As the Dutch say, you're not made of sugar.
As the American says, It's raining, I'll just hop in my car.
As the Dutch say, you're not made of sugar.
One of the nightly reads at my house is "Where Do Steam Trains Sleep at Night?"^ Is actually a pretty enchanting image. I know I've said this before, but that'd make a great children's story. "All the trains tucked in for the night", etc etc.
Out of curiosity, is there any real reason we don't regularly park trains at stations overnight rather than at yards? Obviously you have less slack for startup, you have to get operators to each station, maint access etc, but it can't be impossible to do to some degree. That would allow for smaller end of line yards or fleet expansion beyond yard capacity.
Same thing with buses. We're told that the MBTA bus fleet is constrained by yard/garage capacity. Why not park a few in busways overnight?
I imagine it mostly comes to getting operators to the vehicles. Do operators just park around the stations all day? Especially for downtown stations I can't see that working great... And then at the end of their shifts they would have to be paid until they are returned to their starting station, which adds more deadhead payOut of curiosity, is there any real reason we don't regularly park trains at stations overnight rather than at yards? Obviously you have less slack for startup, you have to get operators to each station, maint access etc, but it can't be impossible to do to some degree. That would allow for smaller end of line yards or fleet expansion beyond yard capacity.
Same thing with buses. We're told that the MBTA bus fleet is constrained by yard/garage capacity. Why not park a few in busways overnight?
Out of curiosity, is there any real reason we don't regularly park trains at stations overnight rather than at yards? Obviously you have less slack for startup, you have to get operators to each station, maint access etc, but it can't be impossible to do to some degree. That would allow for smaller end of line yards or fleet expansion beyond yard capacity.
Same thing with buses. We're told that the MBTA bus fleet is constrained by yard/garage capacity. Why not park a few in busways overnight?
I imagine it mostly comes to getting operators to the vehicles. Do operators just park around the stations all day? Especially for downtown stations I can't see that working great... And then at the end of their shifts they would have to be paid until they are returned to their starting station, which adds more deadhead pay
I used to read this to my kidlet:One of the nightly reads at my house is "Where Do Steam Trains Sleep at Night?"
Temporary entrance looking better than most permanent MBTA entrances
MBTA take note: you could have done a barebones treatment like this (new concrete floors, bright new lighting, new wiring via external/protected electrical conduit, clean new signage, OSHA-compliant handrails, etc...) 2 or 3 times over in the timeframe while we've been waiting for Peebles to get off his ass to build Parcel 13 at Hynes station. Seriously, the excuse of "we're not going to fix Hynes station because Parcel 13 is on its way" is total B.S. when we can see that something like this is worthwhile for a mere 12-18 months service life for this particular project. Let this be a benchmark for not allowing stations to degrade to a total state of decrepitness simply "because a future upgrade is planned at some unknown date."
By state and federal law, the MBTA is extremely limited as to what improvements can be made to non-accessible stations without triggering the requirement for accessibility modifications to be made during those improvements. If the work is less than 30% of the replacement cost of the station, the improvements themselves must meet accessibility codes; if it's over $100k, an accessible entrance must also be provided. If it's over 30% of the replacement cost, the whole facility must be renovated for accessibility. (See MAAB requirements; the 1990 MBTA Guide to Access has some old numbers but is very useful.) There is a specific exception allowing up to $500k in "general maintenance and on-going upkeep" for underground transit stations, provided the work does not involve the entrance.
What it takes to trigger accessibility modifications can be surprisingly small. The MBTA has been dilly-dallying for a while on dealing with the B and C surface stops - but whoops: " Throughout 2018-2019, the MBTA conducted track replacement along parts of the Green Line’s B and C branches. As part of that work, portions of the platforms were removed and replaced – motivating the need to make them accessible." Now, the MBTA has to make a dozen B and C stops accessible by about 2024. (In this case, it appears that poor planning meant that the accessibility requirement was not noticed until afterwards. For a normal station renovation, it would be determined in the course of planning and getting permits.)
I imagine it mostly comes to getting operators to the vehicles. Do operators just park around the stations all day? Especially for downtown stations I can't see that working great... And then at the end of their shifts they would have to be paid until they are returned to their starting station, which adds more deadhead pay
It's worth noting the timeline for Hynes. It was on the lower end of priority for GL subway stations because it's not a major transfer station, it's not super-high ridership, and it's a short trip on the 1 and 55 from accessible stations. (The only underground GL stations with lower ridership are Arlington [packaged with Copley], Prudential [packaged with 111 Huntington construction], Symphony [same timeline as Hynes], and Boylston [who knows]). Planning started in 2010 and took a while because of the MBTA's poor finances; when Parcel 13 was approved in 2015, construction was to begin in 2019. As of current, station renovation is to begin later this year if funding is arranged. So during the time the MBTA has had funding for non-emergency station improvements, it hasn't been worthwhile because construction has been imminent.
Re elevators: plunking a single elevator in an open plaza with known utilities for an already-accessible station is vastly different from adding 3 elevators (6 if they're permanent) in a constrained space under a 9-story building for a not-otherwise-accessible station.
I can't quite tell from the photos, but isn't that the same elevator that was there already? (And aren't they going to have to add another one now?)Re elevators: plunking a single elevator in an open plaza with known utilities for an already-accessible station is vastly different from adding 3 elevators (6 if they're permanent) in a constrained space under a 9-story building for a not-otherwise-accessible station.
I can't quite tell from the photos, but isn't that the same elevator that was there already? (And aren't they going to have to add another one now?)