The New Boston-Cape Cod Train Trip Will Take Just Over Two Hours

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the MBTA released more details on the revived Boston-to-Cape Cod weekend train service that will make its debut this Memorial Day weekend. What strikes us immediately is that the trip comes in at over two hours. That’s a bit longer than we expected when the service was first announced back in December and we closed our eyes and imagined ourselves making quick, whimsical jaunts to the beach by 5 p.m. on Friday. (Gotta get yourself through winter somehow…) But it’s still good news.

Service will begin Friday evening when a train leaves South Station at about 5:12 p.m. and arrives in Hyannis at 7:50 p.m. (after making stops in Middleborough and Buzzards Bay.) It wraps up Sunday evening when a 6:30 p.m. train leaves Hyannis and puts you back at South Station at 8:45 p.m. (You can see the full schedule on the Cape Flyer site.)

The trip is long but might still be better than driving over the congested canal bridges during peak hours, especially considering how much more pleasant it is to ride a train rather than drive a car in stop-and-go traffic. The train also offers Wi-Fi and concessions, which, presumably your car does not. At $35 a roundtrip, it’s probably not much worse than the gas you’d use sitting still a mile away from the Bourne Bridge. Yeah, you can continue to be excited about this thing.