General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[whighlander]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Some photos I took yesterday at the T's first public behind-the-scenes tour of the Somerville commuter rail maintenance facility (BET) --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87614014@N00/sets/72157628229220437/

Saul very impressive

Only have one perplexing question -- the pix remind me of city photos around 1870 -- no people -- of course that was because the people were moving during the minute long exposures

were you there afer working hours -- I didn't see anyone actually woking -- unless they were moving so fast that the hundedth of a second exposure couldn't catch them

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Some photos I took yesterday at the T's first public behind-the-scenes tour of the Somerville commuter rail maintenance facility (BET) --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87614014@N00/sets/72157628229220437/

!!! You were in my group!

I can tell since it seems we are the only ones who got a tour of the upper floor and you have a video of the train moving out of the facility from the same angle as me. lol

The other guy in our group was "The EGE" from railroad.net


The tour was incredible, it met my expectations and then exceeded them. Here's my pics, not touched up and very gritty: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bostonurbex/sets/72157628222910779/with/6432063391/

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Saul very impressive

Only have one perplexing question -- the pix remind me of city photos around 1870 -- no people -- of course that was because the people were moving during the minute long exposures

were you there afer working hours -- I didn't see anyone actually woking -- unless they were moving so fast that the hundedth of a second exposure couldn't catch them

It was lunch time for most of the employees, and we were instructed not to take pictures of employees for the most part.

 

[saulblum]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

!!! You were in my group!

I can tell since it seems we are the only ones who got a tour of the upper floor and you have a video of the train moving out of the facility from the same angle as me. lol

The other guy in our group was "The EGE" from railroad.net


The tour was incredible, it met my expectations and then exceeded them. Here's my pics, not touched up and very gritty: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bostonurbex/sets/72157628222910779/with/6432063391/

Funny. I was talking to "The EGE" on the bus back to Sullivan.

I wrote back Lydia Rivera thanking her for arranging the tours. I also sent an e-mail to Hugh Kiley at MBCR (http://mbcr.net/Our_management_Team.html) thanking him, and to send along a thanks to our tour leader (Dave, correct?), with a link to the pics.

Funny watching your video taken from a foot or two away, and hearing the tour leader commenting that we were taking video.

The lighting was tough, between the relatively low light levels, and the lights' color temperature. My point-and-shoot (Canon G11) shoots in RAW format, so I was able to tweak the white balance after I copied off the images.

 

[saulblum]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Saul very impressive

Only have one perplexing question -- the pix remind me of city photos around 1870 -- no people -- of course that was because the people were moving during the minute long exposures

were you there afer working hours -- I didn't see anyone actually woking -- unless they were moving so fast that the hundedth of a second exposure couldn't catch them

Thanks! As BostonUrbEx said, it was late morning and the lunch hour for most of the workers on that shift. I specifically asked about photography at the start of the tour, and was told no problem, that we could shoot whatever equipment we wanted. (A thankful tune for an agency -- at least MBTA, not necessarily MBCR -- that has hassled photographers before in publicly accessible areas.) We were also told, understandably, that some workers might not want to be in photos, and that we should ask before taking pictures of employees.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Hub bar owners call for late-night T schedule

By Chris Cassidy
Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Bar and restaurant owners who say they are missing out on millions of dollars worth of business after the T shuts down at midnight on weekends are pushing lawmakers to extend subway service to 2 a.m. — a late-night accommodation they insist will bring in revenue, curb crime and discourage drunken driving.

“This would be a great thing for our economy,” said Dave Andelman of the Restaurant and Business Alliance. “It’s something that restaurant and bar owners and employees and customers have been talking about for a long time. And I believe it’s a way that we can increase commerce, employment and safety.”

The T would run until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, under a bill state Rep. Sean Garballey (D-Arlington) plans to file.

To pay for the extended service, fares would increase after 11 p.m. — from $1.70 to $2.50 for a Charlie Card or $2 to $3 for a Charlie Ticket under one scenario — and trains would come less -frequently, approximately every 20 minutes.

