General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Another bad morning for the T:

MBTA Maintenance Vehicle Stuck on Tracks

Buses are replacing MBTA Red Line service between Alewife and Harvard stations Wednesday morning, after a track maintenance vehicle got disabled on the tracks just south of Porter Station.

The MBTA says passengers can board a shuttle bus at Johnson's Gate at Harvard Station.

Crews are trying to get the equipment off the main line.

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MBTA trolleys collide in Dorchester, injuries reported

An MBTA trolley collision on the Mattapan line in Dorchester left several people injured Wednesday morning.

An out-of-service trolley with no passengers hit another trolley carrying passengers, an MBTA spokesman.

The spokesman said there were at least seven injuries, including the two trolley operators. The injuries were said to be bumps, bruises and back pain.

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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

DC metro is also a commuter rail system (vastly better than ours, for all its problems) so you should add those numbers up too.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

That gets it to 964,000, but then you have to start mucking with DC's other commuter rail systems, VRE and MARC, to get a decent comparison, but separating out the Baltimore share from DC share on MARC is problematic.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

VRE and MARC have a total weekday ridership shy of 50,000 so it's really not much of a difference.

Let's say you go ahead and add 40,000 to the WMATA numbers. Rounding error, practically speaking.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Quick analysis:

They added a new category called "BRT" since July ... this is confusing. What routes count as BRT? Anyway, the numbers only make sense if you assume that the counts under "BRT" were formerly listed under "Bus". In that case, there's a year-over-year change of about -150,000 rides this month on the Bus/BRT mode. For light rail, it's -200,000 for the month of October. So the ridership growth and "record breaking month" was largely carried on the nearly +900,000 rides carried by the rapid transit lines.

What's even more remarkable is that it's not weekday ridership that's boosted the ridership by this astonishing amount. The weekday breakdown shows only about +6,000 per weekday. That's dwarfed by the Saturday breakdown: +25,000 and the Sunday breakdown: +41,000!
This year has seen a trend of increased weekend ridership so this is not out of character, although fairly strong.

I do have to say that I wonder about these estimates. Let's say there were 22 normal weekdays in October, 4 Sundays, 4 Saturdays, and Columbus Day treated as a Saturday. That nominally adds up to a bit over +400,000 rides. Where's the other half million?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

A clever fellow over at Universalhub suggested that the weekend increase matches well with ridership from extended hours.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

HenryAlan said:
A clever fellow over at Universalhub suggested that the weekend increase matches well with ridership from extended hours.
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Highly plausible. Does anyone remember what the expected/necessary ridership was for late night service? What level of late night ridership was necessary to be "worth it" (...in extra club spending, cab rides saved, accidents avoided...)
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Arlington said:
Highly plausible. Does anyone remember what the expected/necessary ridership was for late night service? What level of late night ridership was necessary to be "worth it" (...in extra club spending, cab rides saved, accidents avoided...)
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The MBTA admitted on multiple occasions that they actually have NO benchmark established! They are simply playing it entirely by ear and "seeing how it goes."
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

datadyne007 said:
The MBTA admitted on multiple occasions that they actually have NO benchmark established! They are simply playing it entirely by ear and "seeing how it goes."
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In other words, "The MBTA has no clue how to do socio-economic value estimation, they just run the trains (poorly)."

Which is why the agency can never get adequately funded.
 
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Can I just say how much I love the announcement boards at T stations?

I have saved so much time (probably hours at this point) of waiting just because I knew that I had to sprint to catch a train.

Simple things that make a huge difference.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I have to say: the placement of some of them is rather wacky.

I think my favorite is connecting to the Red Line at Park Street. When you go down the stairs to the Ashmont/Braintree side, the very first electronic sign you see is something like "Alewife 4 min".

Yeah... whoever placed that sign doesn't make that connection often, or ever.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I have to say: the placement of some of them is rather wacky.
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Agreed. And can we get some of them either outside the station or before the fare gates? You pay, walk in, see the train's not coming for 10-15 mins, and unless you have a monthly, you're stuck there if you want to get a coffee or find an alternate route.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I'd love to see a couple announcement signs in the main South Station lobby...do I have time to run upstairs to CVS or grab a cheeseburger?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Can't say I've seen them elsewhere, but Forest Hills does have a sign by the upper busway entrance, which is great. Getting off the bus, you immediately know whether you need to rush or can saunter, stop for a coffee at Mike's, etc. That should be standard.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

HenryAlan said:
Can't say I've seen them elsewhere, but Forest Hills does have a sign by the upper busway entrance, which is great. Getting off the bus, you immediately know whether you need to rush or can saunter, stop for a coffee at Mike's, etc. That should be standard.
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Davis has them outside the station adjacent to the busway and inside the station for both head-houses prior to entering the fare gates.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I think Baker will favor small-scale projects, with good PR value and with an emphasis on technology over the Patrick-boondoggles

Notification, wayfinding, mobile aps, high-speed tolling, high speed parking garage exit payment -- expect to see these
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

whighlander said:
I think Baker will favor small-scale projects, with good PR value and with an emphasis on technology over the Patrick-boondoggles

Notification, wayfinding, mobile aps, high-speed tolling, high speed parking garage exit payment -- expect to see these
Click to expand...

I don't know what this is referring to, and its also important to note how far the administration (any administrations reach is). Patrick hasn't killed SCR, but I don't see many boondoggles.

I think Patrick has actually been a great Gov. for transport and would do more if given the opportunity. But some wins to count:

1) move GLX forward
2) New Red and Orange cars ordered and paid for
3) Fairmount line stations and path to DMUs
4) First Infill stop on OL supporting massive TOD
5) SL to Chelsea
6) Beacon park sold and in process of straightening
7) DMU expansions
8) High Speed toll on Tobin and timeline for Pike
9) real time tracking apps and mobile ticketing app for Commuter rail
10) Logan international destination expansions (not T, but same transport theme and a huge success)
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

choo said:
1) move GLX forward
2) New Red and Orange cars ordered and paid for
3) Fairmount line stations and path to DMUs
4) First Infill stop on OL supporting massive TOD
5) SL to Chelsea
6) Beacon park sold and in process of straightening
7) DMU expansions
8) High Speed toll on Tobin and timeline for Pike
9) real time tracking apps and mobile ticketing app for Commuter rail
10) Logan international destination expansions (not T, but same transport theme and a huge success)
Click to expand...

That's a longer list than the last few governors combined.
 
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