhill and Boston so it's not like the full trip needs to be done to find something outside of your immediate neighborhood to do, but I also figured that as a non-electrified system based around commute times, it wouldn't quite offer the kind of flexibility of just getting on and going for a night out kind of thing.
I'm hoping that electrification and the NSRL and something that operates like a RER or S-Bahn system for New England, or even just the Greater Boston area, comes to fruition soon.
They do run the Cape Flyer on Summer Weekends.
Also Lowell gets special trains for the Folk Fest and SE Asian Festival.
Could be wrong but I’m pretty confident the Commuter rail never runs later than 10 PM (stopping much earlier on Sundays)
Well, that's balls. The New Haven Line, the only commuter rail service that operates in New England that I've ever been on, definitely operates way late into the night. 10PM seems like a very early cut-off.
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