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Editor’s note: This story was updated following the public meeting in New Bedford Thursday night.
South Coast Rail will start in May 2025, the MBTA announced on Thursday in the first update since the project was delayed for the second time two months ago.
In an unusual move, MBTA General Manager Phil Eng traveled from Boston to make the announcement in person at public meetings in New Bedford and Fall River.
“We are confident that we will be able to deliver this system on the timeline we laid out,” Eng said.
Officials said they are about to hit a milestone: MBTA commuter test trains will start running from New Bedford Station on Monday, eventually reaching speeds of 79 mph. That’s possible because federal regulators have now certified all of the track for high speeds.
Between now and January, the MBTA will continue to test signaling systems that prevent accidents. Then, by February, they expect to enter a 90-day testing period in which federal regulators will inspect the system. When the regulators give the go-ahead, the system will start carrying passengers in May, officials said.
Paul Chasse, chairman of the New Bedford-based Rail to Boston Coalition, said he was disappointed that the project had been pushed back to May.
“But I know the safety aspect is important,” he said.
MBTA officials also announced that all of the new stations would be in Zone 8 of the commuter rail network, which means fares will be $12.25 each way. The agency is still planning schedules, but they will include weekend service, officials said.
Eng acknowledged that the MBTA had shared very little information about the project in recent months. That’s partly because he recently hired a new management team to evaluate the project and lay out a new timeline. Thursday’s meetings were the culmination of that review.
In stark contrast with the two months of silence that preceded the meetings, officials laid out specific technical details about the status of the project. They shared what had been done, what they planned to do, and when they planned to be finished with each aspect of the project.
But Eng and his colleagues were less specific about the reasons for the project’s repeated delays. MBTA management realized this spring that the project’s schedule had been “slipping,” Eng said.
“We needed to dive into what was occurring and why it was occurring,” he said.
MBTA management then visited the South Coast Rail work sites, which led to the decision to hire new project leadership, Eng said.
Karen Antion, who was also at Thursday’s meetings, is the project’s new manager. She was chosen because she has expertise in the signaling systems that are now being tested, Eng said. She previously led other signal installation and testing projects at the agency.
“We are confident that moving forward I have the right leadership on the team here,” he said.
Eng committed to being more transparent. He said he would come back to the South Coast soon with more updates as the project progresses. Officials said they would “hold ourselves accountable” throughout both meetings.
The $1.1 billion project remains on budget, the general manager said.
For most of the time between now and when the project is expected to launch, crews will be testing signaling systems that keep train accidents from happening.
“This is a time-taking process,” Antion said. “It’s an exacting process.”
The Automatic Train Control systems, which control train speeds, are installed and fully functional, Antion said. They have been tested at 25 mph, but still need to be tested at speeds up to 79 mph. That testing is scheduled to be complete in July, and by August, the ATC system will officially be activated.
The Positive Train Control systems monitor even more data and can detect trains that are moving too fast or about to collide. All of that equipment is installed and has gone through preliminary testing. Next, the MBTA will test all 800 functions of the PTC system according to federal regulations. That process will last from June 2024 to January 2025.
After signal testing is done, the Federal Railroad Administration will begin its 90-day New Starts process, a rigorous inspection process for all new railroads. As part of that review, the MBTA will simulate full service by running trains as they would if they were carrying passengers.
The trains can only carry passengers after federal regulators are satisfied with the MBTA’s performance, officials said.
Four of the six new stations are complete: Fall River, Freetown, Middleborough, and Church Street. New Bedford Station is 97% complete and on track to finish some minor remaining work in July. East Taunton Station is only 75% complete because of delays in getting materials and challenges with the station’s elevators, officials said, but it will be complete in August.
The MBTA has overhauled four locomotives and bought 16 bi-level coaches to support the extension, Eng said, and 68% of “long lead” staff have been hired and are in training.
Officials warned the public to stay off local train tracks now that commuter trains may travel on them at 79 mph, much faster than the freight trains that people are used to seeing.
Ahead of the meetings, former assistant secretary of transportation Chris Dempsey said Eng’s presence was commendable and showed that the MBTA was taking the announcement seriously.
The project has been delayed twice in the last year. It was originally slated to launch in late 2023, then was delayed to summer 2024. Then, in April, officials said they were unlikely to meet their summer target date.
The agency did not respond to basic questions about the status of the project and reasons for the delay in recent weeks. Even city leaders around the South Coast were left in the dark about the future of the project. The lack of answers drew calls from leaders and transit advocates for more transparency.
Thursday’s meetings were not announced until Wednesday afternoon, when the MBTA distributed brief notices to the public. The notices had little information beyond the location, time, and officials in attendance.
Hours before the meetings, State Sen. Mark Montigny criticized the agency for its handling of the long-awaited project.
“It is imperative that the T provide transparent communications on this project and fully commit to firm deadlines, fares, and schedules, ” he said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “Providing less than 48 hours’ notice for a public meeting of this magnitude is inappropriate and the T must do better to adequately fulfill the needs of my constituents.”
Email transportation reporter Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
A year? Are you kidding me?
Anyone who believes that it will be open in May 2025: I have a bridge on Pope’s Island to sell you.
I suspect the MBTA is finally recognizing they’re going to lose their shirt on the NB and FR routes and eventually they’ll pull the plug.
The government cannot do anything right. Anything the government touches turn into garbage…ie housing, health care, education, military spending, higher education..the list goes on and on.
The government is not here to help! Community helps, not government
Evidently, this is what the MBTA calls being transparent. Mr Ing says supply chain issues and elevator problems have stymied progress on South Coast rail amounting to a year and a half delay.
Rail, rail ties and concrete must be hard to come by although the MBTA has been using quite a lot of those materials of late in re-tracking the orange and green lines and double tracking of the Franklin Commuter rail line, rebuilding the Lynn commuter rail station along with a myriad of other track and station refits throughout the system. (personally I’ve never heard of a new elevator problem that takes a good part of a year to solve.)
The truth is, all these other ongoing projects have bumped South Coast Rail to the bottom of the priority list where New Bedford and Fall River always “ends up”.
Mr Ing goes on to say that the 2 remaining uncompleted stations (New Bedford and Taunton) will be finished in July and August respectively. He says the locomotives and cars have been procured. He says the personnel is 68% hired and are in training. He says the signalling and control systems are installed and functioning. (it has been for months) but- he says- it will require many many months of testing before it’s ready. He explains that 800 signalling functions must be tested before the system gets the green light.
Between now and next May, that averages to a little over 2.5 function tests per day. That seems like an unreasonable amount of time. It appears he may have left out a few details for the cause of the delay.
The problem is they are now on the federal government’s timeline, which is slow. Also, the MBTA has been historically mismanaged and is struggling to put its administration back together after years of neglect. I highly recommend that people go read the state OIG’s report on the MBTA from last year.
Wait until the tax increases begin and 90% of Massachusetts residents (middle class working tax payers of course) are forced to fund the continued costs of heating, cooling, cleaning, and maintenance of the two New Bedford stations, and the increase in fares every 6-12 months because there won’t even be 100 passengers riding the train on a daily basis instead of driving in and out of Boston, or other locations in between or beyond because of the same reason people from New Bedford can’t afford housing, they don’t make enough money to spend $25.00 per day round trip X five days per week, at $500.00 per month, you can buy a new hybrid like a Toyota Prius, or a Honda Fit that gets 40 MPG and you can drive to and from Boston faster while being comfortable in your own vehicle.
See you back here in a few months when the train announced a new date, maybe January 2026.