We Want The Yawkey Stop Back

Dear Mr. Grabauskas,

Since the beginning of January, we have been enjoying a much improved on-time performance on the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line, and we are grateful to MBTA for their efforts to bring about these improvements. Thus it is even harder to face the new schedule changes on the Framingham/Worcester line that include the removal of service to the Yawkey stop on the P528 inbound train.

The elimination of the Yawkey stop on the P528 trains increases the commute time for everyone who lives in the Fenway, Brookline, Allston and Newton areas by at least 40 minutes. The Fenway area has been rapidly growing in the past couple of years. Eliminating the stop at Yawkey on the rush-hour train cannot serve to attract any new riders for the commuter rail, and is instead forcing many current commuters to find alternative options to get home.

Furthermore, MBTA’s commitment to stop at Yawkey on Red Sox home game days shows that MBTA thinks it is possible to run P528 on time and stop at Yawkey. From our experience, trains always run with a delay of at least several minutes on game days because more then usual number of people have to board the train, and most of them get off at Yawkey, thus increasing the time required for each stop. If P528 can stop at Yawkey and operate in a timely fashion on Red Sox game days when the commuter rail system seems to be severely stressed, then the train ought to be able to make the same stop every weekday.

We believe that improvement of service does not involve removing service customers heavily rely on. Thus, we ask that P528 schedule be changed to include the stop at Yawkey on all weekdays. We hope that MBTA can find our arguments logical, and will consider us—passholders and every-day commuter rail riders--an important constituency.

We thank you for your time, and hope to see performance of the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line continue to improve. Please feel free to contact us directly.