General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

That is sick. I want one as a pet.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

KentXie said:
That is sick. I want one as a pet.
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They wouldn't have to worry about any more fugitive snakes on the Red Line if they imported a few more of those.

(Counterpoint: Could probably eat a baby or something.)
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

A small price to pay.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/...tts-bay-transportation-authority-rail-fleets/

Announcement on the Green Line Type 7 fleet rehab. Short on specific details (and bad form including a Type 8 pic in the press release!), but highlights are:

-- New AC propulsion system. That means the motors will sound more like the Type 8's, Red Line 01800's, and Blue Line 0700's. Although the RR.net tech geeks say the particular motors they'll be using have a much less pronounced whine than the 8's. Should result in smoother ride, easier trainlining with the 8's, much easier to maintain than the old-school DC motors. Clearly they're thinking the 7's are going to be around for a very very long time if they're going this whole-hog with component upgrades.

-- New climate control. Replacing the HVAC units with something a bit more powerful and energy efficient. I'm interested to see if that means the roof mounts are going to be lighter weight and ease up the violent swaying the cars do at 50 MPH on the D.

-- New interiors. Assume this means replacing the floors, seat covers, and lighting (note: they are NOT changing the seating arrangements). Interesting...they will indeed look different and hopefully fresher on the inside. As long as they don't replace the seats with the ass-hurting hard plastic bucket seats from the new Blue Line cars.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

F-Line to Dudley said:
-- New interiors. Assume this means replacing the floors, seat covers, and lighting (note: they are NOT changing the seating arrangements). Interesting...they will indeed look different and hopefully fresher on the inside. As long as they don't replace the seats with the ass-hurting hard plastic bucket seats from the new Blue Line cars.
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The textured vinyl seats that they use on newer Skytrain cars are really nice. I hope they use a modern seat material like that.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

MBTA Selling Six-Foot-Tall Old Green Line Cab Door for $150 at Gift Shop

1213-500h.jpg


What weighs more than 50 pounds, is more than five-feet-tall, can’t be shipped in the mail and makes the perfect Holiday gift for a loved one?

No, it’s not a statue of Justin Bieber for your niece.

It’s the door to an old MBTA Green Line train.

On Thursday, the T gift shop bragged about the availability of the $150 wood veneer door on Twitter.

“Is MBTAgifts really selling a door removed from a decommissioned MBTA Green Line Boeing LRV ? You betchya!” they wrote.

On the T’s Gift Shop website, the transportation company is now selling off two of the doors, which were removed from Green Line trains no longer in service.

“This is an authentic cab door from a Boeing LRV. This door was salvaged from the last of the Boeing cars at Riverside Yard in 2011 before being scrapped,” according to the T’s gift shop website. “This door features the iconic wood veneer typical of the inside of the Boeings.”

According to the MBTA, the door weighs roughly 50 pounds, and stands at a whopping six-feet tall, so it is bound to take up some space in your home.

Don’t worry, there is no way to get scammed by someone trying to sell a fake MBTA Green Line door, though. The T ensures buyers that “this item is an authentic piece of equipment decommissioned by the MBTA,” and comes complete with a “Certificate of Authenticity” upon purchase.

There is one downside to trying to buy the limited edition Green Line doors, however—they can’t be shipped in the mail.

That means, you need to lug this giant piece of old fake-wood around on your own. You can buy the door for only $150, too. That’s money well spent for some memories from the old Green Line days, you know, before they stopped using wood paneling.

The door is featured in the T Gift Shop’s “Newest Items” section, alongside some of those T tokens that went out of commission this year, and are now selling for $25.

The online Gift Shop first opened in June of 2011 in an effort for the T to raise some extra non-fare revenue. That means, if two people buy the two doors available, that’s nearly $300 to go towards the MBTA’s debt, and keep them from raising the fares again next year.

According to an MBTA spokesman, the store has raised approximately $223,000 gross sales earning the MBTA $30,000 in royalties. Next week the store is on track to sell their 25,000th product.

The items are sold and shipped from a store called Ward Maps, which is owned by Steven and Brian Beaucher, in Cambridge. The duo are contracted with the transportation agency to run the online store at no extra cash to the MBTA. The contract runs for the next four years.

http://bostinno.com/2012/11/08/mbta-gift-shop-online/#ss__256703_1_5__ss
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

They can't be shipped in the mail, or the MBTA won't put them into the mail system. Cause I'm pretty sure USPS has to ship anything with the proper postage (excepting illegal items of course.)
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

*facepalm*

Collecting train doors (trolleys particularly) is a common thing with many hard-core railfans. This isn't news in the slightest in any way.

