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Passing through North Station, I acquired a copy of the (ooh, glossy) 30 October Lowell commuter rail schedule. In addition to mentioning the Downeaster connection at Anderson/Woburn station and hinting at the seekrit Wildcat Branch trains to Haverhill via Woburn, the cover also advertises "Additional service to Anderson RTC". They're not lying: inbound trains leave Anderson/Woburn at 6:38, 6:58, 7:18, 7:38, 8:08 (express), 8:15, 8:30, 8:45, 9:15, and 9:35. That's often enough that it might actually be appealing to drive from outer suburbia to the 93/95 interchange and park there for the day; get stuck in traffic and miss "your" train? there's another one in 15-20 minutes.
I wonder how well this model will work for the T. It's certainly a lot of capacity (if each of those trains are 6-car trains with 100 seats per car). But it's also a good location, with Anderson having a direct exit off of I-93 just north of I-95, and lots of parking. It feels like the I-95 north corridor (Topsfield, Georgetown) doesn't have great commuter rail access, but coming in on 95 to 93 and parking might be saner than trying to get into the city on 93 at rush hour. Schedule says 27 minutes for the train ride, which feels long, though.
Still, if it was successful, there's already commuter rail service at or near a lot of other major road intersections (Route 128 station at I-95 south; Riverside/Auburndale/Brandeis stations near I-90/I-95; Littleton/495 station near MA-2/I-495; commuter rail practically goes through the I-90/I-495 interchange). So if this works out it's a potentially interesting model for MBTA commuter rail going forward.
(Amtrak's current published schedule has an inbound Downeaster leaving Woburn at 8:31, but not picking up passengers; I suspect that with the schedule change this will become either 7:45 or 9:00, since that's where there are spots in the schedule now.)
I wonder how well this model will work for the T. It's certainly a lot of capacity (if each of those trains are 6-car trains with 100 seats per car). But it's also a good location, with Anderson having a direct exit off of I-93 just north of I-95, and lots of parking. It feels like the I-95 north corridor (Topsfield, Georgetown) doesn't have great commuter rail access, but coming in on 95 to 93 and parking might be saner than trying to get into the city on 93 at rush hour. Schedule says 27 minutes for the train ride, which feels long, though.
Still, if it was successful, there's already commuter rail service at or near a lot of other major road intersections (Route 128 station at I-95 south; Riverside/Auburndale/Brandeis stations near I-90/I-95; Littleton/495 station near MA-2/I-495; commuter rail practically goes through the I-90/I-495 interchange). So if this works out it's a potentially interesting model for MBTA commuter rail going forward.
(Amtrak's current published schedule has an inbound Downeaster leaving Woburn at 8:31, but not picking up passengers; I suspect that with the schedule change this will become either 7:45 or 9:00, since that's where there are spots in the schedule now.)
