General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

I have what is probably a stupid question.

How does bustitiution work? Where does the T get so many bus drivers on such short notice? Do they just call in drivers that have the day off? Do they have a pool of part time drivers or contractors they can call in? Or do they just pull drivers from active lines and short those lines a bit during the bustitution?
 
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Probably a combination of all three. I think they also use private operators at times, too.
 
statler said:
How does bustitiution work? Where does the T get so many bus drivers on such short notice? Do they just call in drivers that have the day off? Do they have a pool of part time drivers or contractors they can call in? Or do they just pull drivers from active lines and short those lines a bit during the bustitution?
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If it is an unexpected need, they do indeed steal from other bus lines. Depending on how long they may need to bus, then extending to the other options you mentioned. Planned bustitutions are much better planned.

Much as we complain about breakdowns, they don't have a pool of drivers and buses sitting around waiting to bustitute. :) While they can call in drivers when bustitution goes longer term, but they would soon run out of buses.
 
MBTA does a much better job than other agencies with bustitution.

NYC MTA never bustitutes for service issues and only rarely does so for pre-planned shutdowns.

NJ Transit has never heard the word bustitute.

WMATA tries, but doesn't do as well.
 
Anyone know what they're actually doing at Haymarket this weekend? Usually they're pretty braggy on social media showing what's going on in weekend closures but it's been complete silence so far.
 
Terrible distribution of Green Line trains at Park St., running 1 E line and 2 Straight D line trains down the B line side, and having the 2nd D line train sit to give more of a headway to the 1st D line train results in a shouting match between two passengers over 1 seat which ends up with one of them saying something to the effect of "Go back to where you came from". I never understood why the T runs 2 D line trains in a row while the B line train sits on the inbound side of Park St. Bad management or bad management?

Edit: Train runs express. Inefficient T strikes again.
 
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HelloBostonHi said:
Anyone know what they're actually doing at Haymarket this weekend? Usually they're pretty braggy on social media showing what's going on in weekend closures but it's been complete silence so far.
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They did eventually post what the improvements were - new tiles, paint, lighting, and signage. Overall, definitely an upgrade over what was there, but you wouldn't be able to tell based on the replies. I'm not sure how well this PR-tweeting is working anymore. Some people just can't take anything for granted. Bless those that man the MBTA twitter.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1169384701834006528
 
Not sure how people expect "state of good repair" to improve. It's going to be inconvenient. It's going to take a long time. It's absolutely the MBTA and the Commonwealth's fault it's gotten this bad. But ffs don't deny that it's better than it was before.
 
stefal said:
They did eventually post what the improvements were - new tiles, paint, lighting, and signage. Overall, definitely an upgrade over what was there, but you wouldn't be able to tell based on the replies. I'm not sure how well this PR-tweeting is working anymore. Some people just can't take anything for granted. Bless those that man the MBTA twitter.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1169384701834006528
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Honestly don't understand, all the Twitter replies are "lipstick on a pig" or "tear it down and start again" but imo actually this kind of work is exactly what the T needs. Haymarket is an accessible and functional station, but damn does it look a mess. It was the first MBTA station I went in in my life and I remember going "huh so this is what I have to live with now yikes". Also people who are like "stop bragging about basic maintenance work" are the exact same people who complain about the lack of basic maintenance work, I personally like to see the progress images just to know something is happening
 
I think the one that annoys me the most is the "Looks like you just painted the tunnel walls black. I could have done that for a lot less than $8b." Recently there have been several twitter accounts (this one included) created to heckle the MBTA twitter nearly 24/7 about every issue, major or minor, and exaggerate some of them to great extents, sometimes to the point where its just spreading false information.

I think what needs to be done is the MBTA needs to revamp its projects web page to be extremely clear on what's happening and how the riders will be affected, service wise. Everything from behind the scenes projects to projects similar to the Haymarket. I've lost count of the amount of times I have seen "great, now fix the singals system that cripples the red/orange line" when the T tweets out something about the new Orange Line cars, when there is in fact an entire signal system overhaul planned and being contracted out. Maybe get something honest and clear posted in the Globe, Herald, etc, and as has been discussed before, solidify their marketing campaign/terms used.
 
stefal said:
I think the one that annoys me the most is the "Looks like you just painted the tunnel walls black. I could have done that for a lot less than $8b." Recently there have been several twitter accounts (this one included) created to heckle the MBTA twitter nearly 24/7 about every issue, major or minor, and exaggerate some of them to great extents, sometimes to the point where its just spreading false information.

