General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

At last, (experimental) real-time train tracking comes to the MTBA:
bb_realtime.jpg
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

??? Those monitors have been up for months...

Everyone is so far behind on MBTA technology, lol.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

For those of us who no longer live in Boston, anyone care to explain? :)
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

For those of us who no longer live in Boston, anyone care to explain? :)

There's real time train locations at Back Bay for the OL and Gov Center and Maverick for the Blue. Possibly Airport too? I don't think the Red has any, and the Green doesn't have sufficient data to do so.

I like them because they constantly display alerts, as sometimes they don't play over the PA too much, and it's just neat. Not sure I would have put it ahead of other projects though...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Ah. I always enjoyed the big sign at Maverick Station that gave the old school data for the Blue Line.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Ah. I always enjoyed the big sign at Maverick Station that gave the old school data for the Blue Line.

There's still one at Maverick, can't say if it's the same style as the one before the renovation, though. It's not like the Back Bay/Government Center "pilot". It's red circles lit up where trains are rolling through.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Ok, the single-car trains on the E-line on Sat nights NEED TO STOP. What are they thinking? Meanwhile 3 empty two-car C's go by.

Isn't it illegal/ADA violation to run a single-car Kinki train anyway, since they removed the wheelchair lifts from stations?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

There's real time train locations at Back Bay for the OL and Gov Center and Maverick for the Blue. Possibly Airport too? I don't think the Red has any, and the Green doesn't have sufficient data to do so.

I like them because they constantly display alerts, as sometimes they don't play over the PA too much, and it's just neat. Not sure I would have put it ahead of other projects though...

At South Station they have one for the Red Line. It's downstairs right near the entrance gates to the Red and Silver Lines. Look behind the glass of the monitoring area. Not sure if that's the right way to describe it, but it's behind the glass where employees sit with monitors of what I assume to be camera feeds.

Hopefully they work these into every station and upgrade the interface to look more like 2011 and not like 1999.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

At South Station they have one for the Red Line. It's downstairs right near the entrance gates to the Red and Silver Lines. Look behind the glass of the monitoring area. Not sure if that's the right way to describe it, but it's behind the glass where employees sit with monitors of what I assume to be camera feeds.

Hopefully they work these into every station and upgrade the interface to look more like 2011 and not like 1999.

I think the interface reads fine. Icons of trains move as the trains move, it's pretty basic, but effective. They actually did a good job with the graphic design for showing what station you're in (gray bar) and which direction trains are moving with the stations split clearly into inbound/outbound.

It could have been a lot worse. I actually prefer this to est. arrival times.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Saw this on Channel 7 news and did a quick web search and found this news release on the mbta website:

Green Line to nearly triple the number of 3-car trains

First time ever for tri-car trains on Huntington Ave. (E branch)
Effective Monday, March 21st, three-car trains will make a total of 32 trips each weekday on the Green Line. In announcing the jump from 13 to 32 trips, MBTA General Manager Richard Davey said the increased service is designed not only to make commuting more comfortable for existing customers but to also have capacity available for new riders.
In addition to more than doubling the number of 3-car trains on the Green Line?s B and D branches, the MBTA will introduce 3-car trains to the E branch (Huntington Avenue) for the first time. This also means that 3-car trains will serve Lechmere Station for the first time in at least six years.
Last year, for the first time in many years, the MBTA reintroduced 3-car trains to the Green Line?on which 200,000 passenger trips are made each weekday.
?As I?ve talked with Green Line customers over the past year, train capacity is an issue that is frequently raised,? said General Manager Davey. ?We have received that message loud and clear, and the MBTA is responding.?

Source: http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/news_events/?id=21305&month=&year=
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I always forget that not everyone reads Universal Hub. Adam broke that story days ago.

I'm curious as to how it's going to play out tomorrow. Will the trains be just as full as always and requiring an even LONGER wait or will there actually be more room? Does (2 x 3) really = (3 x 2)?

Either way, wait times are going to increase.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I believe they're doing the most they can without increasing headway times, so there should not be any increased wait (I think). But there won't be any extras lieing around for whatever might happen.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Saw a 3 car E line train at Copley this morning.

Will this cause issues along Huntington?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

You know, in all 21 years of my life, I have never encountered a three car green line train. I always thought it was a myth.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Saw a 3 car E line train at Copley this morning.

Will this cause issues along Huntington?

I suspect there will be a rise in issues past Brigham Circle for the streetcar portion. I'm a huge advocate of just cutting out the Heath St - Brigham Circle streetcar stretch altogether. They've paved over the tracks that go to Arborway anyway, so we might as well cut out the remaining streetcar bs too and let the Green Line function on its own. All it does is cause problems. The vast majority of E-line delays (accidents/traffic) are past Brigham Circle. The new end of the E-line would become Brigham Circle, which is fine because the track crossing already exists (and is used quite often actually). The 39 can just pick up all the stops past Brigham Circle.

The E-Line functions fine when its in its own ROW from Brigham Circle to Symphony.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Agreed. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that buses are superior to street cars, if for no other reason than that they can pass each other. A bus doesn't have to wait for the bus stopped in front of it if the lagging bus doesn't have passengers requesting a stop. It can simply blow past and become the new lead bus.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Agreed. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that buses are superior to street cars, if for no other reason than that they can pass each other. A bus doesn't have to wait for the bus stopped in front of it if the lagging bus doesn't have passengers requesting a stop. It can simply blow past and become the new lead bus.

The trolleys cause a mess on Huntington/S Huntington when they're on the road too. I've actually been wanting to start a discussion about terminating the E at Brigham Circle.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Seems to me it's not the trolleys causing these problems, it's the automobiles. Take them off this part of Huntington and divert them to Brookline Ave.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Seems to me it's not the trolleys causing these problems, it's the automobiles.

You're onto something here, Ron.

Take them off this part of Huntington and divert them to Brookline Ave.

Not a good idea. Removing vehicular traffic from an arterial street that serves a medical district is probably gonna be a non-starter.

I'll split the difference with you: no more on-street parking. Of course the neighbors on Mission Hill, and all of the retail operators will take issue with this.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

As much as we'd all like to pretend that we can make all the cars go away and this city can be a happy-transit friendly paradise, it's not reality by any sorts. The reality is that Rt 9 (Huntington Ave is the starting point) is a major car transport road and always will be. We might as well just optimize our mass transit network so it can function efficiently without drastic changes rather than living in a land of pipe dreams.
 

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