General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

odurandina said:
will the work be carried out 3 shifts/24hrs/day on the weekends?
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This is a good example of what I mean when I say I am skeptical it is just being more cost cutting.

If they close down the entire weekend so they can schedule 9 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday then we're getting screwed.
 
odurandina said:
will the work be carried out 3 shifts/24hrs/day on the weekends?
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Exactly. And we are always told that we cannot have real overnight service because of "maintenance work".

So have they been doing any overnight shift maintenance work of any real consequence? Or is this weekend shutdown just a big scam to catch up on what they have been screwing us out of for years?
 
JeffDowntown said:
Exactly. And we are always told that we cannot have real overnight service because of "maintenance work".

So have they been doing any overnight shift maintenance work of any real consequence? Or is this weekend shutdown just a big scam to catch up on what they have been screwing us out of for years?
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They also tried overnight service a few years ago remember and found dissapointing ridership, increased costs, more police required and few benefits. For now I don't think it's the time. Traffic is much lighter at night and Ubers/lyfts and buses provide more cost effective and arguably more environmental friendly transit at that time of night.
 
ant8904 said:
That is good, but I would like more specifics. At least they are saying the completion of the project will see palpable results. But if they can say something like "decrease travel time by 2 minutes", "increase speed limit in this section from 30 mph to 40 mph", "decommission the slow zone into a normal speed section", "fixes performed like this should mean no additional Weekend shutdown level maintenance work in this area for X years". That would be more much meaningful.

I do admit some other stuff like "likelihood of power outage" or "decreased derailments" is much harder to notice. That is one of those things only noticeable in statistics with enough samples and easily falls into things only noticeable when it doesn't work. But hopefully the work that needs to be done includes like that can yield immediate and palpable results. And TM should make sure they explicitly says such things to help increase the odds of what some posters are fearing.
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They gave travel time improvements down to the second in the meeting, but we'll press them to do it in the outgoing comms.

https://twitter.com/Ted4P/status/1160955760806731781

Ted @Ted4P
"1550ft of track 34s westbound delay" 😍
12:46 PM · Aug 12, 2019
 
I'm glad to hear that. Let's make sure they put that on blast so everyone knows so we can hold it to them. I'm so tired of previous weekend shutdowns where the only thing we know are "signal upgrades" or "winter resiliency". If that was just a few times, I would accept that. But when it is done over and over but keep getting delays from "signal problems" and no discernible reduction winter breakdowns. Then we still more more shutdowns. I want specifics. Something so after it is over, we can keep in mind and pay attention that ___ section took 34 second faster. I presume there's more areas we can track too as passengers. Lets put that all on blast


Plus, while I'm not a fan of Jass's absolute assumption of negativity, he's right on the 3 shifts/8 hours/24 day. Let's make sure that if they are doing weekend shutdowns on an extreme new unprecedented level. Let's make sure they make the absolute most of the time. Do it like Fast 14 and 3 separate to continue the work. Not 9-5 BS where I guess they do more work with a full 8 hour shift versus nightly 1-6am shifts. And like Fast 14, they should put that also on blast. From what I see on the slides, I don't see they are saying that so far.

Jass's view and others are not created in a vacuum. If they are serious, at this point, they need to broadcast it. Our collective faith in the system have decline to too low levels.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Exactly. And we are always told that we cannot have real overnight service because of "maintenance work".

So have they been doing any overnight shift maintenance work of any real consequence? Or is this weekend shutdown just a big scam to catch up on what they have been screwing us out of for years?
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Overnight work, with all safety precautions, logistics, train relocations, etc., comes out to about 2 hours of actual work per night. For larger maintenance projects, such as repairing a long section of 3rd rail, replacing a set of ties that have settled beyond simple tamping, etc., that is not enough time at all, and requesting weekend shutdowns has, to my understanding, been shot down every time it is brought up.
 
I always had the impression that the infamous overnight work was just triage. Not anything comprehensive.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
They also tried overnight service a few years ago remember and found dissapointing ridership, increased costs, more police required and few benefits. For now I don't think it's the time. Traffic is much lighter at night and Ubers/lyfts and buses provide more cost effective and arguably more environmental friendly transit at that time of night.
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They pretty much set the pilot up to fail (as usual), though. They cut back the hours fairly quickly - even though, if I recall correctly, the full blown 3am service ended up only costing in the ballpark of ~$10 million a year, which is, quite frankly, peanuts to the overall budget.
 
George_Apley said:
The fact that TM needs to lobby the T to be smart about marketing shows how inept the MBTA is at public relations.
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datadyne007 said:
We at TM are trying to get the T to market it this way. Marketing it as "track work" is useless, but marketing it as "your trip will be 20 seconds faster" is something riders care about and can feel.
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Marketing at the MBTA has historically been abysmal. They need a brand for all their projects - a few years ago, there were America Recovery and Reinvestment Act signs everywhere. Boston now has Building a Better Boston for any project in the city. The T needs a sign, consistent font, slogan with bullet points for every project they do to trumpet it to riders.
 