I think what needs to be done is the MBTA needs to revamp its projects web page to be extremely clear on what's happening and how the riders will be affected, service wise. Everything from behind the scenes projects to projects similar to the Haymarket. I've lost count of the amount of times I have seen "great, now fix the singals system that cripples the red/orange line" when the T tweets out something about the new Orange Line cars, when there is in fact an entire signal system overhaul planned and being contracted out. Maybe get something honest and clear posted in the Globe, Herald, etc, and as has been discussed before, solidify their marketing campaign/terms used.
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T needs to get some students interested in monitoring and 'promoting" what is going on
When I was an undergrad at MIT in the early 70's I was doing some of that -- I got to meet with T people about plans and progress, few rides on work underway [e.g. very early ride on Quincy Line when it opened]

In exchange for the access we published some stuff as Student News and Features -- as official student MIT publications [paper of course]

Today -- it would be much easier with digital photos and social media --- could be a weekly student run [T monitored Blog on the T engineering and construction and re-construction, etc]

If I was the T -- I'd cultivate some students at a couple of U's during the school terms to do the Blog and then perhaps hire one or two in the Summer as interns to do some through documentation [e.g. construction of the GLX and its early operations] and presentation on web or social media -- good for the students careers and even better for the T as an impartial, connected source of a good story to tell
 
whighlander said:
T needs to get some students interested in monitoring and 'promoting" what is going on
When I was an undergrad at MIT in the early 70's I was doing some of that -- I got to meet with T people about plans and progress, few rides on work underway [e.g. very early ride on Quincy Line when it opened]

In exchange for the access we published some stuff as Student News and Features -- as official student MIT publications [paper of course]

Today -- it would be much easier with digital photos and social media --- could be a weekly student run [T monitored Blog on the T engineering and construction and re-construction, etc]

If I was the T -- I'd cultivate some students at a couple of U's during the school terms to do the Blog and then perhaps hire one or two in the Summer as interns to do some through documentation [e.g. construction of the GLX and its early operations] and presentation on web or social media -- good for the students careers and even better for the T as an impartial, connected source of a good story to tell
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They have run student tours of GLX. Every school in Boston and greater Boston with an AEC-related major was invited in the spring, and if everything goes according to plan, there will be another set of tours this upcoming spring. Universities just don't want to publish that kind of stuff anymore. They're more interested in posting about materials research breakthroughs and big money grants.

I don't think students would make an impact in the promotion to the general public of how well the T is doing. That news might circulate around schools' civil engineering departments for a week or two then settle. The T needs some big push toward the general public to show how its getting better.

(The MBTA also runs a moderately-updated Flickr account.)
 
stefal said:
They have run student tours of GLX. Every school in Boston and greater Boston with an AEC-related major was invited in the spring, and if everything goes according to plan, there will be another set of tours this upcoming spring. Universities just don't want to publish that kind of stuff anymore. They're more interested in posting about materials research breakthroughs and big money grants.

I don't think students would make an impact in the promotion to the general public of how well the T is doing. That news might circulate around schools' civil engineering departments for a week or two then settle. The T needs some big push toward the general public to show how its getting better.

(The MBTA also runs a moderately-updated Flickr account.)
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You grossly underestimate the determination and drive of students at spreading things -- either good or bad

Tours offered to students in general is not the appropriate tool -- the T needs to consult with faculty and recruit a handful of interested students
in particular the local media are always looking for material that they don't have to do much to get ready to "publish" -- the students can provide the foot power to collect the imagery and write the text
 
Exactly. For most places in the US, it’s impossible to be middle-class without owning a car. Many people, of course, do live without cars, but it’s almost always a nontrivial challenge. Boston/Metro Boston is one of a handful of places where that basic criterion gets met — and that’s only possible due to the T. So, in that fundamental respect, Boston gets put up into a very very small club — NYC, SF for sure, maybe Chicago, maybe Philadelphia, maybe DC.
 
The T may not run great but it's scheduled service and service area is pretty great for America. Living car free in Boston is absolutely do-able (I do it) and it doesn't restrict what you can do or where you can go. The city where I used to live had a laughable bus system with once hourly buses, with routes that didn't connect to each other, and stops more or less on the side of the highway with zero connections to a destination. The nearest bus stop to my house was over a mile away and since the buses run in single direction loops it provided service in one direction only, and you had to ride the full hour loop to go one stop the other way. And this was in a fairly large (300k person) metro. And a bus ticket was $3 each way, no free transfers. But in the south of the US that's deemed perfectly acceptable. So I can completely understand how the T ranks so well when it's competition is service like that.

Actually come to think of it the MBTA has one of the better bus systems I've seen, it still needs improvement but compared to a lot of even large US cities the buses here are pretty good
 
Personally, I think Average Commute Time for Transit Users: is a very bias metric to use to factor in. Cities that are large in area are going to have longer commute time. Ask someone commuting from Jamaica Queens to Manhattan how long it takes to get to work and it's obviously going to be longer than someone who for example, lives in Malden commuting to downtown Boston. But that's due to distance, not the "quality of service." It should be normalize by average distance and average commuting time.
 
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