General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

dhawkins said:
A couple years ago I stopped into the Palmer Mass railroad station restaurant. It's a H.H Richardson building with a great original interior with the open ceiling trusses and the like. The restaurant/ tavern had the usual New England menu. It looks like the name has changed but it seems to be the same type of food. Steaming Tender The station sits in the edge of downtown in a large gravel parking lot along the tracks. The Acela went by at full speed when we were outside in the parking lot. Scared me a bit, was not expecting an Acela to go by. I doubt the area has changed much since it's original construction.
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When did the Acela get out to Palmer? Maybe a different Amtrak but I can't recall any massive expansion of electric OCS in Mass.
 
So there’s just this many individual blocks of Green Line track with no digital/automated signal system that all need inspections, and new speed limit sign, sprawling across the entire system? They can’t at least remove the global restriction from the GLX portion?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1636320187417804800
 
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The massive slow zones are eating into the limited 2 hour window that the MBTA uses for maintainance.

Last train to Braintree is supposed to arrive at Quincy Adams by 1:14 a.m.

We're seeing the last train not arriving at Quincy Adams until 1:53 a.m.

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Last Riverside Train is supposed to arrive at Woodland at 1:30 a.m. Instead, it takes until 2:04 a.m. to reach Woodland.

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The slow zones are costing the MBTA 40 minutes of their overnight maintainance windows, due to the last trains scheduled to leave the origin terminal at 12:30 a.m., that would normally arrive at their final terminals by 1:30 a.m., are now taking until just after 2:00 a.m. to do so under their slow zones.

MBTA might want to consider updating their schedules for last trains to reflect the longer travel time needed to reach their terminals by the originally scheduled 1:30 a.m. times. If the last train leaving at 12:30 a.m. to arrive at 1:30 a.m. is 40 minutes longer, 2:10 a.m., with slow zones. The schedule would need to be updated to require the last train of the night to depart 40 minutes earlier, at 11:50 p.m. instead, under the slow zones, in order to make the original 1:30 a.m. time without slow zones.

The alternative option is reduced and limited maintainance windows for track maintainance.

What should the MBTA actually do in this situation?
 
Delvin4519 said:
The massive slow zones are eating into the limited 2 hour window that the MBTA uses for maintainance.

Last train to Braintree is supposed to arrive at Quincy Adams by 1:14 a.m.

We're seeing the last train not arriving at Quincy Adams until 1:53 a.m.

View attachment 35356View attachment 35353


Last Riverside Train is supposed to arrive at Woodland at 1:30 a.m. Instead, it takes until 2:04 a.m. to reach Woodland.

View attachment 35355 View attachment 35354

The slow zones are costing the MBTA 40 minutes of their overnight maintainance windows, due to the last trains scheduled to leave the origin terminal at 12:30 a.m., that would normally arrive at their final terminals by 1:30 a.m., are now taking until just after 2:00 a.m. to do so under their slow zones.

MBTA might want to consider updating their schedules for last trains to reflect the longer travel time needed to reach their terminals by the originally scheduled 1:30 a.m. times. If the last train leaving at 12:30 a.m. to arrive at 1:30 a.m. is 40 minutes longer, 2:10 a.m., with slow zones. The schedule would need to be updated to require the last train of the night to depart 40 minutes earlier, at 11:50 p.m. instead, under the slow zones, in order to make the original 1:30 a.m. time without slow zones.

The alternative option is reduced and limited maintainance windows for track maintainance.

What should the MBTA actually do in this situation?
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Have the Fed take over
 
bakgwailo said:
Not sure if we are counting subways stations, but Forest Hills has Mike's Donuts and the convince store. Always seems like a big miss on the MBTA to make a bit of money and enhance passenger experience by not devoting more space to restaurants and what not in stations (subway or otherwise). Winter St concourse always seemed like an interesting spot for a few joints. I'd point to Japan's stations as great examples where you can even find Michelin star places tucked away in stations.
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There's an odd spot in Porter Station that have I feel would be a cute spot for a ramen shop. Porter sq is kinda a loci for Japanese food which would make it extra fitting. I tried to look up the spot and apparently it used to host some shop called "Cold & Hot" per this Boston.com article plus another one that implies it survived to at least 2013. I do wonder why it ultimately closed down and it seems to have little fanfare despite surviving for a decent amount of time to at least earn some Yelp reviews but it didn't. After that the spot been closed every since but I see no listing for a new lease. Considering everything going on, I have a feeling there's nobody even keep track - at least, nobody is listing it according to this website.

But the space does look like a good spot for a ramen joint. Though I also think the station has to be fixed up and everything first.
 
Meanwhile in the most pressing news. The Globe continues to cover the crisis we're in. The closest we have for a reaction from the governor direct related to this is her spokesperson saying that "information from the investigation into what caused the systemwide slow down will be shared with the public". That the Director of Maintenance of Way has been one person leaving the MBTA around December 2021 and the successor retiring after less than a year on the position. Since then other managers have collectively been covering.

Does anyone have any insight? The article does give me a little more window, but I still can't comprehend what's been happening.
 
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www.universalhub.com

More defects found in Green Line tracks, so trolleys will keep running as slow as, well, you know

After saying yesterday the only reason to keep the entire Green Line as a slow zone was to put up signs to alert train drivers to individualized slow zones, the MBTA announced today it's steady, um, slow as she goes for the entire Green Line because they've found more track problems. Read more.
www.universalhub.com www.universalhub.com

Inspections find even more defects in Green Line tracks, so the blanket speed restrictions have been extended. Everywhere, including on GLX. 🤡
 
Delvin4519 said:
The massive slow zones are eating into the limited 2 hour window that the MBTA uses for maintainance.

