General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

You know... it's kind of hard to drive a car in Boston, let alone a bus. I wonder if they are taking difficulty driving the route into consideration as to where they staff the new drivers.
 
Delvin4519 said:
So much of the wins and attention are focused on fixing the dire situation with subway service. The buses on the other hand have yet to begin recovering from rock bottom, and it doesn't get as much attention, even though the frequencies are lesser and so service cuts hit harder.


The vacancy count has decreased a bit since last August, 8 months ago. Even with a lag time of 6 months, it'd be reasonable to expect the first round of bus service restoration with this schedule change. The spring schedule started so late (early April) instead of mid-March. I thought the spring schedule was delayed 3 weeks such that it would occur after the first round of new bus operators joined the ranks.
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They might be also looking at this in terms of ridership. The Red Line carries almost as many passengers as the entire bus system, so every minute saved there is many times more valuable in total commuter hours saved than a single bus line. Of course there are some socioeconomic equity concerns there, but since many (but not all) bus routes feed into the heavy rail system anyway, hopefully getting red/orange/blue working again will have the most benefit.
 
sneijder said:
They might be also looking at this in terms of ridership. The Red Line carries almost as many passengers as the entire bus system, so every minute saved there is many times more valuable in total commuter hours saved than a single bus line. Of course there are some socioeconomic equity concerns there, but since many (but not all) bus routes feed into the heavy rail system anyway, hopefully getting red/orange/blue working again will have the most benefit.
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Right. Passengers, human-hours, capacity, etc.

A loss of six bus trips and a gain of six train trips is a net increase for transit ridership capacity. A loss of six bus trips and a gain of 382 train trips is an astronomical victory in terms of transit ridership capacity.

In a perfect world there would be no loss in bus service, but unless you are trying to be a Debbie Downer, it’s hard to deny that the spring schedules are a net win.
 
Delvin4519 said:
My updated MBTA minimum frequency map is now updated to reflect Spring 2024 schedules.

Here are the following changes to the MBTA frequency map. Additional details can be found below the map. At this time, I am not updating the comparison to Amsterdam maps (just yet).

Routes moved to lower frequency ranges:
Route 112 moved to "Every 2 hours or less" from "Every 1 - 2 hours" - updated Sunday schedule now below 11 trips (11 -> 10).
Route 134 moved to "Every 1 - 2 hours" from "Every 30 - 60 minutes" - updated Sunday schedule now below 21 trips (21 -> 18).
Routes moved to higher frequency ranges:
Route 714 moved to "Every 1 - 2 hours" from "Every 2 hours or less" - updated Sunday schedule exceeds 11 trips (9 -> 13).
Route 71 east of Waltham Square moved to "Every 20 - 30 minutes" from "Every 30 - 60 minutes"- updated Sunday schedule exceeds 41 trips (40 -> 42).
Green Line D moved to "Every 10 - 12 minutes" from "Every 12 - 15 minutes"- updated Sunday schedule exceeds 101 trips (100 -> 107).

Note: While Ashmont Branch meets the 61 Sunday trips threshold required to be displayed as "Every 15 - 20 minutes" on this map, the Braintree Branch doesn't yet meet this threshold (60 is below 61). As such, I will not update any portion of the Red Line on this map, until the next schedule change (2024 June 16th) to updated frequency threshold ranges.

Old maps: Winter 2024 (2024Q1) Fall 2023 (2023 Q4) Summer 2023 (2023 Q3), Spring 2023 (2023 Q2v2), Pre-slow zone map (2023 Q2), Original map (2023 Q1) (Oldest map available)
View attachment 48977

Detailed changes:
42 routes have service increases or decreases. An additional 77 weekday trips, 10 Saturday trips, and 10 Sunday trips have all been added to the systemwide schedule. Excluding rapid transit and Silver Line routes, 23 weekday bus trips and 4 Sunday bus trips were removed from the systemwide bus schedule, and 4 Saturday bus trips were added systemwide.

Service cuts and frequency reductions:
2 subway routes and 16 bus routes will see reduced service this Spring.

