General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[Texasian]

Boston -- No Offense intended -- But where is the most valuable commercial real estate which is inadequately served?

Answer Kendall and swath of East Cambridge from Mass Ave to Lechmere

If you plan to do any serious digging in the next quarter century -- that's the first place to support future development

Your ignoring the ability of rapid transit to transform areas into valuable commercial real estate. Then again, given the power of the NIMBY in the Boston area... :sigh:

 

[whighlander]

Your ignoring the ability of rapid transit to transform areas into valuable commercial real estate. Then again, given the power of the NIMBY in the Boston area... :sigh:

Texasian -- Often times the most transformative things are unintended

Consider -- circa 1960 Kendall Sq. is old but quite functional

Scenario #1 -- Nixon Wins the Presidency -- there is no NASA and today no Kendall as we know it

Scenario #2A -- Kennedy Wins -- NASA ERC gets built -- Kennedy is in Cambridge for the Dedication on that day in Nov 1963 -- a big NASA complex exists -- probably a big spur to the suburbs for the Semiconductor Industry along RT-128 -- later ???

Scenario #2B -- the NASA and then end of NASA -- President Humphrey builds largest low-income housing complex on the site of the former NASA ERC

Scenario #3A -- the land lies fallow until..... -- but Whitehead doesn't give his money there is no human-genome work ...

Scenario #3B -- Thinking Machines revolutionizes computing the demand is insatiable -- Kendall once again is a booming manufacturing site

Scenario #3C -- what really happened so far

 

[stick n move]

From Framingham patch:

"Track work is set to begin this month on the Framingham-Worcester Line, the company that runs the MBTA Commuter Rail announced.

The goal is to replace 25,000-30,000 railroad ties while work on heat-related speed restrictions finishes, said Keolis.

Much of the work is scheduled for mid-day to avoid heavy commute times and minimize passenger inconvenience. There will be some speed restrictions around some of the construction.

“Commuter rail’s performance on the Framingham-Worcester Line has improved dramatically thanks to the work we and the MBTA have already completed,” said Keolis General Manager Gerald C. Francis in a statement. “This next round of track work will help move trains more efficiently and finally end the speed restrictions riders have dealt with for many years.”

http://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/framingham-worcester-commuter-rail-track-work-starting-month-0

 

[bigeman312]

If you want actual bus numbers, and you don't like the "pay your fare" announcements, let the MBTA know. Email them, tweet at them, etc. If people are unhappy and let them know, they might actually do something about it.

You're right. They did!

T to suspend fare payment announcement amid rider irritation

'Pay your fare, it's only fair.'

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said Wednesday it would stop playing a public address message calling on riders to pay their fares on parts of the Green Line, after riders complained about the frequency and the volume of the address on social media.

“Pay your fare, it’s only fair,” the pre-recorded address, which debuted late last week, said.

The announcement played at the above-ground stops on the western branches of the Green Line.

...

 

[sm89]

You're right. They did!

T to suspend fare payment announcement amid rider irritation

More importantly, what happened to the front door only policy off peak? With 10 passengers on the train and only 2 on the platform, they're still opening all the doors!

 

[West]

More importantly, what happened to the front door only policy off peak? With 10 passengers on the train and only 2 on the platform, they're still opening all the doors!

This is what I've mostly been seeing and the answer is "Good!". (Every once and a while a see a driver doing one-door only - consistency is not complete.)

Even with very few people on a train or boarding, the front door only policy is stupid. If only two people are getting off at a stop and one is boarding, having everyone squeeze past each other at the front door is still an annoyance. As for cheating, when the ridership is so light, drivers have a much easier time hassling people to come up and pay if they enter a rear door. And drivers do it, too, at least in my experience.

I think the fare evasion is very low during the off-hours, so the one door only policy just annoys the hell out of everyone and has near-zero impact on revenue.

