General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

I’m finding it interesting the use of Regional Rail instead of Commuter Rail on documents. Wonder if they are considering a public name change soon.
 
Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the inner workings of things like the CIP but some of the line items seem really confusing. For example, why is the GLX labeled as "Construction" with $115 million programmed for 2027-2031? Are they actually spending another 100 million dollars on it?
 
Then there's 1.5M for
Procurement and construction of two 150-passenger, high-speed catamarans from Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding to support ferry service. The Champion and Glory catamarans entered service in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
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If they've been in service for 8-9 years, what's this 1.5M for?
 
ceo said:
Then there's 1.5M for

If they've been in service for 8-9 years, what's this 1.5M for?
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Some of the ferries have been leased as new routes were tested. As the routes become permanent, I believe the MBTA is buying the ferries used on those routes.
 
Delvin4519 said:
Winter 2026 GTFS schedules are out.
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We've got the new spring GTFS schedules posted. Here are the actual changes:

Frequency decreases:
* Bus routes: 10, 11, 32, 201, 215, 350

Frequency decreases and increases:
* Green Line B
* Bus routes: SLW, 455

Frequency increases:
* Orange Line daily; Blue Line, Red Line, Green Line C weekdays only
* Bus routes: SL2, SL2, 1, 9, 15, 16, 24, 34, 34E, 40, 50, 66, 71, 73, 74, 75, 85, 87, 88, 94, 96, 101, 111, 116, 202, 220, 222, 226, 411, 714, 716

1774636513951.png


And for each route; this is what actually changed:
1774639053711.png


Map changes:
* Downgraded the 34/34E corridor from "Every 15 - 20 minutes" to "Every 30 - 60 minutes" due to Sunday schedules no longer being coordinated.
* Downgraded the 34/34E/35/36 corridor from "Every 12 - 15 minutes" to "Every 20 - 30 minutes" due to 34/34E Sunday schedules no longer being coordinated.
* Route 350 rerouted to Burlington Mall
* Route 34E extended from East Walpole to Walpole Center
* Route 87 extended from Clarendon Hill to Arlington Center
* 30 minute frequency added between Sullivan Sq and Winter Hill; Davis Sq and Medford Hillside; and Medford Sq; due to Route 96 and 101 running every 30 minutes
* Routes 24, 96, 455, and 714 shifted from "Every 1 - 2 hours" to "Every 30 - 60 minutes" due to exceeding 21 Sunday trips
* Route 42 shifted from "Every 30 - 60 minutes" to "Every 20 - 30 minutes" due to now exceeding 41 Sunday trips.
* Route 16 shifted from "Every 20 - 30 minutes" to "Every 15 - 20 minutes" due to now exceeding 61 Sunday trips.
* Route 9 shifted from "Every 20 - 30 minutes" to "Every 15 - 20 minutes" as it is now a FBR.
* Added route 40, 50, 226, and 716 as "Every 1 - 2 hours" with between 11 - 21 Sunday trips
* Removed Route 40/50.

1774637131463.png

Old maps: Pre-COVID; 2023: Winter, Spring (Slow Zones), Summer, Fall; 2024: Winter, Spring, Summer (News), Fall; 2025: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall 2026: Winter
 
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Delvin4519 said:
We've got the new spring GTFS schedules posted. Here are the actual changes:

Frequency decreases:
* Bus routes: 10, 11, 32, 201, 215, 350

Frequency decreases and increases:
* Green Line B
* Bus routes: SLW, 455

Frequency increases:
* Orange Line daily; Blue Line, Red Line, Green Line C weekdays only
* Bus routes: SL2, SL2, 1, 9, 15, 16, 24, 34, 34E, 40, 50, 66, 71, 73, 74, 75, 85, 87, 88, 94, 96, 101, 111, 116, 202, 220, 222, 226, 411, 714, 716

View attachment 71692

And for each route; this is what actually changed:
View attachment 71707

Map changes:
* Downgraded the 34/34E corridor from "Every 15 - 20 minutes" to "Every 30 - 60 minutes" due to Sunday schedules no longer being coordinated.
* Downgraded the 34/34E/35/36 corridor from "Every 12 - 15 minutes" to "Every 20 - 30 minutes" due to 34/34E Sunday schedules no longer being coordinated.
* Route 350 rerouted to Burlington Mall
* Route 34E extended from East Walpole to Walpole Center
* Route 87 extended from Clarendon Hill to Arlington Center
* 30 minute frequency added between Sullivan Sq and Winter Hill; Davis Sq and Medford Hillside; and Medford Sq; due to Route 96 and 101 running every 30 minutes
* Routes 24, 96, 455, and 714 shifted from "Every 1 - 2 hours" to "Every 30 - 60 minutes" due to exceeding 21 Sunday trips
* Route 42 shifted from "Every 30 - 60 minutes" to "Every 20 - 30 minutes" due to now exceeding 41 Sunday trips.
* Route 16 shifted from "Every 20 - 30 minutes" to "Every 15 - 20 minutes" due to now exceeding 61 Sunday trips.
* Route 9 shifted from "Every 20 - 30 minutes" to "Every 15 - 20 minutes" as it is now a FBR.
* Added route 40, 50, 226, and 716 as "Every 1 - 2 hours" with between 11 - 21 Sunday trips
* Removed Route 40/50.

View attachment 71695
Old maps: Pre-COVID; 2023: Winter, Spring (Slow Zones), Summer, Fall; 2024: Winter, Spring, Summer (News), Fall; 2025: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall 2026: Winter
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The 40 and 50 were expanded to now each run 7 days a week, so there's no need for (previously Sunday only) combined 40/50. That explains its removal. think the new Sunday service on the 40 and 50 may also explain how Sunday service is categorized across the 34/34E/35/36 on that corridor.
 