Subway frequency reductions:
  • GL B weekend frequency decreases by 12 Saturday roundtrips and 2 Sunday roundtrips (132 -> 120, 114 -> 112)
  • GL E Sunday frequency decreases by 5 roundtrips (117 -> 112)
Bus service cuts and frequency reductions:
  • 34 - 8 fewer weekday trips (51 -> 43)
  • 34E - 7 fewer weekday trips (43 -> 36)
  • 66 - 5 fewer weekday trips (106 -> 101)
  • 120 - 3 fewer weekday trips (35 -> 32)
  • 121 - 3 fewer weekday trips (14 -> 11)
  • 96 - 3 fewer weekday trips (30 -> 27)
  • 134 - 2 fewer weekday trips and 3 fewer Sunday trips (23 -> 21, 21 -> 18)
  • 8 - 2 fewer weekday trips (39 -> 37)
  • 41 - 2 fewer weekday trips (26 -> 24)
  • 52 - 2 fewer weekday trips (15 -> 13)
  • 18 - 1 fewer weekday trip and 2 fewer Saturday trips (10 -> 9, 10 -> 8)
  • 94 - 1 fewer weekday trip (30 -> 29)
  • 19 - 1 fewer weekday trip (27 -> 26)
  • 109 - 4 fewer Sunday trips (36 -> 32)
  • 104 - 4 fewer Sunday trips (35 -> 31)
  • 112 - 1 fewer Sunday trip (11 -> 10)
Service increases:
8 subway routes and 17 bus routes will see increased service this spring.

Subway:
  • GL D - 2 more weekday trips, 5 more Saturday trips, and 7 more Sunday trips (128 -> 130, 114 -> 119, 100 -> 107)
  • RL - 6 more weekday trips, 4 more Saturday trips, and 4 more Sunday trips per branch (x2 north of JFK-UMass) (133 -> 145, 117 -> 125, 113 -> 121 north of JFK-UMass)
  • OL - 9 more weekday trips (132 -> 141)
  • GL E - 10 more weekday trips and 3 more Saturday trips (147 -> 157, 120 -> 123)
  • BL - 11 more weekday trips (169 -> 180)
  • GL B - 13 more weekday trips (132 -> 145)
  • GL C - 23 more weekday trips, 6 more Saturday trips, and 2 more Sunday trips (119 -> 142, 116 -> 122, 109 -> 111)
Bus:
  • 1 - 1 more Sunday trip (81 -> 82)
  • 70 - 2 more Sunday trips (40 -> 42)
  • 716 - 1 more weekday trip and 1 more Saturday trip (8 -> 9, 9 -> 10)
  • SL3, 9, 47, 21, 435, 7, and 65 each see 1 more weekday trip each. (weekday trips#: 96, 88, 55, 67, 18, 63, 37 -> 97, 89, 56, 68, 19, 64, 38)
  • 111, 32, and 501 each see 2 more weekday trips (weekday trips#: 204, 139, 22 -> 206, 141, 24)
  • SLW - 2 more weekday trips and 1 more Sunday trip (47 -> 49, 52 -> 53)
  • 117 - 2 more weekday trips and 1 more Saturday trip (61 -> 63, 48 -> 49)
  • 714 - 3 more weekday trips, 4 more Saturday trips, and 5 more Sunday trips (14 -> 17, 9 -> 13, 9 -> 13)
  • SL1 - 17 more weekday trips and 3 more Sunday trips (99 -> 116, 107 -> 110)
Some routes have departure time changes or routing changes, however, none of them impact this analysis or the map above, as such they aren't listed here.
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Apologies for the double post.

I was researching these numbers and found some things that I think are quite notable:

If the Red Line adheres to this schedule, it will be more frequent (more round trips) on weekdays than any day since March 8, 2023, the day before the Great Slow Zone Reckoning.

If the Blue Line adheres to this schedule, it will be more frequent (more round trips) on weekdays than any day since July 4, 2022. It will be more frequent on weekdays than any MBTA heavy rail line on any day since July 4, 2022!

