South Coast Rail Meeting Fall River 4 10 24

good evening I'd like to ask everyone to start taking your seats so we can get started fairly

promptly

thank you so much it's a pleasure to see all of you here this evening my name is Nancy Farrell and with my colleague Joseph gry and we work on Outreach for the South Coast rail program and you're going to meet Jean fox in a minute she she directs our our outreach program very very ably I might say without trying to embarrass her um but it's great to have you here and what we're

going to do is give you an update on where the project is now we have a fairly short PowerPoint that shows you some of the stations and the things that we're working on and after that we'll ask you to hold your questions and then after that we have a microphone down front and you can come down and um ask your questions um we look forward to hearing your thoughts as well and with

that I'll ask Jean to step up oh I'm sorry I wanted to uh say we're happy that mayor Coogan is here I know I saw him somewhere um oh there he is there great thank you and we'll have time at the end for other elected officials who may come um and for your questions and comments Jean thank you Nancy it's certainly wonderful to be back here we were doing

the math on when the last time was we were here and we were talking about assessments this is much more exciting um we're now uh in a in a really exciting place with the project and a lot of the reason for the excitement is the support and input from the community um we've prided ourselves on making sure our community is informed about where we are with the project every step of the

way many of you receive our weekly eblast some of you have told us enough already we have enough information others have said that they've been very grateful to have that during construction uh construction can always pose its inconveniences um but the city of Fall River has lived through much of that for many years just as recently as the spaghetti ramp project and now we're doing the boulevard project and we've

done um South Coast rail um so without further Ado I've got my driver Joe many of you will remember that um we are extending Middleboro service down to the city of Fall River and also New Bedford and Taunton um that southern triangle piece is what we've worked on it's active rail um freight trains have been running along it for years um but there's still a lot of work that needed

to be done to make it ready for commuter rail service so the clicket Clack uh jointed welded rail is gone for continuously welded rail all new tracks been been uh installed and we have six new stations and then at the end of each line um per NBTA requirements we a layover facility I want to assure you that a layover facility is not a maintenance facility it's a place where the trains are parked at night and where

they leave from in the morning to go on their trips north um there will be cleaning there um and in the winter months when the temperatures are very chilly um there are plug-in machines so that we don't have to run the trains to keep the diesel from getting all messed up so we also have for phase one um the contract status the Fall River secondary line as you all know is substantially

complete we are however still working on some punch list items the larger the $ 43.5 million Middleboro secondary New Bedford L Mainline and the systems contract that construction portion is nearing completion the final track civil and station work are expected to be substantially complete later in the spring um the automatic Train control and positive train Control Systems testing and commissioning on all lines

will continue through this spring um and then after that we have operational qualification field training and then the Federal Railroad Administration requires a simulated service demonstration so that is operating trains successfully over a period of time uh but without passengers so they have to operate on the schedule they have to find their way into South Station they have to find their way

through the pinch point it's how you fine-tune the schedule that is required by the f um the offsite traffic ation project is um pretty much done I think you guys will get a kick out of this we went and ordered the trailblazing signs those are usually purple um but right when we were ready to go put our trailblazing signs in the rules changed they have to be green so the signs you see on this slide

what will direct people in the city to the station um and just for future reference if you wanted to know why we couldn't do purple that's only for Easy Pass who new so um the the offsite mitigation was largely work uh around station areas intersections things like that um they've done a lot of work they did the president Avenues area where the d'angel O sign is they did work in um

Taunton and Middleboro some signal work in Lakeville um they did a good job they're about done just have to put those signs up so um the the New Bedford ped Bridge is another um piece of this puzzle uh it's it's under construction right now we have the false work up so when you're driving on Route 18 or kushit Avenue in the city you'll see what looks like a really awful looking Bridge Don't Panic

that's not it that's to hold the bridge the final Bridge once it's erected um and it's going to be as you see in the uh the graphic there a tide Arch Bridge we worked tirelessly with the city of New Bedford on this design and this will get people safely across Route 18 and auset Avenue it will also probably help serve the sea streak ferry service um downtown over to um the area where the

ferry parking is uh this this bridge will also boast some local artwork and in owned by the city of New Bedford the Fall River Station also shows some of the um amenities that we have for every station this is a side platform station a typical MBTA Commuter Rail station 800t platform 100t roughly canopy all the signage bike parking um benches stairs ramps uh EV plugins um and and essentially that

that's what a side platform station looks like and you'll see when we get to Taunton in a in a couple of slides it's a little different um you can see on the next Slide the schematics of what our our our crews went in with and what it looks like in the end it looks fantastic um um the ramp that leads from Pier Street into the uh station is covered so

people who get off the bus on Main Street and walk down the street can get onto the ramp right into the station uh area the ramp area to the uh platform now East Taunton is a little different um it's a center Island platform so it has tracks on both sides um that means you need multiple modes of access and erass so it has elevators it has ramps it has Bridges um it has a lot of

complexity so that station is not done yet uh all the other stations as I've mentioned are are mostly complete certainly on Fall River that's the case on New Bedford line the stations on that and are very close to complete this one still has a little ways to go but it's coming along there's a lot of um concentrated effort at that station to make it ready for passengers and that will be continuing for the next couple

of months a Freetown station looks a lot like the New Bedford station and it's only a few miles down the road again it has the similar amenities all of the stations will have um a lot of lighting and a lot of cameras for security um and then again the EV parking handicap parking next slide show so here we have um are we in church stre oh middleb I skipped Middleboro I can't you do that

middleb is another side platform station looking really good we've had a few site visits out there uh it's going to have a direct connection from 495 into the station which is nice I will say that's true in Taunton too I forgot to mention that Taunton um is doing a huge interchange project 14024 and then one of the ramps off 24 will be a dedicated ramp into the station parking

area so now I can go to Church Street Church Street and New Bedford stations are about 99% complete what you're seeing in this photo is old uh the canopy roof is on now on Church Street they're doing some final uh conduit work um very little uh I think an LCD screen has to go into one of them minor stuff mostly punch list and then they'll have to get all the inspections um so critical items for uh