I hate BostonInno, bunch of idiots except for Steve Annear, but look what they're bringing him down to... writing about doors!
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

BostonUrbEx said:
*facepalm*

Collecting train doors (trolleys particularly) is a common thing with many hard-core railfans. This isn't news in the slightest in any way.

I hate BostonInno, bunch of idiots except for Steve Annear, but look what they're bringing him down to... writing about doors!
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It's still news and it's still bizarre.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

bbfen said:
They can't be shipped in the mail, or the MBTA won't put them into the mail system. Cause I'm pretty sure USPS has to ship anything with the proper postage (excepting illegal items of course.)
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Fedex.... UPS....
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Clearly they could find some way to ship it if they wanted to, they're saying they don't want to. It'd probably end up costing more in postage, packaging, and handling costs than it's worth
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

MBTA’s pick for chief had faced scrutiny
MassDOT unaware of audit, evaluation at Atlanta agency

By Sean P. Murphy | GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 11, 2012

The newly selected director of the MBTA was required to undergo counseling with a business psychology consulting firm while she was running the mass transit system in Atlanta, a fact that state officials say they were not aware of when they hired her.

Beverly Scott’s relationship with her board of directors in Atlanta had grown so strained that the board in 2010 paid $144,000 to a business psychologist to help Scott and her leadership team improve their management styles.

After a preliminary, two-month round of interviews with board members and Scott’s senior staff, the business psychologist reported back to the board that Scott’s performance could significantly improve if, among other things, she met monthly with the psychologist “for individual coaching and consultation.”

The results of the full, yearlong evaluation and counseling of Scott and her staff did not become public as the consultations were underway. As the consultations wound down, Scott first told the board of directors in Atlanta in December 2011 that she would not seek renewal of her contract.

Scott’s five-year contract in Atlanta expires at the end of this year. Her total compensation is reported as $370,000 a year. She is scheduled to take over as MBTA general manager Dec. 17, under a three-year contract that would pay her far less — $220,000 a year.

Cyndi Roy, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, said state officials learned of Scott’s evaluation and counseling by The Business Psychology Company LLC only after signing Scott to a contract. Roy said MassDOT was alerted to Scott’s evaluation and counseling by officials at the Atlanta transit system — called MARTA — after the Globe and reporters in Atlanta made inquiries to MARTA in the days after Scott accepted the T job.

Likewise, Roy said MassDOT was previously unaware of a major management audit of MARTA that was conducted in the months leading up to Scott’s candidacy for the T job. The results of that audit by the national firm KPMG were made public in Atlanta on the afternoon of Sept. 24, at the same time Scott was busy in Boston meeting with state officials to finalize her hiring at the MBTA.

The KPMG audit found MARTA to be in deep trouble, with a operating budget deficit of as much as $33 million a year, a shortfall that is being made up by dipping into reserves. The audit projects complete depletion of the system’s reserves in 2018. The “current economic model is unsustainable,” the audit said.

KPMG itemized tens of millions of dollars in potential savings that could be realized if MARTA privatized certain functions, restructured excessive compensation to employees, and curbed high absenteeism among its 4,500 workers.

“Successful strategies to reduce costs in healthcare, retirement, absentee, and workers compensation areas could save up to $50 million a year,” the audit says.

Roy said there’s no reason to rethink Scott’s hiring, based on either revelation.

Scott “took whatever feedback she got and made improvements, and that’s the hallmark of a good leader,” she said. “She will be an excellent leader.”

Further, Roy said “it is our understanding that she requested the audit to identify areas of improvement at *MARTA.”

Scott, 61, a nationally known and well-regarded transit leader with decades of experience, was recruited by a three-person committee made up of Richard Davey, the state transportation secretary, and two members of the MassDOT/*MBTA board of directors.The full board later confirmed her selection by unanimous vote. She declined a request for an interview for this story. Instead, a spokesman for the Atlanta transit system provided a statement to the Globe.

“The MARTA Board of Directors hired an organizational consultant to further assist its leadership team in building trust, promoting openness and fostering teamwork which has strengthened this organization to the benefit of our customers and our employees,” the statement said. “We stand by that decision which has enhanced individual and overall team performance.”

Walter Kimbrough, one of the MARTA board members who hired Scott in 2007, helped arrange Scott’s evaluation and counseling in 2010. He said in an interview that management problems were obvious and pressing and that the board felt a “moral obligation” to step in and do something.

