I’m on a train from the South Shore today. We’re stuck at the wye that connects the Greenbush line to the Old Colony main. We get stuck there for 10 minutes. Why? Because a Middleborough train from South Station is behind schedule and we have to wait to be clear to proceed through the Quincy single track.

That limited infrastructure cascades through the schedule and may not be rectified until well after rush hour. We were only a few minutes late to South Station, fortunately, but another late meet could foul things up for the rest of the day.

Add in the unpredictability of extending Middleborough trains to New Bedford and Fall River, causing more possible delay points, and you have a mess.

I get that we can’t double track the entirety of the line, especially in the Quincy stretch, without major work. But the status quo is nuts. It also prevents the commuter rail from being a reliever to the Red Line when the RL is (when, not if) fucked.

Sorry for the rant, it just amazes me that we’re so shortsighted with infrastructure projects. Some of this could’ve been addressed 30 years ago when they were rebuilding the Old Colony. But nope.