General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[datadyne007]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Amazing!

 

[HenryAlan]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

One quick news story to put our speed of transit progress into perpsective...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...thquake-Road-repaired-SIX-days-destroyed.html

That is impressive. But I wouldn't measure post disaster reconstruction against more routine. It's possible to do much quicker work in this country when it is deemed a necessity.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake, repair of the 50 foot span of the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge that collapsed took less than a month. I would imagine bridge repair takes more time than the grading and paving required for road repair, so a few weeks for a bridge compares reasonably well with one week for a road.

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Some of those 7xx routes serve Winthrop. Another goes to Hull. Another is a minibus in Medford. They are private operators subsidized by the T.

I wonder why theyre not on the bus list. How do people learn about these buses?

 

[erikyow]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

They couldn't run 3 cars during construction at Arlington and Copley. It's not always about poor management or money. By the way, where do you get those ridership figures. I find that very surprising.

American Public Transportation Association (APTA). They release quarterly reports based on the ridership figures given to them by participating transit agencies (of which the T is one). The ridership figures are based on average, weekday, unlinked trips. So a passenger who connects from the Red Line to the Green Line to a bus is counted as three separate trips. So the total number of people in the system on a given day is actually a bit lower.

To compare apples to apples, here is the 3rd quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2010. By Q3 of 2008, ridership had started to decrease a little bit as the recession was gaining traction and Q3 of 2010 doesn't reflect the most recent gains, but they both reflect the ridership of the same time of year (summer, when schools are out and more people are on vacation).

3rd Quarter 2008 (http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2008_q3_ridership_APTA.pdf)

Light rail (incl. Mattapan trolley): 257,400
Heavy Rail (Red, Orange and Blue Lines): 502,500
Commuter Rail: 144,100
Trackless Trolley: 14,400
Bus: 374,200
The Ride: 6,200
Commuter Boat: 5,500
Total ridership: 1,308,900

3rd Quarter 2010 (http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2010_q3_ridership_APTA.pdf)

Light Rail (incl. Mattapan trolley): 215,400 (-42,000/-16.3%)
Heavy Rail (Red, Orange and Blue Lines): 477,700 (-24,800/-4.9%)
Commuter Rail: 128,500 (-15,600/-12.1%)
Trackless Trolley: 6,400 (-8,000/-55.6% - Anyone know why?)
Bus: 342,900 (-31,000/-8.3%)
The Ride: 7,100 (+900/+12.6%)
Commuter Boats: 5,800 (+300/+5.2%)
Total ridership: 1,183,800 (-125,000/-9.5%)

The numbers in parentheses are the differences in ridership from Q3-2008.

Here are the most recent numbers for Q4-2010. There are slight upticks in most modes (http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2010_q4_ridership_APTA.pdf)

Light Rail (incl. Mattapan trolley): 218,200 (+2,800/+1.3%)
Heavy Rail (Red, Orange and Blue Lines): 495,200 (+17,500/+3.5%)
Commuter Rail: 127,800 (-700/-0.5%)
Trackless trolley: 6,300 (-100/-1.6%)
Bus: 362,300 (+19,400/+5.4%)
The Ride: 7,400 (+300/+4.1%)
Commuter Boats: 3,800 (-2,000/-34.4%)
Total ridership: 1,220,900 (+37,100/+3.1%)

Numbers in parentheses are the differences in ridership over Q3-2010.

So, as you can see, numbers are starting to improve, but the Green Line, for instance, is still well off peak numbers from 2008. That said, it still remains by a wide margin the most ridden light rail system in the US and by far has the 'densest' ridership (passengers per track mile). So, even with a reduction in ridership, Green Line riders are still packed in pretty tightly.

That said, you make a valid point about the construction at Copley and Arlington. I hadn't thought of that.

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Trackless Trolley: 6,400 (-8,000/-55.6% - Anyone know why?)

Late 2010, the trackless around harvard were all diesels, leaving only the silver line way bus as a true trackless trolley.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

No, only the 73 was temporarily dieselized due to road construction in Belmont. The 71 and 72 were trackless. All of the trackless routes are running now.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

No, only the 73 was temporarily dieselized due to road construction in Belmont. The 71 and 72 were trackless. All of the trackless routes are running now.

77 was de-energized for a bit.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Trackless trolley service on the 77A is now limited to a few equipment moves to and from Harvard Square where they become 71s and 73s.

 

[manrush]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Has anyone else noticed the installation of more longitudinal seating in some Green Line cars? I was on one of the Bredas yesterday, and it was entirely composed of lengthwise seating.