Revenue Service all right no New Bedford was oh yeah see he printed two on one sheet I'm confused New Bedford again is similar side platform but it's right next to the SE streak ferry so that's going to be wonderful um we're sharing the parking with SE streak and um and then the bridge will connect directly over to the New Bedford station as well so what do we need to get this thing

rolling the East Taunton station as we mentioned needs to be completed and we have automatic Train control testing so what is automatic Train control it basically sends signal indications to the train Cab in addition to using physical signal lights that you see outside these signals are part of the positive Train control system and alert the engineer of any potentially unsafe condition there are some 2,000

tests required for that get to positive train control all of you will recall not that many years ago the federal government came down on on across the country and said everybody has to have positive train control for safety it's a monitoring system that alerts the engineer when there is a either a train to train potential Collision or if it's going too fast in a certain area or if it should be entering a construction

zone and it should slow down and if the crew doesn't respond the positive train control takes over so this came in light of a number of pretty horrific U train accidents um and this is through a system of transponders a way to alert each individual train what's going on and helps take control if there is something dangerous uh down the tracks fire life safety training um we also have to do safety

certification of some 200 safety elements so every bridge every Culvert every grade crossing all the walls all the tracks all the stations all the layovers and the equipment have to be safety certified and then we'll have the operational qualification field testing that will allow our locomotive Crews to understand the route and then we also have to commission all that equipment for service

then we have to do the one I mentioned before the simulated service after that successful implementation and run we'll be ready for Revenue Service and MBTA railroad operations is the lead on rail activation and on getting passengers on these trains I wanted to update you on where we are with construction but I want to go to the next piece that is critically important to all of us in this room

and that's safety um this past weekend we had a vehicle enter the right of way at the Tipsy tobogan and drive 1.7 miles on the railroad tracks over to Melo tereso now if a train had been on those tracks those people wouldn't be here they probably thought it was a fun thing to do it could have been an error but you have to stay off the tracks we're going to have fast running test

trains in this area very soon and they're going to be running in some areas at speeds up to 79 miles an hour you are used to 10 and now 25 M hour sporadic Freight traffic you are not accustomed to commuter rail local motives traveling at fast speeds we have been blessed to have been able to use the right of way to walk the dog to go take a little walk in the woods you

can't you can't do it if you can deliver that message safely I would appreciate it but I'm also available to help deliver that me message uh elsewhere um I will say that when those test trains are running all of the um grade Crossings will be functioning with signals and Gates Fall River doesn't have any grade Crossings but I know you drive outside of Fall River so if you're going into Freetown or Berkeley or

Taunton or new edford there are grade Crossings um and we ask you to heed all those lights and signals um we have a program called Safety First that the Outreach team has put together and the MBTA has adopted as a as a great way to get the the uh safety message out so we've done targeted emails uh we targeted schools communities Sportsmen ATV users who now are out and about and

by the way if you're on an ATV and a train is on the track you're not going to hear the the train coming um we have a lot lot of brochures we brought some today we got a grant from operation Lifesaver so we were able to secure a lot of materials that we are Distributing and um our information has been adopted Again by the entire MBTA um for a commuter ra safety website um that

you're welcome to visit um we also have um been giving uh presentations in schools uh Community groups and we're happy to do more of those um the messaging has to be very clear um um we are encouraging everyone to read these flyers and understand the dangers of being near the right of way particularly in Fall River where there are so many areas where the RightWay is extremely narrow that even if you did hear a train

coming you probably wouldn't have much leeway to move um so that that's an important message and I don't need to be somber about it but I'm very concerned that um we are still seeing people trespassing and it is trespassing it is illegal to be on the right of way again over years we were able to enjoy it without worrying about risk to life and limb but that is not going to be the case in very short

order um and then again the test trains are going to start I can't give you a date certain on that but they are definitely uh coming this spring again they can go up to 79 miles an hour please keep in mind that the only safe place to cross train tracks is at a designated pedestrian or or railroad roadway Crossing any signals you see pay attention to them we used to see signals

all the time but there were no Gates we didn't see a train we go plowing through can't do that anymore um they're quieter too the other thing about these trains is they're pushpull locomotives so the locomotive will go one way and then the engineer goes to the other end of the train to a cab and the locomotive pushes it out so that's all great except it makes it really hard to figure out which way it's

going really really hard to figure out which way it's going so I encourage you also to look at some of the videos that we made for safety first they're age appropriate so we have an elementary school one we have a middle school one we have a high school one and a general public one and it explains the difficulty of understanding uh the directional piece of where the train is and how it's so difficult to hear

because it is quieter than you think um and again please don't hunt please don't fish please don't use your snowmobile or your ATV or your dirt bike it's not a recreational area it's a dangerous area um so I'm happy to see some Public Safety in the room today he brought his wife too and um we worked very closely with you on the drill we did in July in Freetown um we meet quarterly with the

fire Life Safety team to go over concerns uh for First Responders again where you have not seen traffic in this area so many years this is new to your First Responders and the last thing they want to do is be unable to respond appropriately to any rail emergency whether it's somebody getting hit in a grade crossing or a derailment or anything and they've already worked with the local Freight operator Mass Coastal

so they have some knowledge of trains but these drills really help them understand what you need to do to rally and and get people off and say it's a mass casualty event get them off get them triaged get them taken care of um and I will say that the the one in Freetown and the subsequent one in November in New Bedford very well attended uh we came out of that with

after action reports so that all the Departments see where things went really really well and where they could use some tweaking um so I think that that was good we're going to offer some additional training to First Responders um they express loud and clear to us that they're very excited about the train coming but their first priority is saving people um so we want to work with

them we're we're we're targeting right now just so you know to get that additional hands on um so we had we had very good results uh from those two drills uh the NBTA does at least one drill annually but it could be anywhere uh in the system uh we did two down here because it's so new for our region um and community outreach a lot of my team is here and I've got others here from

the team that I work with every day uh to get this project to see it over the Finish linee reach out to us at any time again we do meetings with Community groups or doing another one next week yes um and we are getting into some schools uh we want to continue to do that and our weekly updates we have over 6,000 people that get those um as we get into this next phase of testing and

commissioning you will not see as much activity as you've seen over the course of four and a half years of very active construction because the testing and commissioning is kind of behind behind the scenes it's not as visible you don't have a lot of heavy equipment what you have is people testing all these little components to make sure they all work well together because in the final analysis the Federal Railroad

