General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Elaborating on the above, looks like multiple stations are without power. This article shows lights out at Haymarket and North Station. Some reports on Twitter suggest all Orange stations from NS to Forest Hills are out. Haven’t seen anything from the other lines. Also not clear why the Red Line is unaffected.

This appears to have been the case for an hour now.

www.wcvb.com

'We apologize for inconvenience, ' MBTA head says after power outage

MBTA officials are pinpointing the cause of the outage and apologizing to riders.
www.wcvb.com www.wcvb.com
 
T’s Twitter claims there is some Orange service between Back Bay and North Station, with delays.


One report that Blue Line trains are moving slowly.


Apparently the stoppage started on the Blue and Orange Lines only. But it definitely now is also impacting the Green Line, from photos I’ve seen.

 
Jeremy Siegel confirms he is hearing reports of trains moving but very very slowly.

T says Green Line will bypass Haymarket due to “insufficient lighting” in the station, but that Orange Line will “continue to serve” the station.


Passenger claims delays deboarding at North Station due to Orange Line passengers not having CR tickets needed to exit through the gates.

 
MBTA statement citing a power outage at North Station and subsequent cascading failsafes as the cause of this morning’s stoppage and delays.


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More info from the T. Somewhat unclear on a few points:

A 30-year-old cable owned by the MBTA failed early Thursday
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But then:
“The failure occurred outside the MBTA infrastructure,’’ [Eng] said. “What possibly could have caused the failure of the feeder cable that still remains to be seen.”
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And:
The cable is seven miles long and could have been damaged at any place along its path underneath Boston’s streets, according to T officials. National Grid supplies the T with electricity using the cable, Eng said.
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Boston Globe

So… it occurred on a cable owned by the T but outside of its infrastructure?
 
Riverside said:
So… it occurred on a cable owned by the T but outside of its infrastructure?
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I can see how that could be the situation. The T might have special electricity delivery needs, outside the scope of what National Grid is prepared to offer. So they create their own line, but pay rent to National Grid for it to feed through their network. They would own the actual wire, but not the conduit. It's probably the electrical equivalent of what used to be called a leased line back in the old Bell telephone system for dedicated connections between two points.
 
HenryAlan said:
I can see how that could be the situation. The T might have special electricity delivery needs, outside the scope of what National Grid is prepared to offer. So they create their own line, but pay rent to National Grid for it to feed through their network. They would own the actual wire, but not the conduit. It's probably the electrical equivalent of what used to be called a leased line back in the old Bell telephone system for dedicated connections between two points.
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Yeah that seems plausible. Odd that it wasn’t clarified in the article. That all being said, that seems to point to National Grid being at fault. (In which case, I hope, without much optimism, that the Commonwealth has some sort of legal recourse that can force some sort of payment from National Grid. It’s simply unacceptable for a utility provider to cause a failure on this scale and pay no penalty.)
 
Anyone have any insight on what's been going on this evening with the red line? Commuting home has been an absolute bear, traveling about 10 minutes per stop northbound. According to the operator there's a signal issue at Alewife and they're single-tracking in and out of the station, causing trains to wait at stations for 5 minutes or more. Seems pretty egregious especially given that whole section was just closed for 10 days. I'm involved in construction so I can see all manor of ways something like this could happen but to the lay person they're going to just see this as endemic to the failings of the T for the past few years. And this comes the same day as the power failure downtown (related to that, apparently they issued a public apology and offered free rides/fares across the system from 3-7pm today. In my 6 years living here I don't think I've ever seen them do that. A nice gesture, if a bit overshadowed by the red line now).
 
Firstly they've updated the article to read the following:
Contradicting earlier statements by T officials, T spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said late on Thursday afternoon that the power fed through the failed 7-mile cable comes from the MBTA’s South Boston power complex. Earlier, the T had said that National Grid supplies the power.
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1000030346.jpg

For clarity, my understanding of the MBTA's power delivery structure derives from this flow chart, but if you're also curious about where that power station is, its apparently here, notably nowhere near the T's RoW.

this raises a question for me - why is it here in the first place? While the T dates to an era when BERy would have had to generate its own electricity my understanding is that those power plants were all adjacent or nearby the tracks. The SOWA power plant, for example used to be the central power plant for the BERy system. Does anyone here know the history behind this facility? The most I can find on it is its now a bulk power distribution yard and has emergency generators (powered by jet engines) and appears to operate as a peaker plant for eversource.