It seems that the T is taking some advice from Calgary Transit on how to arrange seating on their light rail trains.

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Has anyone else noticed the installation of more longitudinal seating in some Green Line cars? I was on one of the Bredas yesterday, and it was entirely composed of lengthwise seating.

It seems that the T is taking some advice from Calgary Transit on how to arrange seating on their light rail trains.

Ehm....theyve always been that way dude. Always.

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Ehm....theyve always been that way dude. Always.

Yeah... that was the way they were ordered. I actually prefer the seating arrangement on the Kinkis though. Idk, it's cozier for those long trips (you can sleep with your head on the wall/window lol).

The new articulated buses (#39) also feature longitudinal seating at the midsection instead of cross seating.

 

[erikyow]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Another op-ed in the Globe about the dire straits of the T

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/e...s_success_depends_on_t/?p1=Well_Opinion_links

Boston?s success depends on T
By Paul McMorrow

April 8, 2011

CITIES HAVE to grow, and the place for them to grow is on top of mass transit. A few decades ago, that was an academic argument. Today, it?s standard operating procedure. It?s just how neighborhoods get built.

Of course, the great assumption underpinning transit-oriented growth is that the transit will be there ? to divorce construction from gridlock, to allow people to move around an ever-crowding urban environment, and to put scarce, expensive land into productive use, instead of reserving it for parking. Without mass transit, there is no urban growth.

That?s why the financial struggles of the MBTA are so important ? and the state?s unwillingness to confront the T?s struggles so troubling. Without the T, Greater Boston can?t grow. And in the absence of growth, cities wither and crumble.

The T is rushing toward insolvency at an alarming rate. Internal MBTA budget projections anticipate $1.1 billion in total deficits by 2016. Selling off parking revenues to Wall Street, as the agency wants to do, would only lower the deficits to $1 billion. Financial jiujitsu closed a $67 million deficit this year. Without the Wall Street parking deal, next year?s deficit will be nearly twice that, at $132 million. In the state election year of 2014, it will reach $223 million. By 2016, it will top $344 million. Those aren?t holes the agency can cut itself out of.

The T isn?t just saddled with loads of debt. It?s also facing massive operating budget increases across the board, in everything from health care to fuel costs to maintenance. The T?s operating bills are growing more quickly than its much-discussed debt service tab. Worse, everyday expenses are growing three times more quickly than revenues.

Absent a massive financial intervention from Beacon Hill, the T?s insolvency appears to be a mathematical certainty. It?s spending more cash than it has, and the gulf between revenues and expenses is widening. That?s not a recipe for anything but a fiscal disaster.

The way we?ve built cities and planned for future growth means mass transit carries tremendous economic importance. It?s not just the urban poor who depend on buses and trains to travel to and from work. A deep-rooted environmental and urban planning movement has sold city dwellers of all classes on the irrelevance of cars in the urban environment. The Boston Redevelopment Authority is actively trying to slash the number of parking spots it requires large-scale developers to construct, especially along the South Boston waterfront.

Countless billions of dollars worth of planned development in and around Boston depends on the T?s continued existence. The multi-billion-dollar reconstruction of Quincy?s downtown doesn?t work without the Red Line. Somerville planners are counting on the Green and Orange lines to open up whole neighborhoods to redevelopment. Kendall Square ? the most important cog in the state?s technology and innovation economy ? has 4 million square feet of transit-dependent development in its pipeline. Boston has nearly 60 million square feet of future growth either permitted or planned ? including 20 million square feet in South Boston. All of it needs the T to flourish.

Until now, the T has been able to shirk expensive transit projects that would promote growth because there?s been somewhere else for that growth to flow. The years-long delay of the Green Line extension to Somerville, for instance, has been mitigated by new development opportunities around North Station. Nor has the failure to link the Silver Line?s Seaport and Washington Street arms brought home consequences yet. The connection was explicitly referenced in the environmental permits for the World Trade Center office complex in South Boston, but slower-than-expected development along the waterfront has delayed the consequences of serving a high-growth area with a slow subterranean bus. And so far, the T?s financial woes haven?t threatened the system as a whole.

Now, however, the T?s budget woes go far beyond the Green Line and Silver Line projects. They?re so massive that they?re calling into question the way we build the city and plan for its future. The sweeping economic consequences of mass transit should serve as a wake-up call ? both to the T, an agency that appears afraid to publicly address its dire financial situation, and to the leadership up on Beacon Hill, which will ultimately be responsible for bailing out the agency. It?s time for both sides to share an honest discussion about the T?s financial distress ? and what it means to everyone with a stake in Boston?s prosperity.