It's during the rush hours that cheaters can blend in to the mob and flash a stored-value Charlie card that has no money on it, as if they had a monthly pass. Reducing fare cheating, which I suspect is a minor revenue loss, means going full PoP with roving enforcement that has teeth. If the T isn't ready for that during rush hour, then doing the single door only after hours is chasing after the occasional lost penny while making no effort to recoup lost dollars.

 

[datadyne007]

So I was scrolling through Ward Maps today looking to see if they had a section of the Huntington Avenue subway (they don't appear to, only plans for Mechanics & Symphony) and I discovered that in 1914 (Boston Transit Commission 20th Annual Report 1914) they were studying a subway from Haymarket to Chelsea! This would have been revolutionary if it had been built.

Route A went primarily under the Harbor.
Route B went primarily under the Charlestown Navy Yard.

Plans: http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=17117
Sections: http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=17133

 

[citylover94]

Wow if only that had happened or if it were possible to get the political support and money to build it today that would be amazing! Would that have been a green line or orange line branch I couldn't tell?

 

[Matthew]

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.

If there's one thing the "B" branch can do, it is: driving you sloooooooooowly to madness.

 

[underground]

Haymarket - Navy Yard - Chelsea probably made a ton of sense when all three were major employment centers. That's a cool route.

 

[DigitalSciGuy]

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 fully understand that DePaola isn't chair of the FMCB. My frustration is also less over needing to navigate legal mandates and more over the way they're navigating their way out of them instead of providing better services.

It is absolutely within the GM's purview to make high-level promises; the seat itself doesn't preclude the ability to have or set vision for the transit system. It certainly helps to have a Secretary above him/her who can back it.

I also argue that having vision and running an agency responsibly within 'realistic constrains' are not mutually exclusive.

I realise the political realities - thanks for reiterating that for everyone else here. My issue is that the witch hunt the FMCB has been tasked with does more to damage public trust in the MBTA - something the Governor claims he's trying to rebuild with the installation of his FMCB - and very much seems to be the prevailing narrative rather than an agency promising to improve specific and concrete service initiatives.

Take the recent passenger communications that the thread has been discussing the past few days. Why is that not a thing the MBTA is explicitly talking about or doing as a progressive pilot program with explicit participation from riders? It's easy to dismiss this as unnecessary work; 'just fix the system and run it better' you might say. But what it doesn't do is have an honest conversation with the public about the improvements it's trying to make. It also doesn't align with any clear goal for improvements.

I'm going to point back at the plan of WMATA's new GM because I really cannot overstate how important it is to set specific goals and targets and show progress toward achieving them. What is the FMCB doing? What are its goals? What progress is it making that has any effect on service or reliability? Even as an advocate, I struggle to point to something specific the FMCB is doing other than muckraking and penny pinching; their mission is nebulous, just as every 'reform before revenue' scheme before it. We did the same thing with the late night pilot - the T/MassDOT/the Commonwealth didn't set any specific goals or marker of success and threw away any opportunity to make it work well.

My point is: we can have both vision and grounded, responsible transit operations, but above all, the folks at 10 Park Plaza need clear, discrete, concrete, and service-oriented goals.

 

[bigeman312]

MBTA eyes money for Natick Center station design

NATICK - State transportation officials are weighing spending $4 million to design an improved and handicapped-accessible Natick Center commuter rail station.

The design work was included in an "illustrative list of projects" that could share $150 million for accessibility improvements. The list is part of a presentation on potential capital spending for state transportation projects in fiscal years 2017 to 2021.

"What we see here is the strongest possible indication that the MBTA looks at this favorably," said Selectman Josh Ostroff, who has advocated for transportation projects such as the station.

After Natick Center, the only stations on the Worcester Line left to be made compliant are the Newton and Wellesley stops.

 

[whighlander]

I fully understand that DePaola isn't chair of the FMCB. My frustration is also less over needing to navigate legal mandates and more over the way they're navigating their way out of them instead of providing better services.

