General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

manrush said:
I have always wondered why the Blue Line got newer rolling stock rather than the Orange Line. I mean, the latter has higher ridership than the former.
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Supposedly the salt air gives lower life span to the blue line trains.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

jass said:
Supposedly the salt air gives lower life span to the blue line trains.
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Yeah, they were in pretty horrible shape near the end. Granted, the Orange Line cars are well beyond their safe operational life - the bearings holding the trains to their trucks are ready to fail at any time - but the Blue Line corrosion was getting to be an issue.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I believe the bearings actually did fail on at least one occasion but the train was safely evacuated at a station upon the crew reporting and passengers complaining to the crew about a horrible burning smell.

Also, if they both need to be replaced at the same time, they'd probably go for the Blue Line fleet since it's smaller (I assume the Blue Line fleet is smaller, anyways) since it would be cheaper and they'd try to stretch out purchases of Orange Line (more trains) fleets. Just a thought...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Either way, I <3 the new Blue Line cars. Hopefully they replace the entire fleet with them. Although, those Red Line trains are very spacious.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Bot hthe OJ line and Red Line trains are going to be phased out from 2013-2015. I hear the older Green Line fleet will also be phased out around the same time. How can the T afford this?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

KentXie said:
Bot hthe OJ line and Red Line trains are going to be phased out from 2013-2015. I hear the older Green Line fleet will also be phased out around the same time. How can the T afford this?
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The older Green Line cars are going to be going through their midlife overhauls, not phased out. They'll still be kicking around for some time to come.

The newer Red Line cars are not going anywhere either.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Arborway said:
The older Green Line cars are going to be going through their midlife overhauls, not phased out. They'll still be kicking around for some time to come.

The newer Red Line cars are not going anywhere either.
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I think you're confusing the Green Line cars. There are currently three types running, 2 Kinki Sharyo, and the Breda. One of the Kinki Sharyo types are a decade older than the second. You can tell the difference between the two types (the older ones are the darker green ones, the newer with the lighter green and gray color). The older one will be around 29 years old by 2015. Most trains are replaced when it reaches 30-35 years old. And yes, the older Red Line cars will be phased out. The newer ones probably won't phase out until 2020 or 2025, when its around 32 years old.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Not sure if this has been discussed, but if the MBTA wanted to bury the B and E lines, what would be the best way to do it? And what kind of a price tag (for all of you great estimators) would it have?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

In my opinion, as far as the B line goes, they would have to suspend all B line service, and bus it. The C line will terminate at BC for the duration of construction. Then just cut and cover straight down Comm Ave almost unimpeded. At Packcards Corner, branch left and then surface through a portal. Continue straight at Packcards Corner for two tail tracks (use for storage, but really there for the thought of future A Line service in mind). It's a straight shot mostly, just ripping out the ROW, placing it down below, and then decking it over. I'm guessing most of the cost will come from building stations. (Only BU East, BU, and Packards Corner?) If we want to get a little complicated for service's sake, turn the tail tracks at Packards into a bus portal and have a combined bus + light rail and then a loop or ramps exiting back onto Comm Ave.

EDIT: I forgot about the Pike, so for at least some brief segment, you'll have to mine/bore to a lower point.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

vanshnookenraggen said:
There are some rather smart and sensible comments on that article... I'm impressed.
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I was disappointed that Sean McCarthy specifically called out "students" as a track-walking delay factor. It's not just students. It's every entitled asshole who has no respect for a large hunk of metal.

I also arbitrarily think that half the problems with GL delays are the MBTA's own fault. Signal priority opportunity blown on Beacon St, never expanding the Huntington Ave tunnel, not standing up to union work stop/slows, the way the B, C, E lines ride in flocks, their own terrible maintenance.

A friend often says the T would run on time if only it weren't for the damn riders.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

It boggles my mind that the Silver Li(n)e buses all have GPS despite the fleet having been designed to be running in tunnels, yet no one has bothered to install the same transponders on the Green Line. We are talking about $100-200 off the shelf boxes which take all of 15 minutes to install.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Lurker said:
It boggles my mind that the Silver Li(n)e buses all have GPS despite the fleet having been designed to be running in tunnels, yet no one has bothered to install the same transponders on the Green Line. We are talking about $100-200 off the shelf boxes which take all of 15 minutes to install.
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There's a reason for that.

From page 29:

5.1 TRAVEL TIME

The Automatic Vehicle Location data gathered from the Silver Line Waterfront routes relies on dead reckoning in addition to GPS transmission because the latter is often impossible inside the Transitway tunnel, the Ted Williams Tunnel, and sometimes under airport terminal structures. Dead reckoning helps to prevent problems with capturing time points at airport terminals and staying on-course in the tunnels, but is not 100% accurate. For example, the system will sometimes record an arrival and departure simultaneously at a layover point, rather than an arrival at the beginning of the layover and a departure at the end; this can lead to the layover time being included as part of the running time in the preceding or following trip. The errors due to these data problems are somewhat reduced by reporting hourly average travel time. The greatest variation in data availability is by day. Some days no trips, or very few, are captured by the system and on other days as many as 75% of all trips are recorded.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Arborway said:
There's a reason for that.

From page 29:
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The Green Line is already tracked in the tunnels. The problem is above ground. My gripe is that the same GPS system now used on the ENTIRE bus fleet isn't installed on the trolleys for above ground use. The operators would switch the transponder on and off at the same time they already activate or deactivate the on board fare-boxes.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The Green Line drivers don't want their supervisors to know where they are. If they did, the terminus card games would have to be cut short, and there'd be no more three-train clumps.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

One of the cruel ironies is that the T employees who do their jobs and do them well are the ones who usually have to deal with the assholes.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^ Why were the 70s so chock-full of transportation-related entertainment? These, plus the Airport movies...
 
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