This schedule represents a significant milestone in recovering from these slow zones. The Red Line will be the only of the three heavy rail line still below its winter 2023 frequencies.
 
The MBTA failed to get through all agenda items in the board meeting today.

As such, we don't know where BNRD stands (are they going to postpone phase 1?), or Track Improvement Program progress (when will the Green Line Haymarket slow zones get fixed - they don't have a diversion for that.).

Released slidedecks from the T do not include the missed items (#13 and #14, BNRD and Track Improvement)

1711656590974.png

Agenda items:
1711656609091.png
 
Longfellow said:
View attachment 49161
These headways are just a dream! Thank you MBTA! 😉
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Related to the Union Square branch, they have been having a hell of a time with signal problems there the past few weeks. There have been a good number of extended service delays, and they suspended service today with no shuttle service apart from the 87, and suspended service and shuttled riders on the 29th.
 
Delvin4519 said:
The MBTA failed to get through all agenda items in the board meeting today.

As such, we don't know where BNRD stands (are they going to postpone phase 1?), or Track Improvement Program progress (when will the Green Line Haymarket slow zones get fixed - they don't have a diversion for that.).

Released slidedecks from the T do not include the missed items (#13 and #14, BNRD and Track Improvement)

View attachment 49082
Agenda items:
View attachment 49083
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Stealing this from reddit (Can we stop posting to reddit?). Interesting rumor that BNRD will be focused on the northeast quadrant between the Orange Line and Blue Line.

This comment was posted in the thread questioning the 77 and 96, no reddit links, since we shouldn't provide any traffic to reddit.

As mentioned in the reply above, it's a shame that the MBTA board meeting went into overtime, so we're in the deep dark deep down for track improvement and BNRD updates.

If Revere is in round one, I would hope the 450 gets the permanent Wonderland routing slated in the BNRD, instead of doing its duplicative run that should have been cut back to Wonderland ages ago, to boost frequencies with a shorter route.

1712020793308.png
 
Delvin4519 said:
If Revere is in round one, I would hope the 450 gets the permanent Wonderland routing slated in the BNRD, instead of doing its duplicative run that should have been cut back to Wonderland ages ago, to boost frequencies with a shorter route.
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Taking an express bus along the 450 route is actually faster than transferring to the Blue Line at Wonderland, though. Likewise, in various other cities where agencies are cutting express buses, they are often met with complaints from riders, and for good reason.
I used trips from the Market Sq rotary (where the 450 and 455 meet) to State station. Departure time is set as 8am on Tuesday 4/2/2024, with rush hour traffic.

A direct trip on the 450 to Haymarket, followed by a 5-min walk to State, takes 38 minutes. If my destination was Haymarket, it would have only taken 33 minutes.
1712021816119.png


On the other hand, transferring from the 455 to the Blue Line takes 48 minutes, a whole 10 minutes longer, despite saving a 5-min walk.
1712021901102.png
The only way for truncation of the 450 to be justified is with a corresponding increase in frequency. Thankfully, this can be done using the existing fleet, and is indeed planned in the BNRD: the revised 450 should have 30-min frequencies all day, whereas today's 450 only does so during rush hours in the peak direction. Nevertheless, it's still likely to meet complaints from rush-hour riders.

While I ultimately think there are good reasons for the truncation, I highly doubt that such controversial changes will be implemented in the very first phase. This phase is critical in setting a good example for the rest of Greater Boston and all other bus riders, and any negativity (which the BNRD already faced plenty of during its design phase, justified or not) will have outsized effects. Plus, the 450 is primarily a Lynn and Salem route, with minimal stops in Revere. It makes way more sense for it to be implemented together with other Lynn routes, especially when doing so can demonstrate to Lynn that their bus service will actually be improved, with a Frequent Bus Route-level corridor between Wonderland and Lynn Central Square, rather than implementing the 450 alone as a neutral change at best and negative change at worst. (Even then, I'm sure the loss of 441 still hurts.)