Last train to Braintree is supposed to arrive at Quincy Adams by 1:14 a.m.

We're seeing the last train not arriving at Quincy Adams until 1:53 a.m.

View attachment 35356View attachment 35353


Last Riverside Train is supposed to arrive at Woodland at 1:30 a.m. Instead, it takes until 2:04 a.m. to reach Woodland.

View attachment 35355 View attachment 35354

The slow zones are costing the MBTA 40 minutes of their overnight maintainance windows, due to the last trains scheduled to leave the origin terminal at 12:30 a.m., that would normally arrive at their final terminals by 1:30 a.m., are now taking until just after 2:00 a.m. to do so under their slow zones.

MBTA might want to consider updating their schedules for last trains to reflect the longer travel time needed to reach their terminals by the originally scheduled 1:30 a.m. times. If the last train leaving at 12:30 a.m. to arrive at 1:30 a.m. is 40 minutes longer, 2:10 a.m., with slow zones. The schedule would need to be updated to require the last train of the night to depart 40 minutes earlier, at 11:50 p.m. instead, under the slow zones, in order to make the original 1:30 a.m. time without slow zones.

The alternative option is reduced and limited maintainance windows for track maintainance.

What should the MBTA actually do in this situation?
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@Delvin4519 are you on Twitter or ? I'm not sure who would be most interested in this, but Universal Hub or Jeremy Siegel come to mind.
KentXie said:
Have the Fed take over
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I'm in favor of the idea of an escalated response, but what can/would the Feds do that the MBTA can't/won't?
F-Line to Dudley said:
www.universalhub.com

More defects found in Green Line tracks, so trolleys will keep running as slow as, well, you know

After saying yesterday the only reason to keep the entire Green Line as a slow zone was to put up signs to alert train drivers to individualized slow zones, the MBTA announced today it's steady, um, slow as she goes for the entire Green Line because they've found more track problems. Read more.
www.universalhub.com www.universalhub.com

Inspections find even more defects in Green Line tracks, so the blanket speed restrictions have been extended. Everywhere, including on GLX. 🤡
Click to expand...
Delvin4519 said:
GL Update:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1637614988008333312
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The timing of these announcements is fascinating and not reassuring. Feels like watching a game of ping-pong.

Is there an updated list available anywhere of the locations of all current slow zones? (It's ironic that it was very shortly before all this started that the T finally published an actual list of slow zones, but I'm not sure it's been kept up to date with all this latest?)
 
ant8904 said:
Meanwhile in the most pressing news. The Globe continues to cover the crisis we're in. The closest we have for a reaction from the governor direct related to this is her spokesperson saying that "information from the investigation into what caused the systemwide slow down will be shared with the public". That the Director of Maintenance of Way has been one person leaving the MBTA around December 2021 and the successor retiring after less than a year on the position. Since then other managers have collectively been covering.

Does anyone have any insight? The article does give me a little more window, but I still can't comprehend what's been happening.
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Sorry for the double post, thought I would have more to say about this and wouldn't be able to reply until later. But yeah, my interpretation here is that we (the public) won't be told much until the investigation is complete -- I'm no lawyer, but this seems like the kind of thing that can't happen without gross negligence and/or misconduct.

I also want to take this opportunity to recall a fascinating little piece the Globe published last summer: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07...ents-three-days-lots-questions-curious-delay/

In this piece, it becomes very clear that Governor Baker's Communications office was closely involved in decisions about how much to disclose regarding a series of derailments on the Blue Line. It also becomes clear that GM Poftak was working closely with Secretary of Transportation Tesler and Baker's chief of staff Tim Buckley, whom he apparently felt required to notify prior to public communications about the derailments. In all cases, there was clear effort on the part of the Governor's office to reduce the amount of detail shared with the public. (I'll also note that FTA investigators had arrived several weeks earlier, and it was following these derailments that the public finally learned of the FTA investigation.)

My point: we have evidence of a very close relationship between the highest levels of MBTA management, and the highest levels of the Governor's office, demonstrating that the Governor's office had an active and ongoing role in managing transparency regarding incidents at the T. To me, that seems like relevant context to an ongoing investigation of low-quality documentation that was apparently so systemic that it required a manual review of the entire system.

Which is to say, I don't think we'll have details for a while, and I also think this is potentially a bigger scandal than is currently recognized.
 
Brattle Loop said:
No, the last of the whole-line speed restrictions (Green's) implemented earlier this month are ending. The numerous slow zones...are still with us 😞
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Yes, in fact it appears, by all indications, that the volume of slow zones across the system has actually grown dramatically. (I believe I saw that a one-way end-to-end Red Line trip now takes a full hour longer due to slow zones?)
 
Riverside said:
Yes, in fact it appears, by all indications, that the volume of slow zones across the system has actually grown dramatically. (I believe I saw that a one-way end-to-end Red Line trip now takes a full hour longer due to slow zones?)
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Yeah, from the looks of things the problems, either with the infrastructure, the paperwork, or both, necessitated first the global speed restrictions while they figured out which sections needed what level of restrictions, and now we're dealing with those ongoing restrictions: only the global, full-line restrictions were lifted. Naturally they'll emphasize the end of the global restrictions while not so much talking about the fact that the bevy of local restrictions is still killing travel times.
 
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