General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

737900er said:
It looks like they need to fix the dispatching/schedule though to run consistent headways north of JFK/UMass. Maybe they're still accounting for restrictions that aren't there anymore?
This is what TM has right now for northbound departures from Andrew:
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Yeah I think an 'emergency' schedule change for the Red Line is needed given how drastic the improvement to travel times and headways on the Braintree branch.
 
TheRatmeister said:
Yeah I think an 'emergency' schedule change for the Red Line is needed given how drastic the improvement to travel times and headways on the Braintree branch.
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Does the MBTA have the operational rolling stock for a schedule change on the Red Line?
 
JeffDowntown said:
Does the MBTA have the operational rolling stock for a schedule change on the Red Line?
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The only change needed is to adjust the departure times from Braintree to account for the faster travel time. Right now that hasn't happened and the trunk headways are all over the place as a result. This shouldn't require any additional rolling stock, just a change to when the already scheduled trains leave.
 
TheRatmeister said:
The only change needed is to adjust the departure times from Braintree to account for the faster travel time. Right now that hasn't happened and the trunk headways are all over the place as a result. This shouldn't require any additional rolling stock, just a change to when the already scheduled trains leave.
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It's always been all over the place, but now it's more obvious that there's an oscillating pattern in the data rather than complete randomness.
 
TheRatmeister said:
A little early to come to any firm conclusions, but the TM dashboard is showing an immediate time savings of around 16-20 minutes between Braintree and Andrew, an average speed increase of around 10-11 MPH, and a reduction in headways of around 3 minutes.
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I've had to run regular errands in Quincy all this year and the Red Line has been somewhere between miserable and non-existent. So of course, when the train is finally fixed.... this is exactly when my work is wrapped up an I don't have to go anymore.

But this is great! 20 minutes faster! That's fast enough to pop in for Chinese food whenever.
 
So many slow zones were removed on the Braintree Branch, that now the Orange Line boasts the honor of being the most speed-restricted line until November 2nd, due to the delay of the two Orange Line diversions from late summer to Election Day (week) Eve.

Orange Line trains continue to creep along at a crawl between Forest Hills and Back Bay, and between North Station to Oak Grove. Additional track inspections have resulted in additional slow zones along the outer parts of the Orange Line, to be dealt with in mid to late October.
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Shutdowns in the Track "Restoration" Program left to go (for slow zone removals):
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Apologies if this has been brought up before -- I moved to a place where my closest stop is the Union Square green line stop. When I take the train outbound to there 2 out of the last 3 times the train has stopped short of the platform for about 10 minutes, presumably to wait for platform space to free up. This is longer than it takes to travel that whole part of the GLX! Is this a dispatching problem, or was this just not considered in the station's design? Or is it an artifact of there not being room for a loop?

RE: Less than an hour from door to desk. I have a low tolerance for commuting, so I take my bike every day. It's usually 2-4 times faster than the T. Especially since the union square stop is kind of situated away from where a lot of density is.
 
Yesterday, the Red Line had its:
  • most round trips since June 17, 2022.
  • its lowest slow zone time since June 26, 2022.
  • fastest average speed since July 16, 2022.
It’s safe to say the Red Line is the best it’s been in years. The last time service was this fast or frequent was the year between the service restorations of summer 2021 and service cuts of summer 2022, before the lack of Poftak-era maintenance fully caught up to us. Service was obviously less safe and had lower ridership then, compared to today.

Over the past two years of less-than-stellar service, the highest ridership day on the Red Line was September 27, 2023 with 129.5k validations. I’m excited for the prospect of 130k+ Red Line validations in a day for the first time since March, 2020.
 
Found a red line rider who does not take the Orange Line or any of the buses; on zombie reddit.

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Bold statement to make. It may have been better to write "As of right now, The Red Line has been the best it's ever been in years.", not "As of right now, The T has been the best it's ever been in years."

The Orange Line is still slower than the Summer 2022 monthlong shutdown, painfully slow on the outer rims of the line. Buses are still only 85% of pre-COVID levels. A bus rider transferring to the Orange Line is still suffering the worst service cuts and commute slowdowns yet, with very little alleviated or improved over the past 2 years.

