General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Delvin4519 said:
Update: The scheduled revenue bus service hours for Summer 2025 was posted earlier this week. (I don't use the upcoming GTFS data, I use the historical data file with the actual data that shows what was actually delivered, hence the 6 week time lag)

Apparently scheduled revenue bus service hours increased with the Saturday schedule, despite fewer trips, while the opposite is true for Sunday. I had to check all 3 Sundays in the data file since the summer schedule started (June 15, 22, 29). However, they all come out lower than the Spring 2025 Sunday hours.

Weekday scheduled bus service hours increased by 0.5%, but the number of trips is only up 0.1%.

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During the summer, the MBTA has 96.2% of pre-COVID scheduled service hours and 88.3% of scheduled trips. This news seems interesting for the fall, but we won’t know until the Fall GTFS gets posted.

Fall 2025 Service Schedules Announced: MBTA Continues to Make Improvements to Bus and Subway Service | News | 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 www.mbta.com
 
They had us packed in like sardines on the Green Line today - not sure who's bright idea it was to run single car ops (on the D line at least) during an OL shutdown. We left at least 20 people to wait for the next train at each of North Station, Haymarket, Gov. Ctr., and Park Street. I got off at Park three stops early to get away from the crush. I'm sure others aren't so fortunate.
 
A sign of how much things have changed since Eng has come in - these new maps are SO much less confusing than the old ones. Union Square is actually separated out so people don't get confused at Lechmere, the gradual dropoff shows us where lines end, the green arrow telling you which station you're at and which way that side of the platform trains go; it's so nice that they clearly put a bit of time into the UX here!
 

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vpuller said:
A sign of how much things have changed since Eng has come in - these new maps are SO much less confusing than the old ones. Union Square is actually separated out so people don't get confused at Lechmere, the gradual dropoff shows us where lines end, the green arrow telling you which station you're at and which way that side of the platform trains go; it's so nice that they clearly put a bit of time into the UX here!
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Welcome to archBoston!
 
vpuller said:
A sign of how much things have changed since Eng has come in - these new maps are SO much less confusing than the old ones. Union Square is actually separated out so people don't get confused at Lechmere, the gradual dropoff shows us where lines end, the green arrow telling you which station you're at and which way that side of the platform trains go; it's so nice that they clearly put a bit of time into the UX here!
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The green arrow bothers me so much - just don't show the rest of the lines, i.e. only show the parts that matter the remainder of the stations on the route.
 
GreenLineEnthusiast said:
They had us packed in like sardines on the Green Line today - not sure who's bright idea it was to run single car ops (on the D line at least) during an OL shutdown. We left at least 20 people to wait for the next train at each of North Station, Haymarket, Gov. Ctr., and Park Street. I got off at Park three stops early to get away from the crush. I'm sure others aren't so fortunate.
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This is what happens when people call out on the weekends and they don't have enough subs on the daily list to cover everything. 5 out of the last 6 Sundays, I have run all of my trips on the D line as singles. Now, I'm very good at running singles so I sometimes get to run singles in unusual conditions -- most of my career I have worked the E (and will be back for fall) and even occasionally get singles on that line which are rare.
 
According to this memo from the MBTA's Chief Operating Officer, the subway will run an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights, potentially starting later this month.
Evening service will be extended by nearly an hour for the Red Line, Orange Line, Blue Line, Green Line, and Mattapan Line on Friday and Saturday nights. The core service will operate approximately every 15 minutes (OL, BL, RL Trunk) and branch service (Ashmont, Braintree, B, C, D, E) will operate every 30 minutes.
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themissinglink said:
According to this memo from the MBTA's Chief Operating Officer, the subway will run an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights, potentially starting later this month.
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This is the flashiest part, but doesn't include the bus evening hours, which will result in service past 2 AM every single day for 5 of the busiest routes in the system.
Evening service will be extended by nearly an hour for Routes 23, 28, 57, 111, and 116 every night of the week and for Routes 1, 22, 39, 66, 110, SL1, SL3, and SL5 on Friday and Saturday nights.
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I'm really curious to see how the T evaluates "success" on these extended hours. 24-hour bus service on select routes seems closer than ever.
 
BeansTheCat said:
This is the flashiest part, but doesn't include the bus evening hours, which will result in service past 2 AM every single day for 5 of the busiest routes in the system.


I'm really curious to see how the T evaluates "success" on these extended hours. 24-hour bus service on select routes seems closer than ever.
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Hadn't Eng in the past referenced doing single track running for extended late night subway service, too? Have always been curious if that ever comes to fruition.
 
Would you rather have late-night subway service and regular closures of lines for maintenance for a week or so, or no late-night service and the maintenance hours we have now? Seems like that's the choice to be made.
 
