General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

It'd be nice if the T wasn't always trying to kill their riders. Between the B line derailment/fire, the red line fire and the D line crash, it's looking less safe than ever to ride with Charlie.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

unfortunately sometimes it takes events like today's/ yesterday's and others to make people see the need for improvements. Expect a knee-jerk reaction because of all this. Hopefully everyone is O.K. I'm curious to hear about the cause of this one.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

One T conductor has been reported dead from the accident.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Boston.com - June 3, 2008
T reports ridership increase -- again

June 3, 2008 12:06 PM

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

With gas reaching $4 a gallon, more people appear to be taking public transit instead of driving their fuel-guzzling cars to work.

The MBTA says that the number of riders on the system's subways, buses, trains, and boats has shown another increase this month.

In April 2008, an average of 1,337,000 trips a day were made on the system, compared with 1,268,000 a day in the same period a year earlier. That's an increase of 5.5 percent.

Over the first four months of the year, there's been a 6.1 percent increase in trips.

"This is good news for the economy. This is good news for the environment. And certainly, good news for our mobility," said state Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen.

Rising MBTA numbers since the beginning of the year have followed a national trend. More Americans rode public transportation last year than at any time in the past 50 years, according to the American Public Transportation Association, which cited gas prices as a major factor.

MBTA officials also unveiled at a news conference this morning a new jumbo information board at South Station that will replace the existing Amtrak and commuter rail display boards.

The board is fully automated, but it's been programmed to make the old-style clickety-click sound to alert customers that information is changing.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Boston.com - June 24, 2008
Sailing the harbor, surfing the Net
June 24, 2008 01:34 PM

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

Free wireless Internet service is now available on the 11 MBTA commuter boats that ply the waters between Boston, Hingham, Hull, Quincy, and Logan Airport, the authority announced this morning.

Adding wireless access, a move that comes several months after the MBTA started a pilot WiFi program on its Worcester-Framingham commuter line, is an effort to retain current riders and lure new ones, said MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas.

"It's natural. There's tables, people can sit, they're here for 30, 45 minutes," Grabauskas said after a morning press conference at Long Wharf.

If escalating gas prices aren't enough to draw commuters to the boats, Grabauskas said, the MBTA hopes WiFi will be.

He said the organization continues to receive positive feedback regarding WiFi on the Worcester-Framingham line. Ideally, he said, he hopes to further expand the service to other MBTA commuter lines by the end of the year.
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With the growing popularity of the iPhone and other WiFi connected handhelds (or even sub-notebooks) this might even be feasible on the subway as well.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

statler said:
With the growing popularity of the iPhone and other WiFi connected handhelds (or even sub-notebooks) this might even be feasible on the subway as well.
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Excuse me while I pull my Macbook out on the Orange Lin...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

^^ Pardon me as I accidentally bump into you and send your $2000 toy crashing to the floor. :)
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

This is close enough to the right thread

Transportation secretary wants new subway cars -- soon
Email| Text size ? + July 10, 2008 06:40 PM
By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Noting that rising gas prices have spurred an increasing amount of people to take the MBTA, Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen said today he would like to accelerate the deployment of 146 new Orange Line cars and 74 new Red Line cars.

"While I don't think fuel prices are going to go down in the near future, we really have an opportunity to take advantage of a change in the marketplace and a shift toward public transportation," Cohen said. "But we are going to need vehicles to carry people."

The Orange Line vehicles are currently scheduled to arrive by 2012, and the Red Line vehicles by 2015, MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said in a phone interview earlier this week.

Cohen, the chairman of the MBTA board, asked Karen McGann, the authority's director of vehicle engineering, at a board meeting today whether the new vehicles could be brought on line sooner. She said she would look into it.

Ridership on the system was up 5.3 percent in May, compared with the same period a year earlier.
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As a primary Red line rider, I'd give up the new cars to the orange line: it seems to need it far more. Granted, the old red line cars are more bumpy, and sleeping on them is difficult when your head keeps getting knocked, Orange deserves it and needs it
 
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Yesterday, UniversalHub.com was reporting that Grabauskas showed up at a MBTA sponsered "Dump the Pump" event in his SUV.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Cohen, the chairman of the MBTA board, asked Karen McGann, the authority's director of vehicle engineering, at a board meeting today whether the new vehicles could be brought on line sooner. She said she would look into it.
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Which, of course, is the bureaucrat way of saying "no".
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Yesterday's Herald said he drives a hybrid. But my question is why does it take so long for new subway cars to be built? 2015 for Red Line deliveries? They're subway cars for pete's sakes!
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

His hybrid SUV gets ~36 mpg per wikipedia. My monthly T pass gets a slightly better mileage.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I actually have no qualms with Grabauskas driving to/from work. He is the head of major transportation authority. I could see where he may be called to places on a daily basis where the T does not provide services. I get the irony in the situation, but it's not like the guy is a regular desk jockey downtown.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

underground said:
Yesterday, UniversalHub.com was reporting that Grabauskas showed up at a MBTA sponsered "Dump the Pump" event in his SUV.
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Yeah, I saw the Herald decided this was front page news. Slow season, I suppose.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

statler said:
I actually have no qualms with Grabauskas driving to/from work. He is the head of major transportation authority. I could see where he may be called to places on a daily basis where the T does not provide services. I get the irony in the situation, but it's not like the guy is a regular desk jockey downtown.
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The thing is, he claims he uses the T once he's downtown and that he only uses the SUV to commute.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I've seen him ride the green line and buses before. He's usually with an inspector or some other employees.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

atlantaden said:
Yesterday's Herald said he drives a hybrid. But my question is why does it take so long for new subway cars to be built? 2015 for Red Line deliveries? They're subway cars for pete's sakes!
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Because first they have to build them, then test them and learn they can't make the tunnel turns, then retrofit them, then test them to learn the wheels fall off, then retrofit them again, then have them refurbished because they've been rusting on a siding for so long, and then deliver them. It's a long process.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

statler said:
I actually have no qualms with Grabauskas driving to/from work. He is the head of major transportation authority. I could see where he may be called to places on a daily basis where the T does not provide services. I get the irony in the situation, but it's not like the guy is a regular desk jockey downtown.
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Um ... why would the head of the MBTA get "called to places on a daily basis where the T does not provide services."

I mean, what's his business being there if not for T-related business? Seems to me if the T doesn't provide service to an area, he would have no business there ...

I (sort of) get the argument for driving a vehicle, but does it really need to be a SUV? Hybrid or not, it's like obese people who use Diet Coke as a justification for chowing that extra bag of donuts.

Eh, screw, it's time for Grabauskas to go. He's been ineffective since about February 14.
 
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