TRANSITMATTERS sPring 2021 Modernizing the Old Colony Lines Rapid, Reliable Transit for Brockton and the South Shore Introduction This report details infrastructure and service We wish to acknowledge the following TransitMatters improvements for the MBTA’s Old Colony lines members who contributed to this report: (Middleborough/Lakeville, Kingston/Plymouth, and Greenbush), serving Boston’s South Shore suburbs as » Peter Brassard » John Takuma Moody well as Gateway Cities like Brockton. These lines have » Rob Cannata » Elizabeth Martin had some of the lowest ridership in the system, and very » David Dimiduk » Matt Robare low frequency. » Jay Flynn » Asher Smith » Dhruv Gupta » Dunbar Carpenter But with Regional Rail improvements, the Old Colony » David Houser » Alexander Dale Lines can provide frequent, affordable connections from » Andrew Stephens » Jack Spence the South Shore communities to Boston’s job market » Sean Smyth » Tim Lawrence and to each other, particularly Brockton and Plymouth. » Alon Levy » Ethan Finlan Regional Rail would further provide an alternative to the » Jackson Moore-Otto severe congestion on the Southeast Expressway. Here we lay out the case for upgrading these lines to Regional Rail standards, a plan which cuts trip times to South Station to 25 minutes from Brockton and 45 from Plymouth Center. TransitMatters is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to improving transit in and around Boston by offering new perspectives, uniting transit advocates, and informing the public. We utilize a high level of critical analysis to advocate for plans and policies that promote convenient, effective, and equitable transportation for everyone. Learn more & download other Regional Rail reports at: http://regionalrail.net Modernizing the old Colony lines 1 Current Situation Pre-COVID, the Old Colony Lines had very peak-focused lAyoUt And Key stAtions oF the old Colony lines scheduling, even relative to the rest of the MBTA system; in Fall 2019, the Middleborough/Lakeville Line had only eight off-peak weekday trains. However, there is a significant amount of untapped demand. In particular, Brockton’s high population and high job density warrants all-day bi-directional service. In addition to commuters, all-day service would help get tourists to attractions in Plymouth, students to and from Bridgewater State University, and workers and professionals between Brockton, Braintree, Quincy and Boston at off-peak hours. Improvements to local bus service and regional transit authorities (RTAs), particularly in Brockton will further boost ridership. Brockton station, on the Middleborough/Lakeville line, South Weymouth is one of many suburban stations along the serves a dense city and allows for connection to many of the lines designed with parking in mind, but has recently seen city’s bus routes. nearby development with the potential for much more. 2 Modernizing the old Colony lines The Old Colony lines serve cities and towns with a range of residential and commercial densities, highest between Braintree and Boston (see page 6 for detail on this area). Modernizing the old Colony lines 3 Traffic The inner South Shore has some of the most intense The Southeast Expressway’s congestion traffic congestion in the state. While traffic congestion issues are an all-day phenomenon. is often perceived as a problem limited to rush-hour commuting, the Southeast Expressway’s congestion issues are an all-day phenomenon. In fact, MassDOT Unlike the traditional Commuter Rail service model, the found that, “Northbound from the Braintree Split to Regional Rail concept emphasizes all-day service over Morrissey Boulevard is congested for up to 12 hours peak commuter service. Given that traffic congestion on an average day; headed southbound, the two-mile in these highway corridors often extends far past the segment from the Mass Pike to Morrissey Boulevard is traditional bounds of rush hour, all-day Regional Rail congested for 11 hours a day.”1 service would be especially useful for residents living within the Old Colony service area, many of whom South of Braintree, the Kingston/Plymouth branch travel northbound to the city for non-traditional work roughly parallels Route 3, which is the primary highway schedules, shopping, events and other off peak trips. corridor serving the South Shore between Boston and Plymouth. The Middleborough branch parallels Route 24, which is the primary highway corridor serving Randolph, Brockton, Bridgewater, and Middleborough. Routes 24 and 3 both feed heavy amounts of traffic into I-95 and I-93, with the I-93/Route 3 interchange being especially congested. This level of congestion also increases local pollution. Dorchester has some of Metro Boston’s worst air quality, and highest incidences of asthma. Electrifying the Old Colony lines would not only remove virtually all local pollution from rail service, but increase use of the line by making service more reliable and faster, potentially reducing private car trips. 