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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Where's the dining car?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

BostonUrbEx said:
"Good Lord, there truly is a hell, and this is it!"
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One thing is for sure, Government Center this afternoon (4:45-5:15ish) was as close as one can get to hell without going to the real thing.

After waiting 10 minutes or so before any train came through outbound, the sequence was a 3-car E, 2-car C, 2-car E, 2-car D, 2-car B. It seems that in general there is a pretty substantial overcapacity on the C and E while the B and D are constantly hamstrung.

The B and D carry a lot more traffic than the C or E, warranting more service than they have now. Really three-car trains should be exclusive to the B and D lines. And if necessary to accommodate the higher-capacity trains on those two branches, make more C and E trains one-car.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

omaja said:
One thing is for sure, Government Center this afternoon (4:45-5:15ish) was as close as one can get to hell without going to the real thing.

After waiting 10 minutes or so before any train came through outbound, the sequence was a 3-car E, 2-car C, 2-car E, 2-car D, 2-car B. It seems that in general there is a pretty substantial overcapacity on the C and E while the B and D are constantly hamstrung.

The B and D carry a lot more traffic than the C or E, warranting more service than they have now. Really three-car trains should be exclusive to the B and D lines. And if necessary to accommodate the higher-capacity trains on those two branches, make more C and E trains one-car.
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You clearly don't ride the E-line and know the misery we face on a daily basis. Those 3-car E-trains heading OB at rush hour may seem pointless, but the goal is to get them OUT to Brigham Circle (where they are switched back because they don't fit around the Heath St. loop) so they can come back IB and bring the masses from the colleges, BLS, and LMA hospitals into the central hub.

Also, they consistently run 1-car E-trains on Fri and Sat nights. It doesn't make any sense. Everyone ends up packed in like cattle. Everyone's drunk. Someone usually throws up. It's horrible.
 
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

If the E is misery, what would the B line be when it has somewhere around 50 percent more boardings with only 17 percent more capacity? Not to mention it has higher average boardings per station over its length compared to the E. So even if the E is crowded, it is much shorter and traffic falls off a cliff after Brigham Circle, making the longer B and D lines more unbearable by comparison.

Granted, the entire Green Line is a mess. It just seems like the busier lines are not being afforded the extra capacity (i.e. 3-car trains) like they should. If there were more 3-car trains running on the B and D lines, the C and E would be able to be on schedule more, negating the need for any 3-car trains there.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

omaja said:
If the E is misery, what would the B line be when it has somewhere around 50 percent more boardings with only 17 percent more capacity? Not to mention it has higher average boardings per station over its length compared to the E. So even if the E is crowded, it is much, much shorter and traffic falls off a cliff after Brigham Circle, making the longer B and D lines more unbearable by comparison.
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I've never seen anything but an overabundance of B and D trains, often completely empty, some the same for 3 in a row.

Things like B-B-B-D-D-C-D-B-E happen and it is ridiculous.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

omaja said:
One thing is for sure, Government Center this afternoon (4:45-5:15ish) was as close as one can get to hell without going to the real thing.

After waiting 10 minutes or so before any train came through outbound, the sequence was a 3-car E, 2-car C, 2-car E, 2-car D, 2-car B. It seems that in general there is a pretty substantial overcapacity on the C and E while the B and D are constantly hamstrung.

The B and D carry a lot more traffic than the C or E, warranting more service than they have now. Really three-car trains should be exclusive to the B and D lines. And if necessary to accommodate the higher-capacity trains on those two branches, make more C and E trains one-car.
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datadyne007 said:
I've never seen anything but an overabundance of B and D trains, often completely empty, some the same for 3 in a row.

Things like B-B-B-D-D-C-D-B-E happen and it is ridiculous.
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Omaja, I commute from Copley to Audobon Circle on the C. I often see the sequence datadyne007 describes.