It is absolutely within the GM's purview to make high-level promises; the seat itself doesn't preclude the ability to have or set vision for the transit system. It certainly helps to have a Secretary above him/her who can back it.

I also argue that having vision and running an agency responsibly within 'realistic constrains' are not mutually exclusive.

I realise the political realities - thanks for reiterating that for everyone else here. My issue is that the witch hunt the FMCB has been tasked with does more to damage public trust in the MBTA - something the Governor claims he's trying to rebuild with the installation of his FMCB - and very much seems to be the prevailing narrative rather than an agency promising to improve specific and concrete service initiatives.

Take the recent passenger communications that the thread has been discussing the past few days. Why is that not a thing the MBTA is explicitly talking about or doing as a progressive pilot program with explicit participation from riders? It's easy to dismiss this as unnecessary work; 'just fix the system and run it better' you might say. But what it doesn't do is have an honest conversation with the public about the improvements it's trying to make. It also doesn't align with any clear goal for improvements.

I'm going to point back at the plan of WMATA's new GM because I really cannot overstate how important it is to set specific goals and targets and show progress toward achieving them. What is the FMCB doing? What are its goals? What progress is it making that has any effect on service or reliability? Even as an advocate, I struggle to point to something specific the FMCB is doing other than muckraking and penny pinching; their mission is nebulous, just as every 'reform before revenue' scheme before it. We did the same thing with the late night pilot - the T/MassDOT/the Commonwealth didn't set any specific goals or marker of success and threw away any opportunity to make it work well.

My point is: we can have both vision and grounded, responsible transit operations, but above all, the folks at 10 Park Plaza need clear, discrete, concrete, and service-oriented goals.

DigSciGuy -- actually the enabling legislation tells you precisely the mission of the FinBoard
First and foremost it is to get a handle on the nebulous state of the T including making emergency improvements

The FinBoard completed calendar year one -- doing that so that the longer-term problems of both financial stability and state of good repair could be scoped-out. That's what they are doing now.

Remember that they were granted a 3 year window of power to deliver improved customer service and fiscal sanity -- at the end of that time period they need to go back to the Legislature to continue

 

[TheRifleman]

Anybody ever hear of this story?

Problems plague new Hyundai Rotem commuter rail cars ...
https://www.bostonglobe.com/...rotem...cars/.../story.html
The Boston Globe
Jan 29, 2014 - One of the new Hyundai Rotem rail cars sat at South Station earlier this ... A long-awaited fleet of MBTA commuter rail cars, delivered 2½ years late by the South ... for Hyundai Rotem, the South Korea-based contractor that delivered the ... cars “a 7.5 or an 8” out of 10 but said the problems — a minor toilet ...

I was with an admin from the Commuter Rail French Group last night.
Just put it this way Amtrek didn't even put a bid in to continue to run the rail.
They claimed that the MBTA blew over a billion dollars sending out the wrong specs to South Korea, When the rail cars came over they did not fit right on the tracks then got sent to PENN.
Nobody knew who ordered these railcars. A billion dollar mistake.

The person said the Unions have gutted out the entire MBTA finances with their corrupt OVERTIME and their Incompetence.

A complete Political connection job that has gotten out of control. No accountability in the MBTA--- it's a complete disaster at this point.

 

[millerm277]

Anybody ever hear of this story?

The link on your story is broken, looks like you copied the abbreviated version of the link rather than the full path.

I was with an admin from the Commuter Rail French Group last night.
Just put it this way Amtrek didn't even put a bid in to continue to run the rail.
They claimed that the MBTA blew over a billion dollars sending out the wrong specs to South Korea, When the rail cars came over they did not fit right on the tracks then got sent to PENN.
Nobody knew who ordered these railcars. A billion dollar mistake.

Which French group are you talking about? Veolia who was a part of MBCR (the former CR operator), or Keolis (the current CR operator)?