Administration railroad operations and our operator kolis will not let a train run unless they are 150% certain it's ready to run ready to run safely and reliably that's where we are at today that's why I can't tell you EXA when we're going to have Revenue Service we have a new team in our leadership that is really doing a deep dive right now to make sure the testing and commissioning

goes as well as possible if there's any way we can claw back we will we are looking now at at at least through the spring into the summer doing a lot of work and we will have updates for you uh in the coming weeks so I'm going to invite Nancy up

so we do have the videos that Jean referenced on the website and the address is up there mbta.com uh I always forget it SL Projects South Coast rail so there's one for every age group kids middle school high school and then the general public and I think they're really practical and down to earth so um watching them children um people who don't know anything about trains can learn a lot so I would I would encourage

you and if you'd like us to come to your neighborhood club or whatever as Jean said we'd be happy to come and and have a conversation so I am going to see if there um mayor would you like to say anything at this point or okay are there any other elected officials here I'm sorry I can't see well with a light who'd like to say something yes would could you come to the

okay we we great thank you so much thank you anyone else any other elected officials counselors all right if not then if there's you have any comments or questions um uh yes would you like to come to the microphone oh oh sorry we could have brought it to you sorry it's pretty high uh do you need information from me in terms of say who you are and then uh

Joe cavalo hi Joe River resident so uh I have several areas of concern okay uh the first one is the MBTA is currently 1,088 workers short that's one concern uh the Boston Business Journal uh did a poll that showed that uh the current rails Community rail service was rated as a c with grades of a b and c uh kolis the is going to be operating the commun rail they don't have a great history

in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts uh and the act on mass which is a nonprofit organization uh that takes no corporate contributions estimated on February the 15th of this year that the current debt of the MBTA is 7.62 billion with a B dollars so my my my thought is what's the cost going to be when are these positions going to be filled I mean you did an article in today's standard times Jean that talked about

safety and I applaud that however uh we've had so many difficulties with the MBTA the the community rail the the the subway system the the the tea in Boston uh even even a fatality so I I think that people need to know exactly what the answers are to these concerns and uh if I could also the the idea that uh weekend service has been there's almost like a whisper campaign that we may or may not have

weekend service um so uh and and what's the cost going to be specifically so if you would yep thank you all good questions Joe thank you um the MBTA is under new leadership right now I think you all know uh Phil Lang took the helm quite a while ago and it was a tall order for him we the no secret that the uh Focus has been largely on the subway system and it definitely needed that

Focus I don't think anybody questions that and it seems like they get rid of you know six slow zones and another five show up um so there is a focus on that there's also a legislative Focus to make sure the te has uh more adequate funding we have years of neglect that have to be made up now and I believe general manager Ang has that as a top priority in terms of commuter rail in the grade

of SE since the pandemic commuter rail in the Commonwealth is actually uh over 99 2 or 93% to pre-pandemic levels and is is quite reliable so the reliability of commuter rail continues to be quite remarkable and will continue is my expectation but that's why you do the simulated service you need to make sure that our trains coming up from Fall River meeting the Plymouth and everybody

else at the pinch point in brain tree can navigate that single track and get into South Station successfully um so there's still more work to do and kolis is is under a tight rain right now uh but we've also been working very closely with them on this project um I feel very comfortable that they are more than happy to take the rains here and extend this service in terms of our hiring

they're already hiring the engineers we need for South Coast rail they're they know what they need we need a 100 people to operate we're doing we're adding two train sets to what exists so 24 trips a day right now in the middleb line will extend to 26 we need 100 people for that so that's already underway uh and the training is fairly comprehensive so you can't just hire them the day before you

operate service so that's underway um the debt is not I can't address that I I think it's a big problem but I remember four years ago somebody putting out A9 billion figure um so it's something I know the MBTA has to has to wrestle with and that they are wrestling with and the legislature is as well but the bottom line is we deserve this billion dollars that a billion dollar investment in our

region we waited a long time for and to get people the connectivity to Boston so they don't have to sit on Route 24 is worth it I know that whenever you build something something else gets pushed aside or shoved aside but in the final analysis you put trains in you you spur Economic Development you catalyze change I feel very positive about that weekend service I get that all the time right

now there's weekend service on the Middleboro line I would expect it to happen but again that's a different department they're still working on the schedule uh and they're still working on the fairs I I wish I could tell you that right now I don't know what zone we are um but I do know that we've made it clear people want the weekend service and it would make sense because not everybody's going to commute and that

was a thing that uh Ryan colland said the other day not everybody is commuting on Comm mut rail it could be a misnomer um some people go to Health appointments or school or theater there are other things to do on the train to get you back and forth safely so I hope that helps I I can't answer everything Joe but I feel confident that kolis knows what we're doing here they were at our

drills they watched what we did they critiqued for things we did and they worked very closely with railroad operations and railroad operations again won't let trains run until they're absolutely confident that those trains can run

safely H yes um name is Nelson Vasquez former resident I too have some concerns uh not too long ago uh new Beford threatened a uh a lawsuit over the price dispute over the land purchase back in 2019 yep and they referenced the point that at that time uh they wasn't part of the NBTA Service District and didn't become officially a part of it back into just two years ago in 2018 with the vote uh

it turns out that fall river is in that same boat because the Wall Street uh you guys purchased par land uh March of March 29th of 2019 uh the parcel Valley at that time was assessed at $8,800 and the sales price and and the City of f was the seller for this parcel uh that it was purchased for a dollar and whenever there's a price dispute whenever something like this comes up in

court the NBTA is uh rebuttal to that is that they always pay fair market value for whatever land they purchase so paying $1 is not fair market value for a price of land that was $880,000 and today is over over over 100,000 so you probably won't have the question but I feel that on the way to the river cutting ceremony I feel that that the residents of Fall River should

be paid what's owed because paying $1 is again is not fair market value and just like how the same arguments new new Beford weighed is that we wasn't part of the service district and before you start building all of this you have to ask the Community First as you know if they want to join or not if they say yes then you start building so that's another K of worms down I'm not

going to get into but the thing is is that the city's owed money for this parel of land and I feel that the NBTA should do right by the residents and pay what's what's what's what's owed are you referring to the Weaver Cove site uh this this is a Devol stre it's right next to right next to that Plaza right there oh where the parking is yeah so it's and the thing is is that again nice

presentation you know I want to commend everyone for putting the time in building that but I feel like you know again if we're going to do business uh you got to pay gotta pay what's ow well I will tell you that the process for acquiring properties is is pretty rigorous um there's an appraisal done and a review appraisal and offers are made and there's frequently some back and forth that happens with it um so so