Plans in Chelsea, Everett and Revere, on the other hand, are mostly positive. The most significant loss is the 117, but even that's compensated with improved frequencies on the 116 and vastly improved crosstown 110 to cover 117's Beach St.
 
Teban54 said:
Taking an express bus along the 450 route is actually faster than transferring to the Blue Line at Wonderland, though. Likewise, in various other cities where agencies are cutting express buses, they are often met with complaints from riders, and for good reason.
I used trips from the Market Sq rotary (where the 450 and 455 meet) to State station. Departure time is set as 8am on Tuesday 4/2/2024, with rush hour traffic.

A direct trip on the 450 to Haymarket, followed by a 5-min walk to State, takes 38 minutes. If my destination was Haymarket, it would have only taken 33 minutes.
View attachment 49198

On the other hand, transferring from the 455 to the Blue Line takes 48 minutes, a whole 10 minutes longer, despite saving a 5-min walk.
View attachment 49199
The only way for truncation of the 450 to be justified is with a corresponding increase in frequency. Thankfully, this can be done using the existing fleet, and is indeed planned in the BNRD: the revised 450 should have 30-min frequencies all day, whereas today's 450 only does so during rush hours in the peak direction. Nevertheless, it's still likely to meet complaints from rush-hour riders.

While I ultimately think there are good reasons for the truncation, I highly doubt that such controversial changes will be implemented in the very first phase. This phase is critical in setting a good example for the rest of Greater Boston and all other bus riders, and any negativity (which the BNRD already faced plenty of during its design phase, justified or not) will have outsized effects. Plus, the 450 is primarily a Lynn and Salem route, with minimal stops in Revere. It makes way more sense for it to be implemented together with other Lynn routes, especially when doing so can demonstrate to Lynn that their bus service will actually be improved, with a Frequent Bus Route-level corridor between Wonderland and Lynn Central Square, rather than implementing the 450 alone as a neutral change at best and negative change at worst. (Even then, I'm sure the loss of 441 still hurts.)

Plans in Chelsea, Everett and Revere, on the other hand, are mostly positive. The most significant loss is the 117, but even that's compensated with improved frequencies on the 116 and vastly improved crosstown 110 to cover 117's Beach St.
Click to expand...
The 426 being express is much more understandable, for that route is located exactly halfway between the Orange and Blue Line once it gets to Linden Square in Malden. I could see the 426 staying express for a much longer period of time compared to the 450, as getting to the nearest subway line from Linden Sq. is a lengthy and long ordeal on either direction. The 450 on the other hand comes extremely close to the Blue Line, versus the 450, and the 450 currently doesn't even have an airport connection.

It's also worth noting the Blue Line has approximately 6 minutes of slowzone. Hence Blue Line trip times are currently inaccurate. Typical travel times on the Blue Line are supposed to be 18 - 19 minutes end to end pre-slowzone saga. It is currently 23-24 minutes end to end with the slow zones in place. If the Blue Line if fixed, then the travel difference will not be as great as it is currently for the 450.

There is also the Sumner Tunnel closure this summer in 2024. If it gets re-extended back to Haymarket after that closure, then that route would be cut back and re-extended quite a handful of times once BNRD comes in.
 
Delvin4519 said:
So much of the wins and attention are focused on fixing the dire situation with subway service. The buses on the other hand have yet to begin recovering from rock bottom, and it doesn't get as much attention, even though the frequencies are lesser and so service cuts hit harder.


The vacancy count has decreased a bit since last August, 8 months ago. Even with a lag time of 6 months, it'd be reasonable to expect the first round of bus service restoration with this schedule change. The spring schedule started so late (early April) instead of mid-March. I thought the spring schedule was delayed 3 weeks such that it would occur after the first round of new bus operators joined the ranks.
Click to expand...
The reason for slight bus service decreases and trip time shifts is a combination of schedule “reliability” and reprioritization of resources.

For schedule reliability: without dedicated infrastructure for buses to avoid car traffic bunching is inevitable. The MBTA’s way of combating this is to reduce service frequency to account for delays rather than doing on-the-fly adjustments to combat bunching live (they probably don’t have the dispatch personnel and training for this). This makes the bus arrive and depart closer to the scheduled time to make it more predictable for riders but doesn’t make anything else better.

