General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

bakgwailo said:
The rerouting of the OL on the southern side was a side grade at best - in reality I'd say a downgrade as it meant Nubian Square, Egleston, etc lost their direct transit stops. I certainly wouldn't say it was an expansion. Could have been, I guess, if the Green Line replacement plan came to fruition.

Here's hoping the Blue/Red connector at least happens at some point as BLX doesn't seem likely. OLX to Rozzie seems a much easier project, too.
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I wouldn't be so pessimistic about BLX to Lynn. Once Red-Blue and probably Needham Line conversion are done, I'd say Lynn is the obvious next choice for a rapid transit project. It will take time for sure, but it's still more likely to happen "at some point" than many other ideas.
 
Teban54 said:
I wouldn't be so pessimistic about BLX to Lynn. Once Red-Blue and probably Needham Line conversion are done, I'd say Lynn is the obvious next choice for a rapid transit project. It will take time for sure, but it's still more likely to happen "at some point" than many other ideas.
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BLX might end up more difficult than it should be due to the environmental review process and it’s need to cross marshlands and be made resistant to climate change.
 
Has anyone else seen how the Globe has been walking back big parts of their story about T managers working remotely? The story about the capital delivery department largely doesn't seem to have changed, but the fact the deputy safety chief does, in fact, live and work in town definitely changes the story. Pretty glaring omission that they failed to verify that. Way less Howie Carr fodder about how no one is driving the safety train (even if it's clear that Healey thinks Ron Ester is not exactly reliable, given her appointment of a new safety chief).

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Floor buckles in Type 9 Car on Marathon Monday!! Yet another problem add to the T!! :eek:

www.nbcboston.com

New Video Shows Moment Floor Buckled on Green Line Train on Marathon Monday

The MBTA has released new video showing the moment the floor buckled on a Green Line train in downtown Boston on one of the busiest days of the year in the city. The car became disabled on April 17 at Boylston Station, leading to service delays and shuttle bus service replacements in the...
www.nbcboston.com www.nbcboston.com
 
Aprehensive_Words said:
Has anyone else seen how the Globe has been walking back big parts of their story about T managers working remotely? The story about the capital delivery department largely doesn't seem to have changed, but the fact the deputy safety chief does, in fact, live and work in town definitely changes the story. Pretty glaring omission that they failed to verify that. Way less Howie Carr fodder about how no one is driving the safety train (even if it's clear that Healey thinks Ron Ester is not exactly reliable, given her appointment of a new safety chief).

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Like I said, a disingenuous article
 
Delvin4519 said:
Is there no available speed information for MBTA rapid transit and light rail lines?

Only portions of the D branch show up, as well as airport station on the Blue line, and the Mattapan Line. However, the rest of the MBTA subway and light rail system shows as "NO DATA" on the map. Even the Framingham/Worcester Line has no speed information somehow.

Even for the D branch, I'm not sure if the data is correct. Is the D branch revenue trackage through Reservior have a design speed of 35 MPH and not 25 MPH? Is the design speed of the D branch actually 35 MPH, or is it 40 MPH or 50 MPH and the map is just plain wrong?

The existing data for the D branch, Mattapan line, and the BL's Airport station is gonna need to be double checked and revalidated for corrected speed data, and the map needs to show built design speeds (i.e. not slow zone speeds, but the built design speed).

(Note: Commuter Rail lines obscure the rapid transit lines, which is just bad map design to have lower frequency routes overwrite higher frequency ones. However, the Red/Orange/GLX lines have no data available)

Source: https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ (data pulled from https://www.openstreetmap.org/)

This data is available for all rail, metro, and tram lines in the Netherlands, and it is very detailed. The map of rail and track speeds Netherlands even covers spur tracks, terminal tracks, and loop tracks as well, and matches that in various videos I've found on Youtube. This data is sorely lacking for MBTA rail routes.
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I uploaded some speed limit data for the GLX to OSM. I don't have much knowledge on how to edit the lines or split lines, so the bounding boxes for some of the speed limits might be slightly off, but I prefer it this way than having no speed info at all. If someone here who knows to to split lines in OSM, they can go in and correct the speed limit bounding boxes. I also don't know where the exact boundry for the speed limit change is, other than a rough block-level approximation.

I don't have speed limit info for the outbound viaduct to Union Square, nor at the outer terminals at Union and Medford (I'd assume the outer terminals are 10 mph, but I can only input those I have video evidence of)

It is not currently possible to input speed limits south of Lechmere viaduct due to the slow zone. OpenRailwayMap and OSM should reflect design speeds, not the slow zones. Again, I'm not aware of publicly available map documentation showing exact design speeds for all rapid transit and light rail in the MBTA.

Anyhow, my rudimentry speed data input for the GLX shows up on OpenRailwayMap now. https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

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ant8904 said:
A particularly damming development as it's the same station as the ceiling tiles that was only a few months ago. With the previous close call, how was this not detected?
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Looking at some of the photos I've seen around Twitter I'm inclined to think that perhaps the work removing all the ceiling tiles is actually the reason it fell. Pure speculation but if you look at where the conduit was affixed on the ceiling I feel like the two are probably connected. Doesn't change the fact these sorts of things obviously need to be better secured to start with though
 
ant8904 said:
A particularly damming development as it's the same station as the ceiling tiles that was only a few months ago. With the previous close call, how was this not detected?
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This was not detected for the same reason that old T maps remain on prominent display years after they are out of date --no one cares. "Not my job." "You didn't say inspect the electrical boxes, just the ceiling tiles...." It is cultural at this point; a culture of race to the bottom.
 