we didn't get any protests when we took those properties yeah um I get that at that time the issue didn't come up bedford's a little different uh because there was a um concern that we had not adequately compensated the city for the property which was a Brownfield um so we do feel that the in the end and I believe the city's synced up with us on this that this is a good thing for the

city it's a good thing for that part of land there's only certain things you can do on some parcels so Weaver's Cove was a primary spot perfect spot for us to put the layover facility because of the Shell Oil history there right so so that made sense too I can't answer what the values I'd be interested if you wanted to share your documentation I could take you to real estate the the whole real estate

department that does all that um but they do go through quite the process and again this is you know this is City furnished documents and it has the all of the previous years of of the UHS assessments and and it says it the date the price and again you know um I know you was going to have the answer but the thing is is that now that this is going

to be uh now that new Beford is going to make the news with that I'm pretty sure I don't know if it's been rectified and again people going to look into this as public record and they're going to bring it up sure and um and again I just feel like you know a lot of work went into this I don't want a bad taste to go into stuff like this to come up no well

obviously we don't either but that would be our Real Estate Group that would deal with that so we can certainly elevate it to them if you want to leave your name with us and we could contact you um we appreciate you bringing that point up um we certainly didn't come in to Rob everybody came in with strategic plans about where to put stations we we bought out businesses there I just want to be

clear yeah I'm not making the uh I'm not assuming you guys came in to Rob that's not what I'm saying no and that was a poor choice of no no no it's it's further from the truth is that agreed stuff like this is going to come up Y and it's just that when you have information like this read readily available um it's it's in pure black and white and uh again you know and also too

real quick the level of debt that's facing the NBTA what's coming down um we all know that this type of uh transportation system requires ridership so I'm going to give you a quick uh question I think you can answer what happens if this city does not have does not meet the ridership that you guys need to keep this afloat every single year that will be something that will have to be studied by railroad

operations and kolas um I'm willing to bet no I'm not going to bet I am confident that people are going to get on this train because if you do 24 every day you're never going to want to do it again and um and see people know what I'm talking about I get that no I get that it's not and we deserve to have another way to get into the city I don't

think on day one our trains are going to be bursting at the seams it's going to take time for people to acclimate also we're seeing activity um people moving out of the Greater Boston area down towards our region because we still have some affordable housing here which is certainly not the case um and then we also will have students we had over the years we've heard from so many kids oh I

got into MIT I got into UMass Boston I got into suffk but I can't live in Boston I can't live even outside of Boston I want to be able to get there so we'll see I think there's a AAL piece to it too I do think you'll see people coming out of Boston to see what we have here yeah and I'm just voicing the concern of the community app they are

they are that's one of the questions they're asking not getting answers so like you said that's one side of the coin but there is another side absolutely this thing requires wrers ship and they just want to know yeah if it doesn't have it what happens then yep um that won't be an issue well let's let's hope not but uh at least if we could have that answer that would be greatly appreciated yes thank you and I

appreciate your questions thank you hello hi hi can you guys hear me okay yes oh I see you got one of the going yep so my name is Kelly Aruda and I'm a city resident and I'm really excited about the train my question is is uh my office is located centrally in Boston so I'm excited to be able to jump on the train so my question is um how long is the train ride from either New

Bedford and Fall River to Boston or how many stops and how much will it there cost me thank you all good questions thank you um it's about an hour and a half ride um from the terminal cities of Fall River in New Bedford don't know what it's going to cost yet because they haven't determined what zone we're in I know they're working on it I heard from them two weeks ago we're still working

on it they're trying to make sure they can give us the best service possible for the best price uh but that's a separate Department um but I I think they are working on some um Fair packages for people they've just announced recently um that they're going to have more um lower reduced fairs for low-income people and they already do for some students so there are things out there just stay tuned thank you

hi I often have gone to Lakefield to take the train and those trains make an enormous number of local stops every few miles will the Fall River and new bford trains all make all those stops or well can there be some Express Services yeah that's a question we get a lot um it if they look at scheduling they might they've talked about potentially doing the two shoulders the the earliest and

the latest train not stopping everywhere but they haven't worked that out yet otherwise yes they will stop at all the stations not too attractive they're quick they stop then they go hi my name is James Smith I have a I have a question regarding the layover facility and the condition that it's in I walk around a lot I was there yesterday Y and the street in front of it the sidewalk is half taken up with

debris there's leaves there's junk the fence is in terrible condition there's a nice iron fence there from when the St Vincent's home was here and I saw section of it was painted black it looks nice but then the rest of its uh other type of fencing some of it's kind of falling down um it needs Landscaping what's the what's the plan for that so we they have punch list work and part

part of it's cleaning up on the fence I actually um contacted the Bristol County Sheriff's crew to do the painting the fence does not belong to the NBTA it belongs to the city the rod iron fence that beautiful fence but the sheriff's office has a to paint it but when they started we started with torrential downpours so they're coming back at the end of the month they've scheduled I

think the 29th and the 30th to come back and try to finish it because it it it the facility itself looks nice it does I agree um we had we had the Landscaping folks in several months back to do some cleanup they'll have to come back again okay and second question is no overnight parking at any of the parking facilities you know I don't know because I parked overnight in Lakeville and that

wasn't a problem but I think I think if you I think do you guys know either of you Bob or Holly I don't either I'm thinking it's not but I know if you we go to Boston for a weekend Park go and that's exactly right I I think there are some circumstances where you can but that still have to go to the parking people to sorry the last question just came to my mind the the

numerous cameras there will the local police departments be able to monitor those what's going to happen with those is that they MBTA monitors first same thing with the blue boxes that you see at the stations and then they dispatch um and that's why we are working very closely with First Responders we don't want any lag time we want people to know that this call is going in here and

somebody's got to answer it there all right thank you very thank you hi Jean hi Cheryl Montero I live in Taunton um he just brought up a question I was going to I just want to add to so the security cameras it's the MBTA Manning them are they Manning them 247 I believe so I mean they they have to run 247 yes because I know right where you live too Sheryl and your

concern is the station's right on the other side of your backyard and your concern concerned that that you could have Intruders right yes exactly yes um the timing of the trains if there's 24 or 26 trains yeah going in each direction are they going at the same time and and landing at each station at the same time or is it one train going up and then one train coming back do you know