The other thing is that when something on the B, D or E or Red, Blue and Orange lines is busted the C automatically collapses into a single car train every 30-40 minutes. Maybe they're getting lost between Govt Ctr and Copley? Brigadoon at the Boylston tunnel?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

And thing is whenever you DON'T need an E-train, it's always the first to come, but when you're trying to get home after a 10-hr day, you're stuck sitting in Gov't Center choking on your own breath for 20 minutes while you see every other letter go by.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

datadyne007 said:
I've never seen anything but an overabundance of B and D trains, often completely empty, some the same for 3 in a row.

Things like B-B-B-D-D-C-D-B-E happen and it is ridiculous.
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That sounds more like an anomaly in service than anything. What station(s) have you experienced that at? That would point to a LOT more expressing of trains on the B line than there is. I average getting expressed once a week on 10-14 trips. The number of times I catch a B without having to wait through a parade of C, D and E trains at Government Center is also once a week at best.

There should be more B and D trains rolling through, but not at a ratio like you have described. If that were the case, 80 percent of B and D trains would be completely empty.

bbfen said:
Omaja, I commute from Copley to Audobon Circle on the C. I often see the sequence datadyne007 describes.

The other thing is that when something on the B, D or E or Red, Blue and Orange lines is busted the C automatically collapses into a single car train every 30-40 minutes. Maybe they're getting lost between Govt Ctr and Copley? Brigadoon at the Boylston tunnel?
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They must be. I go from Government Center to Washington Street every day and usually experience a wait of 3 or 4 trains outbound (usually two Cs or two Es back-to-back, no less) before seeing a B train (or D, for that matter). Unless they are short-turning the majority of B and D trains at Park Street during peak hours (and maybe some turns at Kenmore thrown in there?), not sure how to explain what you guys are seeing.

Of course, all of this is anecdotal. And we have a tendency to only note the negative experiences without taking into account the number of times we don't have horrendous wait times.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Sounds like the supermarket line thing where whatever line you happen to be in is the slowest.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I'll document my experience over the next two weeks and let you know the results. :D
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Experienced a B-C-D-E sequence just now at Gov't Center. Occasionally they end up in alpha order.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

statler said:
Sounds like the supermarket line thing where whatever line you happen to be in is the slowest.
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Statistically, you are always at a disadvantage.

Lets say every line runs equally.

B-C-D-E

You want ONE of those. So theres a 25% chance the "right" train will come and a 75% chance it wont.

So seeing 3 "wrong" trains go by in a row isnt a mistake....it's how the system is designed.

Add to that the fact that D and B get more trains because of higher ridership.

So you might see something like

30-20-30-20

So if youre waiting for an E, theres an 80% chance its NOT the next train.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The C line hands down has the least number of trains running. I work in Coolidge Corner and travel Park to Coolidge and back 5 days a week. The B and E seem to have the most number of trains. On a weekly basis, outbound C trains get expressed from Coolidge Corner to Cleveland Circle to got back in town.

Only the E really has passengers going outbound beyond Copley.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I wish more E-trains got expressed Symphony to Brigham Circle (and Brigham Cir to Sym) more often. They only do it when things get really f'ed up, but stops like MFA and NEU are horrific during the rush with the tourists and students paying fares in pennies and dimes.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

There really ought to be more dynamic management of trains. Does anyone know what stops them from reassigning a train if, say, two or three B trains somehow manage to be back-to-back at Government Center or wherever? When they had the B line shut down between Blandford and Copley the other week, they reassigned the B train I was on to the C line while at Park so I think it could be done?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

If it's possible, I don't know why they don't run some loop trains between Government Center and say either Copley or Fenway. Just during rush hour.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Aside from the mechanics of having to cross over trains between Copley and Hynes to reverse them, most people are going further than Copley or Fenway anyway. No point in shuttling people to the busiest station on the Green Line just to have them join throngs of others waiting for outbound trains.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Very few people go beyond Kenmore on the B and C lines. On the D line, very few go beyond Longwood.
 
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