I'm aware of the historical precedence for a route in that location. What I'm getting at is the primary beneficiary of restoring that track to more frequent passenger rail is Boston. This is because CT in the past few years established commuter service that extends from Springfield down to the beginning of Metro-North (heading into NYC). So a byproduct is more frequent service to NYC, which given Amtrak ticket costs is going to be the primary use. The secondary beneficiary is any stop west of Springfield. They will now get more than one train each way daily, which up to now had been an early afternoon train from Boston and a late afternoon train back to Boston, and had made it useless for commuters who live in those places.

Worcester being on that route is an afterthought in terms of the decisions being made now. It will also likely result in more people going from Worcester to NYC than people stopping beyond a transfer or return trip in Worcester for any reason. Which in itself isn't a bad thing - more access to NYC is nice - but it's not at all how this is being advertised.

While we're talking about making use of historical rail, if you want something that will surely benefit Worcester substantially, why doesn't anyone in state government talk about running passengers on the rail between Providence and Worcester? The answer is that Boston already has extensive service direct to Providence through Amtrak. We did have a start-up planning a private commuter rail service for a while (it evaporated with the pandemic), but that's about it.

Ah, misread thinking it was a commuter rail extension. That doesn't change TOO much at the end of the day, except opening the possibility for insufficient frequency or tickets being priced out of usefulness.

Tired of seeing this marketed as primarily a boon to Worcester. It is another expansion of transit options accessible to Boston residents, like just about every transit expansion the state decides to embark on. We're just lucky we were in the way. It completes a route from Boston to NYC that is no longer dependent on Amtrak. The vast majority of passengers will ignore Worcester. The improvements to Union Station will have a bigger impact on us than this. It's fine they're doing it, I just wish the presentation were more honest.

When will we see north-south rail? I want to be able to catch a train conveniently from Worcester to Providence, Lowell, or Nashua.

Probably never, is when. Or at least, not until the state's approach to transit radically changes.

It would be hilarious if Bostonians annoyed that they can't take transit to/from their WooSox games were what finally got the WRTA sufficient state funding, when we've been screaming about it for years.

I thought that was mostly dedicated to a nearby apartment complex, but I'm not certain.

It's baffling that Doherty is getting a giant new building when those buildings exist as they are.

The two things I miss most about living in CT are that they know how to do garbage pick-up and they know how to drive.

Enforcement should really be a last resort. By the time you're relying on it, you're basically already conceding that your city's infrastructure is a failure.

Honestly, in a lot of places we could get by with narrower streets, which have an effect of reducing overall traffic speeds. Like, does Pleasant St need to be nearly wide enough for 4 lanes when it's got a 30mph speed limit at most? Does Mill St need to be the 4-lane-with-median monstrosity for most of its length? People driving faster is going to lead to more reckless behavior at intersections.

For particularly complicated intersections, we could see improvement with traffic circles. I'm thinking the Main/Major Taylor/Highland/Belmont/Grove mess (yes I know it used to be a traffic circle, maybe that wasn't wrong?), the Main/Mill/Webster intersection, or the weird triangle intersection with Lincoln and Burncoat would be helped by this.

Are they actually out of overpriced downtown apartment units? Because most of those seem like they'd be more appealing to that audience than this, if a closer town to Boston isn't available.

I hope there's enough parking for everyone in this one at least. It's stuck between the interstate and train tracks, so basically nothing is walkable except I guess the Market 32.

Outrageous pricing, for a miserable location. I'm glad I was able to get a house before the interest rates started getting out of hand.

They exist enough to justify all the new luxury housing going up downtown. Either that or the rental market is about to collapse.

I'm especially surprised by Wings Over changing their hours since they were mostly a takeout establishment to begin with. Do college students not stay up unreasonably late anymore? I'm sure that was the bulk of their late-night business. The one in Lowell is open until 12:30/1:00, and even the one in Springfield is open until at least midnight.

So weird. I'd expect many of them to just leave, but after a point why wouldn't some people stop to eat for an hour just to avoid the rush of traffic from people leaving? Are they getting cheaper food in the stadium?

Looks like they keep the kitchen open until 12:30 on Friday and Saturday, and you can stay until 1:30. That might be a recent change though.

Great Brook Valley isn't nearly as bad as it once was (say, in the 80's-90s or even early 00s). Though I wouldn't expect a rental to be available there anyway, so it's kind of moot.

Main South has seen some revitalization recently too, though I'd avoid Main St itself (not just south, all parts) in terms of living on it. Being able to walk to it is fine. I do agree there are better parts of Worcester on average, but I wouldn't rule out a Main South rental at a good price without seeing the area first.

