General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

I wonder how absenteeism was reduced by almost a third...carrots? Sticks? Reminding people that if they aren't sick, they should show up for work?
 
Tombstoner said:
I wonder how absenteeism was reduced by almost a third...carrots? Sticks? Reminding people that if they aren't sick, they should show up for work?
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Great question! I have no idea. Anybody know the specific operational changes that caused these improvements?

ALSO: This morning, does anyone know what causes the countdown clocks to not display any data other than the time. This morning, in Stony Brook, no next train data was being displayed, but the clock on the screen was working fine and the tracking Apps/Websites were working. I'm sure you all have seen this happen a lot. What causes this?
 
bigeman312 said:
Great question! I have no idea. Anybody know the specific operational changes that caused these improvements?

ALSO: This morning, does anyone know what causes the countdown clocks to not display any data other than the time. This morning, in Stony Brook, no next train data was being displayed, but the clock on the screen was working fine and the tracking Apps/Websites were working. I'm sure you all have seen this happen a lot. What causes this?
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I noticed that as well at Jackson Sq this morning. Unlike other times when the countdowns aren't working, this time not even the "next train is now approaching/arriving" announcements were made. It was a surprise when the train just arrived out of nowhere.
 
Tombstoner said:
I wonder how absenteeism was reduced by almost a third...carrots? Sticks? Reminding people that if they aren't sick, they should show up for work?
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Last year's winter was the worst in history. This year, winter never really showed up.

I suspect that alone accounts for a significant chunk it.
 
In tonight's episode of The T's a Pain but None of Its Peers are Any Better:

It was announced this afternoon (!) that the entire DC Metro system will shut down for 24+ hours starting at midnight tonight in order to conduct "safety checks" related to an electrical fire that took place yesterday.
 
datadyne007 said:
While the shutdown is sudden & wildly inconvenient, WMATA and its new GM deserve high praise for its overall improvement plans.

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/general_manager/gm_plan.cfm

I only wish we had leadership like this that actually cared about improving the T instead of just blaming its employees, cutting service & raising fares.
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This I can agree with. We need better leadership and funding. While we may disagree on other things, there is no denying that more funding and better long-term planning at the MBTA would be a great thing for this region.
 
datadyne007 said:
While the shutdown is sudden & wildly inconvenient, WMATA and its new GM deserve high praise for its overall improvement plans.

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/general_manager/gm_plan.cfm

I only wish we had leadership like this that actually cared about improving the T instead of just blaming its employees, cutting service & raising fares.
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Data -- don't forget that you paid for that and you continue to pay for it -- as a result they spent BiGDiG levels of money on building a system and I'm guessing operating it

Yet despite all of the resources that Congress could possibly provide to Metro -- they still made you walk outside on steamy DC days from the Airport Terminal to the Metro Stop

And a good friend and associate was almost arrested for eating a banana on one of the platforms -- I told him [Essen ist verboten!] -- but he insisted on his daily 11AM banana and so .. well he got away with a strict warning but we were almost late to the meeting

No for all its faults -- I'tt take the T over the Metro
 
Looks like they are going to use the aforementioned surplus for SGR:

MBTA board prepares $2B-plus budget for final vote

The MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board will vote tomorrow on a $2.02 billion fiscal year 2017 budget that will close the T’s structural deficit and use money from a fare increase for capital maintenance.

A 9.3 percent fare increase will generate $43 million in additional revenue, all of which will be dedicated to a “Performance and Reliability Capital Maintenance Fund,” Shortsleeve said.

...

The T is targeting $100 million for power and signal work and doubling the investment in those areas over the next five years because 30 percent of subway delays result from signal problems, he said.

...
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JumboBuc said:
In tonight's episode of The T's a Pain but None of Its Peers are Any Better:

It was announced this afternoon (!) that the entire DC Metro system will shut down for 24+ hours starting at midnight tonight in order to conduct "safety checks" related to an electrical fire that took place yesterday.
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JumboBuc --- this translates in DC to a partial Federal Gov't shutdown with non-essential employees told to stay home and work at home if feasible
 
I've said it through the main TransitMatters Twitter account and I'll repeat it here: it's great that they have a surplus, but our system maintenance to work down the SoGR backlog should not be contingent on operating budget surplus.

The ability to do much needed system maintenance to improve service should not be the 'reward' for lean operations. In this case, almost 1/3 of that surplus is coming from fare hikes that were more dramatic than necessary.

This ties right into what's going on in DC. While Metro is shutting down for an inspection related to safety concerns, it's part of a larger effort from their new GM to earn back the public's confidence. The plan that Datadyne linked includes not only the back-end operational stuff that the FMCB loves to pat itself on the back for finding/promising to fix, but also incredibly important promises for service improvement, including Transit Signal Priority.

