General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

jklo said:
They build the tracks the same way they do 200+ years ago, right? How hard could it be?
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No, they do not. Welded rail wasn't used on Boston rapid transit until the 1970's. LRV's are heavier and have more articulation sections than they did even 25 years ago and require much more precise track alignment. 25 years of debugging the Bredas has tightened Green Line track standards significantly.

That's not to excuse that this screw-up happened. Hardly. But you're consistently grasping at straws ("It was the Chinese!" "It's the no-good incompetent workers!") for easy answers and easier blame when the answers aren't necessarily easy.
 
Delvin4519 said:
To my understanding, only 10 months and a bit have passed since early-mid November 2022 when the simulated testing began on the Medford Branch.
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My understanding is that simulated service began on November 1, which would be 11 months this coming Sunday.

Semantics aside, the degrading in that time period is ridiculous.
 
king_vibe said:
Btw, fixing a problem like this should take an about hour for a well trained crew.
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F-Line to Dudley said:
Source rail is all pretty generic and bulk-supplied. The only differences is that RR rail comes in 1/4 mile ribbons to be welded together, while rapid transit rail comes in 800 ft. (or .15 mile) ribbons to be welded together...the shorter lengths so that the rail drop can navigate tighter rapid transit turning radii. Commuter rail generally uses 136 lb./yd. weight rail (sometimes as low as 100 lb./yd. on turnouts, but the T sticks with the 136 lb. mainline & freight 'superset' weight for bulk ordering purposes). Rapid transit standardizes on 100 lb. rail pretty much everywhere worldwide. Bulk rail usually ships at a RR wheel profile (because that's the majority of worldwide volume for rail, and thus fetches the best bulk rate), and for rapid transit installs they simply run a rail grinder over it to change the profile to rapid transit wheels. That ends up easier than buying specialty-ground bulk rail, so most rapid transit systems apply the re-grinding post-install. The specialized Loram rail grinders were very busy on the GLX corridor in 2021 and early-'22 working over the track before the first test trains went on the corridor.
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This is probably pointless to get involved. Especially if King_vibe is trolling then this means that anything I say is just providing the entertainment he's looking for. But I'm going to still try despite the risk.

Quotes like the one I just quoted of F-line (albeit from the GLX thread) is why I come here. It contains substantial technical knowledge and using it to make informed discussions. While generally none of us (at least openly), have zero ability to do anything to truly help the situation. There's value that becoming more knowledgeable and using the knowledge to make deductions, even if it's ultimately speculation, is still ultimately informative. In the long run, even helpful.

The first quote of King_Vibe is a waste of space. To some people it can even misinforms which enough misinformed people does have impact.

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king_vibe said:
F-Line, sorry this upsets you so much. The situation is dire and you don’t seem to get it.
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Quotes like one this King_vibe is while I still bothered with the above. While still an incendiary response, it is also possibly interpret-able genuine belief rather than bad faith.

But if it's the later, rather than just trolling. Then I have to say again, just being angry does not mean you actually know anything. Saying "I know a guy" is not informative. If your friend (if he's real at all) is an MBTA bus driver, then your friend knows how to drive the bus bro. You know what is informative and actual knowledge? Posts like F-line that uses technical knowledge of rails are built and uses it to deduce information and informs other readers. Posts like Delvin that analyze public data. You have displayed nothing informative or useful.
 
mass.streetsblog.org

We Got A Copy of the Samizdat MBTA Podcast – Listen Here - Streetsblog Massachusetts

Last night, after we published our story on how the Healey administration sloppily deleted a new MBTA podcast that had billed itself as an example of “transparency” and “open communication,” we asked our readers if anyone had downloaded a copy before the state sent it down the memory hole. And...
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org

On r/boston, there was a bit of a commotion after a podcast from the MBTA getting taken down like almost immediately upon release. Streetsblog manage to find someone who manage to download a copy before it was taken down. I'm 10 minutes and it as Streetsblog says, it's been pretty "anodyne". Personally, I haven't heard anything that would be new information for us in this forum. So ironically the fast takedown is way more outrageous than anything revealed in the podcast (though I'm still listening through it).

