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[KevinKorell]

Post here regarding anything we did during our planned or unplanned activities on Friday, April 21st.

[KevinKorell]

Friday is a wrap.  There were 5 of us involved as planned.    We met at South Station, and luckily everyone was there well in advance.  I say luckily because I neglected to take note of a schedule change for our outbound train that had it running 5 minutes sooner than the itinerary called for.   The train left Boston South Station at 2:40 PM rather than 2:45, and was also 5 minutes early into our destination, Foxboro.   In between, many stops along the Southwest Corridor and then out the Franklin Line up to (but not including) Walpole, where our train branched off the Franklin Line onto another track running southeast.

 

Once at Foxboro, we had 50 minutes dwell time, and used it to walk over to the Patriot Place development adjacent to the football stadium.   It's a rather long walk, and we did not get to see the whole thing.  But it was a good healthy walk, from which we were all back from in plenty of time for the return trip.  The inbound train time had not changed, still 4:26 PM from Foxboro.

 

On both segments of our round trip, not once did a conductor come up to our upper level seats and check our tickets.  Some had paper tickets and some had digital ones.   The crew remained by the doors throughout the journeys.   This has been a theme on MBTA commuter trains for years, including many of our previous Fests in the area.   That is not to say one should not purchase their fares, as we all still paid for our tickets, but as a proponent of rail transit I'd like to see the crews acknowledge the fares in some way --- and even take a walk through the train from time to time for security sake.

 

Unless anyone feels like doing this again, and because unfortunately one person who would have gone on Monday could not participate, I likely won't be going to Foxboro on Monday.   However, knowing what a destination it is (aside from the stadium), I may take a personal trip here another time and stay in a hotel in the Patriot Place complex.

 

Three of our five detrained at Back Bay Station on the way back, and two remained to South Station.   We all went our separate ways to get dinner, with hopes for more fun on the rails with a bigger group tomorrow.