General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[ant8904]

This is mainly a dispatcher thing, right?

I read a lot of speculation and media reports. For example, back in February WFXT reported they don't have enough drivers while they approach having enough dispatchers. But that's February.

I also read stuff like the sheer amount of slow zones itself means it affecting the number of trains that can fit into the system. I also read that summer is lower usage so they historically adjusted down frequency but with headways already so infrequent that I don't know if that's even a factor (I did read the summer adjustments actually just adjusted to show the true frequency).

So right now it seems to be multiple issues all compounding and happening all at once. It's possible most-or-event-all have to be addressed before see any real progress.

 

[Highwayguy]

Surprise - no one is parking and riding... "Collectively, these North Shore lots and garages in the MBTA's daily reports have had about 2,000 vacant parking spaces available by the end of the morning rush hour, with a total utilization rate that's consistently less than 50 percent."

View attachment 41242https://mass.streetsblog.org/2023/0...-parking-garages-are-mostly-empty-this-summer

1. This proves we should not reserve real estate for parking where housing desperately needed.
2. Is anyone surprised that after brutal delays, unpredictability, and neverending doom&gloom media coverage that people think bumper to bumper driving is less risky than the T? We need both a performance and public image rehab.

While l agree massive parking facilities next to transit isn't the greatest land use, l think the occupancy rates dont prove that point. Lower overall ridership (esp off peak) is the tradeoff when parking rather than dense land use is placed next to transit. If the service is better than the alternative and the demand is there, the parking will be utilized (particularly if parking is essentially free like it is now).

The more damming takeaway is that even with the tunnel closed, people voted with their modeshare and the quickest/ easiest/ most convenient way to get downtown for the majority of the the 1A corridor catchment is to drive rather than taking rapid transit. The demand is there; if the Blue line had sub 5 min headways and ran track speed, those lots would be full.

 

[JeffDowntown]

While l agree massive parking facilities next to transit isn't the greatest land use, l think the occupancy rates dont prove that point. Lower overall ridership (esp off peak) is the tradeoff when parking rather than dense land use is placed next to transit. If the service is better than the alternative and the demand is there, the parking will be utilized (particularly if parking is essentially free like it is now).

The more damming takeaway is that even with the tunnel closed, people voted with their modeshare and the quickest/ easiest/ most convenient way to get downtown for the majority of the the 1A corridor catchment is to drive rather than taking rapid transit. The demand is there; if the Blue line had sub 5 min headways and ran track speed, those lots would be full.

As part of that 1A catchment, I can attest to voting with my modeshare, and becoming part of the traffic.

The problem isn't just the Blue Line, it is also the abysmal state of the connecting service downtown. The Blue Line doesn't go where most of us ultimately need to go, we have to use the horrid Red and Orange Lines as well. Even with ugly traffic last evening on the Tobin, my drive to Back Bay was still 30 minutes faster than the projected T ride. And I got evening street parking, so the parking cost was a wash.

 

[Teban54]

This is mainly a dispatcher thing, right?

They were able to add more trains on the Orange and Blue lines, so I'm inclined to think a lot of the dispatcher issues are being resolved.

The current problems for the Red Line seem to be:

• Slow zones that increase total trip time significantly, thus lengthening headways if the same number of trains are running
• Slow zone specifically near Alewife that hurts its ability to turn around trains even more
• Lack of trains to be added, with the old trains having problems and the CRRC delivery being non-existent

 

[nbcoram]

They were able to add more trains on the Orange and Blue lines, so I'm inclined to think a lot of the dispatcher issues are being resolved.

The current problems for the Red Line seem to be:

• Slow zones that increase total trip time significantly, thus lengthening headways if the same number of trains are running
• Slow zone specifically near Alewife that hurts its ability to turn around trains even more
• Lack of trains to be added, with the old trains having problems and the CRRC delivery being non-existent

All these are absolutely factors for the current mess on the Red Line. It will likely be several more years before the order is complete -- at the rate they're going (4 cars/month on the Orange Line with months being missed here and there), if there are no new deliveries on the Red Line till the Orange Line order is complete, that basically takes you to the end of the decade. In the interim, older cars will continue to develop more problems. And Red's slow zones are so bad that the headways are worse than they were a year ago, even though last December there was an increase from 15-16 sets at peak to 18-20 sets at peak on the Red Line.