With regards to resource reprioritization: depending on the demand from the previous cycle of schedules the MBTA will deduct buses from a route and repurpose them on others. This isn’t very obvious because the bus isn’t necessarily repurposed to a higher demand route nearby but could be simply to another route that calls from the same garage or follows a similar deadhead route.

The former of these two is something that they’d do regardless of an operator shortage and the latter is partially a result of this but also a result of the number of available route worthy buses. 180 buses are between 1 and 2 decades old, and from my personal experience even New Flyer’s that are 5 years old will have reliability problems. I’m constantly seeing MBTA buses throwing various warning alarms on the driver’s dash when on board. Unfortunately there’s no real solid transit bus manufacturer in the North American market any more than can avoid these reliability issues that necessitate a decent quantity of buses on reserve.
 
New article regarding staffing at the MBTA from WBUR:

www.wbur.org

MBTA faces 'considerable obstacles' to hit its staffing target, report says

MTF researchers found that the agency's operating headcount "fluctuated" regularly after fiscal 2015, with gains followed by declines. More recently, the pandemic and concerns about an arbitrator's proposed pension changes — which ultimately did not take effect — created a significant shortfall...
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org

One snippet from the article. By June 16th, 2024, the end of Spring schedules, it will have been 2 full years since the schedule cuts.

The T slashed weekday service frequency on the Red, Orange and Blue Lines in 2022 after the Federal Transit Administration said dispatchers were overworked, and those changes still have not been fully reversed.
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Delvin4519 said:
New article regarding staffing at the MBTA from WBUR:

www.wbur.org

MBTA faces 'considerable obstacles' to hit its staffing target, report says

MTF researchers found that the agency's operating headcount "fluctuated" regularly after fiscal 2015, with gains followed by declines. More recently, the pandemic and concerns about an arbitrator's proposed pension changes — which ultimately did not take effect — created a significant shortfall...
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org

One snippet from the article. By June 16th, 2024, the end of Spring schedules, it will have been 2 full years since the schedule cuts.
Click to expand...
On the other hand, here's a much more optimistic snippet, just 2 paragraphs into the article:
Between mid-2022 and February 2024, the T added more than 1,000 net new workers after being slammed by federal overseers for staffing shortages. A new analysis from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimates that if the recent pace of additions continues, the agency could reach its fully budgeted headcount of 7,600 by the end of 2024.
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The rest of the article is primarily about future challenges in maintaining this headcount, not about getting there by 2024.
 
Teban54 said:
On the other hand, here's a much more optimistic snippet, just 2 paragraphs into the article:

The rest of the article is primarily about future challenges in maintaining this headcount, not about getting there by 2024.
Click to expand...

Healey administration plans to freeze state hiring​

I would hope the administration has the foresight to not include the MBTA in this freeze, but I haven’t found any indication that the T is exempt in the coverage so far.
 
Badusername said:

Healey administration plans to freeze state hiring​

I would hope the administration has the foresight to not include the MBTA in this freeze, but I haven’t found any indication that the T is exempt in the coverage so far.
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What I understand from the WGBH Big Dig podcast is that a MA state "authority" like the MBTA is in a position as a pseudo-private company whilst being state owned so that it can operate as a theoretically/potentially for-profit business (like the Port Authority) whilst still receiving continual state funding. This would lead me to believe that a freeze on state hiring would be limited to direct state government employees and not the MBTA, RTAs, or Port Authority. Not entirely sure though
 
Delvin4519 said:
One snippet from the article. By June 16th, 2024, the end of Spring schedules, it will have been 2 full years since the schedule cuts.
Click to expand...
Service is currently slow zone limited not staff limited hence frequency increases coming to everything but Orange (equipment shortage). Once the slow zone situation is sufficiently mitigated then Red Line equipment and motorpersons/overall dispatchers, which I think is mostly resolved, come back into play.
 
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