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Were the line electrified and all the other infrastructural changes necessary to go electric, the trip from PVD to South Station could be 40-45 minutes; currently it's about 65 minutes (in theory but almost never in practice). That's tolerable but it is exhausting if you have to, as I sometimes do, go to client locations in Cambridge, or ANYWHERE that involves the T. Now your're talking 90 minutes. So if the electrification were to lop off 20 or 25 minutes on the PVD-BOS run, that would expand the range of opportunities and make commuting so much easier. The notion that it's easy money working in BOS and living in PVD is not entirely true -- the commute wears on you.
I work in Charlestown and it literally adds 20-30 min to my commute.
Would electrification really speed it up though with all the stops? I remember a conductor saying that can't go too too fast because of the frequency of stops (although you have the express train from Sharon). It would really help in the winter though, as disel engines and cold mean delays.
I work in Charlestown and it literally adds 20-30 min to my commute.
Would electrification really speed it up though with all the stops? I remember a conductor saying that can't go too too fast because of the frequency of stops (although you have the express train from Sharon). It would really help in the winter though, as disel engines and cold mean delays.
I'm not a locomotive engineer so I can only repeat what I've read.
I can do the 1 or maybe 2 days a week of commuting to Cambridge but I could not do it 5. The whole T and the MBTA is falling apart, its reliability is down down and, as you say, it just dies in the winter. I mean, the Orange line, the cars are literally rusting.
Message to companies in Boston: We have space for ya'll here in PVD.
Still feeling a little intimidated about my commute tomorrow, I left home a little early this morning to do a dry run, and I thought some of you might be interested in what I found.
I was reading a thread recently -- I don't remember whether it was a new thread or an old one I dug up -- where people were complaining that the road signage was generally awful in Rhode Island. Well, the signs leading up to the TF Green train station and parking garage were great. That is, until you turn down Coronado Road and hit Jefferson Boulevard. The parking garage (which is also the dropoff point for the commuter rail, so basically the only access point for the station) is on Jefferson, but there's no sign indicating that at the intersection, so instead of turning, I just kept going and got lost. Tomorrow I'll know better.
Contrary to a conflicting report that cited the official MBTA website, parking does indeed cost $5 a day, not $6.75.
There's no ticket machine at the station. A sign promises that tickets can be bought on board for $11 in cash (an ATM is available). I looked it up just now to see if that constitutes a mandatory upcharge, but no, $11 is the standard cost. Fun fact: TF Green is the only station in Fare Zone 9, just as Wickford Junction is the only station in Fare Zone 10.
Of particular interest given the tenor of some of the debate in this thread: The station was dead. In fairness, I just checked the schedule and it seems that I pulled into the station right after the 7:59 train left, so it makes sense that nobody was waiting. I also pulled into the dropoff part of the garage, not the all-day parking part. But from where I sat, it didn't look like there were very many cars in the garage at all. I'll probably have a better idea about this after tomorrow, but that was my initial impression.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boulevardofdef
I was reading a thread recently -- I don't remember whether it was a new thread or an old one I dug up -- where people were complaining that the road signage was generally awful in Rhode Island. Well, the signs leading up to the TF Green train station and parking garage were great. That is, until you turn down Coronado Road and hit Jefferson Boulevard. The parking garage (which is also the dropoff point for the commuter rail, so basically the only access point for the station) is on Jefferson, but there's no sign indicating that at the intersection, so instead of turning, I just kept going and got lost. Tomorrow I'll know better.
Smart to make a dry run. I think signage quality is generally most noticed by visitors/transplants. For long term residents, it sort of fades into the background. As a transplant to Mass, I thought the signs were atrocious. As a transplant to Rhode Island, I thought they were bad but not so bad as Mass. But there's definitely room for improvement. I can think of at least one place where there are contradictory signs.
Quote:
Contrary to a conflicting report that cited the official MBTA website, parking does indeed cost $5 a day, not $6.75.
Good to know. Like I said, I'd never been there and when I searched, MBTA's (erroneous) info came to the top. It's not surprising that MBTA has it wrong given that it is a Mass agency, but it would have been particularly embarrassing had it been the other way around.
Still feeling a little intimidated about my commute tomorrow, I left home a little early this morning to do a dry run, and I thought some of you might be interested in what I found..
Aw, Chrispy on a cracker, get a grip, man. You're not going to Mars in a tin can, you're going to Boston! Buck up! Get a grip! Jeez. I thought Rhode Islanders were made of sterner stuff.
Aw, Chrispy on a cracker, get a grip, man. You're not going to Mars in a tin can, you're going to Boston! Buck up! Get a grip! Jeez. I thought Rhode Islanders were made of sterner stuff.
I'm justifiably famous for overthinking everything.
I was reading a thread recently -- I don't remember whether it was a new thread or an old one I dug up -- where people were complaining that the road signage was generally awful in Rhode Island. Well, the signs leading up to the TF Green train station and parking garage were great. That is, until you turn down Coronado Road and hit Jefferson Boulevard. The parking garage (which is also the dropoff point for the commuter rail, so basically the only access point for the station) is on Jefferson, but there's no sign indicating that at the intersection, so instead of turning, I just kept going and got lost. Tomorrow I'll know better.
Google Street View shows a sign there in 2011. Could have been knocked down over the winter.
^ Nope. Not true. Classified cable chatter has it that an out of state poster purposely removed the sign a day prior to blvd's intelligence gathering mission -- just to mess with him. Imagine! Bet he's laughing his ass off about now.
Google Street View shows a sign there in 2011. Could have been knocked down over the winter.
It's definitely possible that I missed the sign. It's a different color and style from the others and kind of gets lost with the rental-car sign. It's also not exactly at the corner. Plus I was expecting the station to be on Coronado, so I may have been too busy looking for it. I'll pay attention tomorrow and report back on whether it's actually there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlfieBoy
^ Nope. Not true. Classified cable chatter has it that an out of state poster purposely removed the sign a day prior to blvd's intelligence gathering mission -- just to mess with him. Imagine! Bet he's laughing his ass off about now.
Way to feed my persecution complex.
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