JeffDowntown said:
This was not detected for the same reason that old T maps remain on prominent display years after they are out of date --no one cares. "Not my job." "You didn't say inspect the electrical boxes, just the ceiling tiles...." It is cultural at this point; a culture of race to the bottom.
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All of this, yes. But also: managers and leadership needing more boots on the ground time throughout the system. Staring remotely at data showing state of repair, state of updates, risks, incidents, on-time performance, etc - is worthless if the data itself is highly incomplete, erroneously reported, maliciously reported, missing key fields and variables, etc. Managing by data is powerful if the data are great, meaning we've built a robust system we can somewhat trust and has been validated. In a low-trust, low-performance, corrupt organization, why would we expect the data systems would be built particularly well in the first place? Maybe the T will get there someday (and I hope they do, because there are flexibility and efficiency gains if they do), but they are not there yet, and managers and leaders who do not recognize this are not equipped to lead in this time of crisis. Let me note emphatically that this is not an anti-remote work rant; look carefully at what I am saying before you rip on me for that; what I am actually saying is: how can we get to a state that is more compatible with a greater % remote and flexible operation. Remote work will thrive when it is set up to succeed.
 
JeffDowntown said:
This was not detected for the same reason that old T maps remain on prominent display years after they are out of date --no one cares. "Not my job." "You didn't say inspect the electrical boxes, just the ceiling tiles...." It is cultural at this point; a culture of race to the bottom.
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It's hard to fathom the mindset if this is what's going on. Like if I was assigned to inspect the tiles, I wouldn't be able to call it complete without checking them for sake of not wanting anyone to get hurt. It's not like everything looks shiny where it could hide something that's actually about to fall apart.

Regardless of removing the ceiling panels caused it to fall or not, I think a functional culture - despite other issues - would mean the rank-and-file would at least try to make sure everything is safe out of their own prerogative. This is evidence it's not happening.

The above is all speculative. I know I do know a friend IRL who works for the T that I'll have to ask. Some here may work for the MBTA too. I wish we have something more than just speculation.
 
ant8904 said:
It's hard to fathom the mindset if this is what's going on. Like if I was assigned to inspect the tiles, I wouldn't be able to call it complete without checking them for sake of not wanting anyone to get hurt. It's not like everything looks shiny where it could hide something that's actually about to fall apart.

Regardless of removing the ceiling panels caused it to fall or not, I think a functional culture - despite other issues - would mean the rank-and-file would at least try to make sure everything is safe out of their own prerogative. This is evidence it's not happening.

The above is all speculative. I know I do know a friend IRL who works for the T that I'll have to ask. Some here may work for the MBTA too. I wish we have something more than just speculation.
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It's possible that the cause isn't indifference but underdevelopment in critical thinking/inability to understand the "downstream" impact. As a manager, I'm often surprise at how many people do things or make changes without thinking about how the change can impact things downstream.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
This might be the most MBTA reason, the box was a 2011 pilot program that was abandoned in 2013 and no one thought to take down the old equipment.
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I'm shocked, shocked...

Seriously, this is absolutely the most MBTA thing: a pilot program that ended, one has to wonder whether they even really remembered these things were there, extremely likely that if anyone knew, or even if anyone saw these things, they were always "somebody else's problems". Does make me wonder if a.) the 2011 installation/2013 end of program never planned for removal of the equipment when it was no longer needed or b.) it was planned but never executed and then forgotten. Way too easy for those kind of things to happen, and usually indicative of an organization with poor attention to detail and internal processes (so, entirely of a type with the myriad other fails documented in this thread).
 
It’s a textbook example of the concept of technical debt. I suspect the workplace culture rewards launches, and there is no reward for burning down technical debt.
 
Woman was pretty lucky - according to UHub the box was about 200lbs. If she had taken the brunt of it it would have been much, much worse. Maybe the MBTA needs to have classes on "See Something, Say Something" for employees to call out strange things that no one knows what they are anymore. I would also just point to the DEFCON presentation from years ago that detailed the MBTA's general physical and network security practices and none of this is surprising at all.
 
Heck… the T still hasn’t cleaned up their feed for the GLX Medford Branch.

They list all the stations as having B/C/D service, but no arrivals. Apple Maps dutifully reports that “Service resumes (tomorrow morning)” for each of the stations on the phantom branches.

I reported it, but haven’t heard a peep.
 
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How in the hell do they keep outdated equipment around for that length of time & not be using it?!! It's beyond me!! :unsure:
 
RandomWalk said:
It’s a textbook example of the concept of technical debt. I suspect the workplace culture rewards launches, and there is no reward for burning down technical debt.
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Well the MBTA is fundamentally a politically driven entity. So launches = ribbon cutting ceremonies for Pols. Pols don't get news time for the MBTA fixing things that were not obviously broken. (Even fixing obviously broken parts of the system does not get the same press as a ribbon cutting.)

This is a core problem with all of our public infrastructure.
 
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