General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

If you know the route number and the time of day, the T can figure out who the drivers are. Write a letter.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^ I have,nothings changed!
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

WARNING: You may not be able to tolerate the level of incompetence contained herein:

Trolleys Collide In Boston; 49 People Hurt



BOSTON ? A trolley rear-ended another trolley that was stopped between two underground stations in downtown Boston on Friday night, injuring about 50 people, and one of the conductors told police he was texting at the time of the crash, officials said.

About 100 people were evacuated, and 49 were taken to area hospitals, but officials said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

The 24-year-old operator of the moving trolley, who was the most seriously injured, admitted to police that he was sending text messages from his cell phone when the accident occurred, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority general manager Dan Grabauskas said.

The MBTA has stepped up enforcement of the rule against cell phone use by operators following a trolley crash in Newton last May that killed the driver of a trolley that collided with another. Although there were reports the driver was using a cell phone just before the crash, an investigation ultimately determined there was no evidence she was using her phone.

Grabauskas said the operator of the trolley that struck the parked trolley admitted to investigators who interviewed him in a hospital he saw the red light ahead of him as he was texting, but it was too late to stop.

"I can tell you it's difficult to contain my outrage at hearing this," Grabauskas said.

Officials would not release the conductor's name, but MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said he had been on the job for less than two years.

Most of the victims suffered cuts or skeletal injuries, said John Gill, deputy superintendent of Boston EMS. Two people had chest pains.

Some passengers had to be extracted from the trains, deputy fire chief Richard DiBenedetto said. Others were taken from the station on stretchers or backboards.

The collision occurred at 7:18 p.m. between Park and Government Center stations. A westbound two-car trolley was stopped at a red signal, waiting to enter Park Station, when it was hit by another two-car trolley.

The damage was limited to the front of the moving train and the rear of the train that was struck, Grabauskas said.

An investigation will try to determine why the moving trolley did not stop. Grabauskas had no estimates on how fast it was traveling.

Green Line service between the stations was shut down after the crash.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/trolleys-collide-in-bosto_n_200859.html
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Train 3612 is now listed as beyond repair.

That text message cost over a million dollars.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Just over a year since I last rode the T and no regrets.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Someone was killed by a blue line train on the same day.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Somehow I think the union will save the driver's job, under the radar, when the media stops covering the incident. He'll just be reassigned to a non motorman position. Getting rid of dead weight at the MBTA is harder than finding a virgin, of the feminine persuasion, in a whorehouse.

One would hope this would lead to some sort of ATO and modernized signal system for the Green Line. But that would require both funding AND competence.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

By a moped/scooter/vespa... you can get good ones for under a grand. My buddy just got one and loves it. Great if you live in the Boston/cambridge/somerville area. Save the T or car for inclement weather.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Lurker said:
One would hope this would lead to some sort of ATO and modernized signal system for the Green Line. But that would require both funding AND competence.
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No.

Automatic signaling crippled the MBTA (see red, orange lines).

If visual signals are good enough for cars and buses, theyre good enough for trains
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Hence the, "competence" part. ATO should allow for faster operation by a computerized system which has more information and precession than human reflexes.The ATO on the R&O lines is a dinosaur with the intelligence and capabilities of a toddler. Barney shouldn't be in charge of rush hour trains for piss sake.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Volvo is introducing automatic breaking to forestall collisions like this...there's always that.

Or, you know, the banning cell phones for drivers thing, which is cost-free.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The only way id like to see ATO in the MBTA is in a brand new, driverless subway system.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

jass said:
The only way id like to see ATO in the MBTA is in a brand new, driverless subway system.
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Any chance it could be one not bid, picked, or installed by the MBTA hack-factory? Prolly not.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

bbfen said:
Any chance it could be one not bid, picked, or installed by the MBTA hack-factory? Prolly not.
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Make a DOT mandatory high tech standard for ATO systems, provide stimulus money to upgrade every system in the country. Better than leaving it to the local dunces and having stimulus money spent filling pot holes on roads to nowhere. It would also free up a lot of motormen and door guards to drive light rail equipment.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Lurker said:
It would also free up a lot of motormen and door guards to drive light rail equipment.
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Lurker, have you moved into my neighborhood of Fantasy-Land? The unions would be infuriated at that mandate.

Jokes aside, I wish just 15% of the $26.8B the FHA is currently distributing was diverted from highway expansion (not maintenance, just expansion) to what I guess is now called an "alternative mode of transportation."

In short, the rail system, both light and heavy. Upgrade signaling, install ATOs, repair/restore heavy rail ROWs, expand high-speed rail outside of the NE corridor, etc.

The drivers, especially the ones from West Butthole and East Grundle, will scream, but Dept of Commerce suggests there is a 300% ROI on rail investment.

Plus, I've been paying taxes for 30-some years as highways have only improved. What'd the MBTA do lately to better itself? A state of perpetual construction (including half a bus shelter and two additional platforms in concurrent states of suck, and which still don't provide ADA access), three $80k fare gates in locked stations, a payment system that's only 25% implemented, reduced service and a damn painted bus pretending to be a trolley (all the while hoping no one notices it's a damn painted bus).

Yay, Boston.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^^^

Yes!

What he said!
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I dunno. I still think the Carlie Card system is a huge upgrade over the token system.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

statler said:
I dunno. I still think the Carlie Card system is a huge upgrade over the token system.
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The approaching train announcements are also great. People complain that theyre useless if youre at the platform, but theyre really for folks in the lobby who needs to know if they should run or not.

The silver line "next bus in _ minutes" is also very nice.

The number of bus shelters in the system has tripled in the past 4 or 5 years.

And yes, the construction takes forever, but the refurbed stations do look good.
 
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