On the face of it, that's blatantly false in every aspect.

The SEPTA Silverliner V's are single-level electric self-propelled cars. The MBTA's are bi-level push-pull coaches. They are not the same vehicle and so the entire narrative here is impossible.

While the Hyundai Rotem order has had plenty of problems, that's been Hyundai Rotem's problem to eat the costs of fixing, and the MBTA has mostly only paid the agreed-upon contract price for them. One would think if the MBTA screwed up that Hyundai Rotem wouldn't be eating the cost of said mistake.

And lastly...the order was $190 million, so it'd be rather impressive if anyone could generate a "billion dollar mistake" out of them. You could build all the cars, set them on fire and throw them away 4 times before delivering the finished product and still come in at less than a billion dollars.

 

[TheRifleman]

The group I was chatting with was from Keolis.
This is what I was told. They told me to google Hyundai Rotem. The story was never really followed up because of the influence of the Unions with the press.

The person from Keolis said that the MBTA sent the wrong specs to Hyundai Rotem so in the end they were liable.


In this article it seems the South Korean Maker was delayed by 2 years.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...er-mbta-bid/5eAOK6CM88f8Y5kPzMmDAM/story.html

In May, the T will accept bids for a new contract, which are likely to exceed $1 billion, to build train cars for the Red and Orange lines, and expects to award the contract by December.

I'm not making any claims here since I actually have no facts at all into this. Just trying to get the real story.
I was just asking if anybody heard of this story? Since these types of claims were brought up in discussion at dinner.

 

[dwash59]

In May, the T will accept bids for a new contract, which are likely to exceed $1 billion, to build train cars for the Red and Orange lines, and expects to award the contract by December.

Maybe you meant to include this in quotes since it is a sentence from a two year old article? That whole bidding process is already over.

 

[millerm277]

The group I was chatting with was from Keolis.
This is what I was told. They told me to google Hyundai Rotem. The story was never really followed up because of the influence of the Unions with the press.

The person from Keolis said that the MBTA sent the wrong specs to Hyundai Rotem so in the end they were liable.


In this article it seems the South Korean Maker was delayed by 2 years.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...er-mbta-bid/5eAOK6CM88f8Y5kPzMmDAM/story.html

In May, the T will accept bids for a new contract, which are likely to exceed $1 billion, to build train cars for the Red and Orange lines, and expects to award the contract by December.

I'm not making any claims here since I actually have no facts at all into this. Just trying to get the real story.
I was just asking if anybody heard of this story? Since these types of claims were brought up in discussion at dinner.

Hyundai Rotem built commuter rail cars on a $190m contract. That they were delayed and had problems is true. That they were the MBTA's fault/financial liability isn't something I've seen alleged elsewhere. And the MBTA was very publicly calling for Hyundai Rotem's head and threatening legal action over the issues, so I'm skeptical of this claim.

The contract for the Red and Orange line cars is $566m (for the base orders) and was not awarded to Hyundai Rotem, so at this point it has nothing to do with them.

 

[underground]

They told me to google Hyundai Rotem. The story was never really followed up because of the influence of the Unions with the press.

Google-able and yet not covered in the press?

 

[Equilibria]

I'm going to point back at the plan of WMATA's new GM because I really cannot overstate how important it is to set specific goals and targets and show progress toward achieving them. What is the FMCB doing? What are its goals? What progress is it making that has any effect on service or reliability? Even as an advocate, I struggle to point to something specific the FMCB is doing other than muckraking and penny pinching; their mission is nebulous, just as every 'reform before revenue' scheme before it. We did the same thing with the late night pilot - the T/MassDOT/the Commonwealth didn't set any specific goals or marker of success and threw away any opportunity to make it work well..

Well, this was well-timed.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...e-dashboard/cNdd9j8YIgbPBjL2DLkO7M/story.html

I'm not fighting you on your FMCB points, only on blaming DePaola for the FMCB's failures.