Delvin4519
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The press conference regarding the system wide 10-25 MPH restriction seems to have been delayed. It was for 10am standard time, but it's quarter past now.
Some of the big employers whose workers are impacted by the T mess should consider a class action lawsuit for fraud. Force the Commonwealth to clean house at the T.
Would the Governor declaring some sort of state of emergency in regards to transit help at all? I'm not sure if theres even anything that could be done to fix things faster. Do we even have enough qualified rail contractors if we threw money at the problem?
Reports on Twitter that the additional speed restrictions have been lifted on the heavy rail lines. The emerging interpretation of comments made at the apparently-largely-uninformative press conference is that there were apparent discrepancies between records (of maintenance and/or condition) and actual work/condition, raising question about the integrity of reports across the system.
EDIT: Video link here
From what I heard in his remarks, I'm not actually sure we know for certain the inspections were done. He spoke about "after having reviewed the quality of that I documentation, I made the decision [to impose the speed restrictions]", which suggests that in at least one case the documentation did exist but was somehow concerning. Obviously we don't know why it was concerning, but what I heard did not seem to rule out the possibility that the inspections weren't done, or were done improperly.Translation: They did inspections and either lost or failed to fill out the paperwork.
No pix or anything fun to support this, but I took the Green Line from Union to Government Center (and, many hours later, back) and it was excellent, across the board. Zero (under 5 minutes) wait in both directions, no weird stops or misleading signage/announcements; yeah, inbound over the highest part from Union to Lechmere (across from Twin City Plaza) it slowed down for a bit, but nothing major or long-lasting. People who whine and moan about the T should really travel to other places more often. NYC, San Fran, Chicago (and plenty other places) would be stoked to have rapid transit this good.
The MBTA is able to get away with such abysmal performance because they've gaslit even the transit-savvy posters on this board into thinking that their service is something to be "stoked" about.
Thanks! I’ll be pedantic, but the specification was for 40 mph — I’m more curious about what the actual conditions/speeds have been lately.
Wow, so yeah. This is gonna be rough.I've used a GPS speedometer a few times when I've ridden it to/from work. It's consistently 40 mph between stations from East Somerville to Medford/Tufts. Even as of Wednesday when I last rode it.
Wow, so yeah. This is gonna be rough.
It's gonna at least double the time on the branch, probably won't make that big of a difference in the downtown tunnels since they don't seem to get above 25 ever anyway. I think I'm just gonna go back to cycling in unless the weather is truly hellish. It's the fastest way into the city anyway.
I mean, I dunno how often these inspections are made, but probably the only inspection report that "matters" is the most recent one. So if the inspection is supposed to be every 2 months (for example), that would be enough potentially to impact even though that section is very new. But also, it sounds like the "systemwide" restrictions still in place on the LRT lines probably are more reflective of a paperwork/organizational thing while they continue their investigation.If the root cause is documentation around repairs, why is the GLX impacted? It’s brand new, so the documentation should be much lighter than the core subway.
I've traveled to all 3 cities you mentioned and apart from SF, NYC's MTA and Chicago's CTA is miles ahead of the MBTA. The idea that people would be "stoked" about having a public transit like the MBTA is such a YMMV, that declaring that has zero value. All I can say is, in the past year, the MBTA has made headlines on national news for the wrong reasons more than any other transit agency, save for maybe the MTA (due to the assaults on passenger which really doesn't have anything to do with the agency operating it)That, or it's possible to appreciate what you have, while acknowleding that improvements can, and should, be made.
I don't feel I've been gaslit by the T or anyone; I just prefer to enjoy the resources available to me. In fact, once I take the dog out for a quick walk, I'll be hopping on the Green Line and heading into DTX for a few hours and then returning by the same method. Just as I've done three times already this week. I enjoyed those trips and I'm looking forward to today's.
What are your thoughts? Is the COVID-19 pandemic therefore responsible putting the MBTA in a state of a transit death sprial? That the MBTA was bad and mismanaged pre-COVID, and the pandemic was enough to push the MBTA over the threshold of rapid decay and disintegration?
Hence, it would likely not trigger an FTA response, which would mean that the MBTA would continue to run full subway service.