The new system is modernized but not full automated. I believe it does lay the physical ground work for automation to be built eventually on top in software, though.
General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)
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The new system is modernized but not full automated. I believe it does lay the physical ground work for automation to be built eventually on top in software, though.
Badusername
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So this theoretically could help the dispatcher staffing issues identified by the FTA?
Are there additional stations that the Harverhill line trains could stop at during the shutdown? I know they stop at Malden Ctr, could they stop at Oak Grove? Wellington? I'm assuming definitely not at Assembly/Sullivan/Community based on how the stations are built.
I try to avoid being negative when possible, but I admit that the messaging on this closure has really rubbed me the wrong way. "We’ve listened to our riders, and we hear them loud and clear – bold action needs to happen in order to improve the MBTA at the pace that riders deserve," Poftak said -- as if riders somehow were asking for a 30-day shutdown of a key subway line? "Poftak called today's announcement part of 'a momentous day' for Orange Line riders," and Baker touted all of the improvements his administration claims to have made since 2015.
This should be a mea culpa, mea maxima culpa moment for Baker and T leadership. This shutdown was not inevitable, this was not an Act of God, and while it may no longer be avoidable, Poftak and certainly Baker have been in leadership long enough that they are clearly responsible for not averting this disaster sooner. This is not a time to insist that this is a good thing, this is a time for solemn responsibility and acknowledging the enormous impact this will have on upwards of a million people.
(Yes, a million people: the T's daily ridership as of April was 671,000. The Orange Line is integral to the entire system, and even if your journey does not require it, your journey will be impacted by additionally catering to displaced riders on alternate routes. Moreover, this will impact non-riders as well, with increased traffic, reduced foot traffic into barely-recovering retail, reduced in-office availability of colleagues, and overall economic impact felt across the region.)
And it's worth remembering: not once but twice in the last two weeks, passengers on the MBTA concluded that the best course of action was to get off a stopped train between stops and walk on live railroad tracks. The public sector has an obligation to maintain the trust of the public it serves, not merely because the public pays its salary, but because when that trust is lost, people have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, and that is incredibly dangerous -- not just to the individuals themselves, but to everyone around them, and our community as a whole.
I am hopeful that municipal leaders will be able to quickly erect bus lanes to speed both shuttle buses and Orange Line-related bus routes, and I hope that those bus lanes and other speed improvements remain in place even after the Orange Line re-opens. There may well be good that comes out of this.
But the cavalier tone of Baker and Poftak is wholly inappropriate. If they will not be held accountable by the legislature or regulatory authorities, the very least they could do is try to appear contrite and responsible.
This should be a mea culpa, mea maxima culpa moment for Baker and T leadership. This shutdown was not inevitable, this was not an Act of God, and while it may no longer be avoidable, Poftak and certainly Baker have been in leadership long enough that they are clearly responsible for not averting this disaster sooner. This is not a time to insist that this is a good thing, this is a time for solemn responsibility and acknowledging the enormous impact this will have on upwards of a million people.
(Yes, a million people: the T's daily ridership as of April was 671,000. The Orange Line is integral to the entire system, and even if your journey does not require it, your journey will be impacted by additionally catering to displaced riders on alternate routes. Moreover, this will impact non-riders as well, with increased traffic, reduced foot traffic into barely-recovering retail, reduced in-office availability of colleagues, and overall economic impact felt across the region.)
And it's worth remembering: not once but twice in the last two weeks, passengers on the MBTA concluded that the best course of action was to get off a stopped train between stops and walk on live railroad tracks. The public sector has an obligation to maintain the trust of the public it serves, not merely because the public pays its salary, but because when that trust is lost, people have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, and that is incredibly dangerous -- not just to the individuals themselves, but to everyone around them, and our community as a whole.
I am hopeful that municipal leaders will be able to quickly erect bus lanes to speed both shuttle buses and Orange Line-related bus routes, and I hope that those bus lanes and other speed improvements remain in place even after the Orange Line re-opens. There may well be good that comes out of this.
But the cavalier tone of Baker and Poftak is wholly inappropriate. If they will not be held accountable by the legislature or regulatory authorities, the very least they could do is try to appear contrite and responsible.
TrolleybusFoaming
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Trains are planning to stop at Oak Grove.
Also, I finally got a still-terrible-but-at-least-not-blurry photo of the alert, this time at Copley from a train.
They will stop at Oak Grove -- there is an active though rarely used commuter rail platform. I think it's unlikely that emergency platforms will be erected elsewhere, in part because of what it would take to provide walking access to those platforms.
stellarfun
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I wonder how much of this is a response to and being driven by the FTA oversight. The only other Federal 'takeover' of a transit agency was Washington DC Metro in 2015, and that lasted for four years. And the FTA's intervention in Boston is not yet as robust as happened with Metro.
https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/safety/fta-wmata-corrective-actions
https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/safety/fta-wmata-corrective-actions
thepianoperson
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I wonder if this is to finally fix the speed restriction over the Lechmere viaduct? Can’t imagine what else it would be for on a brand new line (unless it’s to do some last-minute tie-in work for the Medford Branch).
TrolleybusFoaming
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I thought this statement from former Chief Safety Officer Ron Nickle's statement was quite apt...
Got a look at the draft shuttles map, two things that stood out:
A) Inbound from the south will terminate at Copely, Inbound from the North will terminate at Government Center. If you're going from one end of the orange to the other you're going to have an awful month
B) Dartmouth street between the BPL and Copely Sq Park is proposed to be closed to cars!
A) Inbound from the south will terminate at Copely, Inbound from the North will terminate at Government Center. If you're going from one end of the orange to the other you're going to have an awful month
B) Dartmouth street between the BPL and Copely Sq Park is proposed to be closed to cars!
Guess a bus caught fire at Forest Hills today. Plus side, it wasn't on the Tobin so no passengers had to jump into the Mystic again and swim to safety.
MBTA bus catches fire near Forest Hills
MBTA bus catches fire near Forest Hills
Brattle Loop
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Which would sort of seem to indicate that GC-North GL service might well not be reliably available which would make the Commuter Rail a less-useful Orange substitute.
For bus staging or just to make life marginally less annoying for pedestrians? (I wish they'd done that when I was in high school. The taxis turning from Dartmouth to Boylston never yielded like the signs told them to.)
Buses will drop off there, not sure if that’s instead of or in addition to a stop at Back Bay
Yankee subcontracts to other operators, right?
The simultaneous closure of the Green Line north of Gov’t Center and the entire Orange Line of course is not unexpected based on the language of the Board of Directors meeting agenda, but it is still shocking to see in print. At the very least, hopefully the OL shuttles from the north will be extended to Gov’t Center, as opposed to just dumping everyone at North Station to walk or change to a second shuttle.
They really, really should have combined this announcement with the Orange Line one. I get that there are a lot of moving parts to figure out the exact dates and projects, but everything they do makes it seem like customer service is not on their list of priorities.
I disagree. I'm pretty sure they literally locked the decision sometime yesterday or even this morning. It would have meant not announcing the Orange Line shutdown until today. With so little time, every day counts for everyone to prepare - both passengers and various authorities like the Mayor of Boston to scrape together every mitigation. Having the past week instead only next week and the week after is likely helpful.