i wear a basic wool coat from a thrift store... i dont find that it gets cold enough here for any of those super warm super expensive coats. also has the added benefit of being able to wear the same coat from september through to april.

itd be different if you have to spend an extensive amount of time outside though, i spend my winters mostly indoors.

"all zone 1a to zone 1 have cheaper options" which in many cases are also waaaayyyy slower and less reliable. from my experience T buses get delayed much more often and by much longer than the commuter rail. some examples:

newtonville to boston landing: 6 minutes vs 50-60 minutes with a transfer

belmont to porter: 6 minutes vs ~30 minutes with a transfer

waverley to north station: 23 minutes vs 1 hour with two transfers

wedgmere to west medford: 3 minutes vs 40 minutes including a transfer and a half mile walk

unless your zone 1 stop is on a frequent bus route or a "rapid" transit route, looking at current estimates it is anywhere from ~3 to ~15 times slower to get from zone 1 to 1A without using the commuter rail. not to mention transfers (likely outdoors and standing) and needing to walk.

youre comparing zone 1 and zone 8 whereas im comparing zone 1 and interzone 8

i take the commuter rail because i have to but commuting from zone 1 and commuting to zone 1A is needlessly expensive. Scaling the zone 1 fare down to, say, $4.25 to mimic express buses would save a zone 1 commuter without a monthly pass about $100 a month (or probably about $50 if they scaled the pass down the same way). For a lot of T users $600-1200 a year in savings is substantial, not to mention if they also scaled down the rest of the zone fares. That would also make the commuter rail a much more attractive option compared to driving, particularly if you take the mass pike which has tolls.

not right now because the only direct trains from hyde park to providence run at 9.40am and 11.15pm

but when those run the fare is $6.25

the fare calculator will tell you the same

i think we need to ask why the commuter rail fares are so poorly scaled to begin with

why tf is the fare to get from Zone 1A to Zone 1 $6.50 and the fare to get from zone 1 to zone 8 $6.25

its cheaper from someone in hyde park to get to providence than forest hills. make it make sense.

uhh what kind of things do you nornally like to do? i would skip mikes pastry its kinda meh. also thats a lot of places to visit in 2 days, I know I could easily waste an entire day at the aquarium.

reddit app glitched and sent my reply to the wrong place, sorry