1 Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Congestion in the Commonwealth. https://www.mass.gov/doc/congestion-in-the-commonwealth/download 4 Modernizing the old Colony lines Development Based on local planning in towns along the line, future job development along the Old Colony lines is promising. The relative affordability has led to towns like Randolph and Weymouth providing affordable housing at the cost of a longer commute as rents have risen in Greater Boston. Within a mile of Quincy Center Station, the city is considering rezoning the former Graziano Concrete site to build several new office condominiums and a large warehouse. In South Weymouth, the ongoing Union Point development has already added hundreds of units, and more are being built2. Wareham Village is proposing zoning changes to the area directly adjacent to The apartment buildings recently built next to Plymouth the proposed Wareham Station to allow taller buildings, station serve as an example of transit-oriented development promoting new business development. that could be done at other stations on the network, increasing access and decreasing trafific. Many Old Colony stations are exurban park-and- rides that could easily accommodate transit-oriented development. Better frequency would also make the Brockton stations attractive for development. In South Weymouth, 3,855 housing units and six million square feet of commercial space are planned for Union Point next to the South Weymouth Station3. Over a thousand homes have already been built. 2 Metropolitan Area Planning Council. MassBuilds. https://www.massbuilds.com/map?hu=gt%3B100 3 Trufant, Jessica. “Union Point board selects Brookfield Properties as master developer.” https://www.patriotledger.com/news/20200115/union-point-board-selects-brookfield-properties-as-new-master-developer Modernizing the old Colony lines 5 While downtown Boston boasts the highest density of jobs on the line, stations along the shared trunk and immediately following the split provide access to a number of other dense neighborhoods and job centers. Transferring to the parallel red line branch increases this access further, although the ease of these transfers could be improved. Population density around stations south of Braintree can be seen in the map on page 7. 6 Modernizing the old Colony lines Improved Brockton Service The Middleborough/Lakeville Line serves the city of There are 8,000 jobs within half a mile of Brockton (pop. 95,426), the most important location on Brockton station, the fifth-most in the system the Old Colony system outside Boston and the trunk. outside Boston. Two other stations in the city, There are 8,000 jobs within half a mile of the station, the fifth-most in the system outside Boston. Two other Campello and Montello, add another 3,500. stations in the city, Campello and Montello, add another 3,500. We expect these numbers to increase with more frequent and more affordable rail service. It’s crucial to build a system that helps Brockton grow as a regional center, as per municipal plans to build downtown housing and improve pedestrian links4, and encourages people to use mass transit not just to get to 9-to-5 white- collar Boston jobs but also to jobs in Brockton. But Brockton remains a bedroom community, and 9,000 residents work in Boston and Cambridge. Currently, the most frequent means of commuting between Brockton and Boston are the Brockton Area Transit (BAT) #12 bus to Ashmont, with 2,100 daily riders pre-COVID5, and the MBTA’s duplicative Route #240, with another 2,500. This is a lengthy trip, just over an hour to South Station including a transfer to the Red Line. Beyond the trunk, the stations begin serving less dense, more suburban areas, with the exception of the three Brockton stations that serve the dense gateway city. 4 “Transforming Downtown Brockton”. City of Brockton Planning and Economic Development Department. https://brockton.ma.us/city-departments/planning/transforming-downtown/ 5 “BAT Awarded Three MassDOT Grants for Expanded and Increased Service”. Brockton Area Transit. https://www.ridebat.com/bat-awarded-three-massdot-grants-for-expanded-and-increased-service/ Modernizing the old Colony lines 7 The current fare system charges considerably more to take a Under the proposed fare system, traveling the same distance trip by rail versus a slower bus and subway transfer. costs the same reasonable price, regardless of mode used. Commuter rail today is faster but prohibitively expensive: Our proposal would instead give Brockton a direct train it costs $8.75 one-way to South Station or $281 monthly, to South Station at least every half hour, directly reaching whereas connecting between the BAT 12 route and the downtown’s highest job concentration, permanently Red Line is $4.65 one-way or $155 monthly. Brockton has charging a similar fare to the current BAT 12 + Red Line a poverty rate of 17.8% (compared to 9.4% statewide and combination. 19% in Boston)6, and housing and transportation account for 45% of annual household expenses7; lower-income Fortunately, it is possible to increase commuter rail people are fare-sensitive and will suffer through an hour- frequency to Brockton to half-hourly even in the near long two-seat ride if it is cheaper. term, charge the same fare as the BAT + Red Line combination, and write timetables that ensure minimum Currently there is a pilot program between BAT and waiting time between the buses and the trains. Trains the MBTA to reduce the fare on commuter rail from would be slower than with electrification, taking 35 Brockton to Boston to a Zone 1A fare8 ($2.40 one-way minutes between South Station and Brockton rather or $90 monthly). The pilot is limited to 250 Brockton than 24. Passengers from Kingston and (via an existing residents and was initially scheduled to run through May wye) Greenbush would need to change trains at Braintree 31 2021, but this program has received sufficient funding because of the bottleneck. to be extended9. 