The Orange Line is still being affected by fleet issues, too (not enough new trains delivered to run full service; when the December service bump happened, Orange was meant to go to 13 trains from 10 at peak with old trains slated to re-enter service, but the FTA revoked clearance to use the Hawkers after an incident nine days prior that ended up being caused by a mismounted third rail. Combined with issues that developed with the CRRC fleet around this time, there were many times around the holidays where only 6-7 sets ran on the Orange Line even at peak.)

Only Blue is running "normal" peak service (11-12 sets at peak). With more new cars having entered service in recent months it's likely the Orange may see another peak frequency increase for the fall rating, especially as the Orange's worst slow zones are concentrated on the northern part of the line, compared to being all over the place on the Red.

Finally, I think there are still some issues with operator retention but I'm not 100% sure on this.

 

[Stlin]

• Slow zone specifically near Alewife that hurts its ability to turn around trains even more

I know at least a couple of years ago there was a project designed to rebuild that crossover - part of the entire "build the T out of its maintenance hole" thing - it was supposed to be finished in fall 2022, but I don't think that project status has been updated since like 2019, 2020. Does anyone know if it, you know, actually got built?

Red Line Program | Projects | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.

www.mbta.com

(Someone on the Web team should go through their project list at this point and remove the completed stuff / update everything else)

 

[devnull]

Globe article about the T's continued dispatcher shortage, one year in.

... But after 14 months and a reduction in the job qualification requirements, the agency remains short of its hiring goals for the control center. The T has 25 dispatchers, one more than the “minimum target” to cover current operations, but two are retirees and five dispatchers have found new jobs within the T, but haven’t been permitted to move into their new roles. Six workers are training and one will soon start, and if all are successful, the T said it will need two more full-time dispatchers and five backups to reach its “best in class target” of 32 dispatchers.

For riders, the staffing shortage marked the beginning of service reductions on the Red, Orange, and Blue lines that have continued for much of the last 14 months. While the T said it boosted service on those lines earlier this year, the expansion of speed restrictions in March erased the gains. The T added Blue Line service this summer during the Sumner Tunnel closure and more Orange Line service is planned for the fall, the agency said.

It also includes some detail about a couple April safety incidents related to dispatching

 

[ant8904]

Breaking A Campaign Promise, Healey Admin. Denies Public Records Request for MBTA's Repair Needs - Streetsblog Massachusetts

Gov. Healey's efforts to hide the MBTA's repair needs are by no means the first time her administration has leveraged the weaknesses of the state's public records laws.

mass.streetsblog.org

Well that is depressing. Especially when you combing it with the other streetsblog report that the next capital budget won't keep up with inflation, the simplest yet cynical conclusion is they are goin to continue to underfund while also hiding how much they are underfunding.

The least cynical is one does not necessarily need to be transparent to perform the work - just grind through the repair backlog.

But right now, given the state of the T and how the past years on this went, I fear these are sign things are only going to get worse.

 

[W-4]

Why would you compare government transportation spending against consumer goods pricing? It's like comparing banana yields to two point conversion successes.

 

[Riverside]

Globe article about the T's continued dispatcher shortage, one year in.

The T’s quest to find heavy rail dispatchers has been a standing issue at monthly Board of Directors workforce subcommittee meetings.

Only current T employees are eligible to apply, and selected candidates get a $10,000 signing bonus and at least 10 weeks of training.

In early April, the T sought to increase the candidate pool by lowering the minimum eligibility requirements. Instead of requiring at least four years of T experience and at least two years working on heavy rail lines, employees with three years at the T and one year on heavy rail are now eligible, according to a T presentation from last month.

Ninety-nine workers applied under the new standards, but 86 percent didn’t have the necessary experience, the MBTA said.

I feel like this needs more explanation. If the only qualified applicants are current T employees, then the T should already know how many are potentially qualified based on years of experience, etc. It should be pretty transparent whether there are enough potential internal applicants to fill the needed seats. (I am guessing that there are not, though I have nothing solid to base that on.)

The requirement that all applicants be current T employees seems like something that needs to be justified (and should, for example, be a topic of questioning by Globe journalists). Maybe there are indeed good reasons for this requirement, but at this point the T has lost the credibility to make that assertion without explanation.

