Personally, I think it's absolutely crazy that within the same amount of time it took RIDOT to build a single station, MassDOT has constructed most of South Coast Rail which includes miles of new track and six new stations...

Now if only Woonsocket could re-connect with Worcester, I could avoid all of the crazies on 146 every day. That highway is dangerous AF.

Lol you should see China

It's a bit disingenuous to say the same amount of time. The South Coast rail project had 10+ years of planning before breaking ground over 20 years before the groundbreaking occurred for this station.

It's dumb that it took a relatively simple idea 15+ years to go from "hey, what about this" to being something with tangible progress.

The restoration of passenger service on the P&W mainline has been considered many times, but unfortunately has never developed into anything substantial. I think RIDOT is studying the corridor yet again atm but I doubt it'll go anywhere

Unfortunately, that's the nature of most rail projects in the US, where unsustainable highway infrastructure is prioritized while passenger rail is given the short end of the stick...

Fantastic news. Pawtucket’s on the come up.

Let’s hope it can be maintained properly. The south Attleboro station had a new rust hole in the working stairs every week. I’ve seen better railway stations in the ex-Soviet Union.

Really? It’s one of the better ones IMO since everyone is flying around 70-80, with some hitting 90+. 295 is also a good one too, except the occasional speed traps.

How is Mass doing with the South Attleboro train station?

South Attleboro was a death trap, it was a built during the cookie-cutter era of MBTA stations during the 1970s-1980s

Many studies have been conducted, some of which suggested extending the Franklin line through Milford to Woonsocket. There’s definitely a rider base in that area, but much of the trackage would need to be rebuilt for passenger services

Oh I wonder if it’s going to be used as often as the train station that they built in North Kingstown…

It should be utilized much better than wickford junction, the station is in a much denser area and isn’t as overbuilt

Are we talking about the same station? I think I referred to Wickford as North Kingstown, but it’s that big one on 10 Rod Rd (102), i’ve never seen anybody there, I’ve never even seen a car in the parking lot. It was an insane waste of space

The one your referring to is wickford junction, one of the biggest white elephants in recent Rhode Island history. Wickford junction cemented the failure of the south county commuter rail project, mainly due to inadequate transit planning…

The station will be greatly beneficial, however, a lot more has to be done with regional “last mile” connections… that’s what will matter most in the end

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OP transits.

Unfortunately, the MBTA has a lackluster history of designating temporary station platforms during reconstructions… I doubt it will happen for south Attleboro

Yeah, no it's not

From what Ive read they opted to build an entirely new, modern station at South Attleboro rather than do a patch repair on the catwalk. Id imagine Pawtucket C/F is part of the reason because many of the homes closest to SA are in RI.

It and TF Green are just miserable stations.

The issue is moe how long they left the station in disrepair. The stairs on either side of the tracks were “temporarily closed” for at least 8 years. Interesting that the whole thing was only deemed unsafe once the station wasn’t really needed anymore, due to the pandemic.

Does Pawtucket/CF have parking?

Quite a bit, but not nearly as much as SA since that thing is a glorified parking lot.

That was one of the plans, however that station was never allocated funding through their capital plan. Yes they could have used overpass as it was mentioned in one of their meetings, however it wouldn’t have been fiscally feasible to do that and be able to accommodate handicapped access.

The Moscow subway system has some beautiful architecture.

RI does have that one light rail line (or maybe BRT) in a proposed future transit plan… but it’s running in the same direction as the NEC so it seems a tad redundant, no?

Would an East-west running line make a bit more sense? (maybe utilize the old tunnel under college hill), and take a load off of i195 and Douglass/ smith street

We will get a bike trail over the new red bridge, as with many new RIDOT projects so that’s a good step at least.

Agreed, SA station was always quite atrocious but did serve a rider base. Hopefully when it’s rebuilt they could zone some of the area around it for denser mixed-used developments so that it’s not purely a antiquated park and ride

The light rail line is actually proposed to run between central falls and Olneyville along a dedicated ROW. That being said, I doubt it will ever happen since RIDOT’s priorities are entirely bus centric and they refuse to do anything else. Providence could greatly benefit from an LRT if it is done properly, it’s kind of ridiculous that RI doesn’t have any other form of rail transit beyond the NEC