General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^^ Such a novel idea -- I'll start saving box-tops so the T can purchase new vehicles.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I think the arrival messages are great and always accurate. Only sometimes is there no announcement at all. Being in the lobby and hearing "train is now approaching" is fantastic.

It's great on the Orange Line stops in the Southwest Corridor because you can hear the announcements while you're still strolling down the sidewalk outside the station. "Approaching" gives you enough time to run inside, go through the gates and down a flight of stairs. "Arriving" only leaves you with just enough time to have the doors closed in your face - if you're lucky.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

AP090309018084.jpg


The T bake sale. They picked a good day for it; looks like it's going well.

http://gawker.com/5167088/neighbors-in-the-north-going-south
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Somebody caption that with an Epic Fail. Felt kind of sorry for them though
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Boston.com - March 23, 2009
T general manager envisions sharp service cuts

March 23, 2009

BOSTON --The MBTA's budget problems are so severe General Manager Daniel Grabauskas says commuter rail may have to be dramatically reduced at night and eliminated altogether on the weekends.

Grabauskas said so Monday as he revealed he had filed the paperwork necessary to consider a fare increase for the T's subways, buses and trains. The agency faces a $160 million deficit next year and has over $8 billion in longterm debt.

Grabauskas says 50 percent of rail commuters travel during weekday rush hours.

Subway, bus and rail service is already scaled back in off-peak times. Grabauskas says the T would have to sharply cut trains on evenings and eliminate them on weekends to see any big savings.

The Legislature is considering bills to help the T with its financial problems.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Boston.com - March 23, 2009
Mass. transit agency leasing more billboard sites

March 23, 2009

BOSTON --The MBTA announced a dramatic expansion in its billboard advertising program Monday, saying it planned to offer 32 new sites in prime locations across eastern Massachusetts.

The transit agency, now about $8 billion in debt, estimates it could generate $6 million in new annual revenue under the proposed 20-year billboard lease. That could double to $12 million annually if the state's billboard regulator expands digital outdoor advertising, a change that would allow a single billboard site to offer multiple messages without the traditional installation and removal of paper signs.

Currently the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority receives only $3 million from the 200 billboards already on its property.

MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabuskas said the authority was making an "aggressive" expansion after a Supreme Judicial Court ruling last April that declared the T not only had the right to bypass local zoning ordinances by erecting billboards on its property, but a responsibility to maximize non-fare revenues. Somerville and Medford had challenged T billboards in their communities.

"Billboards are not popular," Grabauskas told reporters at T headquarters. "But one of the things that we have been hearing, I sure have been hearing, for several years now is, 'Take advantage of your real estate, take advantage of the locations you have,' and every dollar that we can earn by virtue of the property, in this case, that we own is money that we can turn back into the system and that we don't have to look to either the taxpayers or the farepayers to pay."

The proposal that will be offered for bid beginning Wednesday show sites along Interstate 93 in Boston and other rights of way in such communities as Andover, Braintree, Needham and South Attleborough.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

T riders taking the Facebook route
By Julie Masis
Globe Correspondent / March 29, 2009

People who live in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Moscow, Montreal, and some 250 other cities can log on to Google Maps not only for walking and driving directions but also for instructions on how to get to where they need to go via public transportation.

Bostonians do not have that option, but a 20-year-old college student from Cambridge is trying to do something about it.

Last month, Luke Bornheimer created a Facebook group - which he named "Put the MBTA on Google Transit!!!" - to petition the MBTA to list the city's buses and trains with Google Maps. The group's membership grew to 135 people in less than a month.

"It seems so simple, and frankly the Boston area as a whole looks a little silly for not having their transit authority's buses and trains listed on the website," Bornheimer wrote on the group's site. "So . . . invite all your friends, anyone who rides the T, or simply someone who feels that this is a logical and simple step to more accessibility for the MBTA and Boston."

Bornheimer has already phoned the MBTA with his request, but he said he will approach the T again with a link to his group to demonstrate that many people would like to see it happen.

