The Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company – MBCR

Parking isn’t cheap and the ride isn’t cheap either. $ 18 round trip to from Southborough to Yawkey to see a Red Sox game? That’s nuts.
Parking is paid with an app on your phone. Tickets are purchased with an app on your phone. Sure, the conductor can take cash for a ticket, but he can’t take a credit card. Boo.
The schedule is not nearly frequent enough to be of use to anyone but people commuting to work. For example, from Southborough to South Station, there are six trains before 8:02 AM, then ten trains inbound all the rest of the day. Sixteen trains ALL day! Jeez!

I hated even having to give 1 star. This is the WORST piece of crap company I’ve ever seen. Ever since the state wanted to save money and contracted with Kiolis, it has gone so downhill. Every train smells like feces and chemicals and is a filthy disgusting mess. 3 trains broke down this week! How can they still be in business and how bad is s going to get?

So, on one hand the commuter rail is a pretty important lifeline to/​from the city, especially in nasty weather, but there’s just too many issues with it.
The trains are normally on time, at least in Natick, but the schedules change fairly often without a lot of fanfare, and prices keep going up. I understand they are short on cash for repairs because they ran a defecit for years, but just change the price once and stop surprising us! They have also cut back service to Worcester, which is problematic.
And during summer beware: The train tracks can’t handle heat, so if it is a hot day, the train just stops. Literally, sitting on the train for an hour alongside route 95 sucks hard when you are taking the train to he somewhere on time.
A few other rips: The conductors are nice, but curt. Good luck finding a bathroom if you need one though. There is one, in the very first car. Seriously, one?
Short story, good service to have, but make sure to check the schedule and cost ahead of time to jot be unprepared.

During this recent cold snap (January 2014) I waited for the 8:00am train from Beverly to Boston. It was bitterly cold with a fierce wind. Next to me stood an elderly lady of small stature, noticeably shivering, stamping her feet to keep warm as there was no viable shelter due to the severity of the wind. As for the 8:00am train, it didn’t show, and I became concerned with my fellow traveler. I eventually walked to my car and drove in.
I strongly suspect that the MCBR does not share my concern and this is one more reason why I am anxious to bid this gang of incompetents’ good-​bye. I know the weather is cold. It should be; this is New England. We live on the coast. We have snow. We have wind. We have ice. And in some capacity-​always have and always will. This basic concept is lost on the MBRC. Instead we have, «mechanical failures», «disabled trains», «malfunctioning switches» as my email box fills up each morning with alerts. This combination is dangerous to the customer, more so to those who are at physical risk. Shameful pure and simple.
So to the MBCR, please go away quietly, you never were considered during the contract renewal. If this is a surprise then you never listened to your customers; at least the ones who have thawed out. You have demonstrated what you considered acceptable and found out it was not, so take your road show to some third world small scale railroad where you can sporadically shuttle livestock between villages. Something you have clearly illustrated you are capable of handling.
Is Keolis any better than Veolia? Who knows; it can’t be any worse. And amongst all this comes the surprise that the MBTA did not embrace the usual cronyism during the selection process.
You know some lobbyist lost out on those Bruins tickets. And they are not happy.

This is unbelievable, but on the 12:50 from Worcester/​Union to Boston on Saturday, the train completely MISSED a stop, and then after a brief, awkward stop, it went backwards to get the 50 or so people to the stop they were supposed to get off of. Insane, unreal, and TERRIBLE. Got to Back Bay after 3 AM.

MBTA commuter rail service is unreliable and many of the train conductors are out right rude,
1. Trains are either early or late — rarely on time.
2. The LED at station platforms is rarely accurate.
3. Alerts for issues with service are not posted online.
4. I heard one woman conductor (on the Rockport 106 line) refer to select customers as «you people.»
5. The MBTA does not respond to complaints — even though they have a customer service department.

After I get off the airplane, and get the free bus ride over, this place gets me to
Westborough with no problem
I enjoy the free wifi.
I don’t like that we can only use the front two cars and not the rest of the train

Generally better than the T (there are schedules and you can usually get a seat).
I would give 3 – 4 stars if it weren’t for a few glaring faults.
1. Trains leaving early. Despite having a schedule, sometimes they just don’t follow it. It’s one thing to be late. It’s another to completely miss a train because they blew through your station 10 minutes before they were supposed to.
2. The ridiculous $ 3 fine for cash-​on-​board. You can take the commuter rail in from Ruggles or Yawkey to South Station for $ 2, but try taking it back out to them and you’re frisked down for $ 5 instead. Don’t count on lurch punching tickets to be friendly about it either. So instead of coming just in time for a train, you have to get there 15 min early to be safe and wait in line to get a ticket. This wouldn’t be so bad, except for fault #3 which is probably the biggest pile of all of them.
3. Tickets expire. If you’re an occasional commuter rail traveler, you can’t just buy a few to have on hand for when you need to catch a train because they are useless in a matter of weeks. Where does that money go? It’s absurd that they keep the money of customers without delivering on the service.
The best thing I can say about the commuter rail is that it is a little better than the T.