To be honest, there's a good chance I would not even notice the podcast if it wasn't taken down so far leading to r/boston noticing that and started meme'ing and searching for a copy.
 
The latest episode of the Horse Race podcast has a discussion about the T’s problems prompted by the GLX storm. In it they mention Eng’s promise at his introduction to publish details about the slow zones and plans to fix them. Somehow that has also been memory holed in the ensuing months.
 
RandomWalk said:
The latest episode of the Horse Race podcast has a discussion about the T’s problems prompted by the GLX storm. In it they mention Eng’s promise at his introduction to publish details about the slow zones and plans to fix them. Somehow that has also been memory holed in the ensuing months.
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The reason why Eng's promise to provide a timeline on slow zones failed to deliver was addressed here:
Despite Eng’s buoyant optimism, some of his plans have already been thwarted. On his first day as general manager, he announced the T would soon publish dates of when each speed restriction on the subway system would be lifted.

Soon turned into never.

Each shutdown for track repairs, he said, requires discussions with elected officials and local business owners, and compliance with new federal directives to keep T workers safe, which means his original vision for radical transparency on slow zones is impossible. New slow zones are now cropping up faster than the T is eliminating them, and sometimes crews are discovering more work is required than originally anticipated.
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Teban54 said:
The reason why Eng's promise to provide a timeline on slow zones failed to deliver was addressed here:
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Here's their direction; Learn!!! Learn from your blunderbuss mistakes!!! Cal the company that laid the tracks down & tell them that they f-ed up!! & fix the tracks for free because we are not paying for it the 2nd time around!!! If you don't, we'll get a lawyer & SUE!!!! :mad:
 
king_vibe said:
Why is Eng getting permission from LOCAL BUSINESS OWNERS to do track work? What the fuck kind of logic is that?
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Because shutdowns are disruptive and affect everyone in the area impacted, both residents + businesses? Having discussions with them and trying to time them for the least problematic period for them is....how any responsible entity would (or should) act?
 
Teban54 said:
The reason why Eng's promise to provide a timeline on slow zones failed to deliver was addressed here:
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None of that really explains why they can't provide a timeline for fixing slow zones. I mean, they can't give a timeline because they have to follow safety protocols? That makes no sense.
The T does actually have an internal schedule for when work will be done. They could make that public.
 
Delvin4519 said:
Slow zones have plateaued on the RL, at a higher level than the July 2023 low point.

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That makes sense - they wrapped up this latest round of Braintree branch work two weeks ago and last couple weekend closures have been more about prep work for the Ashmont surge. I’m curious to see how much of the current Ashmont slow zones actually end up being fixed during the surge - there’s about 16.5 minutes of current slow zones there, hopefully most of those go away.
 
millerm277 said:
Because shutdowns are disruptive and affect everyone in the area impacted, both residents + businesses? Having discussions with them and trying to time them for the least problematic period for them is....how any responsible entity would (or should) act?
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"We have to fix the train. WHEN IS BEST FOR YOU!?"
 
ritchiew said:
None of that really explains why they can't provide a timeline for fixing slow zones. I mean, they can't give a timeline because they have to follow safety protocols? That makes no sense.
The T does actually have an internal schedule for when work will be done. They could make that public.
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Because they don't want to guarantee (At least in the eyes of the public) that work will be done several months in advance. Prematurely announcing closures could cause any number of problems from unneeded external pressure to meet targets, frustration and anger from local communities if they have not had time to take into account local events, and general annoyance if some unforeseen circumstances cause schedules to change. If they were to announce work between Forest Hills and Ruggles 3 months in advance for example, but then more urgent repairs needed to take place between Alewife and Porter requiring the scheduled work to be canceled, now you have local politics getting involved, and people start accusing the MBTA of putting wealthy Cambridge in front of poorer Roxbury for improvement works, regardless of the importance of the work. This can all be avoided by playing it safe and announcing works only for the near future.
 
[sotto voce] we can't fix the trains because Honest Gregg of Honest Gregg's HVAC Repair said we can't
 
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