The MBTA once ran a “Night Owl” service until 2:30 a.m. but axed the program in 2005 in a cost-cutting move.

Acting MBTA General Manager Jonathan Davis said the T is saddled with $161 million of debt and uses off-hours to perform maintenance on the tracks and cars. Extending service, even while increasing late-night fares, would boost the T’s staff, electricity and maintenance costs, he said.

“We understand it might help some of the businesses, but it comes at a cost,” Davis said. “We just can’t afford it.”

The restaurant and bar owners argue it also would benefit the city’s burgeoning student population, the developing Seaport District and a possible casino at Suffolk Downs, and want to stage a trial run sometime in 2012.

“Other cities are doing it, like Chicago and New York,” Garballey said. “This is a way to support these businesses. And it’s a way for members of the public who do go into our city to have a way to get home.”

Andelman estimated the transit-free early hours cost Boston establishments as much as $100 million in annual revenue.

Ed Brooks, the owner of Red Sky in Faneuil Hall, said a 2 a.m. extension would be a huge boost to business, which suffers after midnight when patrons scurry for the last T or a limited number of cabs, he said.

“It’s a mad rush,” Brooks said. “People definitely leave earlier than they would have, which hurts revenue. ... I just think it will help the city as a whole.”

-— chris.cassidy@bostonherald.com

Link

Paying more for late night service is a good idea as far as I'm concerned.

 

[mass88]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Doing this on Friday and Saturday nights makes sense. Getting a cab in downtown/Back Bay/ Fenway when the bars let out is a disaster. Then you have the deal with cabbies that don't want to take you to where you are going, or are pains about using a credit card.

 

[BostonObserver]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The drivers should be the new hires who normally get the worst hours. One of the reasons the night owl cost so much was that the drivers were people on the verge of retiring who were just fattening up their retirement rate with the overtime pay. Look for the carmens union to prevail once again. So the tax payer got to pay a higher wage for drivers at the top of the pay scale and are now paying those retired divers their inflated pensions.

 

[choo]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I think they should also extend last call at least til 3. I know there is the argument of some that nothign good happens that late, but in the world and in particular with younger people, the night just gets started later these days.

If i work til 7 on friday, go home change, get dinner meet up with friends, it can be 10 pm before i get in anywhere. and at 2am last call (which in actuality is 130 because many place need everything off the table by 2), many people just havent left. so they are all forced out at the same time. If the time was later, people would leave between 130 and 3 or 4 at a much more staggered rate, and you wouldnt have the rush for cabs and things in the street that you currently do. The T staying later would help this, certainly, but i think both combined would be great. T til 2 bars til 3, and you will have a much smooth end of the night.

 

[BostonObserver]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I friend of mine lived in the upper east side of Manhattan and said it was hell at 4 in the morning with all the bars getting out 7 days a week. He eventually moved to a quieter area, near Penn Station.

 

[whighlander]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I think they should also extend last call at least til 3. I know there is the argument of some that nothign good happens that late, but in the world and in particular with younger people, the night just gets started later these days.

If i work til 7 on friday, go home change, get dinner meet up with friends, it can be 10 pm before i get in anywhere. and at 2am last call (which in actuality is 130 because many place need everything off the table by 2), many people just havent left. so they are all forced out at the same time. If the time was later, people would leave between 130 and 3 or 4 at a much more staggered rate, and you wouldnt have the rush for cabs and things in the street that you currently do. The T staying later would help this, certainly, but i think both combined would be great. T til 2 bars til 3, and you will have a much smooth end of the night.

Choo -- I think that there should be a special entertainment district created around the Casino and also applied automatically to all hotels larger than 400 Rooms (or smaller hotels within a 1/2 mile radius of such a major hotel) which are alowed to operate 24X6 (Sunday 3AM to noon off)

The rest of the city should continue to shut at 2 AM with the T coordinated to shut just after 2 AM Sat and Sun

That way the drunks will either have a room to crash in or a T to take them home when the activity is highest

The rest of the time the public has a quiet time and the T has time for maintenance

 

[choo]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^ Fair compromise. I think the status quo isn't working on so many levels, economically, socially, and functionally, and it needs to adapt.