Bob but they have different they staggered yeah 15 minutes not every half an hour it could be every 15 minutes not every half hour oh really yeah that will be the final schedule I can't tell you that right now I'm not sure and we had asked before and you had said they were not going to be blowing the horn when they come into the station is that still true that was what I was told about that

station they'll do they'll do uh along the way Bob do you have an answer for that that's right Right Where You Are yeah they just do the bell at the station but you are close enough to that um County Street 140 Crossing there um they will they will definitely Sound the Horn there but worse if it goes into the station sorry he said the bell will ring at the Bell but not the horn how loud is

the Bell um it's a ding-ding if you watch one of the videos you'll hear one because they do have it's not bad it's not like the horns okay that's all I have thank you okay thank you Char thank you for

coming hi my name is Robert L Moy I lived in Middleboro over nearly 20 years I lived in Brockton I grew up in Brockton and I know you people from when I was in Cambridge working on Transportation issues there in response to the question of Parkin we call we call it in on the computer we can schedule it for multiple days that's what I did I didn't have a problem with that but I wasn't sure if

we're doing that all over good thank you for that I lived in Brockton when the train went in before I went on the train I took the bat line to get to Boston and the strongest supporters of commuter rail were the former bat Riders were moved to commuter rail I'm also I have two years experience as a Railroader when we were talking about railroaders on working the lines the key question is

qualification yes that is on existing lines so I presume this is people who are deadheaded and learning the road and they're tested on the knowledge of the road yes yes I would think that you're going to have a lot of people deadheading were actually riding the road learning the road and who had then tested the qualification absolutely it's a rigorous process uh with my experience I would

think you're not looking at one key source of traffic the biggest customers on the existing line now I Brockton and Bridgewater and I would not be at all surprised to see the same people going to South Coast and you're you're building up capacity you're building up interest we are I think it's an excellent idea and I'm looking forward to it thank you Robert and I remember you from many many

meetings so thank you for coming to Fall River yes hello my name is Shannon Avery dearis and I live in Swansea um so first of all thank you very much for the work that you've done on this of your whole team because this has created an opportunity for me to take a position in Boston which I'm very excited about so um and really the the fact that I have accessibility to the train factored into

that decision so I know you can't give me a specific date but my job starts on July 8th so I'm wondering if I might if I might be you know on a train in the fall maybe or are we talking 25 this testing and commissioning is so huge I wish I could give you an answer today I can probably tell you jues unlikely yes and you put it off a little yeah yeah so maybe

2025 yeah I mean we have incredible new leadership now that have come in to do because this is technical this isn't just this isn't civil anymore we're not just putting in platforms and parking lots this is very technical and also remember PTC is a fairly new tech technology so there are only so many people who are really good at it and there is only so many vendors that have

the right stuff to sell you for it so we're working in that narrow stream in an environment that says railroad safety has to be Paramount and I guess maybe in the past it wasn't when we first scheduled this whole construction we banked two to four months for testing and commissioning because back in the day that's what it was no longer and for the right reasons so f is watching us closely but but

re um kolis and railroad operations are as well these new people doing their deep dive I'm hoping in the coming weeks we'll have a little better handle on when we can expect to see you want a train to your new job in Boston yeah um so testing could take like year potentially okay okay yeah um my other question is um about timing of when um the trains might start running so

obviously Boston is a huge medical Mecca um those of us in healthcare start very early so um and that has been um in the past uh um a hindrance to me driving to Lakeville or something like that to take the train there so I'm wondering if the trains are going to get there in time for those of us who start at you know 7 730 we call it the nurses train actually

I'm a nurse practitioner so thank you oh we there's still a nurses train because we know we have to get everyone up to Longwood like quickly and for that first shift so that typically run on the earliest train I can't tell you exactly what time but that train is definitely in the mix you're welcome good evening good evening good evening I'm Robert Grantham and from the city of Fall River

I'm very excited about it I'm very supportive of it um I understand these sort of projects have Financial details technical details that have to be worked out but overall I'm very excited about the project and I think it's good for the city of Fall River um one of the things that I'm sort of excited about is being able to go to the airport um I can't tell you how sort of exhausted I

am with going to the airport it's horrible and so when you mentioned about possibly not having weekend service no don't don't go there so far there is weekend service our guests are going to take the existing schedule and expand it down to the two terminal cities right and so the other question I have and I don't even know if you can answer this question in terms of the vision of all

of this and I see that Fall River has like a Depot station and often times at the end of the line you have an actual station yeah when you go to L you go to Worcester of course you go to South Station and I don't know if you guys have been in any conversations with the city of Fall River where this thing is headed in terms of the vision whether it's going to ultimately become a

destination with shops and restaurants good you you raise a good point and and it's a zoning point right so if they Zone around a station um for mixed use or residential or do that kind of planning you can see some great develop vment like that and an actual station I I actually told that this is a misnomer to call these stations they're just platforms they're glorified platforms

with covers on them um which is accurate I can't deny that but that's what we do in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for commuter rail service right were those conversations did those conversation ever happened about Depot versus a station the the depot is named because we had a fall rever Depot station here back in the day which was a brick and mortar building um that it's it's a

beautiful photograph we have somewhere of it but um that's not what we're building today if the city envisions change that fits a building or a nearby structure for example then the city is at Liberty to work with the MBTA assuming they want to come up to the property and do stuff I will say that Taunton is looking at Bob correct me if I'm wrong four buildings Transit oriented development residential

structures right next to the station which will be transform and potentially a coffee shop so so those are joint decisions yes in BTA in the same if you're if you're budding our property um or say for example they do a traffic impact study and you're introducing 1,000 new residents at the same time we have all these people coming out of the stations you have to work collaboratively as we have done all

along the way with all of the road workor projects that are going on here in the city we've been in all those meetings we continue to attend those meetings so that we don't put something in that's going to mess up the 79 project or anybody else so those conversations I would encourage um folks that want to see more of that kind of conversation approach the city council too um on everything from transit

oriented development to a bigger station okay very good thank you thank you Al rjo from Fall River um very pleased to see this is uh occurring um I was advocating with Governor weld in the day you know we were supposed to get it right away you know anyway um but uh I do have a concern and I just want to express it and I don't know what the

answer is I wish I did um but as a as a resident of full River for you know most of my life uh my childhood I grew up playing on the tracks don't right I know and this is uh so like I I don't know I guess kids don't really play outside that much anymore but but my life both in the North End and the south end I mean it was you know fishing it was

