(The following story by Priyanka Dayal appeared on the Worcester Telegram & Gazette website on January 19.)
WORCESTER, Mass. — Even while delays on the commuter rail remain a problem, the number of passengers taking trains in and out of Boston grew in 2008.
Across the commuter rail system, including the Framingham-Worcester line, ridership increased in the first 11 months of 2008.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority counted 153,000 weekday riders across the system in November, an increase of more than 5 percent from the previous year.
Public transit systems nationwide saw a record increase in ridership in the third quarter of last year, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
Ridership on the Worcester line followed the upward trend, despite long and frequent delays in recent months that have commuters grumbling. On-time performance for trains on the line was around 90 percent at times last year, but fell to less than 80 percent in December — meaning one-fifth of all trains were late.
In the first two weeks of this year, 85.7 percent of trains on the Worcester line have been on time. Officials cite winter weather and various mechanical problems as the cause of delays.
A train that stops at every station between Union Station in Worcester and South Station in Boston is scheduled to travel for an hour and 46 minutes; express trains are scheduled to take an hour and 28 minutes.
Five new trains were added to the Worcester line in October, after state transportation officials and CSX Corp. reached a tentative agreement for the state to buy a vital piece of track from CSX. Owning the track that runs from Framingham to Worcester would allow the state, rather than CSX, to control dispatches for the line. But the $50 million purchase will happen only if a thorny liability debate is resolved.
State officials frequently blame CSX for problems on the Worcester line, because CSX’s priority is freight, not passenger trains.
“I wouldn’t say we’re 100 percent there yet, in terms of priority of passenger rail over freight,” MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said in an interview
Passengers have been riding the new Worcester trains, though an inbound train that leaves Worcester at 4:30 p.m. had only 85 passengers, in one MBTA count; officials expect that number to climb during Red Sox season. The most popular new train, which departs Worcester at 6:05 a.m., had 803 passengers.
All modes of public transportation in Massachusetts experienced growth last year, according to the MBTA. But the agency is still projecting an operating deficit this year of up to $140 million. Mr. Grabauskas didn’t rule out a fare hike this year. “It’s unclear at this point,” he said.
Sticker shock at the pump last summer is what caused many commuters to switch from driving to taking public transportation, he said. And when gas prices went back down, many of them didn’t switch back.
“I think a lot of people changed their habits,” he said. “It is much less aggravating to let someone else do the driving.”
On Nov. 15 the MBTA raised parking fees by $2 at all lots — doubling the cost of parking at the Westboro, Grafton and Ashland stations — but that doesn’t seem to be keeping commuters away. The hike raised $1 million in additional revenue.
“November 2008 was actually the highest ridership in 44 years,” Mr. Grabauskas said. He said many commuters have been using the free wireless Internet service launched on some coaches last year. The MBTA has a plan to expand Wi-Fi to 258 of its 410 coaches, with at least two coaches per train equipped by the spring.
The MBTA’s most recent data are from November, so it’s too soon to tell if recent delays have disturbed the ridership trend. In November, the average weekday ridership on the Worcester line was 18,110 passengers.
People are taking the trains, but they’re not always happy about it. Some split their weeks, driving a couple of days a week, chancing it with the trains the other days.
Pamela J. Garron, who lives in Uxbridge and commutes from Franklin, says her employer started docking time from her workday when she arrived late because of train delays. The wife and mother of four was recently laid off and believes her frequent late arrivals are one reason why.
A Worcester commuter, Thomas J. Corrigan, said the new 4:45 a.m. train to Boston has many delays and sometimes doesn’t arrive, so the 5:40 a.m. train, which is supposed to be an express, is changed to a local train, which stops at every station, delaying passengers who weren’t planning for the extra 20 or so minutes on their commute.