General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Dear God, the silver line sucks. Why invest so much for something so inadequate. I wish people were willing to throw more financial backing into the heavy rail subway lines.
 
Jouhou said:
Dear God, the silver line sucks. Why invest so much for something so inadequate. I wish people were willing to throw more financial backing into the heavy rail subway lines.
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Improvements are really slow coming, @ndungca did some digging on the recent changes to the traffic light at D street:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...gnal-street/EGyrgj2gV5Y6Cy3yQUyIOM/story.html
And they still haven't gotten an agreement to use the State Police ramp that would save time and distance on the run out to the airport (and soon Eastie and Chelsea).

Speaking of airport runs, I'll repeat my favorite silver line trick here:
  1. On the way back from the airport, get off at the surface stop immediately after the bus gets off the highway.
  2. Walk through the doors of the station, tap your Charlie Card, and go down the closest stairs to get on the inbound platform.
  3. 95% of the time you’ll be able to hop on another Silver Line bus that has already suffered though the compromised intersections, 10mph tunnels, and the power switch and save yourself a few minutes. 5% of the time you’ll just get back on the bus you were on, no harm no foul.
 
Scipio said:
Speaking of airport runs, I'll repeat my favorite silver line trick here:
  1. On the way back from the airport, get off at the surface stop immediately after the bus gets off the highway.
  2. Walk through the doors of the station, tap your Charlie Card, and go down the closest stairs to get on the inbound platform.
  3. 95% of the time you’ll be able to hop on another Silver Line bus that has already suffered though the compromised intersections, 10mph tunnels, and the power switch and save yourself a few minutes. 5% of the time you’ll just get back on the bus you were on, no harm no foul.
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Can totally vouch for this as someone that regularly rides the SL to the airport for work (job sites) during the day. My coworkers always think I'm crazy, but it does save time quite often from not doing the Grand Tour of the Seaport.
 
Balerion said:
https://twitter.com/adamtvaccaro/status/701789151683862528

@adamtvaccaro
#MBTA says its operating budget deficit for the ongoing fiscal year is now forecast at $95m, about $75m lower than previously projected.



I wonder if this is the result of any structural changes. Does a mild winter factor in?
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Not sure about the rest of the $75m in savings, but they're claiming that controlling overtime is accounting for $15m of the savings.
 
bigeman312 said:
Something we can all celebrate!
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...but not to be overshadowed by the sobering pension fund news.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/02/22/mbta-pension-fund-long-term-liabilities-grow-million/jUsla5z5uChTQ4Lk0gomfO/story.html

The pension fund earned a total return of 4.5% in 2014 and 1% for 2015, with "expected returns" at 8% moving down to 7.75%. First having lofty fairyland returns for the funds masks the problem of the unfunded liabilities and more importantly, the fund is inept because it is no where near averages. In 2014 the average U.S. public pensions reported median returns of 6.8 percent. I have not seen 2015 results for pension fund returns, but I would bet it is higher than whatever the MBTA will report.

They need to be realistic about growing life expectancy, lower the expected rate of return to somewhere near 6.5% to be reasonable and put in an investment board that actually knows how to manage the fund.
 
I believe that decreasing the expected return that much will increase the shortfall by a huge amount. Pension funds have been adjusting expected returns down slowly so as not to have it look like there is as much of a problem as there really is.
 
I haven't seen this on here yet:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/...pan-trolley/yJUnnLobU7k1s0GjhblR9L/story.html

I'm actually curious about what the endgame is for the PCCs. I imagine that with overhauls and hand-made parts, they can basically run forever, but if you decide to go with something else, that's a big one-time investment for rolling stock. On the other hand: I'm sure that the FMCB has studied this, but is ripping up the rails, paving the line, and buying SL-grade bus stock really cheaper than just buying new trains?

Also, comparing the MHSL's suburban route with H Street in DC (or any other urban streetcar corridor) is pretty disingenuous.
 
Equilibria said:
I haven't seen this on here yet:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/...pan-trolley/yJUnnLobU7k1s0GjhblR9L/story.html

I'm actually curious about what the endgame is for the PCCs. I imagine that with overhauls and hand-made parts, they can basically run forever, but if you decide to go with something else, that's a big one-time investment for rolling stock. On the other hand: I'm sure that the FMCB has studied this, but is ripping up the rails, paving the line, and buying SL-grade bus stock really cheaper than just buying new trains?