getting into the getting to the water uh I don't really I mean so this is just an expression of concern right I don't know how we're going to keep people from going to the Shoreline you know from from residences um and I don't know what the answer is um but that's but at 80 miles an hour uh that's that's kind of of like a significant kind of of travel rate you

know so I'm glad you're coming cuz believe it or not I I came from the state house today and I tried to leave early it doesn't make a difference it does not make a difference trust me oh my God so I'm glad you're coming but that is something I don't know thank you I I really you're absolutely right and we are very concerned that people are going to try to cross the tracks to get

from point A to point B but remember the Route 79 project is going to open up a lot more pedestrian access to the Waterfront hopefully will people will take the crosswalks and not the train tracks thank you for your question hi my name is Steve Kobe elker I live in Fall River um I've been riding the MBTA uh well when I started it cost a nickel oh okay and I've been riding

commuter rail for a long time I retired to Fall River about 11 12 years ago so I'm looking forward to this but um there's a couple of things things that concern me one is this credibility issue I was a big fan of this project and a year or so ago we were told in a meeting similar to this what the fears would be what zone we would be in approximately from us approximately what parking would

cost we would be the furthest zone out from the system we were told that I that it would be number nine um I I'm not making this stuff up and we were told that this project would be coming in last Autumn the yes okay now those kind of details I'm aware of because I was very interested now I find these details are no longer there we don't know what zone it's going to be

we're not sure what the fair is going to be we don't know when it's going to start and this sounds rather bureaucratically typical of when a time estimate fails because now you back off and you don't want to make any commitments but I think what people want to hear over and over again is when am I going to be able to ride this train into Boston okay um the last thing is and I've raised this

before the connections to the station from various areas of the city seems to me to be a problem I live up on Del car street which is near St Patrick's Cemetery up that area robon and What Separates Me From The Waterfront and from the station are these Hills okay yeah now I would like to take commuter rail when I go down to Philadelphia a couple of days at a time

or down to Manhattan for a couple of days at a time so I'm no longer the typical commuter it would be nice for me to get on the number four bus go down to President Avenue and then get on some sort of a shuttle that would take me to the station but now we have a central bus station that's located in a dense section of the city lopatine terminal the Fall River Central Terminal yeah um

and I don't and we have a ferry service that operates sometimes but they all seem kind of disjointed and they don't really seem to be pulled together huh okay so um I don't I I know that dealing with the bus people uh is not maybe within your purview oh no I have a great open conversations with Eric Russo all the time well a year or so ago when they were talking about bus connections to

the city they said well essentially there will be none from the highlands area well I can't speak to that I do know that that SRTA has been a lot of time studying their Roots so they can serve the station I said at that time I said you know it's sounds kind of ridiculous all you really need and I think the city would benefit from it generally is a way to get from

Robison and Highland Avenue yeah down to the Waterfront down to the Waterfront and right now the the typical bus system doesn't accomplish that well I'll reach out to Eric on that one and um I I'm glad you brought it up I wouldn't have thought of it but I do know that they um secured funding to do extensive studying on their Roots because the other problem with the SRTA Services it doesn't start very early and

our first trains are going to be getting nurses to Boston I brought that up the last night so all you do number four is just add an earlier number four number four it goes down Robison Avenue it's Robison and what uh goes goes from Central Station all the way down to I believe uh Wilson Road yeah wion thereabouts okay and then comes back I will ask him if where that is and I'm

glad you brought it up thank you very much I appreciate and you'll be on this train I

promise hi my name is John SRA from Far River and I was hoping to be attending the last meeting of this project but it doesn't seem quite that way I attended the first meeting in far at the city of Fall River in at City Hall 35 years ago Y and I was hoping to use the train every day but I'm retired now so I know but we're still working on and I appreciate everything every everyone's

done and hopefully we'll be able to get on that right yes thank you for acknowledging that those 35 years I feel your pain I was there too I had done a brief period of time down in Washington DC and I moved back up here because everyone said the train's coming and the only I'd like to say too is since this project started there's been a lot of people with concerns about this and about that and

everyone's if the NBTA works all over the state why not South Coast yep that's the my only question that's right it seems to be nitpicking about every little thing but yet this isn't new it works throughout the whole state so why not here well they the other the bottom line is they want to make sure it works well here too so that's that's part of what thank you for the team and I hope

to be a to train sometime thank you you you can go up and recreate on the train you don't have to get to work Ken hian how are hi good um first of all thank you for coming down tonight as you know uh we've been working on this project for a number of years um and I was hoping by now you know we'd be a little bit closer but just a couple

things I'd like to uh hopefully uh clarify and also comment upon um with regard to earlier comments about the land being sold for a dollar on Deval Street I think there was a small City piece of property that was part of that overall real estate transaction but the large majority of that transaction was privately held land and that was not sell that was not sold for a dollar I think it was actually an eminent domain

proceeding they may me still litigate damages on that but it was not sold for a dollar and if the city did in fact sell their property for a dollar I would gladly trade a dollar for a billion dollar investment anytime thank you um secondly uh with regard to an earlier comment about uh activity around the uh platform on the ball Street I think you know everyone should be aware and maybe

we're not doing a good enough job of getting a message out but that land that's being created there if you go down to Wall Street we've removed the elevated highways and we're developing we're in the process of M to planning uh 19 developable Lakers there that are probably going to accommodate more than a thousand residential units as part of a TOD and in addition to the residential units you're also going to have

restaurants cafes some office space and some Niche retail so you're going to be essentially creating a whole new community down there based upon the centering foundational aspect of the commuter rail platform being there so without that commuter rail platform we probably wouldn't have as much interest in this uh developable parel of land however as I move forward in thinking this process through I think one of the

things we need to really be cognizant about is false deadlines okay because what's hindering it's frustrating for us uh for myself in the economic development field uh for others in the business Community when we get deadlines that we're going to be open up in July that we're going to open up in December we're going to open up in the spring we're going to open up in the fall we need to definitively deter

when we are going to open we do okay I know I need November 1st I need October 1 I need I know and I need a definitive time frame okay because I get that we're trying to you know we don't want to have this project tarnished by this confusion right I think it's too big a project it's too an important project for the city and floating you know schedules and false thoughts don't help anybody um in

