General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Sorry for the double post. Here are some updates on the break-downs/signal/track problems of the past 48 hours:

Major MBTA Commuter Rail Delays Expected To Be Issue For Evening Commute

Keolis, the company that runs the commuter rail, is urging riders to avoid South Station Thursday afternoon and evening after major delays caused by signal issues left many riders frustrated, confused, and late to work Thursday morning.

Keolis said the issues were out of their hands–because the delays are due to an Amtrak signal problem at the main signal tower at South Station–and that they have no idea when the problems will be fixed.

The issues forced trains that would normally go into South Station to stop at Back Bay and Red and Orange Line stops.

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Wow. Telling passengers not to use New England's second largest transportation hub (after Logan Airport) during the evening commute is a HUGE deal. Weather is not the problem. The MBTA is an absolute mess.

MBTA to physically inspect panels after Orange Line accident, evacuations

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials say they will now more closely inspect the bolts and rivets that hold together the panels of its subway trains, after a panel fell off an Orange Line train Tuesday night, causing riders to kick through windows to escape smoke filling some of the station.

State transportation officials said they would now inspect such fasteners closely as part of regularly scheduled maintenance. They said they had previously done visual inspections but would now physically check them.

“Following last night’s incident involving two Orange Line trains, the MBTA is immediately incorporating inspection of body panel hardware as part of regular maintenance work on Orange Line cars,” the T’s general manager, Frank DePaola, said in a statement.

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This is what happens when the entire Orange Line rolling stock is over 35 years old.

Best case scenario: everything is going to get worse for a while before it starts to get better. New Orange/Red Line trains are still years away.

Worst case scenario: everything is going to get worse forever because our government doesn't care about funding mass transit and mostly wants to use it for debt-dumping and crony-ism.
 
bigeman312 said:
Sorry for the double post. Here are some updates on the break-downs/signal/track problems of the past 48 hours:

Major MBTA Commuter Rail Delays Expected To Be Issue For Evening Commute



Wow. Telling passengers not to use New England's second largest transportation hub (after Logan Airport) during the evening commute is a HUGE deal. Weather is not the problem. The MBTA is an absolute mess.
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Yeah, they should look into contracting the Commuter Rail to be run by a private company.
 
One of our resident railfans will probably have a better answer, but based on my reading of the news it looks like it's an underfunded AMTRAK issue.

Edit: Question: Is 'railfans' derogatory? I know I've seen it used in that way but I can't think of a better term for 'folks who are really interested in and well versed in mass-transit issues and systems'
 
That makes sense. The biggest issue facing mass transit here, and throughout the country, is the fact that it is vastly underfunded. You quoted me in your message. Not to be dense, but was it directed at me? I've never suggested privatization as the solution.
 
Your comment that "Weather is not the problem. The MBTA is an absolute mess." seemed to be pointing the finger at the T when they had zero control over this particular problem.
 
statler said:
Your comment that "Weather is not the problem. The MBTA is an absolute mess." seemed to be pointing the finger at the T when they had zero control over this particular problem.
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Sorry that you misinterpreted my comment. My comment was only that the "MBTA is an absolute mess." No blame assigned. I did not say that the MBTA's operations and their public nature are causing them to be a mess. I was purposefully not assigning blame. But, now that the conversation has been dragged there. The blame is clearly under-funding.

Go back and read my double-post (my bad). I'll quote the only part where blame was even being hinted (and it was for a different issue):

+1. The MBTA needs to get to a SGR or this will continue to happen.

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our government doesn't care about funding mass transit and mostly wants to use it for debt-dumping and crony-ism.
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I constantly beat the drum, both on here and in real life, about the importance of well-funded public transportation. I'm sorry that my statement appeared, to you, to be blaming the T operational staff or their public nature.

EDIT: Don't be so quick to rip on someone for a position they don't even hold when they are simply reporting the facts. (That the MBTA is an absolute mess today)
 
You were saying that "The MBTA (system) is (currently) a mess", while I read it as "The MBTA (institution) is a mess".

Fair enough. My apologies.
 
statler said:
Your comment that "Weather is not the problem. The MBTA is an absolute mess." seemed to be pointing the finger at the T when they had zero control over this particular problem.
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Yeah but it also didn't help that the Red Line and Orange Line also had problems of their own this morning. They share part of the blame for the entire mess today. At this point, it's probably cheaper and easier to demolish the whole system and rebuild the system as a whole new transit system. It's unfortunate that we can't raze each line one by one and rebuild everything including the rolling stock.

Also, is there any way we can evict the Fort Point Post Office and demolish the building so we can expand South Station? While expanding it wouldn't have solve today's issues, I think it's abundantly clear that South Station is operating above capacity and the Post Office's obstructionism is detrimental to the city as a whole.
 
