Commuter Rail Announces Changes to Off-Peak and Weekend Providence/ Stoughton Line Schedules
Schedule changes made to avoid conflicts with new Amtrak schedules
BOSTON – December 13, 2019 – Keolis Commuter Services (Keolis), the MBTA’s partner that operates the Commuter Rail, today announced that adjustments to Providence/Stoughton Line Commuter Rail schedules will go into effect on Monday, December 16.
The new fall/winter schedules affect a small number of Providence/Stoughton Line trains with minor schedule adjustments. The timetable adjustments are in response to a recently announced schedule change by Amtrak, which operates inter-city service between Boston and points south along the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Approximately 50 miles of the NEC is shared with the MBTA Commuter Rail network and schedules must be designed to prevent trains’ schedules from conflicting with one-another. This helps to keep trains on-time and maintain predictability for passengers.
Rush hour trains will see no changes and some off-peak weekday trains will see changes of about five minutes. Weekend trains will experience changes of between five and 10 minutes and Trains 1816 and 2816 will begin their journeys about 30 minutes later.
These new Providence/Stoughton Commuter Rail schedules will be effective until the next schedule change in the spring of 2020. They can be viewed by visiting: https://www.mbta.com/schedules/commuter-rail and via the Keolis Commuter Rail App.
The Providence/Stoughton Line is the Commuter Rail network’s busiest line in terms of both ridership and train traffic. Ridership has increased by approximately 20 percent since 2012 and service has increased by two inbound morning peak trains and one outbound evening peak train. The on-time performance within ten minutes for the Providence/Stoughton Line is currently 93 percent for 2019 and cancellations remain extremely low- delivering 99.8 percent of all scheduled trips.
As a part of Keolis’ ongoing efforts to instill environmentally-friendly policies, passengers are encouraged to “click, don’t print” and use these online resources to plan trips. Paper schedules will still be available in major Boston stations for passengers who would like to recycle old schedules.