Bornheimer's Facebook initiative is the most recent example of MBTA-related groups on the social networking website, where Boston-area residents have spearheaded efforts with goals ranging from stopping fare increases to bringing back tokens. There are also groups in which Facebook members discuss their favorite T stations and least favorite bus routes, groups for people who support extending the Green Line and commuter rail service, and even a forum where females share stories about the perverts they've encountered underground.

With more than 700 members, the most popular MBTA Facebook group is called "I Wish the MBTA Was 24 Hours." The second-most-popular group, with 512 supporters, "The MBTA Should Be Open All Night," has much the same thrust, and a third group devoted to the same topic numbers 112.

Former Dorchester resident Tim Skinner, 24, created "I Wish the MBTA Was 24 Hours" after he missed the last Green Line train from Allston and had to make the two-hour walk home - he had no money for a taxi, he said.

Skinner moved to Brooklyn this winter (New York City's all-night subway had something to do with it, he said), but he still thinks 24-hour service should be implemented in Boston. It would probably increase the T's revenue, he said, if the trains ran until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, picking up students when the bars closed.

But no one at the MBTA is even contemplating all-night train service at this point, regardless of what people on Facebook want. "The T barely has the resources to operate existing services, never mind adding additional services," said T spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

Pesaturo says the MBTA can't run trains at night because that's when maintenance work on the signals and tracks takes place, and an experiment in late-night weekend bus service called the Night Owl that ran from 2001 to 2005 was a money loser.

While it's good that the Internet gives young people a place to express their opinions, Pesaturo said the most effective way to voice concerns is to e-mail them directly to the T.

And, incidentally, that's exactly what another Facebook group urges users to do.

"[Expletive] the MBTA!!! Complain to them!" has more than 100 members and includes the MBTA's phone number and website for anyone who has something to complain about.

"If we get enough complaints . . . maybe they'll change something," writes an Emerson College student calling herself Meaghatron Patricia Moulton who started the group. "I called and complained many times, but the person on the phone always says, 'Well . . . we can't do anything unless we get more complaints.' So get on it!!! Let's make the MBTA a 24-hour service that runs on time!"

Oh, and by the way, the public transportation directions on Google Maps?

Pesaturo promises that the MBTA is working on them. Boston's public transportation network should be on Google Maps by late spring, he wrote in an e-mail. But, he added, the Facebook group didn't have anything to do with the decision.

Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo confirmed that Google has spoken with the MBTA, and said "it's great" that there is a Facebook group of people who would like to see Boston's buses and trains on Google Maps.

A similar effort by Brown University students helped get the public transportation network in Providence on Google, she said, because it made officials "feel confident that it was important for their riders."

"Community support, especially when the project is starting out, is hugely helpful," she said.
? Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Link
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Did anyone else get an MBTA Rail Rapid Transit Passenger Survey today?

If so, how did you rate the service in the last section?

I tried to be fair. Some high marks and some low.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

"People who live in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Moscow, Montreal, and some 250 other cities can log on to Google Maps not only for walking and driving directions but also for instructions on how to get to where they need to go via public transportation.

Bostonians do not have that option, but a 20-year-old college student from Cambridge is trying to do something about it."

Wait, wait, what is wrong with the current map system on the mbta.com website? Doesn't that allow people to search how to get from place to place using public transportation?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Yes, but if people are beginning to get used to finding that information on Google Maps, the MBTA should join into that system.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^^ Yeah, GMaps is the new standard, and it's easy to access on the iPhone as well.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Former Dorchester resident Tim Skinner, 24, created "I Wish the MBTA Was 24 Hours" after he missed the last Green Line train from Allston and had to make the two-hour walk home - he had no money for a taxi, he said.

WTF? Was all his money under a mattress? He couldn't go to an ATM? They're 24 hours...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I wonder if he thought of taking the last #66 bus, which runs later than the last inbound Green Line train. That at least would have gotten him to Dudley Square, and a shorter walk home.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^^
The 66 is a whole nother can of worms, comepletely different than what runs latest.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Or the 1 which runs very late
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Get ready for some bull shit:

Details of drastic MBTA cuts
April 10, 2009 09:37 AM

By Globe Staff

Eliminate Green Line stops at Boston University, St. Paul Street, and everything on the E line beyond Brigham Circle.

