MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

TheRatmeister said:
And people also want leaders who don't just... abandon their platform when a minority (that voted for the losing candidate no less) complains. Essanabi-George and Kraft ran significantly if not primarily on pausing bike/transit project expansion in favor of car drivers, and lost. It would be more than a little weird and off-putting if you voted in one president and then they just adopted the platform of the losing candidate instead.
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Keir Starmer tried this in the UK. The result is that he has the lowest PM approval rating that has ever been measured.
 
Scott said:
Well people clearly want Wu. She got 70%
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People clearly want the Wu that campaigned, including many of the same people expressing their frustration in this thread. Wu did not campaign on abandoning projects, sacrificing both current and future federal grant funding, and making BTD a place people won't want to work.

I don't think this is some savvy 4 dimensional chess on her part. I think she means whats she's saying here and if that weren't the case BTD wouldn't be bleeding staff and having former staff writing angry comments in the press.
 
I disagree that if the majority here thinks something is right then that makes it right, and I disagree on your take on who is moving this forward, and who is the problem. There is a podcast in the Dotnews article that people who are responding here should first have listened to first and then they could have gotten her reasons right out of the horses mouth. Did you hear her also advocate for light rail on BHA as a policy? I think she has no choice but to let the community decide and if their councilors fail along with it, then they will have to explain themselves to the voters, not her. There are many people here who think that they should just ram it down the community's throat because they think they somehow know better and I think that they are wrong
 
RandomWalk said:
Has she given a clear rationale for the about face? I have read about wanting more community engagement, but that’s a detail not a rationale.
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It’s just classic Dem squishiness. The only difference between Wu and every other limp Dem politician in the country is that she can triangulate in three languages.
 
Scott said:
I disagree that if the majority here thinks something is right then that makes it right, and I disagree on your take on who is moving this forward, and who is the problem. There is a podcast in the Dotnews article that people who are responding here should first have listened to first and then they could have gotten her reasons right out of the horses mouth. Did you hear her also advocate for light rail on BHA as a policy? I think she has no choice but to let the community decide and if their councilors fail along with it, then they will have to explain themselves to the voters, not her. There are many people here who think that they should just ram it down the community's throat because they think they somehow know better and I think that they are wrong
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I'm impressed with the robust polling and engagement you've done in the community.

Yes, there are people in the community who have voiced opposition to it. Just like with White Stadium. Just like with Columbus Ave. Just like with every development and every project that has ever been built anywhere.

The city undertook one of the most robust planning processes in the country to develop GoBoston2030. Wu ran on supporting that effort and even going farther and to your point, won with an overwhelming majority. It's not at all unreasonable to be frustrated for her taking an about face on that based on...?
 
Oh please. I speak for myself and I would actually like this to happen, but there are always real world reasons why things are the way they are, they are interesting and we discuss them
 
Switching topics a bit... the spring PDF bus schedules have been posted.

Perhaps the spring rating is an improvement across the board, but some of the implementation is shockingly bad. The 34E is getting extended to Walpole Center during the daytime, but despite keeping the exact same number of trips, the Sunday 34/34E schedule is moving away from a 17-min coordinated headway (which has been in place for the last 2+ ratings) to an uncoordinated mess that leaves 25-30+ minute gaps between buses leaving Forest Hills.

34_34E_Winter 2026.png
34_34E_Spring 2026.png


(left = winter schedule, right = spring schedule starting 4/5/26)

Some "winners" to call out above when leaving Forest Hills:
  • 6:26 | 6:33 | 7:00 | 7:04am
  • 8:12 | 8:18 | 8:42 | 8:50am
  • 10:24 | 10:26 | 10:50 | 10:58am
  • 5:05 | 5:12 | 5:44 | 5:46pm
The inbound arrival times at Forest Hills look equally bad (not included above, but examples: 9:21 | 9:29 | 10:00 | 10:07am, 11:20 | 11:21 | 11:54 | 11:57am), so that can't have been the priority either. An interesting side effect is that post-7pm, riders end up having the best experience because those trips haven't been touched and remain at a coordinated 17min headway.

Clearly, the T's scheduling team believes that (1) there is no way to coordinate schedules given the 10-min increase in run time each way, and (2) the incremental riders on the 10min stretch from East Walpole to Walpole Center are worth doubling the wait time for every single rider on the line...
 
subway1500 said:
Switching topics a bit... the spring PDF bus schedules have been posted.

