Commuter Rail users demanding more service

Commuters at busy Southborough Station
(Globe staff photo by Dominic Chavez)

SOUTHBOROUGH/REGION

It's a beautiful sound for morning commuters in Southborough, one that comes around not nearly often enough: Clank-i-ty, clank-i-ty, clank-i-ty, clank!

When those bells toll in the commuter rail parking lot, it means the next sound will be the roar of a purple-trimmed MBTA train, set to cart workers off to Boston for jobs in the Financial District, on Beacon Hill, in the Longwood Medical Area, or at any number of other centers made accessible to residents in suburbs west of Boston by public transportation.

There's another sound to which commuters here have become accustomed: Promises from politicians for more trains, to relieve the overcrowding and inconvenient scheduling that have curtailed the convenience of commuter rail,staff writer John Drake reports.

But despite hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on studies and numerous commitments from Beacon Hill, not one new train has been added between Framingham and Worcester in the last six years.

Read more about the growing demand for Commuter Rail Service in the online edition of today's Globe West.