On Friday night, as the CapeFlyer rumbled over the canal that separates Cape Cod from the rest of Massachusetts, some of the officials aboard were not regarding the scenic waters or the marvels of the silver lift bridge that carried the train. Their eyes were on smartphones and the Twitter posts that would tell them how much traffic was backed up on the two bridges that allow cars to cross the canal.
And they could not suppress their delight at the news: traffic was bumper to bumper for four miles at the Bourne Bridge and at a standstill for two miles at the Sagamore Bridge. And all the while, the CapeFlyer — on its inaugural run from Boston to Cape Cod — rolled on through the dusk, carrying relaxed and stress-free passengers.
That, in a nutshell, is the best advertisement for the new train. The ritual of going to the cape in recent decades has become synonymous with jammed traffic and snarly drivers, with cranky children and wilted perishables, all basking in the exhaust of the 130,000 cars that cross the two bridges on any given summer day as the cape’s winter population almost triples.
So terrible are the traffic backups that Jody Ray, deputy rail administrator for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, is fantasizing about putting a real-time visual monitor of road traffic on the train so that rail passengers can better appreciate their decision to choose the rails over the roads.
At certain times of day — say, 3 a.m. — driving can be faster. With no traffic, the 80-mile trip from Boston to Hyannis can take about 90 minutes. On Friday night, the CapeFlyer, which is still working out the kinks, took about 2 hours and 48 minutes from Boston’s South Station, 10 minutes longer than its scheduled time. That was partly because the train is the extension of a commuter line, and it had to make its regular stops for the first part of the trip.
But as more signal work is completed, the train is expected to shave more time off the route.
“By the height of the summer, we will be more than ready,” said Rob DiAdamo, a principal at TPRG, a transportation consulting group working with the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, which operates the Flyer.
Trains had been coming to Hyannis since the 1850s, but the rise of the automobile — and the financial woes of various railroads — undermined them. The last direct train from Boston to Hyannis stopped a half-century ago; the last train that came indirectly stopped in 1995.
For now, the Flyer will run only on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day, when road traffic is heaviest. But transportation officials are talking about extending the train through Columbus Day and by next year improving the performance time to two hours.
Thomas S. Cahir, the administrator of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, said the train needed only 315 passengers per weekend — about 50 on each of its six runs — to break even. On Friday night, there were about 200 passengers. The cold, rainy weather probably discouraged more from traveling, but about 100 people took the train on Saturday and another 100 on Sunday.
“We’re pretty confident we’ll make it,” Mr. Cahir said.
The revenue comes from the fares of $35 round trip from Boston to Hyannis and from advertising on the train cars, which also offer free Wi-Fi and transport for bicycles.
Many passengers on the inaugural run were young professionals. Johanna Silverio, 26, an asset management analyst; Chris Nunnally, 26, a wholesaler; and Cambridge Lestienne, 23, who works in investment management, had each planned to read or sleep or catch up on e-mail but wound up chatting. Outside they saw red-tinged cranberry bogs, the Great Salt Marsh and clusters of people who waved as the train passed.
“If I weren’t here I’d be having road rage,” Ms. Lestienne said.
The inaugural run also included rail buffs who kept close watch on the signals, tracks and passing stations. Their only complaint was that the concession car did not sell hot food, and they urged train officials to offer New England clam chowder.
Mr. Cahir said he would try to get chowder on the menu. But he said success would more likely hinge on the Flyer coordinating schedules with the bus lines that serve all 15 towns on the cape and the ferries to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. There are also rental cars and taxis on hand. Previous trains had left passengers in the lurch in Hyannis.
Mr. Cahir said there were even more reasons now for people to take the train to the cape: the tracks are better, gas prices are higher and car traffic is more congested. And he was heartened by comments on social media that essentially said, “We don’t care if we’re late — it’s better than sitting in traffic on the bridge
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