 

[ant8904]

Why would you compare government transportation spending against consumer goods pricing? It's like comparing banana yields to two point conversion successes.

The main reason is because Streetblog uses that as part of their reporting. You do have a point that CPI does not reflect constructions costs, but even if we take a skeptical stance in media (and media more specialize in transit), then it is still concerning we don't really see a change in the capital budget when it sounds like projects should be ramping up given the number of issues to address. As enthusiast (with possibly some quietly actually in the field) laymen, it sounds like a bad sign.

 

[devnull]

Ron Ester, Chief Safety Officer at the T, is resigning at the end of the month: https://www.boston.com/news/local-n...icer-resign-ron-ester-phillip-eng-rod-brooks/

 

[393b40]

All these are absolutely factors for the current mess on the Red Line. It will likely be several more years before the order is complete -- at the rate they're going (4 cars/month on the Orange Line with months being missed here and there), if there are no new deliveries on the Red Line till the Orange Line order is complete, that basically takes you to the end of the decade. In the interim, older cars will continue to develop more problems. And Red's slow zones are so bad that the headways are worse than they were a year ago, even though last December there was an increase from 15-16 sets at peak to 18-20 sets at peak on the Red Line.

View attachment 41582

The Orange Line is still being affected by fleet issues, too (not enough new trains delivered to run full service; when the December service bump happened, Orange was meant to go to 13 trains from 10 at peak with old trains slated to re-enter service, but the FTA revoked clearance to use the Hawkers after an incident nine days prior that ended up being caused by a mismounted third rail. Combined with issues that developed with the CRRC fleet around this time, there were many times around the holidays where only 6-7 sets ran on the Orange Line even at peak.)

Only Blue is running "normal" peak service (11-12 sets at peak). With more new cars having entered service in recent months it's likely the Orange may see another peak frequency increase for the fall rating, especially as the Orange's worst slow zones are concentrated on the northern part of the line, compared to being all over the place on the Red.

Finally, I think there are still some issues with operator retention but I'm not 100% sure on this.

I've basically given up on going into Boston from Porter on the Red Line. It's just so damn slow. Easier and more convenient to Uber or drive in.

It is not clear to me the T has a future other than basically being the transportation option of last resort going forward.

 

[Delvin4519]

I've basically given up on going into Boston from Porter on the Red Line. It's just so damn slow. Easier and more convenient to Uber or drive in.

It is not clear to me the T has a future other than basically being the transportation option of last resort going forward.

Red Line and Orange Line are both getting much much more slower and slowing down to a crawl, much faster and more rapidly, than they sped up.

 

[bigeman312]

View attachment 41801

Red Line and Orange Line are both getting much much more slower and slowing down to a crawl, much faster and more rapidly, than they sped up.

JFK -> North Quincy is the worst segment in the system, with an additional 6:09 per trip. I know they are shuttling nights and weekends for the next few weeks, but does anyone here have any more specificity on the work needed and being done?

 

[sneijder]

View attachment 41801

Red Line and Orange Line are both getting much much more slower and slowing down to a crawl, much faster and more rapidly, than they sped up.

We're quickly approaching the point of where it would be better to run no service, have shuttle buses on the entire line in bus lanes, so they can get 24/7 access to repairing tracks. They could do the entire southside for a month and then the entire north side for a month. Especially with just running a few extra trains on the CR braintree branch, I have no idea why they even bother running southside service right now if the entire line is 10mph.

 

[Justbuildit]

View attachment 41801

Red Line and Orange Line are both getting much much more slower and slowing down to a crawl, much faster and more rapidly, than they sped up.

It's not in my head, that reverse inflection of the red line earlier this summer is soul-crushing. It really did seem to be getting better through the downtown tunnels but it is noticeably worse again...what an absolutely miserable turn of events just as students are coming back into town.

 

[Teban54]

Fall service changes begin on August 27.

All 3 heavy rail lines see improved weekday frequencies during at least some periods of the day, Red and Blue lines due to slow zone removals, and Orange Line due to new trains being added. OL Sunday frequency is reduced.

For the first time in a while, there are more bus routes with improved frequencies than with reduced frequencies, likely due to an increase in bus operators. The reductions are mostly school trips with low ridership.