I'd avoid Main Middle more than Main South these days. Not because I felt in danger so much as it just having a sad atmosphere. Passed through the area on foot a couple times, and it was all older 3-deckers with everyone shut inside despite the warm weather, the front porches, streets, and sidewalks pretty deserted.

Just to add more specificity to West Side, try to be in easy walking distance of the following:

1. Pleasant St

2. Chandler St

3. June St between Chandler St and Pleasant St

For the most part this is where the buses run, all of which should give you convenient access to your downtown job if you don't want to deal with parking (free parking is becoming less and less common). Getting to downtown is one of the few things that the bus system here is consistently decent with, at least on weekdays.

The Elm Park area is also on a couple bus routes and decent for outdoor dog walks, plus would put you closer to more interesting things to do.

Lived in Sturbridge for awhile years ago, and found myself going into Southbridge for most things. It's really not that bad from what I remember, though apparently there are now smells from a water treatment plant that weren't an issue when I was in the area though.

Personally if I were looking for a first house in towns surrounding Worcester, I'd try to hold out for a bargain in Oxford or Leicester. Or if you want a more city-type life without being in Worcester, Leominster. You can still find houses for less than $300k in those places. But no, Southbridge is not as miserable as people make it out to be.

My bin has basically always wound up upside down on the strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk (unless the wind carries it away), so this isn't a consistent thing across the whole city at least.

The problem really is that so few people work there to frequent these businesses. Multiple downtown malls and theaters have failed as a result. And honestly outdoor storefronts are more popular than malls these days, even in New England winter. So just constructing a new mall without considering other factors just seems set up for failure.

What downtown doesn't have in abundance are larger office buildings that would make it competitive with the business parks along 495. It would also help keep it competitive if there were a reduction of commercial taxes specifically in the downtown area.

"Normal" for me is an office job 30-60 minutes of driving away in some suburb, and aside from the most disruptive months of the pandemic I never really left it (occasional WFH but never full remote). If there were tech jobs downtown that suited me it would have a tremendous impact on my carbon footprint, but there aren't and never have been.

Heck, if my workplace office could be downtown I'd be commuting by bus daily and my car would sit unused 99% of days. Urban downtown offices aren't the enemy of environmentalism nearly as much as business parks in the middle of nowhere (just in spots along highways, etc) are.

I dunno, I'd think just as many people would be staying in Worcester during the day because of their telecommuting as there would be keeping out of Worcester because of it, if not more. Worcester isn't exactly geared toward office jobs (even downtown), and there are plenty of workplaces in a half-hour radius of Worcester that do lend themselves to telecommuting. Downtown in particular may be struggling for other reasons (being less accessible than more spread out businesses, etc) but Worcester businesses as a whole should be seeing a net neutral effect from telecommuting.

I mean, it's not located anywhere near any of the local diners. Its primary competition was Denny's. Compared to Denny's it was higher quality, but apparently not enough to justify higher prices.

And while local diners have superior food, sometimes people want that general category of food with groups larger than 4 people, and real diners aren't particularly suited to that.

Hah, maybe I just live a more sedentary life than you, then. That said, if that's a failure on Worcester's part it's also a failure shared by most American cities or towns. Higher end clothing stores than that tend to be limited to actual metropolitan areas and some wealthier suburbs.There are independent clothing shops in Worcester but they tend to cater to suits specifically.

I came back after a few years and I wish I just stayed. For one thing the house I got would have cost me 1/2 to 2/3 as much.

The restaurant and bar scene have improved significantly, as have the parks and downtown. The biggest things I miss are Higgins Armory, Showcase North, and Greendale Mall. The northern part of the city has gotten pretty sad.

Not really seeing the lack of clothing stores. There's a Marshalls, a Kohl's, a Burlington Coat Factory, a Gap Factory Store, and a T.J. Maxx, all in Worcester. All we're really missing is a J.C. Penney and a Macy's, and the latter mainly isn't here because there's one just up the road in Auburn.

Admittedly most of my kitchen stuff is from the Worcester Target and is cheap. HomeGoods might have some nicer things but it's hit or miss. For what it's worth since Sears died I haven't really known a brick and mortar store that was great at kitchen supplies anywhere.

And the Dick's Sporting Goods was basically the only place for camping stuff and that closed down, yeah.

To poke a hole in the "Worcester is not Boston" argument, note that Lowell also uses the wheeled bins and is a much more comparable city to Worcester in most regards. I never lived there personally, only had friends who did, so I don't know the details of their implementation. But they weren't constantly complaining about their garbage collection, and it's probably where we should look for an example rather than Boston.