I had a terrible experience on 8÷25÷2012. I was waiting at the Andover stop, getting ready to board for North Station. The conductor let about three people on and then shut the doors, leaving 20 of us on the platform as the train drove away.
No explanation, nothing. I repeatedly called and tweeted MBCR about this incident and all they said, over and over again, is that they cannot issue refunds, per their policy. No apology, no questions about the incident, nothing. Now I’m out $ 32 and missed the event in Boston I was heading to. MBCR should be ashamed by their atrocious customer service.

I can call myself a serious traveler… been on my fair share of highways, biways, subways and railways…
This is regarding the MBTA Fitchburg/​North Station line… the short story is next time I need to go rail, someone stuff me in a Carnex Box and ship me to Boston! Main this liine sucks, I assume deal with NYC rail over MBTA!
Well the long story is, had to go into Boston with a group. We had everything planned out… Station, parking etc. We get to the Leominster Station and it was drop only! NO PARKING. We had to make a fast decision and haul butt down the line to beat the train so we could board.
So we got to Ayer station and found parking, unloaded… Ahhh no train! We were being bussed!!! WHAT THE HECK!
We had this all planned and now our times were being thrown off becasue the MBTA decided to shut down the line and bus people to Acton… We finally met the train in Acton and went in that way…
While on the train we did some research… way down at the bottom on the page in fine print (I mean fine print) was the memo that part of this line was shut down for repairs and that there was no parking at Leominster… WHAT MORON AT THE MBTA DECIDED FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM WOULD BE SURFICIENT!
Next time I’m driving in as close as possible and take the RedLine in!
PARKING SUCKS!
READ THE FINE PRINT ON THE BOTTOM OF THERE WEB SITE

life sucking

It got us where we’re going, and the trip was pretty easy. But we found the conductors on the Rockport to Boston train to be generally as rude as airline security guards over the two days we spent riding this train. We found most people in this region to be nicer than we expected (I’d heard horror stories for years), but the conductors we dealt with were pretty abrupt and unhelpful. Just be aware — they don’t take kindly to out-​of-​towners.

The MBCR Commuter Rail gets me to and from work almost every day. While it certainly has many issues that could only be solved with huge infusions of cash, I think that they do a fairly good job balancing comfort with economy. I enjoy my time on the train (usually a 1-​hour ride) reading and browsing the internet with the free (but very slow and somewhat unreliable in spots) Wi-​Fi. Since the horrible service in the winter of 2010 – 2011, things have improved dramatically; most of my rides arrive in Boston within 10 minutes of scheduled. So, lots of room for improvement, but for the price and convenience, MBCR is hard to beat.

It gets two stars because otherwise I’d probably be bald from ripping my hair out while sitting in ridiculous Pike traffic.
The commuter rail is horrific.
Honestly, it’s not the on time percentage, because usually my trains are on time. It’s the fact that when it’s late, you just end up sitting there while the LED sign insists that all trains are on time. You have no idea when the train is coming, if it’s ever coming. Sometimes they cancel trains without any notification or reason. There’s also that sinking feeling when you see the train roll in and there are four single-​level cars. People gon’ be standin up in this bitch.
Lately, the evening commute trains on the Franklin line have been less Boston and more East Berlin circa 1948. Busted old single-​deckers, people crammed into the aisles, power failures, really just a wonderful experience. I’m surprised they even stop at stations instead of just throwing people out the doors as we pass.

Your MBCR experience depends heavily on which line you use. I used to be on the Worcester line, which shares a lot of track with CSX freight, and now live on the glorious Fitchburg line with is passenger rail only. The latter is much better.
A lot of the MBCR’s service issues come from them not owning all the tracks and thus being second in line to the owner’s trains (CSX).
The Fitchburg line has been within 10 minutes of posted time every time I’ve ridden except for one morning where we had a Noreaster. It’s not glamorous but it gives you decent seats, free wifi, and generally nice conductors. HOWEVER, the cars have a weird formaldehyde smell that makes me worry about carcinogenic off-​gassing =/