Maybe I'm just cynical, or maybe I'm really late to the party in realizing this, but I've come to the conclusion that the T and the State want the T to come close to the precipice before pulling it back. Sure, the State has financial problems of its own at the moment, but certainly some columnist at the Globe is not the first to sound the alarm about increasing financial crunches at the T and that postponing the inevitable is only going to hurt more as time goes by. Part of me is wondering if they're going to let it get so bad that a shutdown of the T is imminent unless there are some serious givebacks from the unions.

While Massachusetts is a labor-friendly state, I think most of us (including the politicians) can recognize the drain that the cushy position T employees have got for themselves, thanks to their union. For the record, I am not anti-labor, but I am also a realist and in the real world people don't get to retire after 20 years. I've worked in a unionized position in the past and that was never something that was on table when negotiations rolled around.

So, my thoughts are that the State is going to let the T go so far that the only two options basically come down to serious reform on the part of the unions and a bailout by the government or a threatened shut down and reorganization of the T (whether other government unions will allow that to happen remains to be seen). I just can't see any other reason why the government and the T have not come to some kind of funding agreement to help the T find a way out from under its crushing debt load.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Eliminate "The Ride". Old people should live in the city if they want to get around.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

You say that because you are young.

The state, hell most politicians in America, don't care about mass transit because most of their constituents drive. Also roads make for great photo ops. The problem is that most politicians are spineless and don't have the balls to actually pay for what the people need (look at the mess in Washington now).

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Eliminate "The Ride". Old people should live in the city if they want to get around.

This is the most closed-minded thing I've ever read from you. The reality is that some people with disabilities simply cannot use the T for whatever reason and the state is kind enough to provide them with alternative transportation. THE RIDE drivers are extremely proud of what they do and how they give back to the communities in the metro area. This is what they told WHDH when they interviewed them about picking a guy up at a bar. They pay it forward now, so in the future if they ever find themselves in a disabled situation, they can get the services they need too. By eliminating THE RIDE, businesses all over the city would be losing sales.

 

[Shepard]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I want to see tolls in for the central artery tunnel and Zakim Bridge, as well as garage-rate street parking in the CBD, effective for all hours that the T operates. All that revenue should fund T operations. I'm fairly certain both of these will be implemented at some point in the next 10 years... so we should just giterdone already.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

This is the most closed-minded thing I've ever read from you. The reality is that some people with disabilities simply cannot use the T for whatever reason and the state is kind enough to provide them with alternative transportation. THE RIDE drivers are extremely proud of what they do and how they give back to the communities in the metro area. This is what they told WHDH when they interviewed them about picking a guy up at a bar. They pay it forward now, so in the future if they ever find themselves in a disabled situation, they can get the services they need too. By eliminating THE RIDE, businesses all over the city would be losing sales.

I was half kidding....

It needs a serious audit, in my opinion.

And the system/this region need to be done over.

If you need to use such a service, whatever the reason is, why live in the middle of nowhere so you have to be driven 10 miles to walk around a mall. Seriously. A good city would be old-people friendly, and I bet half the people who use the service are just old. Same goes for disabled people though, I 'spose. And that's why youre more likely to see a disabled person in the city, it's more convenient for them (generalizing). But old people like their burbs. Ideally The Ride would be used to get to places just around the city that aren't right next to transit. I wouldn't ever say "abolish The Ride! Never bring it back! Rawrrr, I'm a Neocon!", but I think such a service could be better....

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

What does The Ride have to do with the suburbs? Plenty of disabled people live in the city and can't use the regular bus and subway system because of their disabilities.

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I want to see tolls in for the central artery tunnel and Zakim Bridge, as well as garage-rate street parking in the CBD, effective for all hours that the T operates. All that revenue should fund T operations. I'm fairly certain both of these will be implemented at some point in the next 10 years... so we should just giterdone already.

Lets start with parking. Garages charge $8 an hour downtown....why is the city throwing away money by charging $1?

Brookline is the only city that has come to its sense and begun charging higher rates....but only 3 blocks near fenway.

And yes, toll I-93 to pay for the debt that I-93 created.

And residential parking permits. It's 2011 and theyre still being given away for free! Lunacy.

AT the very least, $10 a month.

 

[mass88]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The audible station announcements apparently cannot pronounce Waban. There was a delay due to a disabled train at Waban and the announcement instead of saying Waban, spelled it out instead, that drew some laughs from people.