Compared to when Eng started in April 2023; the Orange Line had 8 - 9 minutes of slow zone in May 2023. Today, Orange Line is a smidge below 8 minutes of slow zone, compared to 5 and a half minutes of slow time prior to the 2022 monthlong shutdown. Very little has improved on the Orange Line's speeds since May 2023.

Buses are less frequent today than in May 2023, many bus routes had service cut in July 2023, very little of those cuts have been reverted, with more trips removed from the Fall 2024 schedule than added.

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While Red Line riders taking the subway from Braintree to Alewife have certainly seen their biggest gains in restored services and speeds, the T's improvements are not evenly distributed.

Bus riders are still suffering the worst of the Summer 2023 service cuts. The Orange Line is still running at its slowest speeds slower than Summer 2022, and almost as slow as May 2023. Orange Line riders need to wait until Election Day Eve. For bus riders, it's still a mystery when they will get their pre-COVID service levels back (BNRD phase 1 doesn't count, we're talking today's bus routes in today's neighborhoods, not the future redevelopment of Everett's 2nd St).

It is more than fair to say, for some MBTA riders, they have hardly felt anything improve meaningfully at all in the past 2 years, as it depends on which subway lines they take, which parts of those subway lines, and whether they ride the bus system at all or not.
 
Delvin4519 said:
While Red Line riders taking the subway from Braintree to Alewife have certainly seen their biggest gains in restored services and speeds, the T's improvements are not evenly distributed.
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This is a disingenuous attempt to diminish the successes of the Eng administration at improving service on the Red Line.

Service has not just improved for the very narrow (possibly non-existent) group of “Red Line riders taking the subway from Braintree to Alewife” as you assert, but rather for all Red Line riders. Just to give one basic example to negate the absurdly, narrowly presented group, a Red Line rider who takes the subway from Braintree to South Station is also very positively affected. In fact you could pick dozens of station pairs who are undeniably positively affected. I have to question what your agenda is to misconstrue these gains as applying only to that tiny group you assert.

Back to the facts. Yesterday, the Red Line had its:
  • most round trips since June 17, 2022.
  • its lowest slow zone time since June 26, 2022.
  • fastest average speed since July 16, 2022.
The entire Red Line. The whole thing. This applies not just to a tiny imaginary group of people who ride from Braintree to Alewife.

The Red Line is the best it’s been in years. The entire thing. Accept positive change for what it is!
 
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bigeman312 said:
This is a disingenuous attempt to diminish the successes of the Eng administration at improving service on the Red Line.

Service has not just improved for the very narrow (possibly non-existent) group of “Red Line riders taking the subway from Braintree to Alewife” as you assert, but rather for all Red Line riders. Just to give one basic example to negate the absurdly, narrowly presented group, a Red Line rider who takes the subway from Braintree to South Station is also very positively affected. In fact you could pick dozens of station pairs who are undeniably positively affected. I have to question what your agenda is to misconstrue these gains as applying only to that tiny group you assert.

Back to the facts. Yesterday, the Red Line had its:
  • most round trips since June 17, 2022.
  • its lowest slow zone time since June 26, 2022.
  • fastest average speed since July 16, 2022.
The entire Red Line. The whole thing. This applies not just to a tiny imaginary group of people who ride from Braintree to Alewife.

The Red Line is the best it’s been in years. The entire thing. Accept positive change for what it is!
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That's why I went with Braintree to Alewife. If I did Braintree to JFK UMASS, then that excludes the improvements made between Alewife and Park. If I did Alewife to Park, that excludes JFK UMASS to Braintree. Ditto Park to Ashmont.

Alewife to Braintree is the only way I can think of to capture the entire Red Line, aside from just saying "the entire Red Line" (I suppose Ashmont branches out at JFK, but Braintree is further away from downtown than Ashmont).

Also, much/most of the line has recovered from slow zones, so the only way to capture the Red Line's improvements is to mark it as "the entire Red Line", even if riders don't ride from terminal to terminal. If you want to realize all the improvements, you want to compare a end-to-end round trip. That's where frequency improvements come from.
 
Koopzilla24 said:
To give them benefit of the doubt colloquially people say "the T" to exclusively refer to the trains
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Let’s also not forget that the Red Line has the highest ridership of any line in the system (even in 2024 so far with all the disruptions and slow zones).

For most riders, the MBTA system is currently providing the best service in years for the trips they take.
 
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