Cut the private carrier bus program used by more than 600,000 annual riders in Hull, Canton, Medford, and Winthrop.

End weekday commuter rail service after 7 p.m.

The MBTA outlined drastic cuts in an internal budget analysis obtained by the Globe. By slashing 805 jobs and service used by almost 52 million annual riders, the agency could save a projected $75 million. It would be combined with fare hikes that would generate another $85 million to close a $160 million deficit.

The agency has delayed making the contingency plan public as it awaits action from the Legislature on a potential gas tax increase designed to rescue the state's transportation system.

Here is a full list of the cuts under consideration by the MBTA:

Bus
- Reduce weekday evening bus service by 50 percent after 8 p.m.
- Reduce weekend bus service by 50 percent
- Eliminate service at Quincy and Lynn bus garages after 9 p.m. weekdays and all day on weekends
- Eliminate highest net cost per passenger bus routes
- Moderate "surgical" cuts to bus service
- Eliminate routes due to network redundancy
- Reduce THE RIDE service area
Annual Ridership Loss: 15,524,761
T Jobs Lost: 361

Subway
- Eliminate customer service agents in subway stations
- Eliminate Mattapan trolley after 8 p.m. weekdays and all day weekends
- Eliminate selected Green Line B branch surface stations: BU East, BU West, and Pleasant St.
- Eliminate selected Green Line C branch surface stations: Brandon Hall, St. Paul St., and Hawes St.
- Eliminate E branch on weekends; extend C Line to Lechmere
- Eliminate E Line service beyond Brigham Circle
- Reduce weekday midday light rail and heavy rail service by 50 percent from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- Reduce weekday evening light rail and heavy rail service by 50 percent after 8 p.m.
- Reduce weekend light rail and heavy rail service by 50 percent
Annual Ridership Loss: 28,344,935
T Jobs Lost: 441

Operations and Service Development

- Eliminate Suburban Bus Program subsidy
- Eliminate Private Carrier Bus Program in Hull, Canton, Medford, and Winthrop
- Eliminate Commuter Boat Program subsidy
- Reduce THE RIDE service area to within 0.75 miles of fixed route in 29 communities
Annual Ridership Loss: 2,264,470
T Jobs Lost: 3

Commuter Rail

- Eliminate weekday commuter rail service after 7 p.m.
- Eliminate all Saturday and Sunday commuter rail service
- Eliminate 16 commuter rail stations due to low usage or network redundancy
Annual Ridership Loss: 5,734,251
T Jobs Lost: -

Link

I didn't go through the comments but I can only imagine what they are like.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Those are some big cuts to the commuter rail. I think it's pretty dumb. Eliminating all Saturday and Sunday trips? This is going to cause an influx of vehicles driving into Boston for a weekend day trip.

I assume for the cutting of weekday light rail service after 8 pm they will make an exception for the when the Sox have games.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Those are some big cuts to the commuter rail. I think it's pretty dumb. Eliminating all Saturday and Sunday trips? This is going to cause an influx of vehicles driving into Boston for a weekend day trip.

I can't imagine it's good for many businesses that do well on weekends either.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I think one of the few things that can be sacrificed in these times is mass transit service. Both the commuter rail and the subway have seen record ridership in recent months and more and more people are depending on these services for their livelihood.

Before I begin a rant, I think it's a big mistake to make cuts here. I know there's a huge deficit, but is this really the answer?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Before I begin a rant, I think it's a big mistake to make cuts here. I know there's a huge deficit, but is this really the answer?


Of course its that, thats why theyve proposed to turn the MBTA into something resembling the LMA shuttle.

By making these cuts so insane, they want the legislators to give them money, which they should.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

There goes the customer service.

So, why the cuts for BU West and East ? This can't be based on ridership.
 

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