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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Green line was also severely delayed due to a disabled train in Copley. Got stuck in a tunnel for 20 minutes. Fun times.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Given how often trains breakdown, i am surprised it takes so long to get things moving sometimes, especially when the train behind just pushes it.

I can certainly be a victim of my own ignorance here, but is there any special equipment needed to push the train? Why not just an announcement about a dead train, they will push it and get everyone to SS and make people get off to move the train- is it time spent doing some diagnostics?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

choo said:
Given how often trains breakdown, i am surprised it takes so long to get things moving sometimes, especially when the train behind just pushes it.

I can certainly be a victim of my own ignorance here, but is there any special equipment needed to push the train? Why not just an announcement about a dead train, they will push it and get everyone to SS and make people get off to move the train- is it time spent doing some diagnostics?
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On Red/Orange/Blue, usually just push it with the next available train, then dump both trains' passengers so the push unit can get the dead unit into a yard. On Green, can vary depending on whether it's front/middle/rear car that's dead or proximity to the nearest downtown storage sidings. By the time they've had to radio dispatch for a helper the crew has checked around enough to know it's not as simple a fix as resetting some onboard switches.

The push ends up being the fastest way to clear the ROW despite the additional inconvenience of usually stranding both the dead train's and the rescue train's passengers at the nearest (or nearest major station's) platform. There's only so much you can do in the middle of a dark tunnel to troubleshoot, and getting outside to look around usually isn't an option when there's 3rd rail around. The reason they kick out both the disabled and the rescue train's passengers at once at the nearest platform is also for efficiency. It's too cumbersome to line up 6 cars to a platform, then maneuver the other 6 cars to the platform to complete a run when the dead half of that conjoined train has had its controls disabled. The disabled set has to throw itself in neutral to move, then set the emergency brakes at a stop because to the live train it's nothing but deadweight. Chews up less time to just get it over with, kick off all passengers, and clear the area ASAP than it does to try to finesse it.


These have been best practices for a century. That's not the problem. The rate of failures from incredible disintegrating old equipment is the problem. And so is customer service being ill-prepared for such a high rate of failures and dropping the ball with inadequate information a few too many times. It's not an inherent flaw in the system. Their best practices are the best practices when the rate of failure is something resembling 'natural' level. This is just what happens when you keep pounding vehicles 10 years past their retirement or rebuild dates into dust.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Thanks, makes since. hopefully some new cars and tracks can help solve our duct-tape solutions.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

On the twelfth commute of Christmas
By Michael on Tue, 12/17/2013 - 9:39am

...the MBTA gave me

12 switching problems
11 Green Line breakdowns
10 swinging backpacks
9 spit-on drivers
8 Red Lines freezing
7 bunched-up buses
6 broken signals
5 missing snakes!
4 idle cops
3 dead trains
2 broken doors
and a bag search for my safety!

Credit to Michael on UHub: http://www.universalhub.com/2013/trains-dont-wait-snow-fail#comment-316935
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Today should be the day the MBTA wakes up and realizes that they should focus more on upgrading the core system than pursue these expensive pipe dreams to extend the commuter rail everywhere. 2nd disabled train on the Orange Line at Tufts. I waited 8 minutes for the train at Chinatown. Completely full. Next train? 13 minutes later. I guarantee this one is going to be full too. What a clusterfuck. I'm actually laughing at how bad it is today.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

They really really do. All the unsexy stuff F-Line talks about. Absolutely no reason the subway shouldn't be humming people right along out of downtown.

Because this will never be better! (I walked from the home from work and laughed at this with a nice beer in hand)

preview
 
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Is this something like what you were trying to post? Looks really bad tonight.

TEn85Y3.jpg


I wonder how much of that is due to the snow tonight though.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The Orange Line was running 10 minute headways during "normal" rush yesterday, and it seems today too. When it was running at all.

They running out of working vehicles?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Matthew said:
The Orange Line was running 10 minute headways during "normal" rush yesterday, and it seems today too. When it was running at all.

They running out of working vehicles?
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Quite possibly. Cold starts under caked-over ice are murder on aging motors. They probably had lots of them declared unfit for duty in the yard the last couple mornings. If the max headway is that low and there is no immediate delay culprit keeping them that low all day, that suggests a fleet problem.