Something around the casino schedule could def work. I also think Chicago does something where they have special late night licenses (til 3 or 4 am) on thursday -saturday. If you cap the number of these, in each district and put them out to bid, you raise revenue and help solve the issue as well. Something can be worked out if people and politicians think rationally (too often these debates can become annoying paternalistic)

 

[HenryAlan]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Charging higher fares for late night is a great idea, and easy to implement. I also like the idea of special licensing for establishments within a certain district,which I'd define as anywhere with subway and significant evening entertainment. Charging the bars to defray the operating cost should be the oth2r revenue source besides higher fares, because:

Andelman estimated the transit-free early hours cost Boston establishments as much as $100 million in annual revenue.

They want a chance to make that money, they should pay for the enabling infrastructure.

 

[metasyntactic]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Any idea if the difference in fares would make up for the additional operating costs? I would be all for this if it's at least revenue neutral, but otherwise the legislature should put its wallet where its mouth is (e.g., repealing forward funding might be a start).

 

[jass]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Any idea if the difference in fares would make up for the additional operating costs? I would be all for this if it's at least revenue neutral, but otherwise the legislature should put its wallet where its mouth is (e.g., repealing forward funding might be a start).

If day service doesnt cover costs, why would night service?

And charging additional is fine....but charging more after 11pm is NOT. Many people get out of work after 11pm that rely on those late trains to get home, and cant afford a large fare hike.

1:00am-3:00am could see higher fares.

 

[mass88]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

It would be nice if on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights last call was 3 am, instead of 2.

I agree that having an increase in fares makes sense. If I am downtown and live in Allston, a cab with tip is going to cost at least 10-15 and that's assuming you are splitting with 1 or 2 other people. Id' be willing to pay 6 or 7 dollars one way fare.

 

[Shepard]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Maybe some money can be saved by only serving limited downtown stations - for example, in the extended Thurs-Sat hours, Green Line may only serve North Station, Park, Copley and Kenmore.

(Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men oft fall before the hackney union.)

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I really don't think extended hours will ever happen until the lines get relief tracks/triple tracked. There is simply too much maintenance to do on the antique system in the short ~5 hours the T is closed, especially on the GL. Reducing that maintenance window by 2 hours would only be making things worse for the next day's rush hour commute where more trains will be failing.

Park St and Boylston are quad tracked which is a great starting point for track expansion, imo.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I really don't think extended hours will ever happen until the lines get relief tracks/triple tracked. There is simply too much maintenance to do on the antique system in the short ~5 hours the T is closed, especially on the GL. Reducing that maintenance window by 2 hours would only be making things worse for the next day's rush hour commute where more trains will be failing.

Park St and Boylston are quad tracked which is a great starting point for track expansion, imo.

They do little to no track work over the weekend, though, because of OT rules. It's a labor costs argument to them, not a maintenance one. Unless they absolutely cannot start service on time the next day without a fix, there aren't crews roaming the tunnels on a Saturday night. Regular and planned maintenance is Sun.-Thurs. only.

The labor costs are a legit issue, but not one I think outweighs the public service of not stranding thousands of people out after closing hours on the weekend. It just may be something that doesn't have a ready solution until a future labor deal makes those costs a little less acutely punitive to them for running the service.

 

[JohnAKeith]

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

My Patch column from this week:

A Boston Transportation Wishlist

Here are the Boston transportation projects I hope are under the Christmas tree for us this year

Boston has a transportation problem.

Our city is home to 617,594 residents. Its population swells to over one million workers and shoppers, every weekday, including approximately 300,000 commuters, half of whom take public transportation. The other half, lamentably, drive. Meanwhile, more than 350,000 Boston residents have their own cars.

The city’s streets can’t handle this burden. Even if we continued to build new roads it wouldn’t reduce congestion or stop traffic jams. Experts believe that adding expressways, tunnels, and bridges only encourages more people to drive.

