Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos
^^^I hate the saying but 'first world problems'.
Well, yes, since these are problems that occur in the first world, that is a technically true statement. But as I understand the way the term is used, I don't think this really counts. This is the sort of stuff I think of as "first world problems:
http://first-world-problems.com/.
Let's say that this delay adds 5 minutes to making the transfer. 2 minute walk from Park to DTX. Wait an average of 2.5 minutes at DTX for an Orange Line (which run at a scheduled frequency of 5 minutes during rush hour). Multiple that 5 minutes by going to and from work five days a week and you're looking at an hour of your life wasted because we let ourselves get in the position where we had to close down one of our core stations for years.
But let's say you're not doing this in rush hour. Let's say you're doing it mid-day or in the evening or on the weekends (people work and travel then too). Then the Orange drops to closer to 10 minute headways. Suddenly that extra 5 minutes becomes an extra 7 or 8. 7.5 x 2 trips in and out x 5 days a week, now you're looking at an hour and 15 minutes wasted because we as a society got lazy.
And let's say the Orange Line is experiencing delays. Hey, it happens. That much more of your time is wasted.
By closing GC, the T is making its riders reliant on more components of the system. More components means more opportunities for things to go awry. If you're smart, you'll probably allot extra time into your schedule in case something goes wrong in this suddenly much more fragile system. So what should only be an extra 5 or 10 minutes each day turns into an extra 10 or 20 minutes because of that uncertainty factor. (What if you just miss the Orange Line and then just miss the Blue Line? Suddenly your time waiting on the platform is doubled from average to maximum.) Multiply that out for every day that week...
Now, let's assume you're able-bodied and not so tired from working and/or all-too-common sleep deprivation, and that the weather is nice. You decide to walk. 7 minutes, one way. Same math, comes out to about an hour a week, and you have to pay an extra fare. If you're making MA minimum wage, that extra fare will cost you what you earned in fifteen minutes of work. (Ironically, in one day, it'll cost you a half-hour's wages in order to walk for fifteen minutes.)
Now let's assume that you're carrying groceries, or a heavy backpack, or have been on your feet all day at work. Or let's assume that you're going from one part-time job to the next (not uncommon these days), or that you need to get home by a certain time to pick up your kids from a daycare center that closes promptly at five, or that having to leave that extra ten minutes earlier in the morning makes you leave before your kids wake up, which means they don't see you until you come home in the evening, exhausted and not in a position to pay your kids enough attention.
I get it, life sucks in different ways for everyone. But people already get jerked around enough. Hassles and stressors created by poorly-designed plans such as this are not luxuries that are taken away from a spoiled population, they have tangible ramifications and consequences for hundreds of thousands of people.
Sorry to go on. Hope I'm making sense.