General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

BostonTrainGuy said:
Looks like the Bredas are stronger than the Kinkis. They are newer of course so the buff standards might have been increased. This is certainly not as bad but it is reminiscent of the horrible fatal in 2008. Seems like a lot of deformation for the speed which I would guess was much less than the 40 mph Riverside Line.

Looking at the reports and pics online, it looks like the 8 hit the back of the 7. If it was the other way around, that operator would not be walking to an ambulance if that was the correct operator shown in one of the reports. He was lucky although possibly now out of a job. The 2008 crash was a 7 into a 7.

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The damage on 3705 looks remarkably similar to 3637 in the government center crash in 2009. Also to note from that crash is that the second car of the second train, (3636) was also damaged and ultimately got re-mated at Alstom, and the first car of the first train, (3808) suffered damage and is still out of service.
 

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This was still probably the worst Green Line crash, even though only the operator of the 2nd trolly was killed!!
2008_Green_Line_wreck.png
 
I feel like an on-board radar based emergency break system, such as those found standard in an entry-level Corolla since 2017, would make more sense for the surface lines than a track-side system, but Im no high-priced consultant.
 
jass said:
I feel like an on-board radar based emergency break system, such as those found standard in an entry-level Corolla since 2017, would make more sense for the surface lines than a track-side system, but Im no high-priced consultant.
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That's exactly what it is...or at least the object avoidance facet of the larger system. See the FCMB presentation linky on the last page; it's got illustrations.
 
Every time I see a rapid transit map that shows the entirety of a commuter/regional rail line, I conclude that line should be converted to rapid transit. OLX and GLX the Needham Line, it's obvious on a map like this.
 
jklo said:
whdh.com

NTSB: Green Line trolley involved in crash that hospitalized 27 was traveling 3 times the speed limit - Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

BOSTON (WHDH) - Federal investigators arrived in Boston over the weekend to help figure out what caused Friday’s crash on the Green Line.According to the<a class="excerpt-read-more"...
whdh.com whdh.com

The trolley that hit was going 30 mph. I didn't even know you could get that high on the B line.
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By policy, you can't -- speed limit for that section is 10MPH. But as a matter of physics and engineering, you certainly can go at that speed. Clearly not a safe speed for the conditions, but nevertheless possible.
 
The system that helps stop train collisions should be installed on the Green Line ASAP. There is just no damn excuse for this to just keep on happening & nothing is ever done about it. While other lines may have an accident only once in a while, the Green Line is very notorious for having such crashes. Let's put the blame where it belongs - on the T for not having safety measures put in place to make the Green Line safer. :mad:
 
Jahvon09 said:
The system that helps stop train collisions should be installed on the Green Line ASAP. There is just no damn excuse for this to just keep on happening & nothing is ever done about it. While other lines may have an accident only once in a while, the Green Line is very notorious for having such crashes. Let's put the blame where it belongs - on the T for not having safety measures put in place to make the Green Line safer. :mad:
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The other three lines have systems (ATC/ATO on Red/Orange, trip arms on Blue) to enforce separation and signal aspects (and speed directly on Red/Orange). The Green Line is totally reliant on the operators obeying the signals and speed limits to keep the trains from hitting each other, and every now and then the lack of fail-safe results in a collision (most of them, mercifully, not involving fatalities).

Saying that there's no excuse is oversimplifying the point somewhat. The T deserves blame to the extent that they have dragged their feet on a solution. They may well have done so (I've no personal knowledge whatsoever) and this has been an identified problem for a good long while. That said, they have been faced with the extremely thorny problem of needing to implement a safety system on a line that's part subway, part surface reservation running interfacing with traffic signals at the cross streets, and part street running, and they need to do all of that without mauling the line's capacity (and if they're to do it sooner than later, presumably on top of the line's ancient signal system). It's a complex problem that is not simple or easy to solve, and they are in fact currently working on solving it (I don't know if a contract has yet been awarded, if not I think it was due soon).
 
Jahvon09 said:
The system that helps stop train collisions should be installed on the Green Line ASAP. There is just no damn excuse for this to just keep on happening & nothing is ever done about it. While other lines may have an accident only once in a while, the Green Line is very notorious for having such crashes. Let's put the blame where it belongs - on the T for not having safety measures put in place to make the Green Line safer. :mad:
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Do buses have a system in place?
 
How to apply to the T for an analytical job as a covid-era engineering grad?

DM me if it is too sensitive, but my daughter will be a 2021 UVa grad and has heard from Sound Transit (Seattle) and Tri-Met (Portland OR) but has found MBTA unresponsive.
 
Arlington said:
How to apply to the T for an analytical job as a covid-era engineering grad?

DM me if it is too sensitive, but my daughter will be a 2021 UVa grad and has heard from Sound Transit (Seattle) and Tri-Met (Portland OR) but has found MBTA unresponsive.
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Don't be surprised if it takes them 6 months or more after applying before you hear back with a request for an interview.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
No...the crash management profiles of the two makes aren't much different. The difference in damage profiles is almost entirely the result of one train having its brakes fully engaged while the other didn't.
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Looks like the first train did not have its brakes applied at all.

In a press release, the NTSB said it had obtained information from the event recorder on the train that struck a slower-moving train ahead of it. That train was traveling about 10 mph.
 
JeffDowntown said:
There has been something wrong with the signals exiting Tufts Medical Center toward Back Bay for years. Trains have the brakes come on multiple times and jerk to a stop as an operator tries to leave the station. Happens virtually every train. No clue why the T cannot fix the issue.
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I can confirm that this is still happening as of Wednesday afternoon. I thought I had remembered reading somebody on here talking about it; glad the indexed search goes back to 2016!
 
MjolnirMan said:
I can confirm that this is still happening as of Wednesday afternoon. I thought I had remembered reading somebody on here talking about it; glad the indexed search goes back to 2016!
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Man, that's still a problem. My commute took me through that section every weekday for years back in the late 2000s and it was problematic then. I don't know what the cause of it is, though I suspect it has something to do with the ATO (maybe they're losing the speed code?). Not sure why they've been unable to fix this problem in the fifteen-odd-years it's been observed to be going on.
 
So the E Line is being totally rebuilt on Huntington/South Huntington Ave.

Upgrade report: https://www.mbta.com/projects/green-line-track-and-intersection-upgrades-2021

The tracks are being rebuilt in place although there have been proposals to run the tracks along the curb as shown below:

eline-huntingtonave.jpg


I know there are many actual and perceived issues with the concept but other cities seem to have been successful with the design and when I saw what they did on Brighton Avenue, where they took the entire right lane for buses, I wonder if it actually could work on Huntington Ave. If you are going to make such drastic changes on Brighton Avenue for buses, then you can probably justify similar changes on Huntington Avenue for LRVs and buses. The ADA requirements alone are probably enough to hang your hat on.

Brighton.jpg
 
The work closure is happening now. Are you proposing that the T extend the closure to accommodate a redesign to the curb running proposal?
 
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