I agree and don’t think we can give her enough credit given how dire the problem was when she took office. Really goes to show that having somebody with deep operational expertise in the public sector really was what the MBTA needed instead of the parade of private sector clowns Baker appointed. Turns out running a hedge fund isn’t a transferable skill for being the CEO of a large, complex public transit system!
Exactly, hedge fund CEOs are great at "plunder and pillage" management.
Probably won't be CRRC
Yes. The 2-bay open-air shed at Mattapan isn't equipped to inspect and service articulated trolleys, so they need something a little bigger and preferably enclosed from the elements. They're probably looking at something more akin to the Lake St. facility at the end of the B Line.
www.wcvb.com
That's just the Phase I audio alert. It's no different from a car's collision avoidance sensors...if you ignore the blinking lights and loud buzzer, you're going to plow into the car in front of you all the same. It's not an adequate measure for preventing the kind of speeding and signal-blowing accidents that have been plaguing the Green Line. For that, you need real-deal automatic speed enforcement and stops. And that's not coming until Phase II of GLTPS, which doesn't have a schedule yet because it's significantly more complex an implementation. I don't think they should be patting themselves on the back too hard over Phase I. That can (will?) blow up in their faces pretty thoroughly if the Green Line has another high-profile operator error accident in the interregnum between Phase I and Phase II.MBTA says new Green Line safety system could be in place this year
In the wake of a recent crash between two trolleys, MBTA board members are being asked to approve a contract to implement a new safety system on the Green Line during a board meeting on Tuesday.
www.pipernetworks.com
So we’re going to be going 10mph over switches until 2031
As long as it runs at-grade for any significant portion, probably not. Never say never but that doesn't sound like it would be worth the complexity of trying to custom-build a system to do that, plus rebuild the signal network.
No. It means inattentive operators are going to continue going 30 MPH over 10 MPH switches and derailing until 2031, while the T makes a confused face at the NTSB because "but we gave them a flashing light and buzzer when they were being bad!" I guarantee that we will have another oopsie or three under GLTPS Phase 1.So we’re going to be going 10mph over switches until 2031
The T already evaluated bog-standard CBTC, and it would've reduced the Central Subway's throughput a little bit so they opted not to pursue it any further. The problem is ultimately than a standard ATO/ATC-like system is a required subcomponent of CBTC installations, and that would've kept train spacing a little long for the frequencies + relative positioning chaos that are hallmarks of the Green Line. Even with innovations like moving blocks in-play. CBTC would've made things more orderly overall, but at a price of wee bit overly cautious traffic management. It can do breakneck automated frequencies and sophisticated computer-managed dispatching on HRT lines where the whole network is signalized end-to-end and the computers can plot traffic management with a whole-system treatment, but the uncertainty factor of unsignalized street branches timing their way into signalized subway means it's not used a lot in LRT settings...at least not ones that attempt to cram the stiffest frequencies into their central regions. GLTPS Phase 2 has a lot less automation than CBTC so it's still a largely operator-and-human-dispatcher controlled universe, but the truly stupid stuff like habitual over-speeding and blowing signals goes away which also lets them do away with some overly cautious signaling that makes today's Central Subway trips so 'choppy' with frequent starts and stops. It'll be a whole lot safer and trade off a little more caution for a little more fluidity at basically par throughput to today, but it's not operationally a whole lot different.