“There was strong recognition by the board that assistance was needed,” said Kimbrough, who is no longer on the board.

Kimbrough said he, like others, was interviewed by the business psychology firm. “They wanted to know what was going on . . . to get at whatever issues might be existing,” he said. Asked whether Scott welcomed the evaluation and counseling, Kimbrough said, “I can’t say she happily accepted it.”

Liz Levin, a former member of the MassDOT/MBTA board who chaired the committee that recommended final candidates to the full board, said she was not aware of the The Business Psychology Company evaluation and counseling or the KPMG audit. She said she strongly supports Scott’s selection.

“She has so much energy and that for some people can be complicated,” she said. “She demands a lot of people. I never heard anything negative about her. She’s a good choice and we are lucky to get her.” She added that Scott was a “change agent, and that is often difficult and not always appreciated in an entrenched organization.”

In December 2011, at the time Scott told the Atlanta board she would not seek an extension of her contract, the position of general manager at the MBTA had been vacant for almost four months. However, MassDOT kept Jonathan Davis, the T’s chief financial officer, on as interim general manager for what will be almost a year after Scott’s decision to leave *MARTA. One provision of Scott’s contract in Atlanta gives her a $125,000 bonus only if she completes her five-year term as chief executive officer and general manager, a bonus she appears likely to collect by using accrued vacation or other leave to stay on the MARTA payroll even after arriving in Boston in mid-December.

Scott, when she assumes her duties, will be the first T general manager in recent years to have not previously worked in either a local transportation or government position. She will also be the first African-American woman to lead what is the fifth-largest transit system in the country, with 6,500 employees and an annual budget of $1.8 billion.

In the first weeks of his tenure as the Patrick administration’s top transportation official in September 2011 , Davey publicly pledged to appoint the first woman to head the MBTA. Scott and another candidate for the position — a man — were invited to be interviewed by the MassDOT/MBTA board on Sept. 24, but by then the governor’s office had already signaled to MassDOT that Scott was to be selected,according to a Sept. 20 story in the Globe that cited people familiar with the selection process.

It was also on Sept. 24 that MARTA publicly released *KPMG’s management audit.

Mike Jacobs, a state representative in Georgia who heads the legislative committee that oversees MARTA, said he knew nothing of the The Business Psychology Company’s evaluation and counseling until last month, when the Atlanta news media cited recently obtained documents in reporting the story as Scott prepared to leave for Boston. Her successor, Keith Parker, who headed mass transit in San Antonio, Texas, is to take over in Atlanta Dec. 10.

“Had it come to light earlier I would have made sure it got a full airing,” Jacobs said. “It’s cause for concern when a consultant is hired for this sort of purpose to address a major leadership position.”

He said there is no point in his looking into the matter any further. “She’s in the past for us,” he said of Scott.

“But,” he added, “not for Boston.”

Sean P. Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com.
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This could be really bad or not a big deal at all. Was the problem managerial incompetence, a lack of communication, or just a personality clash of some kind between her and someone on the board? Or something else entirely? For such a long article, there's a frustrating lack of specifics.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

This report from Atlanta gives a lot more context:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/marta-board-spends-nearly-150k-business-psychologi/nSXws/

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has learned the MARTA board spent nearly $150,000 on a business psychologist after employees complained general manager Beverly Scott's management style was abusive.
[...]
The board hired the business psychology company in direct response to employee complaints about Scott.
[...]
However, well-placed sources tell Belcher employees at all levels of the agency accused Scott of a management style that was well over the line.
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The proper term for this is probably more "management consultant" or "leadership consultant" than "psychologist". Calling him a psychologist makes the article misleading and obfuscates the issues. But the circumstances here and the fact that the consultant was forced upon her doesn't look good.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Can we nickname her the 3rd rail?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

massmotorist said:
The proper term for this is probably more "management consultant" or "leadership consultant" than "psychologist". Calling him a psychologist makes the article misleading and obfuscates the issues. But the circumstances here and the fact that the consultant was forced upon her doesn't look good.
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It is indeed quite alarming. Not sure I see things being better at the MBTA when the issues will be bigger, she has more people to manage, and there's a lot less money to go around in a substantially more expensive metropolitan area. Something just doesn't seem quite right about all of it.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Green Line alert:
Green Line B experiencing 15-20 min delays due to heavy ridership 11/20/2012 1:48 PM
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But but! It's off-peak!!!

What's next, Green Line B experiencing delays due to Sun rising in the east?
 
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