MBTA agrees to test regular service to Foxborough on Franklin, Fairmount line
The MBTA is testing service to Foxborough via the Franklin and Fairmount lines.
Regular daily commuter rail service will run to Foxborough beginning in the spring of 2019 under a pilot program that critics say could diminish service in Boston.
The MBTA Control Board approved the pilot on Monday, saying it represents an opportunity to fill empty seats with fare-paying customers.
Advocates for riders who use Boston stations along the same track as Foxborough aired concerns that the coaches would fill up with passengers before reaching city stations or the trains could encounter breakdowns or other logistical problems on the way to and from Foxborough.
A pilot program will bring passenger rail service to Foxboro Station starting in spring 2019. [Rendering: Courtesy/MBTA]
On a 4-1 vote, the MBTA's Fiscal and Management Control Board approved a roughly year-long pilot of commuter rail service to Foxborough via Boston's Fairmount Line at an estimated cost of $1.2 million.
According to the T, the pilot would each day "extend eight Fairmount Line trains and one Franklin Line train to Foxboro Station."
The MBTA has for years run trains to Foxborough to accommodate crowds attending concerts and games at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.
"I'm just confused in who we're trying to serve here," said Monica Tibbits-Nutt, the only member of the control board to vote against the pilot proposal. She said, "I just don't see how this is necessarily an economic development project."
The Kraft Group, led by Pats owner Robert Kraft, has partnered with the T on the project and has committed to pay up to $217,000 to make up the difference between the per-passenger cost of the pilot and the average per-passenger cost systemwide - which stands at $6.07. The pilot would also make use 500 private parking spaces owned by the Kraft Group at no cost to the T, according to the MBTA.
"It is worth testing the proposition that we can fill empty seats on the commuter rail system. And there are not going to be very many opportunities to get 500 free parking spaces," said Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack
Advocates for riders along the Fairmount Line expressed concerns that urban riders might see service decline if the trains are used to serve Foxborough too.
"It was because of all of our advocacy that there even is a Fairmount Line and we did it for the most transit-dependent riders in the city of Boston. The fact that they're going to take this pilot and not give anything back to the community - there is no benefit to anyone on the Fairmount-Indigo Line," said Mela Miles, of the Fairmount Indigo Transit Coalition. She said the Foxborough riders could fill the trains before they reach Mattapan and Dorchester.
Running along the Franklin Line, the new Foxborough service would add an additional 160 daily riders, according to projections, and still leave "adequate seating capacity" for the Fairmount Line passengers when the train makes stops in Boston, according to Mohler.
After more than an hour of discussion, the control board approved the pilot with several conditions, including requirements for regular monitoring of the pilot and gauging reliability on the Fairmount line. Pollack said any increase in cost above projections would be shared by the T and its partners, which include the Kraft Group and the town of Foxborough.
"The advantage of the Kraft Group coming to the table is they put several hundred thousand on the table that sort of backstops the subsidy," Pollack told reporters. She said T officials "want to make sure all of the risk is not on the MBTA.
While acknowledging that the MBTA "is only beginning to understand reverse commutes generally," Pollack suggested the new route would connect people from Boston to jobs in the Foxborough area.
The pilot would give people the chance to arrive in Foxborough at 7:30 a.m. MBTA Control Board Chairman Joseph Aiello asked for an analysis of what could be done "to take a reverse commute fare down to a reasonable transit-like fare."
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