KentXie said:
Also, is there any way we can evict the Fort Point Post Office and demolish the building so we can expand South Station? While expanding it wouldn't have solve today's issues, I think it's abundantly clear that South Station is operating above capacity and the Post Office's obstructionism is detrimental to the city as a whole.
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Evict the feds? How the hell you going to do that? You're better off trying to buy it from them in exchange for a property elsewhere (and that has been discussed to death in the SSX thread).
 
statler said:
Edit: Question: Is 'railfans' derogatory? I know I've seen it used in that way but I can't think of a better term for 'folks who are really interested in and well versed in mass-transit issues and systems'
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To my knowledge, it's not derogatory. I use it myself, both to describe myself and to refer to others. "Foamer" I'm less crazy about personally, but my sense is that it's a little more positive for ol' timers.

"Anorak", from Britain, is something I'm fine describing myself as (to anyone who will understand) but am wary when non-railfans use it- I get more of a derogatory vibe from that.

Anyway.

I noticed that, on the Providence/Stoughton Line, at least, they are canceling the "Severe Weather" trains- the new category developed this year for use in blizzards, etc. From the alerts, it looks like they may be succeeding in keeping the delays of non-canceled trains somewhat under control.

What kind of mechanical failure at Tower 1 could possibly take this long (or longer) to repair?
 
WormtownNative said:
Evict the feds? How the hell you going to do that? You're better off trying to buy it from them in exchange for a property elsewhere (and that has been discussed to death in the SSX thread).
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Congressional action is the only think that can unfreeze the relocation. They're the ones who have to approve major postal facility decisions. City/state have had the relocation spot more or less ID'd for 10 years now. That's pretty cut-and-dried. The gridlock is all at the Federal level.

Don't expect that to change during the 2017-19 Congressional session. It's going to take a couple more cycles at minimum to put enough voter pressure to light a fire under those Titans of Legislative Productivity.
 
Amtrak Signal Issue Faulted For Major MBTA Disruptions

Amtrak signal problems are causing a wave of major disruptions for MBTA riders for the Thursday evening commute.

Just before 3 p.m. Thursday, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced that the signal failure would not be resolved by the start of the evening commute.

As a result, MassDOT said in its statement, “the only commuter rail trains that will depart from [Boston’s] South Station are those that serve the Providence/Attleboro and Stoughton Lines.”

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I wonder how JFK/UMass, Quincy Center, Braintree, Back Bay, and the Red/Orange Line crowds are this evening.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Congressional action is the only think that can unfreeze the relocation. They're the ones who have to approve major postal facility decisions. City/state have had the relocation spot more or less ID'd for 10 years now. That's pretty cut-and-dried. The gridlock is all at the Federal level.

Don't expect that to change during the 2017-19 Congressional session. It's going to take a couple more cycles at minimum to put enough voter pressure to light a fire under those Titans of Legislative Productivity.
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Yep. That's about what I recall from the SSX thread.
 
Not to double post, but WGBH just posted this:

Governor Charlie Baker "Ready To Strangle Someone" Over Latest Transit Snafus

A broken Amtrak signal brought commuter rail trains around Boston's bustling South Station to a screeching halt this morning, delaying the commutes of thousands of passengers. Governor Charlie Baker was not happy about it.

"I've been ready to strangle somebody all day," Baker said on Boston Public Radio. "I'm just waiting for somebody who looks like they deserve to be strangled."

The broken signal—which is managed by the federal train system Amtrak on behalf of the MBTA—was not functional in time for the afternoon commute, so MassDOT officials instructed passengers to avoid South Station unless they were traveling on the Providence/Attleboro and Stoughton lines. All other passengers were directed to board at other stations.

While Baker praised MBTA employees for providing service during this weekend's historically cold weather, he pointed to long-term capital problems with the organization as a roadblock to providing consistently good service in the future.
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FULL ARTICLE
 
Someone needs to give Charlie a mirror. He should strangle himself.
(Not about today, specifically)
 
Just saw a disabled E line train being pushed out of the Northeastern train station. What a day.
 
The problem has been fixed overnight last night.

A computer (software) glitch had popped up caused the massive delays. Someone had to come up from Washington to reset the computers and get them back on line.

Mass Dot says that there will be residule delays resulting from this, because this morning, trains were still backed up.
 
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Interesting reads & great images:

What Is Tower 1 And Why Do We Hate It? - 2/20/2016
http://dbperry.weebly.com/blog/what-is-tower-1-and-why-do-we-hate-it

8364459_orig.jpg
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Also, a history of Tower 1:
http://southstation.blogspot.com/2011/02/tower-1-history.html

076646pv.jpg
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Joe Pesaturo tweeted this pic of the Tower 1 board:
https://twitter.com/JoePesaturo/status/700471849747095552/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Notice the little red light? It says 'PLC Failure.'

CbiTa4sVIAAMB-_.jpg:large
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