Perhaps the spring rating is an improvement across the board, but some of the implementation is shockingly bad. The 34E is getting extended to Walpole Center during the daytime, but despite keeping the exact same number of trips, the Sunday 34/34E schedule is moving away from a 17-min coordinated headway (which has been in place for the last 2+ ratings) to an uncoordinated mess that leaves 25-30+ minute gaps between buses leaving Forest Hills.

View attachment 71731 View attachment 71733

(left = winter schedule, right = spring schedule starting 4/5/26)

Some "winners" to call out above when leaving Forest Hills:
  • 6:26 | 6:33 | 7:00 | 7:04am
  • 8:12 | 8:18 | 8:42 | 8:50am
  • 10:24 | 10:26 | 10:50 | 10:58am
  • 5:05 | 5:12 | 5:44 | 5:46pm
The inbound arrival times at Forest Hills look equally bad (not included above, but examples: 9:21 | 9:29 | 10:00 | 10:07am, 11:20 | 11:21 | 11:54 | 11:57am), so that can't have been the priority either. An interesting side effect is that post-7pm, riders end up having the best experience because those trips haven't been touched and remain at a coordinated 17min headway.

Clearly, the T's scheduling team believes that (1) there is no way to coordinate schedules given the 10-min increase in run time each way, and (2) the incremental riders on the 10min stretch from East Walpole to Walpole Center are worth doubling the wait time for every single rider on the line...
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I did mention this in my main post with the updated frequency map.

The rationale for the change from the MBTA is so unclear. Why does the T not even bother trying to coordinate the 34/34E, or the 35/36/37 buses? The 36 runs every 30 min and the 35 every 40 min on Sundays. Why deal with the every 15/30/5/5/25 nonsense in West Roxbury when the schedules could be coordinated for an even 20 minute Sunday headway through West Rox? The T is running less service with more buses. Which is extreme waste of what could be a more extensive 20 minute network.

At this point I've got to imagine; what's the longest headway between Rozzie Square and Forest Hills. If the schedules are this uncoordinated with the 34/34E/35/36/37, perhaps there's an egregious gap somewhere.

Also the T mentioned they "coordinated" the 94/96 and the 89/101 buses. I checked the schedules. They are not coordinated in the slightest.
1774733829768.png
 
Delvin4519 said:
At this point I've got to imagine; what's the longest headway between Rozzie Square and Forest Hills. If the schedules are this uncoordinated with the 34/34E/35/36/37, perhaps there's an egregious gap somewhere.
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On Sundays in the new schedule; these are the worst gaps:

I checked all 7 bus routes with Sunday service, 30, 40, 50, 34, 34E, 35, 36. There's no Sunday service on the 37 or 51.

Outbound from Forest Hills to Rozzie Square:
* 22 minute gap between the 8:20am 36 and the 8:42am 34 bus. 3 buses depart between 8:12-8:20am though before this 22 minute gap.
* 20 minute gap between the 9:30am 36 and the 9:50am 34 bus. 2 buses depart between 9:29am - 9:30am, and 3 buses between 9:50am - 9:55am.
* 19 minute gap between the 10:05am 35 and the 10:24am 34 bus. 2 buses departed at 10:05am; followed by 3 buses between 10:24am - 10:30am.
* 25 minute gap between 11:00am and 11:25am. 3 buses depart between 10:58am - 11:00am, and 4 buses between 11:25am - 11:32am.
* 24 minute gap between the 12:06pm 34 and the 12:30pm 36. 5 buses depart between 12:00pm - 12:06pm, and 2 buses between 12:30pm - 12:31pm
* 20 minute gap between 3:00pm and 3:20pm. 3 buses depart between 2:56pm - 3:00pm, and 3 buses between 3:20pm - 3:25pm.
* 21 minute gap between the 3:30pm 36 and 3:51pm 40. 2 buses depart at 3:30pm, and 2 buses between 3:51pm - 3:55pm.

The average headway between Forest Hills and Rozzie Square is 5 minutes. There's zero need to have a 21-25 minute gap midday. Yet the MBTA refuses to coordinate the schedules for something completely preventable.