Also, comparing the MHSL's suburban route with H Street in DC (or any other urban streetcar corridor) is pretty disingenuous.
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The busway idea gets floated as a trial balloon about once per decade. Last time it was prior to the line shutdown while they reconfigured Ashmont. The pitchfork-wielding mob stops it in its tracks every time. It's just some pol or bureaucrat angling to get work for his/her pals in the construction industry who've been stuffing their pockets. There is very little risk of them doing that, because the cost is so inferior to leaving it be.


It's not that hard to get LRV's out there. All stations except ADA-exempt Valley Rd. have front-door mini-high platforms for boarding high-floor vehicles. Type 7's would be ADA-compliant out there without any need to inflict the Bredas on Milton and Mattapan. The power draw on the Ashmont Branch, which Mattapan tethers off of, is being upgraded in time for the new Red Line cars. Pantographs can be swapped out for trolley poles; they are interchangeable as power sources. The too-tight loop at Mattapan can be retired in favor of changing ends. They'd have to either re-equip Mattapan maint shed or build one in the empty quadrant of Codman Yard @ Ashmont, but that's relatively trivial expense. They'd have to resurface the worn-out old track, but it's overdue for that anyway. They already have flatbed trucks that can transport an LRV to/from from Riverside. If the last (one? two?) of the unrehabilitated Neponset River bridges still have weight restrictions, they are overdue for a SGR fix anyway.

Chances are everything that needs to be done above-and-beyond what's already programmed can be arranged for $10-20M. Way, way less than paving the thing. And (unfortunately), probably less for some as-is imported Type 7's than a gut/rebuild of the PCC's for modern components (a la SEPTA's PCC II's). If the vintage cars have to go, I'm sure they'll fetch primo resale value for MUNI or someone to buy.
 
The T has a whole bunch of open high-level positions listed on their website. You can get a pretty good feel for the agency's strategic objectives and priorities by looking at the positions' expected duties and responsibilities.

A few examples (emphasis mine):

Director of Cost Control and Lean Strategy & Director of Financial Analysis & Planning:
Duties & Responsibilities
  • Partner with Chief Administrator and Chief Financial Officer to help drive initiatives focused cost savings and productivity improvements across the organization
  • Develop and implement cost reduction programs across both the operations and administrative segments of the MBTA including strategies for curbing reliance on overtime, improving call center and Charlie Card store operations, expanding innovative RIDE programs, addressing bus maintenance costs and low ridership transportation routes, and help craft a Retirement Incentive package
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Director of Revenue:
Duties & Responsibilities

Own-Source Revenue:

  • Develop and implement own-source revenue goals, strategies, and tracking system to maximize returns across advertising verticals in vehicles, stations, bus shelters, and real estate and parking holdings.
  • Partner with real estate group to increase utilization of concession and retail spaces, parking lots as well as the MBTA's broader real estate portfolio.
  • Utilize and expand the use of digital panels, mobile technology, and innovative programs to drive revenue.

Fare Revenues:

  • Drive fare revenue strategy including development and implementation of fare policy, sales of Charlie Cards, tickets, and pass programs (including Charlie Card Store).
  • Develop a fare policy that anticipates bi-annual fare increase process, dynamic pricing models, zone-based pricing, and pricing strategies for monthly passes.
  • Design and implement next generation automated fare collection system with senior management team that allows for dynamic pricing, account based data, and technological advances.

Fare Collection:

  • Partner with Commuter Rail Operator to develop strategy to increase fare collection on commuter rail line.
  • Develop technology enabled strategy to improve collection on core system with a focus on Green Line.

Fare Collection Technology:

  • Manage current hardware and software vendors and diagnose current system deficiencies.
  • Develop next generation fare collection system based on best in class systems from across the United States and abroad with a focus on account-based systems with mobile ticketing capabilities.
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There's a big push for better technical staff as well, including hiring back the data lead they lost to Bridj and the creation of an internal tech group modeled after a startup: https://angel.co/massachusetts-bay-...ftware-engineer-and-a-head-of-engineering-too

If you live for tight data structures and 100% uptime we need you.
If you're focused on DevOps and live to accumulate 9s - we need you.
If you're a future oriented developer, we need you.
If you hate it when automated tests fail, but hate it even more when the test coverage is lacking we need you.
If you love UX and hate bad design, we need you.
If you think you can add something great to a team and want to do work that really means something, we need you.
We're building a team from scratch and we need everyone
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We're building open payment systems so that you can get on our vehicles with your phone or credit card, better dispatch systems so that our buses and trains are more reliable, better planning systems so our buses go where you need them directly and efficiently, and a whole lot more.
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A picture's worth a thousand words

24951146900_5c6df6f0eb.jpg
 
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