Instead, we need to promote the use of public transportation. Buses, subways, and the commuter rail can move larger numbers of people, and are cost-effective, too. (Public transportation has the added benefit of reducing the negative effects that automobiles have on our health and environment.)

Here are some of my ideas for making public transportation better and more accessible. (Many of the statistics quoted are from the MBTA website.)

Seaport District public transportation

Seaport District public transportation is a failure. Bus options are few. You can take the Silver Line bus line from South Station to three stops in the district, but it’s a slow and cumbersome trip. You can take the #4 bus, but it only runs six hours a day, and not on Saturdays or Sundays.

In order to help this new neighborhood succeed, plans for an improved public transportation system have to be developed, now, before all the planned development projects get started. A trolley right down Seaport Boulevard might do the trick, or I’d even settle for a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line, but not one that requires passengers to switch at South Station, which is the case now on the Silver Line (which isn’t a BRT, no matter how many times we’re told otherwise).

QR codes for bus stops

I’ve been doing some research into QR codes, which are those bar codes you see popping up everywhere. Many brands of smart phones can read these to download data from websites.

The plan would be to have QR codes put up at every bus stop. Someone standing at a stop could wave his/her phone at the sticker and immediately bring up the schedule and “next bus” data. Currently, the information at each bus stop is limited; the bus line number is listed, if you’re lucky, and there might be a map of the route. That's it.

A QR code at each stop would allow riders to access up-to-date information, making bus use more convenient. It’s a low-cost solution that could be implemented right now.

Improvements to the #1 and other heavily used lines

Fully 40 percent of MBTA bus riders use just 10 of the MBTA’s 170 routes. The popular routes include the SL5, #66, #39, #1, and #57.

Riders of these routes appreciate the ability to take the bus to and from work and leisure activities, but the high levels of usage means there’s always pressure on the lines to carry their loads. More focus should be put on improving the reliability of the buses on these routes. They’re popular for a reason - they go from where people live to where people want to go. The T can take advantage of this by making simple improvements (cleaner, more-frequent buses) and some that aren’t so simple (before-boarding payment options to speed passenger loading).

Regrade Washington Street

Washington Street in Downtown Crossing should be regraded so that the street and sidewalks are at the same level. And, either have it open to traffic or completely closed to traffic, not open to taxis and police cars, etc., but only at certain times of the day. Or, even better, open to buses only - perhaps an extension of the Silver Line.

If and when the One Franklin project happens, transportation in the neighborhood will have to be improved, anyway; re-opening Washington Street to cars or closing it off completely should be considered at that time.

A monorail on the Rose Kennedy Greenway?

The Rose Kennedy Greenway suffers from being too much of a median strip located between six lanes of automobile traffic. In order to prioritize it as a place of leisure, there needs to be less traffic on both sides.

The city / state should reduce the number of lanes in each direction from the current three to two. The only people this would inconvenience are those who use the surface artery to get in and out of the city during rush hour. Why should their needs take precedence over ours?

The extra lane in each direction can be turned into a dedicated bus lane - perhaps an extension of the Silver Line (paging State Representative Aaron Michlewitz) running from North Station down the Greenway all the way to South Station. Or, in my dreams, a monorail.

Prioritize Boston-based projects

If I had my way, intra-city public transportation would take precedence over inter-city public transportation projects. These include the North South Rail Link, the Urban Ring, and the MBTA Red Line / Blue Line Connector (from Bowdoin to Charles Street/MGH).

Boston should have a bigger say in what gets built when it comes to public transportation. The city contributes $74 million toward the MBTA’s $150 million annual cities’ assessment; 49.8 percent, far and away higher than second-placed Cambridge, which pays $8 million per year (about 5.3 percent). We contribute more; we should get more in return.

Limited only by our will

When it comes to public transportation, we’re limited only by our imagination … and by money. With a bit of both, we can improve every-one’s lives, commuters and residents alike.

Next week: Part 2: Ideas to improve transportation in and around the city.

To keep abreast of Boston / Greater Boston transportation projects, I highly recommend joining the conversation going on in the ArchBoston transit and infrastructure forum.