Johnnyrocket891 said:
MBTA/MassDot-- Should go to MIT and present an overall Massachusetts map and have the smartest/brightest engineers create a plan for a self-sufficient transit grid that can be self-sustaining throughout Mass and other New England States.
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The guy who famously thinks higher education is a scam sucking us dry wants higher education to create transit that's totes self-sufficient for the first time in recorded history, even though that same sentence implies that there will be subsidy by virtue of somebody has to pay the institutions who are tasked with this.

Don't ever change, crazy Libertarians.(y)
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
The guy who famously thinks higher education is a scam sucking us dry wants higher education to create transit that's totes self-sufficient for the first time in recorded history, even though that same sentence implies that there will be subsidy by virtue of somebody has to pay the institutions who are tasked with this.

Don't ever change, crazy Libertarians.(y)
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Calling ‘stop burning money forever’ an ideology is exactly how we ended up with traffic jams, slow zones and a 30‑year Big Dig hangover

Johnny's lighting a stick of dynamite--🔥
 
Johnnyrocket891 said:
Calling ‘stop burning money forever’ an ideology is exactly how we ended up with traffic jams, slow zones and a 30‑year Big Dig hangover
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Maybe this isn’t my place to give input, but what you seem to be describing is a lack of “burning money” in the case of slow zones, and traffic jams to an extent.
 
Are long rapid transit shutdowns more common now than they were prior to 2024? Does anyone have the data on this?

2024 was the year of the shutdowns, when the T was closing big sections of track for days or weeks for repairs. At the time, it was a pretty big deal to be shutting down a section of subway for that long. The T was publishing shutdown schedules months in advance and giving lots of updates. It was massively disruptive, but everyone kind of seemed on board and understood it was necessary under the circumstances.

But it has seemed like the shutdowns haven't really stopped. There aren't nearly as many as in 2024, but it does seem like this is more common than in the before times. Green line branches will be closed for a week and no one bats an eye. Last weekend near Copley I saw a line of literally hundreds of people stretched around the block just waiting to catch a shuttle bus. It would be really bad if long shutdowns are becoming a new, standard tool instead of reserved for only extreme cases.
 
ritchiew said:
It would be really bad if long shutdowns are becoming a new, standard tool instead of reserved for only extreme cases.
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Would it? The T got more aggressive with these because the public response wasn't what had long been feared it would have been.

Personally, I have long standing terrible memories of the seemingly endless night/weekend shuttles of the braintree branch 2019-2021. It's basically switching from a long term, major impact on a particular group of riders to a shorter and more broadly felt impact while also delivering the project faster and cheaper. Sure, people who don't work in food service now have to suffer too but I think the tradeoffs are well worth it.
 
ritchiew said:
Are long rapid transit shutdowns more common now than they were prior to 2024? Does anyone have the data on this?

2024 was the year of the shutdowns, when the T was closing big sections of track for days or weeks for repairs. At the time, it was a pretty big deal to be shutting down a section of subway for that long. The T was publishing shutdown schedules months in advance and giving lots of updates. It was massively disruptive, but everyone kind of seemed on board and understood it was necessary under the circumstances.

But it has seemed like the shutdowns haven't really stopped. There aren't nearly as many as in 2024, but it does seem like this is more common than in the before times. Green line branches will be closed for a week and no one bats an eye. Last weekend near Copley I saw a line of literally hundreds of people stretched around the block just waiting to catch a shuttle bus. It would be really bad if long shutdowns are becoming a new, standard tool instead of reserved for only extreme cases.
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I wish we could just bundle each of the overdue GLTPS and OL/RL signal upgrades combined with the track repairs, and just do 1 long 3 month shutdown all at once for each track segment rather than 10 day shutdowns every 6 months. Much easier to plan 1 semester with no B branch service rather than some random 10 day shutdown during finals week every other semester. We could just call it "the semester where the B branch was closed for TIP repairs and GLTPS installation" rather than a bunch of separate 10 day shutdowns littered across several semesters.
 
I think the T and the Governor found that the public accepted such long shutdowns as an indication that they could do this more regularly without political blowback. I think everyone's drunk the Eng is king kool-aid and are willing to deal with it until he retires.
Delvin4519 said:
I wish we could just bundle each of the overdue GLTPS and OL/RL signal upgrades combined with the track repairs, and just do 1 long 3 month shutdown all at once for each track segment rather than 10 day shutdowns every 6 months. Much easier to plan 1 semester with no B branch service rather than some random 10 day shutdown during finals week every other semester. We could just call it "the semester where the B branch was closed for TIP repairs and GLTPS installation" rather than a bunch of separate 10 day shutdowns littered across several semesters.
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I'm not sure that we have the labor capacity to do that much work over 3 months. Even during the mega year 2024 the T never did that long of a sustained amount of work - there were always gaps between surges of construction - so as to supply material and give labor a rest.
 
as02155 said:
I think the T and the Governor found that the public accepted such long shutdowns as an indication that they could do this more regularly without political blowback. I think everyone's drunk the Eng is king kool-aid and are willing to deal with it until he retires.

I'm not sure that we have the labor capacity to do that much work over 3 months. Even during the mega year 2024 the T never did that long of a sustained amount of work - there were always gaps between surges of construction - so as to supply material and give labor a rest.
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I think frequent weekend (or longer) closures for maintenance are a fact of life for older transit systems. Even without deferred maintenance (which most government authorities are guilty of, anyway) they are needed.

Here are the London and Paris closure schedules for this long weekend there:

www.timeout.com

A major London TfL train line will be almost completely shut this weekend, with more closures on the tube

Londoners, watch out for bank holiday weekend travel disruption.
www.timeout.com www.timeout.com

 
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