(Also, If the connecting cable infrastructure is in as bad or worse shape as the capital needs assessment claims (power as a whole is 5.1B in need, 76% out of SGR) the T should seriously consider just starting from scratch and building a new bulk distribution facility in Widdett; lump in enabling CR electrification of that site/yard while you're at it.)
 
This transit agency & it's system is very ridiculously problematic!!!!!!! :eek:
 
bostonbyfoot said:
MBTA Press release on the recent Red Line shutdown.

MBTA Successfully Completes Expedited Critical Track Work on Red Line, Removes 8 Speed Restrictions | News | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.
www.mbta.com www.mbta.com
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From that press release:
Crews continued to maximize the Red Line shutdown in a number of ways. ...

Among this critical work:
  • Successfully removed and replaced dozens of signal bonds, reinstalled approximately 3,500 feet of signal cable, and performed work on many track circuits within the diversion area.
  • Performed signal modernization work at Alewife, Davis, Porter, and Harvard stations.
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I found it interesting that they're doing signal work, after the Red Line Signal Upgrade work there is marked as "complete":
Screenshot 2024-02-17 at 8.14.27 AM.png
 
Now with the last Green Line diversion for the winter underway, the full travel time data post-January shutdown is now available.

So how much did the January Green Line shutdown deliver? The MBTA promised 8.7 minutes of time saving round trip (if split evenly then 4.3 minutes per direction) for the January shutdown. The December shutdown promised 4.3 minutes of savings (~2.1 per direction), for a total savings of 13 minutes roundtrip (~6.5 minutes per direction) as of the past week, since pre-Thanksgiving 2023.

Here's the full data for the station pairs I track: (I don't track Hynes - Science Park or Gov't Ctr to Kenmore). This data has the full data up to 1am this morning, when regular Green Line service has ended until March 9th for a 3 week diversion.

Longwood Medical Area to Haymarket (Eastbound): (Data through 2024-02-20 01:00)
1708444490407.png

Kenmore to Haymarket (Eastbound): (Data through 2024-02-20 01:00)
1708444640936.png

Data source:
 
Delvin4519 said:
Now with the last Green Line diversion for the winter underway, the full travel time data post-January shutdown is now available.

So how much did the January Green Line shutdown deliver? The MBTA promised 8.7 minutes of time saving round trip (if split evenly then 4.3 minutes per direction) for the January shutdown. The December shutdown promised 4.3 minutes of savings (~2.1 per direction), for a total savings of 13 minutes roundtrip (~6.5 minutes per direction) as of the past week, since pre-Thanksgiving 2023.

Here's the full data for the station pairs I track: (I don't track Hynes - Science Park or Gov't Ctr to Kenmore). This data has the full data up to 1am this morning, when regular Green Line service has ended until March 9th for a 3 week diversion.

Longwood Medical Area to Haymarket (Eastbound): (Data through 2024-02-20 01:00)
View attachment 47785
Kenmore to Haymarket (Eastbound): (Data through 2024-02-20 01:00)
View attachment 47786
Data source:
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Thanks for the data.

So far, the shutdowns have delivered on the heavy rail promises, but failed to deliver on Green Line promises.

Yet another in a long list of reasons why the Red-Blue Connector is going to be a valuable project: decreasing reliance on the Green Line.
 
bigeman312 said:
Thanks for the data.

So far, the shutdowns have delivered on the heavy rail promises, but failed to deliver on Green Line promises.

Yet another in a long list of reasons why the Red-Blue Connector is going to be a valuable project: decreasing reliance on the Green Line.
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The latest Red Line shutdown only broke even for the slow zones. The MBTA added more slow zones on the RL's south side that added 6 minutes of runtime through the southern portion of the Red Line, which erased all the 6 minutes savings from lifting most of the RL slow zones between Alewife and Davis.

Source:
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It's gonna be a long two and a half weeks. The Green Line was in shambles today. I was stationed at Copley station and there were Yankee and Academy people giving incorrect info, trains bunched like there's no tomorrow, packed trains, packed platforms, a broken elevator, a train with a door problem (that I had to help troubleshoot because calling the official would have turned a 3 minute delay into a 13 minute delay), and a few other trains with various mechanical problems. I made the mistake of going up to Park Street on my break and that was even more of a mess. Not to mention all the B/C riders who never use Copley and are confused to see Medford/Tufts trains and don't know the layout.
 
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