The whole shitshow of back-to-back late night service termination and fare hikes has done nothing but work against public trust in the T. A frequent MBTA troll on Twitter likes to bark back at the TransitMatters account about how 'we' (I think he's convinced that we're some sort of corrupt PR cheerleader run by the T) have all the revenue that we need; that 'we' just spend it on 'graft, runaway employee pay, and poor employees'.

My hunch is that much of the arguments over these relatively miniscule amounts in the operating budget would be non-issue for most people if the T actually provided good service. DePaola is a great guy who knows his stuff, but he's the wrong person to be at the helm while Secretary Pollack stands in a difficult place between Baker and the advocates she used to work with. We need someone who can lead and an FMCB that can commit to improved transit service, not a team of people trying navigate their way out of legal mandates.
 
Word is out that the MBTA has been paying some of its employees 1or 2 hours pay while they are off the clock and at home!

And they are crying poormouth & saying that they are strapped for cash? And they want to raise the fares across the board again in July?! What gives here? Why should the commuters have to suffer so unfairly because they are spending their dough so foolishly? It is beyond me!
 
We discussed this to death a month ago. This seems to be a problem you have frequently.
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
My hunch is that much of the arguments over these relatively miniscule amounts in the operating budget would be non-issue for most people if the T actually provided good service. DePaola is a great guy who knows his stuff, but he's the wrong person to be at the helm while Secretary Pollack stands in a difficult place between Baker and the advocates she used to work with. We need someone who can lead and an FMCB that can commit to improved transit service, not a team of people trying navigate their way out of legal mandates.
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Umm... navigating the legal mandates isn't a problem DePaola invented for himself. Actually, Stephanie Pollack is quite responsible for it. The job of a GM isn't to be pie-in-the-sky making high-level promises, but to actually run the agency and budget within realistic constraints.

Also, DePaola doesn't chair the FMCB. Joe Aiello does that, at the behest of Governor Baker. The T doesn't have a clear mission to improve service because that's not the Governor's priority. He's looking to have a "good enough" agency that he can make political hay off of for the duration of his administration without spending a dollar more than he has to on it.

I want a GM that can run the damn agency. The vision is the Governor's weakness, not his.
 
I just overheard from someone on the street that there's some accident involving 1 or 2 mbta buses colliding and going over the median near the Marriott at Copley. There's not much of any description on the T website. Anyone know what happened?
 
UHUB is on it.

Back Bay crash involves two buses, several cars
Matthew shows us the "horrific multi-car, multi-bus accident" on Huntington Avenue in front of the Star Market and the Marriott around 8.15 p.m.

WFXT reports the charter bus hit several cars before crashing into the MBTA bus. Injuries, but all minor.
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More from the Globe
 
The EGE said:
We discussed this to death a month ago. This seems to be a problem you have frequently.
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Go kick rocks!

Too many pages to have to go through to find it.

How in the hell was I supposed to know that?! Couldn't find it. I'm not getting paid to read your mind. So tired of you guys being so damn ungrateful. Go find out on your own! Get over it. Deal with it. :rolleyes:
 
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On the B Line last night, we surfaced at Blandford and heard a new announcement, spoken by a female voice when the doors opened: "Pay your fare; it's only fair." Then, at BU East: "Pay your fare; it's only fair." BU Central: "Pay your fare; it's only fair." That's right, it was played at EVERY. SINGLE. STOP. Strangers on the train were looking at each other in disbelief and talking about it, and I'm sure everyone here knows how much it takes for strangers on the MBTA to make eye contact with each other. Needless to say I had the mbta.com comment form filled out by the time I disembarked.

Has anyone ever heard this before? This car was also running that goofy and nearly as useless "bus . . . connection" hit, so maybe this was something old instead of something new. And sure, I can see wanting to mix in a fare announcement every half-dozen stops or at the busy ones like the "no smoking, please" announcement. But the poor folks who live deep in Brighton and would have to hear that 30 times a day would be driven slowly to madness. I sincerely hope that was just a one-car pilot program. Noise pollution at its absolute worst.
 
ErnieAdams said:
On the B Line last night, we surfaced at Blandford and heard a new announcement, spoken by a female voice when the doors opened: "Pay your fare; it's only fair." Then, at BU East: "Pay your fare; it's only fair." BU Central: "Pay your fare; it's only fair." That's right, it was played at EVERY. SINGLE. STOP. Strangers on the train were looking at each other in disbelief and talking about it, and I'm sure everyone here knows how much it takes for strangers on the MBTA to make eye contact with each other. Needless to say I had the mbta.com comment form filled out by the time I disembarked.

Has anyone ever heard this before? This car was also running that goofy and nearly as useless "bus . . . connection" hit, so maybe this was something old instead of something new. And sure, I can see wanting to mix in a fare announcement every half-dozen stops or at the busy ones like the "no smoking, please" announcement. But the poor folks who live deep in Brighton and would have to hear that 30 times a day would be driven slowly to madness. I sincerely hope that was just a one-car pilot program. Noise pollution at its absolute worst.
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This is system-wide on all GL surface stops. It's driving everyone insane.
 
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