Posted on 08/17/2010 3:46:53 AM PDT by Willie Green
WARWICK — Even before the first train rolls into the nearly completed station that will link T.F. Green Airport to Boston commuter rail service, the state Department of Transportation is adding route options to the opening schedule.
According to department officials, morning routes from Providence to Warwick and evening return routes from Warwick to Providence have been added to the schedule that is expected to operate when the new train station opens in October.
Until now the tentative schedule for the first runs had only included morning trains heading north from Warwick to Providence and Boston, and evening trains that headed south and were linked with existing runs from Boston.
DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin said Tuesday that department director Michael Lewis referenced the new routes during a meeting last week of the Rhode Island Public Rail Corporation, a quasi-public agency created nearly 30 years ago for improving commuter transit and freight operations in Rhode Island.
St. Martin said the DOT has been working for several months to put together a “reverse” commuter option for the airport train station, an option so named because it runs opposite that of a typical suburban commute from the southern part of the state to Providence or Boston.
The new train station, also referred to as an intermodal station, will also house all the rental-car services for the airport. Now in the final stages of construction, it is located on Jefferson Boulevard a block west of T.F. Green and is attached to the airport via an eye-catching glass skyway that crosses Post Road.
The intermodal station, which has been in the planning stages for decades, has been heralded as a project that will make life easier for T.F. Green travelers and bring more business to the airport by providing a public transportation link to Providence and Boston. City officials are also hoping it spurs commercial and retail growth in the surrounding area.
Both state and local officials have said that the initial schedule, which is still being finalized, is just the beginning and the plan is not only for more MBTA routes but also to have Amtrak trains stop at the station.
St. Martin said that right now the initial schedule is shaping up to have three early-morning runs that will start at the airport and continue on to Providence and Boston, plus the newly negotiated southbound runs that will run from Providence to Warwick.
During the evening commuter hours there will be three runs from Boston and Providence to Warwick, plus three runs from Warwick to Providence. (The evening northbound runs will not continue on to Boston like the morning ones do, he said.)
“The schedule with the exact times has not been published yet,” St. Martin said. “But we are very pleased with these new routes because, as with any start-up service, it’s important to have as many options as possible.”
Warwick Republican mayoral candidate Richard Langseth, who was at the rail corporation meeting, applauded the additional routes, saying he and other residents have been pushing for a “reverse” commuter schedule that would serve people who work at the airport as well as others who need public transportation in a southerly direction in the morning and northerly in the afternoon.
T. F. Green Airport Station is an intermodal station under construction in Warwick, Rhode Island on the Northeast Corridor, extending the Providence/Stoughton Line south from Providence. As of June 30, 2010, the project was 85% complete and officials say the project is on schedule and service could start as early as October 2010, with three round trips to Boston per day.
The station's primary purpose is to serve local commuters to Providence and Boston, but it will also bring passengers and employees to and from Providence's T. F. Green Airport (PVD). The station will make it possible to move between T.F. Green and Logan International Airport in about two hours for approximately a $9.75 fare.
Sounds like a good idea that'll make regional travel arrangements more convenient and flexible.
Boston - Now there’s a place where commuter rail makes sense and actually works.
Shouldn’t cost too much more than 18 billion or so dollars.
Hey Willie, I live halfway between Boston & Providence and prefer to fly out of Green than Logan, it’s a smaller airport and less of a hassle. This is money well spent imo.
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