dchristiva

Holy smokes!

I appreciate everyone's feedback. Frankly, it has me frightened. The job is apt to be intense and time-consuming, so, when I need to get to/from work, I would like minimal delays. That was one of the great things about Metro North service and reliability in NYC. Yeah, there was a problem once in a while, but I would say 99% of my trains were on time or very close to on time. And I lived in a suburb that was a 32 minute express train from midtown Manhattan.

I should hear whether I got the job by early next week, so I will follow up as necessary.

Thanks for all of the terrific feedback. I understand that Boston has a lot of great points, but commuting, schools, and housing prices are pretty much my only concerns (and maybe not in that order). Living around NYC and D.C., I learned that we are so occupied with school and extracurricular activities that we're not big "hey, let's pop into the city today" kind of people. I work in the city, but don't go there much otherwise. Life in my town/suburb will be far more important.

Oh, and the job is in the Back Bay financial area (I guess that's what people would say). On St. James, if that's of any help.

TheBOSman

Puts you close to Back Bay MBTA station (southwest and west commuter lines and Orange Line) and the Green Line at Arlington and/or Copley.

If you're going with Catholic school as indicated, there's no shortage of quality educational opportunities there. I'd say look at Natick/Framingham area for living so as to go a little lower on housing prices, single train ride to Back Bay and a short walk from there to St. James. Be careful, as many of the highest rated Catholic schools (St. Sebastien's, St. John's Prep, Malden Catholic, Academy of Notre Dame) are all male or all female, so you may have some trouble living close to both if you have son(s) and daughter(s).

Blumie

People would simply call that the Back Bay. The "Financial District" is a separate area, further downtown.

Because you'll be in the Back Bay, you'll want to focus on areas that have good public transportation access to the Back Bay commuter rail station, or to area Green Line and Orange Line subway stations (as noted, Copley, Arlington, Back Bay), since you'll be able to walk to work from there. Some town, especially those north and south of the city, have good commuter rail access to North Station or to South Station, which will require you to connect to the subway to get to work. Generally speaking the towns west of the city have better transportation options to the Back Bay (Brookline and Newton on the Green Line; and Newton, Needham, Natick, Framingham and other towns further west on the Commuter Rail), though there is a branch of the commuter rail from the south that goes to Back Bay from Canton, Stoughton and Sharon.

Blumie

Dupe.

Cloudship

That is actually a good spot. Several of the commuter lines stop at Back Bay station. The Orange line stops there, too, and the Green Line has a stop right near you too. Additionally you are near an exit from the Mass Pike, so driving is a possibility, albeit a rather expensive one when you consider parking.

Pending on how far out you are willing to live, I think Framingham would be a great balance.

Out of my Element

it's bad enough without exaggeration like this. They removed 4 B line stops over a decade ago. The closest two stations now are about 1/5 of a mile apart. Yes, still too close, but there are lots of elderly who take that T line.

There are folks who do regular runs vs. the T and beat it.

And it's 10 miles from Riverside to Fenway Park, not 5, for that 45 minute ride (which is closer to 35 minutes, actually).

The T sucks. There's no need to exaggerate how badly it sucks.

octr202

If you're planning to move to a commuter rail town, do pay close attention to the schedules on your prospective line. CR frequencies are often a lot (LOT) less than what you would expect comparing to Metro North, Long Island, NJ Transit or SEPTA, but also not all lines (or even all parts of a line) are created equal. Levels of service haven't changed substantially on most lines in a while, so if your prospective town only has 4-5 rush hour trains, sometimes 40-45 minutes apart, I'd bank on that continuing for a while.

For accessing Back Bay, points along the Needham Line and Framingham/Worcester, or Providence Lines might be your best bet, as all trains on those lines will serve Back Bay. Providence and Worcester have the best service on the entire CR system (from a scheduling standpoint), but also have the highest ridership, so delays/crowding can be a problem. The Worcester Line is seeing a massive rehab project right now, so overall the situation should be improving there. The Needham Line is a bit of an "overgrown streetcar" on it's short branch, so frequencies a not as great, but you'll probably find the trains less crowded and fewer issues once you're on the branch.

dchristiva

Which I do, so thanks. They are in a co-ed primary (K-8) school now.

dchristiva

All good to know. Thank you.

TWToKM

I would just echo what someone else said about really taking a look at the schedules. Not only may they be less frequent than you would hope during rush hour, they also get very sporadic on some lines later at night or in the middle of the day. In some instances, there may be two hour gaps between trains once rush hour is done. So if you anticipate that you may have some long nights at work, you may want to think about that since you would hate to just miss an 8 p.m. train for example and then have to wait until 10 p.m. for the next one. And the ones not on rush hour tend to stop at every stop making the trips extra long.

Good luck!

Cloudship

For what it is worth, we are really laying into the MBTA here making it sound like everything is a total disaster. The reality is that even with all its problems, public transportation around the Boston Metro area still is much better than many, many other US cities. Hundreds of thousands of people use it every day. Few cities in the country are as reliant on public transit as Boston is. So, don't let the criticism be a huge turn off, just know it is something you will have to deal with. There are plenty of other great things about living in New England you will enjoy.

dchristiva

I don't know. When that many people jump in and make the same comment, I have to believe there's truth to it. I am, at this moment, very concerned about the livability of the Boston area, at least relative to what I experienced in NYC. This is going to require a lot of consideration. But, let's see if I get an offer first.

I do appreciate everyone's input.

TheBOSman

Honestly, we are being harsh on the MBTA. 95% of the time, it works fine. It can be slow, and I would still avoid the Red Line until they replace much of their equipment, and the MBTA can be bad in snowstorms. But, honestly, it is still better than driving in every day, and it really isn't that much worse, if at all, than most other transit systems in the USA. We are mostly frustrated that it could be better, but the bloat of the organization works so much against it.

PVDtoDEL

+1

As much as I like to complain about the MBTA, I much preferred Boston's public transit options to Seattle, where I live now. And even Seattle has one of the more comprehensive systems in the country.

Using public transport in the snow requires contingency planning on the part of the rider, but I'm sure you'd be able to handle it just fine.

TheBOSman

To be fair, so would driving. I've taken over 2 hours to drive Cambridge to southern NH when the snow was falling heavily.