And even the inbound direction from Rozzie Square to Forest Hills with all 7 bus routes still have ridiculuously long gaps on Sundays.
* 18 minute gap of no buses arriving at Forest Hills from Rozzie Sq between 8:15am - 8:33am
* 19 minute gap at Forest Hills with no Rozzie Sq arrivals between 10:24am - 10:43am
* 19 minute gap between 11:24am - 11:43am
* 27 minute gap between 11:57am - 12:24pm
* 19 minute gap between 5:20pm - 5:39pm
* 18 minute gap between 6:21pm - 5:39pm

Why is there a 27 minute gap at Rozzie Sq where you cannot arrive at Forest Hills between 11:57am and 12:24pm? If it's Sunday midday 11:54am at Rozzie Square and you want to get to Forest Hills? Well, despite 7 bus routes, you're waiting 26 minutes for the next bus. Insane.

Even crazier is that at Forest Hills, 3 buses from Rozzie Square all arrive between 11:54am and 11:57am at Forest Hills all bunched up together. Then the 27 minute gap. Then 3 more buses all arrive at Forest Hills between 12:24pm and 12:25pm. What a waste. Why not coordinate the schedules?
 
Wow...thanks for your service in pulling all this together (and sorry I missed your post in the other thread!).

Adding to your post: even if we assume the 7 routes are somehow too hard to coordinate, there's also the super simple example of the 40/50 being split into individual routes, which is billed as "more service".
  • Winter schedule: 1-hour headway on the combined 40/50 route, departing :00 from Forest Hills
    • 50min roundtrip run time - requires only 1 bus
  • Spring schedule: 1-hour headway on each route, departing :51/55 (route 40) and :00 (route 50) from Forest Hills
    • 45-50min roundtrip run time on each route - requires 2 buses
Rather than the logical step of splitting these 2 buses per hour at roughly :00 and :30 to provide coordinated service, they are scheduled at :51/55 (route 40) and :00 (route 50) outbound from Forest Hills. And because both routes have a similar run time, this then feeds into the huge inbound gaps brought up above. In other words, doubling service resources ended up with ~zero impact on passenger experience/wait time, purely because of poor scheduling.

I know nothing about the inner workings, but from an outsider's perspective, there seems to be a huge internal disconnect/conflict within the T between the people who run BNRD (who are ostensibly big on delivering consistent headways) and the people who actually create the schedules. Perhaps fine within a private organization, but here, it's severely hurting the riding public. This also calls into question how much scheduling optimization is possible across the rest of the system without adding any substantial number of bus resources...
 
JumboBuc said:
She doesn't want a cabinet role in a future Dem administration. She wants to lead one.

That's what her standing up to Trump in Washington but not dissenting voices in her own party has been all about.
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Explains things even less I think. People in Iowa don't care whether or not bike lane flexposts were removed on Arlington St.
 
KCasiglio said:
Explains things even less I think. People in Iowa don't care whether or not bike lane flexposts were removed on Arlington St.
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She wants to foster a broad coalition of support from all the flavors of Democrats and moderates, including the (mostly) older demographic who see bus/bike lanes as radical and liberal and the (often) Black population who feel like white and Asian liberals take the their votes for granted.

To put another spin on your analogy: ignoring the concerns of elected Black leaders and installing anti-car infrastructure in Roxbury and Mattapan could absolutely matter to Dem primary voters in South Carolina.

Bike and bus infrastructure is loved by urbanists in Boston, but "we" are extreme weirdos nationally. The voters Dems need on the national stage drive trucks and SUVs and think that stuff like center-running bus lanes is fringe and "liberal elite" coded. It's not worth her spending her political capital on it in this national-focused context. And the same goes for White Stadium. Building a new city high school stadium through a public-private partnership with a pro team sounds like the cool sort of innovative idea that people want in government. Remember that in most parts of this country, governments pay pro sports teams to come to town, while here it's the exact opposite. The "Franklin Park Defenders" read nationally as weirdo woke tree-huggers separated from reality.

I'm not saying I agree with this thinking, but I think it's how she's angling. She sees Elizabeth Warren's image (loved by the white educated urban left while never being able to get traction among the national party more broadly) and doesn't want to be that.

On the national stage, stories and photos of her standing with Culpepper and Worrell to protect parking spots could help her.
 
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