General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[Lurker]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

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

Thank the Wall Corporation for getting a contract with the city to put up street furniture for almost free in exchange for being allowed to sell advertising space.

Imagine if corporate or otherwise private sponsorship of stations was allowed? Sure the Boylston Bank of America Station, State Street State Street Station, McCopley Station would be hokey, but damn if it wouldn't be beautifully maintained.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

That was tried -- remember State/Citizens Bank Plaza station? Didn't last, though.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Imagine if corporate or otherwise private sponsorship of stations was allowed?

Common practice in Japan. The difference, of course, is that transit is largely privatized, designed and built to last, while turning a profit.

 

[czsz]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I still think the Carlie Card system is a huge upgrade over the token system.

But it came so late; I swear the MBTA was the last transit system in the world to move away from tokens. The phase-in was a disaster, with some stations accepting cards and others only accepting tokens. Tourists are constantly left confused about the distinction between the CharlieCard and Ticket, and I don't blame them; it just seems like a way to squeeze more money out of those not in the know.

 

[Lurker]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Common practice in Japan. The difference, of course, is that transit is largely privatized, designed and built to last, while turning a profit.

Sounds like BERy before highway subsidies and other state interference destroyed their market. Seriously, the original system, equipment, and stations all held up far longer than anything built thereafter. I cringe at what has happened to most of the original stations. With some exceptions at Charles St and the Aquarium.

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

But it came so late; I swear the MBTA was the last transit system in the world to move away from tokens. The phase-in was a disaster, with some stations accepting cards and others only accepting tokens. Tourists are constantly left confused about the distinction between the CharlieCard and Ticket, and I don't blame them; it just seems like a way to squeeze more money out of those not in the know.

Huh? The MBTA was one of the first in the US. While NYC had paper tickets first, they havent moved as far forward as the MBTA has.

Philly and Miami only switched from tokens in the past year.

 

[czsz]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

As I said, I'm not sure it's so great that Boston has bifurcated a touch-card and ticket system. Everyone in New York uses the MetroCard, and it's fairly easy and quick for people to swipe. Sure, CharlieCards get thrown out less often, but the tickets get thrown out more, and they take an annoyingly long time to go through the reader.

I didn't know tokens were still being phased out. I'm not surprised Philadelphia still used them, though. It's basically got a forgotten transit system as it is.

 

[kennedy]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Imagine if corporate or otherwise private sponsorship of stations was allowed?

Read Jennifer Government (terrible plot but sort of interesting idea book) lately?

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I didn't know tokens were still being phased out. I'm not surprised Philadelphia still used them, though. It's basically got a forgotten transit system as it is.

Heres yet another example. In San Francisco, Muni, the turnstiles accept....COINS. Not even tokens, you dump in a bunch of change (like our old buses) and it lets you in.

Theyre now moving to a charlie type system

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?blogid=55&entry_id=40004

 

[kennedy]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

A better idea for corporate/private sponsorship would be across the whole MBTA. Change the rules on having business in the stations so that they're required to maintain their location as they would any other franchise. Imagine every MBTA station with a B of A ATM, a Dunkin Donuts, and a UPS drop box? Have NECN pay to install monitors that shows only NECN throughout the day. I know they have a Dunks in Gov't Ctr., but it's dirty and really doesn't help the station (I'd rather just walk a block and go to the one on the street, wouldn't you?)

 

[czsz]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Imagine every MBTA station with a B of A ATM, a Dunkin Donuts, and a UPS drop box? Have NECN pay to install monitors that shows only NECN throughout the day.

And I imagine a station in which I have an increased chance of getting robbed, smelling nasty spilled coffee everywhere, and having to listen to blaring NECN.

(There's also a Dunkin in Harvard Sq., and both a Honey Dew and an ATM in Porter...they're not doing much for these places)

I'd rather just walk a block and go to the one on the street, wouldn't you?

When looking for a new location, I'm sure the stores would rather do the same, and not pay increased rent for the privilege of taking out the T's trash.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

No Honey Dew in Porter Square. There was a locally-owned placed called 'Hot & Cold' but it closed a few months ago.

 

[Shepard]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

May I throw in a bus-related non sequitur?

Number 1 bus from Cambridge to Back Bay at rush hour... wonderfully on time, surprisingly little traffic. Going well, right? Just before the Harvard (Mass Ave) Bridge, the bus pulls over and a DING dong DING plays to signify an automatic message is about to begin.

"To ensure on-time service, this bus will be standing by."

Bus driver: "Ten minutes, ten minutes stand by."

To ensure on time service?

... That was a nice walk over the bridge the rest of the way to work (never passed by a bus all the way to Hynes).

Lesson: The MBTA's only remedy for success is failure.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Lesson: The MBTA's only remedy for success is failure.

You may have a future in marketing, shepard!

Two quick hits:

D-Line yesterday morning, an MBTA Customer Service person was resplendent in a new, embroidered, T-purchased windbreaker (the back said "T Customer Service"). I believe the jacket was manufactured by our friends at Patagonia? So, how's the cash strapped T paying for that?

Blue Line yesterday evening, had the privilege of riding in a new Siemens car that featured no interior illumination (perhaps a cost-savings initiative). WTF?

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I'm all for peer-review processes, but this strikes me as a half-assed effort to draw a chalk circle around the bull's eye, without a mechanism (i.e. funds, political will) to throw a dart.

Green Line crash prompts independent review of MBTA safety
May 26, 2009
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick ordered a review of MBTA safety practices from a national group of experts. The review follows this month?s Green Line crash that sent nearly 50 people to the hospital.

"An independent review of MBTA policies and procedures is the necessary step forward to ensure a thorough review of best practices from around the country," Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr. said in a press release issued this afternoon. "It is our responsibility to T riders to leave no stone unturned as we examine safety-related policies and procedures for the MBTA?s subway and trolley system."

Aloisi and Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, have asked that a national peer group -- the American Public Transportation Association -- conduct the review of employment and training practices and the feasibility of implementing technology that would automatically stop cars that run red lights. Such technology is employed widely on other systems, as well as the T?s other lines.

The T has had two serious rear-end crashes on the Green Line within a year. The most recent crash near Government Center on May 8 was blamed on a distracted operator text-messaging his girlfriend. In a crash last year near Waban station, an operator who ran a red light died after her vehicle struck another trolley from behind.

Such peer review panels usually include three to five specialists from around the country. The National Transportation Safety Board is also reviewing the T?s two Green Line crashes.

 

[kennedy]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

manufactured by our friends at Patagonia

Quality stuff, but if you look really, really hard you can find some stellar deals on the internets. How they managed to pay for the embroidery, I have no clue.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Back in the day BERy used to have such high safety records they were barred from national transit listings because they won too much.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Van -- you know your history, for sure. Was BERy unionized? Just curious...

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

That I don't know. Maybe? If they were the unions probably didn't have the power then that they have now.

 

[bbfen]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

That I don't know. Maybe? If they were the unions probably didn't have the power then that they have now.

I also don't know, but can speak to unions of the era. You can strike "probably" from your sentence. At the time, unions were for fair pay, worker protection and the like. Nowadays, it's "What can management do for me?" above all else (in all unions, not just transit).