6 “Quick Facts: Boston city, Massachusetts.” US Census Bureau (2019 numbers). https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bostoncitymassachusetts/IPE120219#IPE120219 7 Using the figures for regional moderate income. Center for Neighborhood Technology. Housing + Transportation Index. https://htaindex.cnt.org/fact-sheets/?lat=42.0834335&lng=-71.0183787&focus=place&gid=11467#fs 8 “Brockton Commuter Rail Fare Initiative”. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. https://www.mbta.com/projects/brockton-commuter-rail-fare-initiative 9 MilNeil, Christian. “PVTA to debut Northampton-Springfield express route with electric buses”. Streetsblog Mass. https://mass.streetsblog.org/2021/03/30/pvta-to-debut-northampton-springfield-express-route-with-electric-buses/ 8 Modernizing the old Colony lines Bus Connections Service should be scheduled to facilitate timed connections between the bus and rail network to serve both workers and residents in the area. Consolidation with overlapping buses is possible as an early action item on the Middleborough/Lakeville Line, creating better commutes into Boston and reverse commutes, while reducing overall system costs with fewer buses. At moderate to low frequency (15-30 minutes), rail and bus transfers should be timed. Happily, not only do almost all of BAT’s routes serve the same complex as the rail station, but also they are already timed to connect with one another. This method, known as pulse scheduling, is ideal for small city bus systems. Doing so makes such integrated scheduling easy, as train arrivals and departures can be timed within the pulse window, and vice versa. Moreover, our schedules for both pre- and post-electrification assume trains meet at Brockton, so the bus pulse would connect to trains in both directions. In fact, the bus-rail pulse at Brockton is the cornerstone of our timetable: everything else, including additional Brockton’s downtown rail station is the terminus for many of the city’s bus routes. Aligning rail and bus schedules would capacity improvements elsewhere up and down the allow for easy transfers and less waiting. line, flows from the need to provide timed connections between buses and trains in both directions. This comes from Brockton’s unique situation among the Gateway Cities: it is one of the largest job concentrations in the region, even greater than Lowell and Haverhill, but it also is in the middle of the line rather than at its end like Providence or Worcester. This makes it possible to schedule the line so that trains arrive on the hour every half hour in both directions. With half-hourly headways providing a more frequent, BAT routes also serve Bridgewater, which are already faster trip to South Station (the highest job concentration effectively campus shuttles for Bridgewater State and in Downtown Boston) as well as JFK/UMass, Quincy could be timed with the trains to some extent. In all cases, and Braintree, there is also an opportunity to enhance transfers between Regional Rail and BAT service must system-wide frequency on BAT by redistributing service be free, with revenue-sharing agreements developed to hours. Brockton could have more east-west bus service, handle financial matters. which would improve access to jobs and activities in the city and region as a whole. Modernizing the old Colony lines 9 Required Infrastructure Investment There is great potential for ridership on the Old Colony ProPosed line ChAnges And eXtensions, At A glAnCe Lines, thanks to the already-existing development in Brockton and Plymouth and student travel to Bridgewater State. However, the Commonwealth must be ready to invest significant sums of money into infrastructure upgrades. Without those, ridership will remain weak. Accessibility Fortunately, the stations on the Old Colony Lines are all high-platform. The system only reopened in the 1990s-2000s, having been closed for over a generation, and therefore stations were built with the modern Americans with Disabilities Act in mind. There is full wheelchair accessibility already and no need for doors interfacing with low platforms. Further improvements in accessibility will come from Electrification the purchase of new trains with automatic platform Electrifying the Old Colony trunk line and its three extenders, which bridge the narrow gap between the branches, about 81 miles total, would cost between platform and the train and eliminate any chance a person $180 and $350 million, based on electrification costs in in a wheelchair or with a stroller or carrying luggage will France, Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Israel and get stuck. This technology is routine in Zurich, and after New Zealand. The notional costs per segment are $25- it was successfully introduced to the United States with 50 million from South Station to Braintree, and $50-100 Brightline service, the FRA is making it into a national million for each branch. mandate. The costs are likely to fall close to the lower end of this range, as the line has extensive single track sections and no need for bridge or tunnel modifications. Capital Costs, Pre-NSRL South Station to Middleborough/ Middleborough Project Type Greenbush Plymouth Total Braintree Lakeville to Hyannis Electrification $30M $60M $80M $60M $60M $290M Double Track $40M — $10M $15M $15M $80M Platforms and $50M $60M $20M $40M $90M $260M Stations Total $120M $120M $110M $115M $165M $630M 10 Modernizing the old Colony lines