General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

I buy a day pass when I'm a tourist or business traveler--I want a solution that I have to think about once (and can expense in one receipt), and that's not going to leave me with a shortfall or with $ stranded on fare media.

For commuters it is worth parsing the per-trip cost, and lots of forethought about number of trips.

As long as a transit day pass is less than 1 cab ride, it is hard to go wrong buying the pass.
 
Minor thing, but does anyone think that the full interior ads for the new Alien movie make the cars look sharp? The full black everywhere is quite striking.
 
jass said:
I havent taken the ferry to Charlestown in years.

The website says it is $3.50. Since when does it cost more than the subway?

Do they take Charlie these days, or cash only if you dont have a pass?
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Anyone?
 
jass said:
I havent taken the ferry to Charlestown in years.

The website says it is $3.50. Since when does it cost more than the subway?

Do they take Charlie these days, or cash only if you dont have a pass?

Also, WTF happened to the 3 day pass and how is $12 for a 1 day pass an option that anyone would buy unless you want to ride the ferry all day?
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The LinkPass referenced is the general MBTA LinkPass on a CharlieTicket (not Card), good on Subway, Bus, Commuter Rail Zone 1A, and Harbor Ferry. Day pass $12; 7 Day Pass $21.25. It is NOT just a ferry pass!
 
jass said:
I havent taken the ferry to Charlestown in years.

The website says it is $3.50. Since when does it cost more than the subway?

Do they take Charlie these days, or cash only if you dont have a pass?

Also, WTF happened to the 3 day pass and how is $12 for a 1 day pass an option that anyone would buy unless you want to ride the ferry all day?
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People in different parts of Mass. say they don't want to subsidize the parts of the MBTA that aren't in their area. For example Western Mass. people want none of their tax dollars going to the Turnpike or the MBTA because those agency's costs they claim are all for development on the opposite side of the state. So if your area uses the ferry then it should pay to subsidize most of the cost of it and not just the central MBTA.
 
JeffDowntown said:
The LinkPass referenced is the general MBTA LinkPass on a CharlieTicket (not Card), good on Subway, Bus, Commuter Rail Zone 1A, and Harbor Ferry. Day pass $12; 7 Day Pass $21.25. It is NOT just a ferry pass!
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The boat cannot read what's on your CharlieCard same as the Commuter Rail hence it cannot work there. After Zone 1A the conductors are up trying to verify tickets so after that you're supposed to have your ticket clearly visible for them in the interest of time.
 
Digital_Islandboy said:
People in different parts of Mass. say they don't want to subsidize the parts of the MBTA that aren't in their area. For example Western Mass. people want none of their tax dollars going to the Turnpike or the MBTA because those agency's costs they claim are all for development on the opposite side of the state. So if your area uses the ferry then it should pay to subsidize most of the cost of it and not just the central MBTA.
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I was at the Mass Moves conference in Springfield last week, and this subject actually came up quite a bit. The presenters kept having to phrase questions so that they could remind attendees that we were discussing what was important for the state as a whole. Some of it is deserved (there should be more Springfield-Worcester-Boston intercity trains) but there's also the crazy people asking for a Palmer commuter stop or Berkshire service to NYC
 
"the crazy people asking for a Palmer commuter stop or Berkshire service to NYC"

I don't think this is crazy at all. If Boston to Springfield commuter rail becomes a thing, a stop in Palmer makes sense.

The Berkshires are also a popular destination for people from NYC. Having rail service between the two would be very useful.
 
Active tracks, demo the existing, build the new, all without causing major disruptions to headway times. Even if they single track the line around the station, it means that they can only work on one track at a time.
If it was being built along tracks that were completely closed, then two years would be far too long.
 
Also, 20 months is not 2 years. It is 1 year and 8 months. Saying "2 years" as the media is doing is making it sound worse.

And it's totally reasonable. Much faster to close it and do it right than to keep it half open and suffer for 3 or 4 years doing phased work (then you get people complaining on Twitter "this station has been under construction for 3 years!" when they are likely the same people who are complaining about this very quick 1yr 8mo closure).
 
datadyne007 said:
Also, 20 months is not 2 years. It is 1 year and 8 months. Saying "2 years" as the media is doing is making it sound worse.

And it's totally reasonable. Much faster to close it and do it right than to keep it half open and suffer for 3 or 4 years doing phased work (then you get people complaining on Twitter "this station has been under construction for 3 years!" when they are likely the same people who are complaining about this very quick 1yr 8mo closure).
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Fair enough, I had missed the 'almost' in front of two years. Just seems kind of interesting time line wise vs say some of the towers that have went up/are going up. 100% agree that closing the entire station to expedite the reconstruction is the way to go, though.
 
I don't know why the MBTA hasn't sued Hyundai Rotem to get back some of the money they awarded to them to build the new commuter rail cars. These cars are junks and they are literally dooming each agency that signs on to run the commuter rail. Also, IIRC, the contract is for an order of 75 new cars but the article states that the MBTA only has 40 cars, of which, 13 is undergoing repairs. Where are the other 35 cars they ordered?

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/05/commuterrail/UwdlsCmFArAJTaacH8fTkJ/story.html
 
KentXie said:
I don't know why the MBTA hasn't sued Hyundai Rotem to get back some of the money they awarded to them to build the new commuter rail cars. These cars are junks and they are literally dooming each agency that signs on to run the commuter rail. Also, IIRC, the contract is for an order of 75 new cars but the article states that the MBTA only has 40 cars, of which, 13 is undergoing repairs. Where are the other 35 cars they ordered?

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/05/commuterrail/UwdlsCmFArAJTaacH8fTkJ/story.html
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The problems are with the 40 new MPI locomotives, not the Rotem coaches
 
The bus stop at Porter Square station always bugs me. There's a ton of wasted space in that huge plaza there (which is empty of people 99.9% of the time) but the bus shelter is squeezed onto the (< 9 ft) sidewalk. That's a pretty busy sidewalk with everybody walking up Mass Ave to and from the T station and shopping center, and the bus shelter and lightposts and trashcans and newspaper boxes make it an annoying pinchpoint. Pedestrians usually have to stop and squeeze through the crowd when people are waiting for a bus, and that's the case much of the time.

If the two foot retaining wall between the sidewalk and plaza were moved, the bus shelter could slide back about six feet into the plaza. This would free up the sidewalk for pedestrians and allow for a bigger bus shelter. Alternatively, the bus shelter could come forward to the street and the sidewalk could be routed behind it, taking over the space in front of the tree where the retaining wall now sits. Either way, the experience could be improved for both bus riders and pedestrians with little effort.
 
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