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bakgwailo said:
Hadn't Eng in the past referenced doing single track running for extended late night subway service, too? Have always been curious if that ever comes to fruition.
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The NY MTA's history with single track operation, maintenance, is that it is pretty deadly for workers. Recent years (since 2000) about one worker per year is killed doing maintenance. 2 were killed last year. Prior to 2000 it was even less safe (more than 200 killed between 1946 and 2000).
 
wicked said:
Would you rather have late-night subway service and regular closures of lines for maintenance for a week or so, or no late-night service and the maintenance hours we have now? Seems like that's the choice to be made.
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It doesn't have to be quite so black and white. Overnight bustitution, like Toronto's Blue Night Network, provides similar quality service (no traffic or capacity crunches) without getting in the way of maintenance needs. London's Night Tube, which runs overnight on only Fridays and Saturdays, is also a reasonable model to follow.
 

Fall 2025 Service Changes | Previous Service Changes | 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 www.mbta.com

The announcement of service changes for Fall 2025 is now out.

If I ever get around to doing my analysis, it will be a bit delayed this time.

At this time, there is no GTFS data nor PDF schedules, so I can't analyze the changes for now anyways.
 
Here's the late night service map (courtesy of the GM's presentation):
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Note - there are two errors on this map:
  1. The Mattapan Line is not shown but the presentation explicitly mentions that it will receive late night service similar to other rail lines.
  2. The "7 days/week" and "Fri./Sat." bus line labels are incorrect in the legend. They should be flipped. This means the lines in yellow run all nights while the orange ones only run on Friday/Saturday
  3. The Silver Line routes shown (SL1, SL3, and SL5) are Friday/Saturday only (not an error, just a clarification).
 
BeansTheCat said:
Here's the late night service map (courtesy of the GM's presentation):
View attachment 65763


Note - there are two errors on this map:
  1. The Mattapan Line is not shown but the presentation explicitly mentions that it will receive late night service similar to other rail lines.
  2. The "7 days/week" and "Fri./Sat." bus line labels are incorrect in the legend. They should be flipped. This means the lines in yellow run all nights while the orange ones only run on Friday/Saturday
  3. The Silver Line routes shown (SL1, SL3, and SL5) are Friday/Saturday only (not an error, just a clarification).
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Technically, since the T used to hold trains downtown for 30-45 minutes every night from 12:50 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. to guarantee last connections pre-BNRD, we are basically just "partially restoring service". However, at least now, it's a more useful service that's properly scheduled and appears as extra trips/service; instead of just sitting and idling downtown for an hour.

I suppose it's not too bad in terms of shorter maintainance windows on Saturday mornings and evenings. Prior to BNRD, they couldn't use the first 45 minutes, because the trains idled in downtown at 1am for 40 minutes waiting for their final transfers.
 
wicked said:
Would you rather have late-night subway service and regular closures of lines for maintenance for a week or so, or no late-night service and the maintenance hours we have now? Seems like that's the choice to be made.
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Admittedly have very little knowledge of T maintenance, but there were reports during the slow zone surge last year that overnight maintenance was accomplishing very late towards the ultimate repair goal due to the short window of time they have at night. By the time they shut down power and got the repair equipment in the tunnels, they did not have enough time to make meaningful progress. To me, if regular 24 hour service requires regular line closures that seems more efficient than stopping at midnight every night and still having regular line closures.
 
SuffolkHeights11 said:
Admittedly have very little knowledge of T maintenance, but there were reports during the slow zone surge last year that overnight maintenance was accomplishing very late towards the ultimate repair goal due to the short window of time they have at night. By the time they shut down power and got the repair equipment in the tunnels, they did not have enough time to make meaningful progress. To me, if regular 24 hour service requires regular line closures that seems more efficient than stopping at midnight every night and still having regular line closures.
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Do you mean "very little" instead of "very late"? If so, that's absolutely correct. Ingress/egress usually takes long enough that only an hour or two is left for track work.

That said, my (limited) understanding of systems abroad is that regular line closures for routine maintenance (not including station/signal/power upgrades) are rare. With the T's current SGR situation, the work going on is far beyond "routine". However, there will hopefully come a time where the system is in good enough shape that overnights provide enough of a window for routine maintenance needs. Once a sufficient level of SGR is reached on the subways, service should be scheduled so that multi-day shutdowns are only needed for genuine infrastructure upgrades (think installing CBTC) or niche/unforeseen maintenance. We do not have to accept shutdowns as the price of a healthy system, just the cost of recovery.
 
If part of my line (Red) had to be shut down for one day or one weekend a month to address maintenance issues, I'm game for it, if it brings later service. At least you can schedule around it. Not sure how that would affect the workforce that currently does their work overnight.
 
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