Memorandum

Date       November 15, 2012

TO           Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

FROM      Karl H. Quackenbush
CTPS Executive Director

RE            Work Program for: MBTA East Lynn Commuter Rail Station Feasibility Study

Action Required

Review and approval

Proposed Motion

That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, upon the recommendation of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), vote to approve the work program for MBTA East Lynn Commuter Rail Feasibility Study in the form of the draft dated November 15, 2012.

Project Identification

Unified Planning Work Program Classification

Planning Studies

CTPS Project Number

83321

Clients

Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Office of Transportation Planning

Project Supervisor: Scott Hamwey

CTPS Project Supervisors

Principal: Ying Bao

Manager: Bruce Kaplan

Funding

MassDOT §5303 Contract #75366

Impact on MPO Work

The MPO staff has sufficient resources to complete this work in a capable and timely manner. By undertaking this work, the MPO staff will neither delay the completion of nor reduce the quality of other work in the UPWP.

Background

In 1959, East Lynn’s commuter rail station, located on Chatham Street, closed after nearly 80 years of operation. Public officials and Lynn residents have recently expressed strong interest in the reinstitution of a commuter rail station in East Lynn. At present, the commuter rail stations nearest to this location are situated in downtown Lynn and in Swampscott, both of which are on the Newburyport-Rockport Line. This study will analyze the feasibility of establishing a new commuter rail station in East Lynn between these two existing stations along the Newburyport-Rockport commuter rail right-of-way.

Objectives

The objective of this work is to evaluate the ridership potential of a proposed East Lynn commuter rail station.

Work Description

The regional travel demand model set will be used to produce ridership data and other important data to be used for the evaluation of the proposed service alternatives.

Task 1  Develop and Code a Proposed Alternative

CTPS will assist MassDOT in the development of a proposed build alternative, in addition to a no-build scenario. Issues such as stop location, service frequencies, run times, and route alignments will be clarified with MassDOT. Additional concerns will be addressed to ensure proper representation and coding of these alternatives in the regional travel demand model set.

Product of Task 1

Coded build alternative in the regional travel demand model set

Task 2 Run the Model Set for the Proposed Alternative

The proposed build alternative will be analyzed for the AM peak and midday periods using the latest version of the MPO’s base-year model set. The PM peak and nighttime periods can be estimated by assuming mirror images of the AM peak and midday conditions; this can be used to produce daily totals. Mode choice results will be summarized in tabular form. Aggregate statistics such as total linked and unlinked transit trips will be summarized by submode. These statistics will be compared and contrasted with the current year’s existing conditions scenario in the MPO’s  base-year model set.

 Products of Task 2

Summaries of travel forecasts for the build scenario

Task 3  Produce a Technical Memorandum

A technical memorandum documenting all of the model methodology, assumptions, and results and the analysis findings will be produced.

Product of Task 3

A technical memorandum documenting the project

Estimated Schedule

It is estimated that this project will be completed eight weeks after work commences. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.

Estimated Cost

The total cost of this project is estimated to be $15,000. This includes the cost of 5.8 person-weeks of staff time and overhead at the rate of 96.58 percent. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2.

KQ/SAP/BK/dj