Commuter Rail Schedule Changes Postponed Until Spring 2016

After careful consideration, and amid hefty criticism, MassDOT and the MBTA announced Tuesday night the recently revised North Side Commuter Rail schedules will not be implemented until spring 2016.

When the initial changes were announced a couple of weeks ago, MBTA riders throughout the North Shore told The Lynn Daily Item and The Boston Globe that they anticipated extremely crowded trains and less convenient service with the changes.

“It’s going to be awful,” Dora Oquendo of Swampscott told The Lynn Daily Item. “The (rush hour) trains are going to be packed. I’m going to have to leave early just to catch the train. It’s going to be hectic.”

Those changes are now being

The revision of Commuter Rail schedules is a critical element of MassDOT and the MBTA’s efforts to deliver safe, reliable, on-time service to Commuter Rail customers, according to a statement. Building new schedules will help minimize cascading failures and ensure that on-time service can be delivered both safely and consistently.

In December, the MBTA will release in draft form proposed new schedules for both North Side and South Side services, along with specific plans for extensive public engagement. Following the period of public engagement, MassDOT and the MBTA will make changes based on the feedback received and then implement the new schedules for the entire Commuter Rail system in spring 2016.

“The coming changes will be the most substantive made in decades; when the process is complete, we are confident that the new schedules will serve the best interests of our ridership,” said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack in a statement issued Tuesday night. “But the MBTA needs to do more than provide reliable Commuter Rail service to our customers – it needs to listen to those customers and understand their needs and concerns and incorporate them into service planning. We understand that even small challenges in long-standing schedules impact the daily lives of our riders and we need to hear and incorporate their feedback before finalizing schedule changes.”