General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

HelloBostonHi said:
Green Line B - Branch Station Consolidation 8 / 2019
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Construction on the BU West stations is already underway, so is this referring to the Warren/Allston/Griggs triplet?

Arlington said:
Remind me whats the (dis) connection between AFC 2.0 and fare collection on the GLX?
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I'm not sure what you're asking about, but if AFC isn't in place by when GLX opens (which is starting to look likely), the T will need to buy AFC 1.0 fare vending machines for the GLX stations.
 
whittle said:
Construction on the BU West stations is already underway, so is this referring to the Warren/Allston/Griggs triplet?
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The MBTA website says the B branch is in "final design", is there visible construction work?
 
whittle said:
I'm not sure what you're asking about, but if AFC isn't in place by when GLX opens (which is starting to look likely), the T will need to buy AFC 1.0 fare vending machines for the GLX stations.
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They could always move the proof of payment machines that were installed all along the D branch and never used. Might need to be dusted off.
 
What is this building at the east end of Back Bay station on Berkeley Street? It's owned by the MBTA - is it a substation for the Orange Line?
 
I find it interesting the argument that the new GLX stations will require old FVMs if AFC 2.0 isn't ready at that time when literally 80% of green line stops have no FVMs. I mean I totally support getting them but at their cost it makes you wonder if just waiting until 2.0 is ready makes more sense
 
HelloBostonHi said:
I find it interesting the argument that the new GLX stations will require old FVMs if AFC 2.0 isn't ready at that time when literally 80% of green line stops have no FVMs. I mean I totally support getting them but at their cost it makes you wonder if just waiting until 2.0 is ready makes more sense
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It's some kind of legal requirement for new construction that may be rolled up in state-level accessibility regs. Can't open a new facility without checking off every box on required features, but can let unmodified existing facilities rot in grandfathering forever.

This is one of the Catch-22's of such a reg when AFC 2.0 ends up in a race against time vs. GLX's opening. Though I doubt there's much cost chew involved because they can either rush-repair a few broken FVM's stored in the shop, raid a few machines from other low-use stops, and/or scrape together some back-end equipment boxes removed from pre-renovation Wollaston and Gov't Ctr. in order to plug gaps.
 
Random "general MBTA" shout out, since, among all its warts, we don't celebrated the good stuff enough:

The T legit has a fantastic user-facing website now. Dunno who did it, or how, but it is extraordinarily usable, intuitive, info-filled, and platform-agnostic.

Helped my (NOT tech savy, older) father figure out how to take the commuter rail into town today while simultaneously multi-tasking at work, and he accomplished figuring out whatever he needed via his 10-yr old smartphone with a shit out of date browser. And this grumpy man felt compelled to say "oh. that was easy"

So, serious kudos to whomever did this.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Random "general MBTA" shout out, since, among all its warts, we don't celebrated the good stuff enough:

The T legit has a fantastic user-facing website now. Dunno who did it, or how, but it is extraordinarily usable, intuitive, info-filled, and platform-agnostic.

Helped my (NOT tech savy, older) father figure out how to take the commuter rail into town today while simultaneously multi-tasking at work, and he accomplished figuring out whatever he needed via his 10-yr old smartphone with a shit out of date browser. And this grumpy man felt compelled to say "oh. that was easy"

So, serious kudos to whomever did this.
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Agreed, I went on it the other day and was very impressed. I second your kudos.
 
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bigpicture7 said:
Random "general MBTA" shout out, since, among all its warts, we don't celebrated the good stuff enough:

The T legit has a fantastic user-facing website now. Dunno who did it, or how, but it is extraordinarily usable, intuitive, info-filled, and platform-agnostic.

Helped my (NOT tech savy, older) father figure out how to take the commuter rail into town today while simultaneously multi-tasking at work, and he accomplished figuring out whatever he needed via his 10-yr old smartphone with a shit out of date browser. And this grumpy man felt compelled to say "oh. that was easy"

So, serious kudos to whomever did this.
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Eh, the desktop interface is horrible. It's clearly designed for phones first.
 
My only problem with the T's website is the algorithm for determining routes. It will route you to a direct transfer even if there is a quicker transfer with a short walk in between, Not usually a big deal, but when the CR is running late and I need to figure out whether the 39 or the GL would be better to get to work, it's annoying.
 
I've enjoyed the MBTA website recently on both mobile and desktop, but it's clearly aimed at mobile users. To me, that's fine. Mobile users make up the majority of website visitors nowadays. I haven't seen the data, but I'd wager that this is even more accurate for transit users as they are, by definition, mobile. For the people at home on desktop planning trips in advance, the site is more than functional. Rumor has it the Governor went to a national assembly of Governor's a few years back and was embarrassed by how bad the old Massachusetts state websites relative to other states. So a huge initiative (and a lot of money) was thrown into modernizing the state websites and their functionality. The MBTA website is one of the fruits of those efforts, but all of Mass.gov is updated.

On a related note, has anyone used Google Maps in Tokyo for directions via transit? It's proof we still have a long way to go here in Boston. Maps will tell you which station entrance to use, which car to get on for quickest transfer/egress, etc. Because of the network's efficiency, it'll build itineraries with +/- 1 minute transit times. I love the MBTA's route planning tools now, and the transit geek in me loves knowing where to stand on the platform to get the right door that will line me up perfectly with the stairs/escalator at my destination station, but I'd love to have a level of reliability that enables such specific directions.
 
Lrfox said:
On a related note, has anyone used Google Maps in Tokyo for directions via transit? It's proof we still have a long way to go here in Boston. Maps will tell you which station entrance to use, which car to get on for quickest transfer/egress, etc. Because of the network's efficiency, it'll build itineraries with +/- 1 minute transit times. I love the MBTA's route planning tools now, and the transit geek in me loves knowing where to stand on the platform to get the right door that will line me up perfectly with the stairs/escalator at my destination station, but I'd love to have a level of reliability that enables such specific directions.
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Citymapper does all this in the US
 
Citymapper, Transit, and Google maps all do this in Boston to varying degrees. I still find Google maps chooses the most sensible routes, for example citymapper still thinks I need to *hike* from the Blue Line airport station to the terminal and therefore refuses to suggest the blue line to the airport, whereas Google maps correctly shows massport shuttles
 
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In what can only be described as a really odd choice by the MBTA, during the full downtown weekend shutdowns of the orange line they will be providing no alternative bus shuttles through downtown. That's right, none. Your option is to take the OL to Back Bay, walk to Copley and take the green line to North Station, then transfer to a bus shuttle to Sullivan Square, then transfer back to the orange line. I really hope they advertise this wide and far so people are aware ahead of time. Like coming in from the North and trying to get to DTX area will be a two transfer deal (OL>Shuttle>GL) instead of non-stop. And from the south, I really hope they advertise to people to take the GL E branch instead of even bothering with the OL. If they were doing this right they would be telling people at Ruggles to walk to NEU instead of bothering with the OL at all.
 
"Transit" app is my #1, GMaps a close second. In both cases, you have to be wary with any line that mixes locals and expresses (big issue on LIRR, not as much on our Commuter Rail)
 
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Saw this new-ish MBTA related twitter page on the SF Muni Diaries FB page.
 
I have what is probably a stupid question.

How does bustitiution work? Where does the T get so many bus drivers on such short notice? Do they just call in drivers that have the day off? Do they have a pool of part time drivers or contractors they can call in? Or do they just pull drivers from active lines and short those lines a bit during the bustitution?
 
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