addition to that I think you with regard to the assertive bus uh uh aspect of things I know that there will be uh bus service to uh the uh facility on Deval Street the platform on Deval Street I think we just need to figure out how that's going to work collectively and make sure that you don't necessarily have to go to the Central Station to get down there so I think moving forward we

should all collectively work with Eric Russo from Serta to try to nail that down and then get that information disseminated into the Community Way in advance so again it eliminates the uncertainty it El eliminates the guess work and allows people to know what's happening right so yep listen in closing I just like to say thank you it's been a long time coming it's been um you know

many fits and starts but I think we're here and I think it's going to have a very positive impact upon the community so thank you very much thank you Ken and and thank you for all your hard work I think that that Boulevard project is going to be incredible is it for pedestrian access points that we're creating four that's going to be helpful too thank you hi Jan Jo fre hi T of Berkeley um so

some of the things that we're really concerned about is really the safety aspect of trains uh we've talked about educating the public through pamphlets reaching out to schools just to get to kids understand you don't play on the tracks on the MBTA side of the house as far as egress areas to the track how often are those tracks inspected as far as the chain link fencing that's placed

on there and is that available for any public review at any time that's an excellent question I don't have an answer to and I don't know if h no they the engineers are actually the the best inspectors because they're traveling that route all the time so if there's a breach in a fence which does happen we've already had it during construction several areas right people thought it' be fun to break the fence down um but

the engineers will will Spott it and then kolis makes almost daily trips on their own um we just had this conversation with some folks in New Bedford about their concerns very similar to yours um and then there's regular like weekly inspections of certain things so there's a real process that they engage in to make sure they're that that they're inspecting everything properly in a timely manner and then

they keep blogs of it whether or not that's available to the public I I just don't know okay uh so my biggest concern was uh Engineers are in charge to ensure that they're visually checking tracks and doing their job uh I imagine there's a of course there's a process that the inspection is happening I just wanted to make sure and maybe who I can reach out to to ensure or actually take a look at

other communities uh safety uh concerns especially allowing uh traffic to get onto those tracks yeah your your primary concern is mostly the fencing and people correct yeah and it's you're right and we've put in we've actually added fencing to our project from where we started I don't know how many linear feet but quite a few installing is good maintaining and ensuring that it's

secure is two different aspects no it's totally true um so I if you wouldn't mind leaving your information with us we will contact railroad operations and we'll send you an email with details on exactly what they do because I wasn't paying full attention when they were when they were in that part of the book um but I do know they have a real process for that so if you wouldn't mind

just leaving me your information I will I will G I can get you that information and we'll be looking for you to come to uh the town of Berkeley again welcome to Berkeley again you guys love me so

much hi hi hi hi welcome to Fall River it's a fantastic day I love the trains coming I can't wait to get out I'm looking for a ticket I want to be on the first train up to Boston um there was a question about the cameras you have cameras down there at the Depot who and who has access to those cameras does the for River Police Department have access to those they go

directly the MBTA and the NBTA contacts for police so now if this rafiti being put up down there oh yeah you know what I'm saying why can't we have that addressed with all those cameras well I think that's an excellent question I'm not certain I don't know what the resolution is on the cameras or things like that butan if there's cameras they should be able to see they should they should I do know that some business

owners on the other side of the station put up their own cameras because the bridges were getting tagged and the walls were getting tagged it's a big problem that we if we could have get that get that squid away it was really nice so but the other thing you need to know is that we did put to graffiting coatings on all these stations that's only good for about three power washes

okay my my next question is uh the Whistle the whistle Fall River doesn't have any cross track no you won't have so we really won't have many whistles you'll get the the jingle lingling of the Bells when it's coming into the station okay so the W the whistle is for uh I railroad crossings mostly for grade Crossings and sometimes they'll blow it if they see something to give a warning

so they're allowed to do that in other areas oh and we don't know what it's going to cost me to go up there yet I don't know how cost you but is there one track coming into that station or two tracks into the Fall River Station yeah it's one one track so the Train's going to after sleeping in a son it going to wake up it's sleeping in River it's

notep to sleep in Fall River and we're going to get up there early early at 5:30 yeah something like that all right sounds good it does let's make sure it is good thank you thank you yeah yeah we'll just take a couple more and let's and I'll stay here afterwards for folks but um I think I'm overwhelming you with my energy I don't want to do thate hi hey long time no see I know bu

um Tom lowney resident of Fall River uh been into the Rail Project from the get-go yes you have and I stop in to check on a few things I hear disturbing things occasionally don't see it cleared up uh the original proposal was doing it in phases in the first phase was to get the train down here period right the second phase was supposed to add in additional stations and that was it

wasn't sound didn't sound like a rock hard but from what I'm hearing that the end station was supposed to be Battleship Cove as a drop off is that still in for the next phase or is that just a pipe dream again no you're talking about the full whole build which was the stoen alternative which was where we landed right and then that came in at such a high price tag and with so

many Wetland variances and other issues and complex structures that it looked like it would be years and years and years and years to get anything again by building this extension of the Middleboro service we're building out the whole Southern triangle that whole piece that goes like this to the two cities right and it's it's a fair chunk of the total track miles that would be needed for sto and straight our Focus

right now is to get this built understand congratul almost there but Battleship Cove was pulled out of phase one because we were all about commuter rail and that was considered a seasonal station um Battleship Cove has great relevance and certainly would be part of what we would do going forward we just haven't gotten there yet because this is the Focus right and understood is that

still in the potential phase or is it being killed because I have friends are up no we have we have SE we've Pro promoted several different scenarios of way ways it could Advance it's just not going to happen quickly with the focus being on this getting this done making sure it's operating properly but there are things you can do we did we've done some early action projects for example in the end that were that had

independent utility were still useful were part of the project but didn't get the whole thing built because we didn't have $3 billion right and the problem with the stoen alternative is electric and it's expensive and so to do that we have to we have to be very thoughtful and mindful as we study that from an engineering perspective that that conceptual design what that's going to

look like and we just haven't gone down that road recently so is the tracks were modified and set for that for the future all the way down to fer street is that still no we sto we didn't do any more track Beyond um um Beyond The Depot okay so in in the territory is still Mass DOT territory Rail and Transit so there is talk to do some more um track work

potentially all the way to gold medal for example but that wouldn't be commuter rail track that would be Freight okay so another question I have for you is is uh bicycles bicycles are they allowed on this part of the to be brought on board to take up into Boston yeah there are certain you can do that on I'm sure I think the only time they frown on that there standing room only

