SALEM (Podcasts) The city of Salem held a press conference this morning at the Salem Police station to outline transportation updates for the city from Mayor Dominic Pangallo and Abedellah Chajai from Keolis regarding increased train service during the month of October. Also below is an update from Police Chief Lucas Miller on the department’s plans to deal with the many complexities that confront law enforcement in order to keep Salem safe with the large crowds. Below are three separate podcasts with concise information that will be useful to visitors and residents. Additional information is posted below, with links.
Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo
Abedellah Chajai – CEO and General Manager of Keolis Commuter Services / & Pangallo
Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller
Dominick Pangallo (Mayor) Abedellah Chajai (Keolis) Lucas Miller (Police Chief)
Commuter Rail Adding More October Service than Ever for Haunted Happenings
Weekend Service to and from Salem Doubles for month of October
The MBTA and Keolis Commuter Services (Keolis), the agency’s operating partner for Commuter Rail, today announced that train frequency will increase to two trains an hour to and from Salem during the month of October, which is the most weekend Commuter Rail service ever. This increase in service is to accommodate visitors to Salem during Haunted Happenings. The schedule is available online at MBTA.com/CR.
Last year during Haunted Happenings, weekend ridership on the Newburyport Rockport Line was the highest it has ever been, exceeding more than 400% of the pre-COVID ridership.
For Haunted Happenings, there will be 10 more inbound trains from Salem to North Station, with at least 10 trains after 6:00PM. There will also be 8 additional outbound trains from North Station to Salem, and 7 more outbound trains from Salem to Beverly.
In the temporary Haunted Happenings schedule, passengers will have more flexibility with trains arriving in Salem from North Station about every 40 minutes throughout the day.
This year, in addition to the existing all-day service, the 2023 Fall/Winter schedule also saw the return of late-night service. This has been by far the most requested change among riders on all Commuter Rail lines. Passengers looking to attend evening events in Salem can benefit from late weekday and weekend trains. In the Fall/Winter schedule, the last weekday outbound train to Salem departs North Station at 11:50PM – 50 minutes later than in the current Spring/Summer schedule.
The last weekend outbound train to Salem departs North Station at 11:50PM – 50 minutes later than in the current weekend schedule. The last weekend inbound train to North Station departs Salem at 12:35AM – nearly two hours later than in the current weekend schedule.
Passengers can utilize the $10 Weekend Commuter Rail Pass for their journey to and from Salem. For Indigenous People’s Day (Monday, October 9), we will operate regular Monday weekday service.
Passengers can stay connected with Commuter Rail by calling customer service at 617-222-3200, following @MBTA_CR on X (formerly known as Twitter) or signing up for T-Alerts at mbta.com/alerts.
Keolis Commuter Services operates and maintains the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s commuter rail system, the sixth largest commuter rail operation in North America. KCS is a subsidiary of Keolis North America (KNA), both headquartered in Boston, and employs approximately 2,500 people throughout the region. KCS and KNA are part of Keolis Group, an innovative global leader in transit services with more than a century of passenger transportation experience and operations in 13 countries.