Minor bus routing changes:

• 450: Service resumes to Haymarket following the end of Sumner Tunnel closure
• 455: Current weekday all-day services to Congress St and Leavitt St (Shetland Office Park) in Salem will be eliminated, due to difficulties traveling on Leavitt St. All services are amended to Lafayette St.
  • Currently, only outbound buses use Leavitt St, and inbound buses use Ward St. It's unclear whether this change affects both directions or only outbound.
• 714: The two route variants via Hull Medical Center and via Washington Blvd will be eliminated. All services use the primary service pattern via Rockland St and Nantasket Ave.
  • Currently, on weekdays, the first AM inbound trip, 3 early AM outbound trips, 1 midday outbound trip and 2 PM inbound trips operate via Washington Blvd. 5 midday inbound trips and 3 midday outbound trips operate via Hull Medical Center.

Also, the bus routes serving the Salem St corridor in Malden (106, 108, 411, 430) finally have their schedules coordinated.

 

[WestMedford]

Also, the bus routes serving the Salem St corridor in Malden (106, 108, 411, 430) finally have their schedules coordinated.

Genuine questions: what does “have their schedules coordinated” mean in the context of bus scheduling / operations? What was the prior condition and what is an example under the new fall schedules that improves the prior condition?

 

[Delvin4519]

GTFS schedules for Fall 2023 have now had their initial release.

The MBTA frequency map has an update to it.

Weekday changes aren't shown on this map as weekday service is higher than Sunday service, and plotting rush hour routes gets complicated due to school trips and school vacation weeks, and the midday gap in commuter routes.

Frequency increase (on the map):
* none

Frequency decrease (on the map):
* Orange Line down from 106 to 86 Sunday trips (Every 10 - 12 minutes -> Every 12 - 15 minutes) (< 101 trips) (Weekday service up from 116 to 125 trips), 23.2% service cut
* Green Line D down from 105 to 100 Sunday trips (Every 10 - 12 minutes -> Every 12 - 15 minutes) (< 101 trips), 5% service cut

Routing change (on the map):
* Route 238 eliminates the variant service and will instead follow regular routing.

Comparison with Amsterdam (again):

https://imgur.com/a/Fdvm9rJ

https://imgur.com/a/d6TERUJ

Old maps: Summer 2023 (2023 Q3), Spring 2023 (2023 Q2v2), Pre-slow zone map (2023 Q2), Original map (2023 Q1) (Oldest map available)

Other Fall 2023 Q4 changes that do not appear on the map:
* Green Line E down from 118 to 117 Sunday trips (Weekday and Saturday service change from 144 and 121 trips to 148 and 120 trips, respectively), 0.8% service cut
* Green Line B down from 116 to 114 Sunday trips, 1.7% service cut
* Blue Line up from 102 to 108 Sunday trips (Weekday and Saturday increase from 162 and 106 trips to 169 and 112 trips, respectively)
* Mattapan Line up from 92 to 93 Sunday trips (Weekday and Saturday increase from 146 and 96 trips to 147 and 97 trips, respectively)
* Red Line up from 103 to 117 Sunday trips (51/52 to 58/59 trips branches), (Weekday and Saturday service increase from 63/64/127 and 53/54/107 to 70/71/142 and 60/61/122 trips respectively)
* SL3 down from 88 to 85 Sunday trips , 3.5% service cut
* 69 down from 28 to 26 Sunday trips, 7.7% service cut
* 86 down from 26 to 24 Sunday trips (Saturday 38 to 36), 8.3% service cut
* 83 down from 20 to 19 Sunday trips (Saturday 33 to 31), 6.4% service cut
* 137 down from 18 to 17 Saturday trips, 5.8% service cut
* 77 down from 77 to 72 Saturday trips, 6.9% service cut
* 111 down from 205 to 204 Weekday trips, 0.5% service cut
* 57 down from 110 to 107 Weekday trips, 2.8% service cut
* 504 down from 39 to 35 Weekday trips, 11.4% service cut
* Various bus routes have school trips once again, I cannot filter them out easily from those with service increases. The claim from the MBTA for service increases on the 7, 9, 11, 31, 70, 86, 116, 117, 216, 220, 222, 225, and 230, seem to be correct.

EDIT: Wed. Aug. 23, 2023 6:14 p.m.: MBTA PDF schedules for Fall 2023 just dropped!