bigeman312
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- Jul 19, 2012
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This is definitely true.
I'm still quite new (hired at the end of October, revenue service mid-January) at the job but have plenty of experience riding, albeit I have always preferred riding Orange over Green through downtown if there isn't a major headway gap on the Orange.
I don't have any hard evidence either but as a rider I'll agree that I have noticed an increase in the number of standbys on the Green Line. As both a rider and operator, I am inclined to blame dispatch.
Why dispatch does the things they do, I don't know.... during the last diversion I got held at St. Mary's for 6+ minutes multiple times. Having to explain that one to riders was fun. They also expressed me from Reservoir to Riverside a few days ago but they didn't bother calling me until I was already off the platform at the Res, so they had to make it express from Newton Centre (expressing from Chestnut Hill would have been a violation of policy). This came just minutes after they caught me right as I was opening my doors at Longwood to go express to the Res. I am fully convinced they need an extra dispatcher or two. One time in training we waited over 10 minutes to officially have access to the right-of-way just so my instructor and I could throw the switches at Chestnut Hill Ave going from Cleveland Circle to BC, all while our train was blocking traffic. Obviously the rule is FTA-mandated, but the dispatchers were just ignoring us and letting us sit there even though there was a gap in service on the BC line which would have been a good time to slide right onto the line. They, in my opinion, need more people on light rail dispatch.
As others have mentioned, the signal system is ancient and its ability to have high frequencies is counteracted by its ability to let trains crash. There is a signal coming into Park Street westbound on the D/E platform that stays red even when the platform is empty, then changes after several seconds. There are also a few "time light" signals (the most annoying of which are near Kenmore and Hynes) that serve to slow us down on purpose. They aren't even controlled by OCC or anything, they're just always defaulted to red and only change when the train has been in the current block for long enough (provided the block ahead is clear). They change directly to green, unless a train is close enough to warrant a yellow. These aren't new, but I don't know if the one at Park might have been recently re-programmed to also serve as a time light or if it's just faulty. I have no hard evidence for this whatsoever but I wonder if the signal system has been tweaked since the FTA came in -- it wouldn't surprise me at all.
The Green has always been the line with the longest and most frequent standbys in my anecdotal experience; I've been on trains that have been held on the heavy rail plenty of times but aside from what I refer to the "standby of fate" on the Red Line (11-minute standby at JFK that allowed me to say goodbye to my dying grandfather because the standby made me miss the Orange Line and thus a train at North Station), the only 10+ minute standbys for no obvious reason I have seen have been on the Green.
I should also note rolling stock is an issue on the Green Line. Maybe I already have. I got a bad train for my last trip Tuesday out of Medford, I was driving the 8 in front and the trailing 7 kept springing propulsion faults that dramatically slowed the trip down. I would reset the propulsion at every stop and it would just come back. It was bad enough that I was giving the train full power coming into Govy on the westbound and could only get the train to 5 mi/h (in a 6 so that's okay, but with the master controller to full throttle is not normal), and then coming back (because the officials and dispatch had me keep moving rather than swap me with a train headed to Riverside/Reservoir somewhere) I almost stalled on the incline coming toward Science Park. The train was slowing down, already below 5, again giving it full throttle. Stopped my train, reset the propulsion (which is as simple as clicking a button), and was able to kick it to 12 or 13 before the fault came back but I was able to give myself enough momentum to get up the hill. I then got expressed from Lechmere to Medford/Tufts. Anyway, one train with a particularly bad propulsion fault can mess up the subway (and if said train goes onto Riverside or Medford.... good luck! I've had bad trains like this on Riverside multiple times and it's awful). I feel like the wire car has also been out a lot lately, which tends to goof it up too.
Your insights are incredibly valuable and I really enjoy reading them. Thanks for contributing to this forum. You make it a better place.