right right so yeah people take their bikes on the trains all the time just cannot ride them on the train oh no I wouldn't expect that that'd be creative but crazy but um just wanted to make sure that was still part of it because the line is not always conducive throughout the MBTA well remember they have if you take if you want to go into BS and there's the blue bikes or I don't know what they're

called now but there's also those so in case you don't want to Lug yours well my son's in competition biking okay never mind you you're logging the bike yep okay thank you thank you keep up the good work and thank you for coming you have been quite the trooper over the years I'm just retiring here I was hoping to be able to I know me too it's the similar pain you know home was going

to be built in a day we would contractor I know thank you thank you thanks a followup hi Gan I have some comments I forgot to say um you know there's a reason why it seems to be Lost in Translation over here there's a reason why new Beford brought up the year 2019 is because they weren part of the NBTA and the reason why that's important is because if you're not in the NBTA the

NBTA cannot initiate imminent domain Powers it doesn't have until that city or town is officially in it which is why they brought it in but the reason why I'm saying is that go ahead is that is that we just heard that the land wasn't purchased for a dollar and I don't care how much the project cost the reason why new beff is fighting for it because they want the right dollar amount and when

you have public record showing that was it was for a dollar I mean you can't turn turn away from that so the thing is is that you have to do right by the people and we're in the same boat so just to see someone come in here here and just lie in front of in front of the whole city about the purchase price I think it's totally disingenuous say nasty things about people because

everyone in this room it's it's totally disingenuous to say that because I come I come with the facts I come with the paperwork the city was the seller no one else that's the only reason why I even came up to bring it up okay and I appreciate that and I told you I took notes on it so um but I also know that Mr Fiola he imag he imagine imminent domain

yes and in 2019 we wasn't in it so and and that's why that you don't have to be in it for eminent domain you do not I no but the reason why is that is the price is the price and whatever is good to fight for is to be commended but it was purchased for a dollar okay thank you for your comments and this will be our last question or next to the

last yeah hello Jean just want just want to say I've been following the construction progress closely been very impressed by the quality of the workmanship I I've seen the uh I'm particularly impressed at the changes up at up at mirck you know and I followed closely the uh um the construction of the layover uh area here in fall uh Airman fall rber um regarding some of the trespassing issues I do recall

before construction was started seeing kids in dirt bikes run up and down the rideway um I had a friend who used to live on uh North Main Street and with ins side of the rway and I've seen more than one dirt bikes buzzing up and down that I noticed now it's fully fenced along that uh uh stretch I'm glad to hear that there's at least still some thought on the phase two construction

further down the uh uh down the down the road I know electrification is not cheap I I've I've heard the whole the whole MBTA further down the road is considering electrifying everything yeah but we need a grid for that so there's so many things right right right the on it it's more you know again the not not so much the Rolling Stock expenditures it's more the uh the infrastructure expenditures you know catary and

substation um uh and everything else but like I said I've been impressed by what I've seen of the construction quality uh so far looking forward to when you actually announce uh uh service does the MBTA still have that $10 uh p uh pass on the weekends yeah yeah yeah because that that's one thing if they if they do have oh yeah I've I've written several times under that yeah that's a uh uh that's a

very nice uh way to you know go to Boston on a weekend uh certainly is uh trip you know I'm not commuting anymore but you know I will testify Route 24 can be a horror show P past exper uh uh experience so definitely looking forward to seeing the seeing the introduction to service thank you thank you thank you for your comments too hello my name is um caros Caesar I

believe we had spoke before have I think at the last meeting that I mentioned to you and you remember our conversation that I said that this is a Boston train not a for River Train you remember that conversation well I think my um I still have the same opinion the pros and cons everybody's talking about the pr where's the conss I would like to know a few do you have a

few no okay I will I will uh uh mention I will mention a few here's the thing Fall River it's ready for the train we have the beautiful apartments with marble counters beautiful elevators at the cost of people they cannot live in for River now they have to move out because they cannot afford to live in for River um I think that's that's a a that's a big a big

problem hour and a half Drive uh I drive to Boston take me an hour and a half I guess going to take me the same time time by train and I prefer to get there have a car and I use Uber or bus I have my own car to drive a run so that's that's another thing that I I don't think that that will work for me um why is a Boston train because I don't

think we have enough students going and filling up a train to bus and every day but we will have a lot of people trying to save money and leave cheaper in here so coming from Boston so you probably will have more full trains coming from Boston to for River than from for River residents using the train for Boston that's you know I just hope that five years from now what

now the train is going to save forever from everything that's going on it's going to it's a lifesaver the train is going to save forever I just hope that five years from now the train still working with a few people running on so after all this investment so I don't people people can use it people are free to use it I just don't think that we have enough people to write the

train to make it and then the price is going to rise so no you know the tickets public transportation which is subsidized that's what it is um so going to pay for for for another but here's my thing yeah things have to move forward MH have to improve and you know new things come along and one of the things is is is the train but I just want people to know

that's at the cost of other people when one person wins another person loses and everything and I think that's that's something coming with the train and we we be feeling already the effects of the train without the train being here yet so that's well I appreciate your comments and thank you for for your sharing your opinions um we do we're we're confident we did the studies on ridership which is a big

black box of variables you throw everything in and we get riders coming out of it so we that's why we had to order new coaches because we needed the the capability to carry those people we also did analysis of what Transit oriented development would look like uh in the city and throughout the corridor so we did and we did the feeder bus analysis we did a lot of studies to make

sure that when this train when we hit the go switch to go to Boston from Fall River we're ready to go and the city is ready to accommodate that and the city I think and the mayor is not here anymore but he's been a true supporter as has Ken Fiola of making sure that the city of Fall River is positioned to take advantage of the benefits the train that link the train will give us that we

haven't had in 65 years um so with that I'm gonna have Nancy close us out thank you so much I want you to know I started working on this project in 20 2017 so no I'm sorry 2007 2007 so believe me when there is a date available we will really look forward to sharing it with everybody and um we're plugging away we have you in mind every day believe me um because we know how

much uh we believe that the training is going to make a great deal for the region so thank you all for coming please look again at the um safety materials if you want us to come to your community school Church Library please let us know send us an email um and we'll really be happy to come and share a lot of information so thank you and enjoy the rest of your

evening