FK4 said:
Marketing at the MBTA has historically been abysmal. They need a brand for all their projects - a few years ago, there were America Recovery and Reinvestment Act signs everywhere. Boston now has Building a Better Boston for any project in the city. The T needs a sign, consistent font, slogan with bullet points for every project they do to trumpet it to riders.
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Historically, yes, but they now have Dany Levy at the helm and great things are being done. There's a lot to fix and it will take time.
 
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Regarding weekend closures: I am obviously very happy for the infrastructure improvements. Am curious what kind of signage/wayfinding improvements they have in mind. I may go on a few photographing expeditions beforehand just for memory's sake. Personally, I hope they will lean more on the track/signal improvements on the PR front -- I think shutting down the core to fix some lights and paint some new signs (obviously I know it'll be more than that, but that's what the reading public will get out of it) will seem unimpressive.

And yeah, I agree that this needs to be full bore 24/7 works.

Ultimately, though, I find myself pretty pessimistic about this. I share the fears of this becoming a new normal. I also agree that there really isn't a better alternative. In the end, based on what I've seen so far, I don't think the T will win any more approval from the public through these measures, and I guess that's the ultimate battle here -- convincing the voting public of Massachusetts that public transportation is the way forward in the 21st century. I think that is very much not a given, and I think the T is losing that philosophical battle much faster than they realize.
 
They had a rendering of the improved park Street in the GM report from this meeting, linked above I believe. It means a complete replacement of the signage with the new signage they've been rolling out for a few years, with the more universal symbols and standardized icons. It will also be paired with lighting replacements at some stations but for several stations thats a two part thing.

The picture in the report shows the horrendous signage that is Park St GL WB, which is simply put terrible. Signage for the red line all over the GL entrance, unclear where to stand for different branches of GL, unclear where the redline is etc
 
HelloBostonHi said:
They had a rendering of the improved park Street in the GM report from this meeting, linked above I believe. It means a complete replacement of the signage with the new signage they've been rolling out for a few years, with the more universal symbols and standardized icons. It will also be paired with lighting replacements at some stations but for several stations thats a two part thing.

The picture in the report shows the horrendous signage that is Park St GL WB, which is simply put terrible. Signage for the red line all over the GL entrance, unclear where to stand for different branches of GL, unclear where the redline is etc
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The render does look pretty nice. I really wish they would add an LED countdown for the red line on the green line level, though (maybe above the stairs?) - would help to know if its time to kick it into high gear to catch an Ashmont or Braintree train.
 
Why does the T think that service delay text messages that include a specific problem issue are helpful?

I don't really care that the crap Red Line car has a stuck brake, or a broken door, or a blown traction motor. The car is busted and not moving.

Can't they just be honest and say "The Red Line is delayed 15 minutes due to continued poor maintenance, and a broken train at Alewife."
 
JeffDowntown said:
Why does the T think that service delay text messages that include a specific problem issue are helpful?

I don't really care that the crap Red Line car has a stuck brake, or a broken door, or a blown traction motor. The car is busted and not moving.

Can't they just be honest and say "The Red Line is delayed 15 minutes due to continued poor maintenance, and a broken train at Alewife."
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Riders requested it.
 
^ Riders requested it, including me. Of course, I want yet more detail, especially on the commuter rail when delays exceed (say) 20 minutes. Riders deserve to know why they are late. Ideally, there would be more transparency about the cause of the issue so riders know who to complain/advocate to. But, I suspect that’s a pipe dream on my part.
 
datadyne007 said:
Riders requested it.
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^Yes, this is true as I recall it. That said, I don't think this simple statement actually captures the real situation.

Anyone feel free to correct me, but here's my play-by-play analysis of what really happened.
- - - - - - -

What the T was doing circa 2015:
"WE ARE EXPERIENCING MODERATE DELAYS..."

Riders, after realizing that "MODERATE DELAYS" could mean anything from 5min to 48min and was fairly useless information, said: "Can you please actually tell us something meaningful about what is going on and how it will impact me?"

The reality was:
The T, in most cases, does not know how long it will take to resolve stuff. So they took a page from the playbook called "malicious compliance with exactly what your stakeholders are asking for".

Now, circa 2019, such compliance takes the form of:
"DUE TO A FAILED #2 TRACTION MOTOR, ERROR CODE 54367, WE ARE MOBILIZING EQUIPMENT TO MOVE VEHICLE #15324 AND ARE REPOSITIONING NEW VEHICLES TO RESUME ROUTE TRAFFIC, ANTICIPATING 5-48 MINUTES OF DELAY"

Summary:
The messages are just as useless, they are now just longer.
 
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