Watch Wellington at rush the next couple days. On a normal peak hour the yard's virtually empty, with rarely more than 1 or 2 complete trainsets laying up on the west side of the garage, and little else except some incomplete 2- or 4-car consists awaiting a pair being worked on in the garage. If there are lots more than usual at 8:00am or 4:00pm, they're scattered more haphazardly around the yard instead of arranged orderly at the starting gates, or there are more detached pairs than usual...that's the giveaway that they have too many walking wounded that couldn't go into service at all.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

After this winter, is there any way that some sort of accelerated process that could go through the legislature to get new rolling stock ASAP? I and many others feel like the T is about to reach a breaking point this winter with the Red and Orange stock. More trains are failing more often. People need to start pressuring our local government and politicians to take immediate action, otherwise this is just going to continue to get worse.
 
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^ Is the acquisition of new cars something that can be rushed? I thought the transportation bill that was passed did provide funds for a new Red and Orange fleet. The process just takes a long time to get done.

What's the soonest possible date we could expect delivery of new cars if the bidding was put out tomorrow? 2017?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

datadyne007 said:
After this winter, is there any way that some sort of emergency funding could go through the legislature to get new rolling stock ASAP? I and many others feel like the T is about to reach a breaking point this winter with the Red and Orange stock. More trains are failing more often. People need to start pressuring our local government and politicians to take immediate action, otherwise this is just going to continue to get worse.
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Not really. That contract could get inked tomorrow and it still takes a minimum 3 or 4 years for design-build-test to work to completion. It's not like there's an assembly line sitting waiting for the go-ahead to start mass producing to the T's spec. They can only go as fast as they can go...and that includes all the final hoops-jumping on the legalities.

That pooch got screwed long ago not funding it sooner. Doesn't matter if they wrap the deal up this year, we've got at least 4 more winters of this. At least.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

BussesAin'tTrains said:
^ Is the acquisition of new cars something that can be rushed? I thought the transportation bill that was passed did provide funds for a new Red and Orange fleet. The process just takes a long time to get done.

What's the soonest possible date we could expect delivery of new cars if the bidding was put out tomorrow? 2017?
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Yes, the funds were passed in that transportation bill. Essentially my question is if it can be accelerated any further. I'm not sure it can necessarily be rushed.

F-Line to Dudley said:
At least.
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Ok, so really the thing is to keep the heat on the T and get these contracts as soon as possible.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Okay, I wonder that too. At a certain point though, it's really a matter of getting quality product from a quality manufacturer. I don't know how accelerated that can be. I think a bigger thing to pressure the T about it making sure they actually do insist upon quality.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Green Line should get better by next Dec., though. The first wave of Type 7 pilot cars that have been out all year in the midlife rebuild program start coming back in a couple of months, then the pace of the program starts accelerating drastically. Since the first units into the program were the proverbial worst-of-the-worst, they will have a more reliable fleet to choose from when the rebuilds are back. And will have more options for the last couple winters of the program to lean heavier on the 'fresh' cars and play hide-and-seek with the weaker members.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

F-Line to Dudley said:
Green Line should get better by next Dec., though. The first wave of Type 7 pilot cars that have been out all year in the midlife rebuild program start coming back in a couple of months, then the pace of the program starts accelerating drastically. Since the first units into the program were the proverbial worst-of-the-worst, they will have a more reliable fleet to choose from when the rebuilds are back. And will have more options for the last couple winters of the program to lean heavier on the 'fresh' cars and play hide-and-seek with the weaker members.
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The Green Line has always been a shitshow. I don't think anyone actually expects the Green Line to function. The heavy rail used to be the reliable transit in Boston and that is running further from the truth every passing minute. That to me is concerning.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

At least this will give us the leverage against the T raising the fare? Maybe? Possibly? Probably not. I really do hope that the next few years we see the T devolve to a 3rd world transit system. At least that may shock the government to invest on infracture. Then again, a few bridges collapsed and the government did absolutely nothing...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^ Federal money is a non-starter as long as we have a divided, ideological, spiteful government. Reps are so tied up in hating anything and everything Dems like that I doubt we'll get a quality investment package in transportation from the Feds until at least 2017...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

If only they had kept a dozen or so blue line trains. Yes they were shot beyond belief, but even one extra train would do wonders on a day like today.
 
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