As I mentioned at the beginning of the month, in September I tried the experiment of taking the train for my commute. I have now hung up my bicycle and am back to driving, at least for the winter. Click through to read my somewhat lengthy discussion of the highs & lows. So will I do it again? I will certainly be much more likely to use the train in snowy weather (vs. just working from home) and will definitely re-consider using the train for full months once the days get longer in the spring.
The Good
Commuter rail. Generally reliable, comfortable enough, quick enough; once I learned the tricks I generally had no problem getting a seat. The worst delay I had was about 5 minutes, though the train I was on (on my last day, ironically) wound up being 90 minutes late into Worcester, and holding up the train behind it.
Biking to the train. 1.1 miles, mostly downhill, means I am not going to get sweaty. 7 minutes by bike (including locking it to the rack), vs. 4 minutes by car (including parking & paying). A little bit of exercise, and saves $4/day.
The option to drive, park, and pay on bad-weather or bad-health days.
South Station. Great to be able to stop and get a good croissant, a slice of Pizzeria Regina, or new shoelaces.
Pannier as briefcase. My old pannier was awesome on the bike for the short ride, and with my briefcase strap made a passable shoulder bag. Tying my bike helmet to it with a carabiner worked well once I figured out to fasten an old cat collar through the helmet’s holes; using the carabiner on the neck strap pulls it out of adjustment. My existing neoprene laptop case inside the pannier provides enough protection. For long-term use I’d want a pannier with easier-to-access divided compartments.
My old bike is sturdy & quick enough for a short commute, and old & un-stylish enough that I don’t worry about something happening to it (in Newton, parked in full sight of the gym’s front windows, especially).
Train is cool for a geek & environmentalist like me.
Economics. Without paying for parking, and especially when taking car wear & tear into consideration, the Zone 2 pass is cheaper than driving.
The Mostly Good
Bilking home from the train. Slightly uphill, at the end of the workday when I’m tired, was an annoyance a couple of days. Traffic can be heavy and full of annoyed rush hour drivers in West Newton Square. Bike rack in front of the gym instead of the one closer to the train (saving crossing a major road on bike) helped quite a bit.
Trimming my morning schedule. Cutting out 20 minutes of checking FB, reading my comics, paying some bills, or emptying dishwasher is fine. Most of that I can get done on the train or at some other time.
The Not-So-Good
Morning schedule. Get up @ 6:15, 15 minutes earlier than my schedule before. Leave the house @ 6:55, 35 minutes earlier than my usual schedule. Get to work about the same time as before, between 8 and 8:30. It turns out I can ill afford to lose 15 minutes of sleep; definitely dragging by the end of the week. No option to sleep in a little and go in a little later: aiming for the next train would interfere with Lis’s schedule. The train after that (the one she takes) is too late for me. Leaving at 6:55 also means not seeing Lis awake in the morning.
Red line. The unreliability of the red line schedule introduced almost all the variability in my commute, both morning and evening.
Evening schedule. Leave work at 5 or a couple minutes before (about ½ hour earlier than before). Wait a variable amount of time for the next red line train, and get to South Station generally around 5:30 (but a few times much later) for a 5:55 train; stand around waiting for 15 minutes for the track announcement. Get to West Newton around 6:20 and home by 6:30, about my normal time. The red line is variable enough that I need to leave that 25-minute buffer or risk having to take the next train (6:28), which gets me to West Newton after dark (not safe for biking); in the summer if that happened occasionally that would be OK — no worse for getting dinner on the table than the occasional traffic problem when driving.
All or nothing. A 10-ride Commuter Rail pass does nothing for me on the Red Line. So if I don’t commit to a full month’s use, the economics comes out in favor of driving.
Getting Things Done on the train. My ride on the commuter rail is too short (and the morning too crowded) to haul out the laptop and do anything approximating personal or business productivity. The Red Line is too noisy, too crowded, and too bumpy for that. I can read my comics or an e-book, listen to podcasts, or do a little surfing on my phone, but nothing approaching productivity.
Things I Could Try
Some of these are even things I should try.
Going out after work. September was a busy enough month that I didn’t get an opportunity to suggest & attend going out in Boston with Lis or with friends after work, then getting home by commuter rail. I’d want to drive not bike (except maybe in the peak of summer when sunset isn’t until quite late). The evening commuter rail schedule is inflexible, but if I pay attention I should make my chosen train, especially if the evening is near the red line.
Waltham station. West Newton station is 1.1 miles from the house; Waltham is more like 1.5. Still quite bike-able, but I have not scoped out the bike parking situation. The commuter rail schedule is somewhat complementary to the Worcester line’s. Porter is the exchange point for the red line, and North Station for the green, giving easy access to more of the city. Especially if I want to go out in the evening, it would be good to be familar with my options here. I think parking is much harder, and I am led to believe the bike facilities are not great. If I were doing this for an evening in the summer, my best bet might be walking to West Newton in the morning, and walking home from Waltham at night.
Express Bus to downtown. There is a bus stop at the end of our street. That bus goes to the Financial District, where I can pick up the red line. You’re still stuck in Pike traffic, but in the morning that’s not usually bad at all. The problem is the evening: for some inexplicable reason, the bus cannot get me home in the evening at a reasonable time: 4:30 or 7:30. Maybe I’m being dense, but Lis can’t figure it out either.
Walk to train. This would add about 10 minutes to what’s already a big increment over driving. But I can walk after dark much easier than biking. Worth trying for a night on the town. Lis is considering trying a Razor scooter to see if that cuts off enough time to be helpful in good weather.
Green line. Newton Centre station is 3.6 miles by bike, some of it with a bike lane. This is probably 40 minutes biking given traffic and the leisurely pace I’d need to use to avoid getting sweaty. Green to Park, Red to Quincy Center is not a fun ride.
Bike to Quincy. Not going to happen.
What would make things better
Feeder buses for West Newton or Newtonville commuter rail, ones that reverse in the evening and could return me home. Especially if they operate to/from every commuter rail train on the schedule. We have a bus stop at the end of our street. If I could use this on a reasonable schedule, I would give up driving entirely.
If we were half the distance from the West Newton station — 10-minute instead of 20-minute walk — I think walking would be viable. I think that means that if I could cut 10 minutes out somewhere else, that would be equivalent. As I mentioned above, Lis wants to try a Razor scooter to see if that cuts enough time for her in good weather.
If the red line were more reliable, I could cut considerable time out of my evening commute. This time would be spent at work currently, due to the commuter rail schedule.
This is a pipe dream, one that I hope might happen in my career: Frequent (20- or 30-minute headway) DMU(*) service between South Station and Riverside on the commuter rail right-of-way. To do this would require fixing the Newton stations to use both tracks; any modification would require making them ADA compliant.
(*) DMU: Diesel Multiple Unit, essentially big Green Line cars that are built to heavy-rail crash standards but optimized for a lot of start-stop.