FALL RIVER — Those who've been waiting for South Coast Rail will have to continue waiting almost another year before they can ride the rails.
At a public meeting hosted by the MBTA at Bristol Community College on Thursday afternoon, General Manager Phillip Eng unveiled a revised timetable for South Coast Rail service to finally accept passengers: May 2025.
The latest delay pushes departure times far beyond the MBTA’s initially promised start date of late 2023.
The MBTA also revealed the ticket cost to the public, but would not say what the daily train schedule would look like and would not guarantee weekend service.
Eng said he felt compelled to meet publicly with residents in Fall River and New Bedford after “it became apparent that the schedule does not match what we had publicly advertised.”
Two meetings were hastily announced mid-afternoon on Wednesday, one at Bristol's Fall River campus and another immediately afterward at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford.
Ken Fiola, executive vice president of the Bristol County Economic Development Consultants, told Eng during a public comment session that “I think if nothing else the MBTA owes this region and this city and the residents of this city an apology — an apology for misleading the entire region with false promises and deadlines.”
Construction is nearly done, now comes testing
Eng was named general manager and CEO of the MBTA in April 2023. He said that earlier this year, after reviewing the status of several capital projects, he changed the team managing the South Coast Rail project.
The $1 billion project aims to connect Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton to Boston via passenger rail for the first time since the 1950s. It has been in the works for decades with construction beginning in earnest in 2019.
The project’s new manager, Karen Antion, said the construction phase is nearly complete. The Fall River, Freetown, Middleborough and New Bedford’s Church Street stations are finished — Fall River and Freetown were declared substantially complete in late 2022.
The New Bedford station is 97% complete, with only punch list items remaining, and is expected to be finished in July.
The East Taunton station is only 75% complete, due to elevator installation and paving issues. It is expected to be finished in August.
Antion blamed “material delays" and “challenges getting the elevators to work properly” for East Taunton’s lagging construction. She said a site visit Thursday showed these issues were being taken care of.
The MBTA has been warning of an extensive testing, inspection and certification schedule that would cause substantial delays. With construction nearly over, Antion said that testing will begin Monday, when the MBTA will begin running test trains up and down the lines.
We know how much a South Coast Rail ticket will cost
Eng said the MBTA determined that based on distance from Boston, the entire South Coast Rail project would be in Zone 8 in terms of fare structure.
The commuter rail is priced by zones, labeled 1A then 1 to 10. Boston is Zone 1A. Its immediate outskirts are Zone 1, increasing as stations get farther from Boston.
A Zone 8 fare to Boston is $12.25 each way. A reduced fare of $6 is available for people 65 or older, students, and the disabled.
Tickets from Zone 8 to another zone outside of Boston are cheaper, and depend on how many zones a rider passes through.
The fare is free for children 11 and younger, the legally blind, military personnel in uniform, and police officers and firefighters.
The MBTA recently began a reduced fare program for those 26 to 64 who meet certain income eligibility requirements.
Still no schedule for South Coast Rail, and no guarantee of weekends
A trip from Fall River or New Bedford to Boston will take about 90 minutes.
Still unknown is the daily schedule or if the train will run on weekends.
At an April 10 meeting, Director of Community Engagement Jean Fox said, “Right now, there’s weekend service on the Middleboro line. I would expect it to happen — but again, that’s a different department.”
MBTA officials were cagier about weekend service on Thursday afternoon.
“We are aggressively looking at ways to implement all service options,” said MBTA Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan. “It’s a delicate balancing act but we’re looking at every avenue to deliver the best service we can.”
When Fiola pressed Coholan for a direct answer on weekend service, Coholan said, “Right now, if I had a schedule to show you, I would.”
Coholan said “capacity constraints” come in to play, since South Coast Rail service would share track space with the existing Middleboro/Lakeville, Kingston and Greenbush lines as it approaches Boston.
“The initial commitment was 26 trips per day during the weekday," Coholan said. “We’re very confident we’re going to do better than that.”
Will the MBTA stick to the new South Coast Rail schedule?
When asked how the MBTA could guarantee it would stick to this new schedule, Eng said he had confidence in South Coast Rail’s new leadership team.
“Every step of the way, what we’re looking to do is identify any issues that may come up and tackle them early,” Eng said.
At New Bedford's meeting, state Sen. Marc Montigny said the constant delays have made residents "skeptical" of South Coast Rail.
"It is imperative that the T provide transparent communications on this project and fully commit to firm deadlines, fares, and schedules," Montigny said in a statement. "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.Although important to the economic development of the region, South Coast Rail carries with it the very real unintended consequences of unaffordable housing and gentrification that we warned about and continues to increase over time.”
In Fall River, a visibly frustrated Fiola noted that as a facilitator of local development, he’s felt embarrassed to have passed along multiple “bogus” deadlines the MBTA has missed, saying it reflects poorly on everyone and has harmed private investment.
“We’ve been working on this for 30-plus years,” Fiola said. “I guess another year isn’t going to kill us, but it does have an impact on things we’re doing locally.”