I have to start this review with facts.
1. if it were not for commuter rail I would not be able to get to work, period. the drive is awful even in no traffic.
2. The service itself is really not that bad. My line in particular (providence) has not been very late up until all of this horrible snow. And, in times of horrible snow, you are still getting to work as opposed to driving where you are PREVENTED from getting there by bad roads. so, good on that, they get you there in crisis, even if late as hell.
3. It’s «slow,» and you’ll want to poke your eyes out with boredom because the trains are old, they break down and you have to wait until they get out of the way of your functioning train. boring.
4. Very occasionally, they will strand people in places like «stops your train normally doesn’t stop at» and evacuate the train, or «why the hell did we not stop at ruggles today and no one announced the change???»
5. Speaking of no announcements, its very haphazard. Where is that train going? The only way to know is to find a conductor and ask? 21^st century train!
6. and its expensive for a pass. hopefully your company subsidizes it, otherwise, ugh.
7. and the seats aren’t comfy. bathrooms fllthy. I don’t usually get a seat because I’m in zone 4, but sometimes I’d love that uncomfy seat…
so to conclude its a necessary evil. and given my lack of choice in the matter, I’ll continue to take it.: P

Time for the Choo-​Choo! UGH! — I LOVE riding the train. I turn into a little kid when the lights start flashing and you hear that clear «dingdingdingdingding» at the crossroads. I love the gentle rocking of the cabin, the clicking of the ties under heavy steel wheels, the conductor’s call, I love it all.
That being said — I am often so disappointed in the MBTA’s Fitchburg line. This is the Waltham train (yup — we’re not cool enough to be included in Zone 1 — 4.75 $ one-​way), and it RARELY runs on-​time. The schedule is spread pretty thin (last train outbound on a Friday is only at 12:10am — so don’t plan on closing out the bars).
Last month my train was almost an HOUR late! …and I was still expected to pay! Fortunately, the conductor gave instruction as to how to be reimbursed, but still… it’s the principle of the matter (I would have paid for the 7:50am train… but NOT the 8:40am train — no alternate bus/​service was offered to stranded would-​be train passengers).
HUGE TIP: When leaving North Station — if you pay ON the train there is (apparently) a 1 $ surcharge for your ticket, «because you COULD have paid at the station.» …This was not posted (that I could see) and I had just been through a rather traumatic afternoon, so my reply when I couldn’t find the last 32cents was, «What’s going to happen, are you going to kick me off the train??» (Cue the pinnacle point of my irrelevant emotional bubbles — *streaming tears*) The guy cut me a break on the surcharge, but I could see him rolling his eyes at my emo chick drama. :/​
I’ll always opt for the train — I love the train — but I do wish that mine would be on-​time more often.

Where’s the love for the Commuter Rail? It is the middle leg of my work commute every day and in 4 months has only been late (more than a minute or two) twice. That’s out of about 160 rides. Good odds if you ask me. The cars are kind of old, but not dirty and they do have WiFi. Conductors are always friendly. The announcements can be a little inconsistent, but if you ask the conductor to let you know where to get off, he will.

Any time you equate «Massachusetts» with «Public Transportation» you’re guaranteed a few exaspirated sighs, but this time I have a POSITVE review:
One sunny beach day my friends and I got off the Rockport line for an afternoon of vitamin D absorption at Singing Beach when, on a stop for ice cream, I realized that my wallet was nowhere to be found. We retraced our steps back to the tracks and, still, nada. Zilch, even.
A bit shaken, I called the MBCR help line and was connected to a real live person who connected me, yes, to another real live person at North Station who took my contact info should the wallet show up at the Lost and Found. In the meantime, we decided to wait for the inbound train from Rockport to ask about the wallet.
At 2:21 I stood at the end where our outbound car was and my friend stood near the conductor’s car. The train arrived, we inquired, and I left the train empty-​handed until my friend ran down the platform holding my wallet. The conductor found it and saved it. Hooray!
My wallet returned to me intact, save for $ 20.
I hope whoever took it spent it on ice cream.

As a reverse commuter (commuting from Boston to Framingham), this service is OK.
Pros:
There’s always place to sit, people aren’t so noisy, usually working people or quite Wellesley College chicks. So overall pleasant. Although my train ride from Back Bay to West Natick is 40 minutes long, it doesn’t feel that long for whatever reason.
Cons:
If the temperature gets 90+, the rail owner, CSX, issues speed restriction that causes 30+ minutes delay. And MBCR as whole superbly sucks at notifying riders and giving estimate of how long the delay would be. I don’t know what the real reason would be, they always replies as «Signal problem» even if the real reason is that the engineer or the conductor simply returned late from the break.
I could give 3 stars since I said «It’s OK», but having lived in Japan once, I’ve experienced better. And their current service shouldn’t be «OK», «standard» or «acceptable».