General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

bigeman312 said:
A new day and another day of data on the Orange Line!

Some highlights from yesterday's (10/22/24) data:
  • At 2:48, the Orange Line set a new 2024 slow zone low, still the lowest since February 20, 2023.
  • Forest Hills -> Wellington averaged 29:18, the fastest for that trip since November 24, 2022, which was Thanksgiving Day. Other than that Federal Holiday, the last time that trip was that quick was June 14, 2020, when ridership was obviously much lower due to the COVID-19 pandemic!
Bottom line: northbound rides between Forest Hills and Wellington (which is most of the line) yesterday were the quickest they’ve been in over four years!
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A new day and another day of data on the Orange Line!

Some highlights from yesterday's (10/23/24) data:
  • At 2:48, the Orange Line tied the day before for the lowest amount of slow zone time in 2024, still the lowest since February 20, 2023.
  • Sullivan -> Back Bay averaged 12:29, which tied for the second fastest day this decade! The only day faster was November 24, 2022, which was Thanksgiving Day. Other than that Federal Holiday, this trip is tied with May 5, 2020 for the fastest this decade, ahead of even all the other super-low ridership days at the height of the pandemic.
    • Other than Thanksgiving of 2022, the last day when southbound trips through the Orange Line central core were quicker was June 16, 2019, which was a Sunday.
    • There is no business day (non-holiday, non-weekend) on record (transitmatters’ data back to 2016) when southbound trips through the Orange Line central core were quicker than yesterday.
Bottom line: southbound trips through the central core of the Orange Line are the quickest they’ve been on a business day on record.

Transit history nerds: when do you think the last time southbound trips through the central core (Sullivan -> Back Bay) were last quicker than yesterday on a business day? In 2015 or early 2016 before transitmatters’ data starts? In the period between 2002 and 2014 when all the Orange Line stations in that section had become accessible, but before the catastrophic winter impacts of 2015? Between 1987 and 2002 when the infrastructure (especially south of Chinatown) was much newer and the 01200’s were still in their prime? Summer of 1987 when the Orange Line was using four-car trains exclusively still? Never?
 
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www.boston25news.com

Healey-Driscoll administration announces $600 million to MBTA for improvements

In an agreement voted by both MassDOT and MBTA boards, $600 million in state funding has been approved through Gov. Healey’s proposal in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget that leverages Fair Share funding to support infrastructure investments to improve tracks, and get new subway and commuter rail cars.
www.boston25news.com www.boston25news.com
The full agreement includes:
  • $85 million for the Track Improvement Program (TIP), which is a major track and replacement initiative to eliminate speed restrictions and bring all tracks into a five-year state of good repair.
  • $148 million for new Red and Orange Line cars, which have proven essential for ensuring reliable and accessible service and increased capacity.
  • $193 million for the procurement of bi-level Commuter Rail coaches to enhance capacity on the network and replace all single-level coaches.
  • $95 million to advance construction projects at stations that will improve accessibility, resilience, and other needed repairs.
  • $80 million to improve power and system resiliency, including the infrastructure to generate power, move transit rail cars, support key network systems such as traction power and substations, and provide facilities with energy.
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The EGE said:
The MBTA is proposing changes to the service delivery policy, and they sound like legitimately good ways to better quantify how useful service is:

  • Heavy rail (Red/Orange/Blue) switches from on-time performance to excess trip time: compared to a benchmark fastest trip time and nominal wait time, how long were actual trip times and wait times and whether than excess falls into an acceptable range. This does a much better job of accounting for dropped trips and slow zones - OTP has been 80-90% for the last several years on the Red Line, but ETT has been between 15% and 60%.
  • Dropped bus trips are now penalized in OTP calculations, rather than excluded. The presentation notes that frequent routes have more dropped trips.
  • Span of service changes from first arrival/last departure to first departure/last arrival, which is apparently more standard for other systems. The expected spans have been appropriately widened - light rail went from 6am-12am to 530am-1230am, for example - so that the effective span is really the same.
  • Minimum frequency for frequent bus routes is now 15 minutes all day every day, rather than 10 peak / 15 off peak / 20 nights and weekends
  • New accessibility measures for bus stops, ferry docks, and ferries
  • Most elevator outages (even when shuttles are provided) are now considered inaccessible platform hours. Only specific situations like planned replacements are excluded. (This knocks platform accessibility from 99.4% to 97.6%)
  • Crowding metrics added for heavy rail because new data is now available.
  • Updated terminology: “Key Bus Routes” are now “Frequent Routes”; “Commuter Rail” referred to as “Regional Rail”; “Community” routes are now “Coverage”
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Love all of this. Dropping "commuter rail" might just be the smartest and cheapest change to actually get people (suburbanites) to take note that trains aren't just about schlepping to/from downtown, and eventually we'll see increased funding for rail across the state.
 
Definitely good, but ”rebranding” even as simple as one word would be expansive with the size of the CR system. Depending on how common (I don’t really know) key bus routes and communities are used, those could more easily be changed.
 
The EGE said:
The MBTA is proposing changes to the service delivery policy, and they sound like legitimately good ways to better quantify how useful service is:

  • Heavy rail (Red/Orange/Blue) switches from on-time performance to excess trip time: compared to a benchmark fastest trip time and nominal wait time, how long were actual trip times and wait times and whether than excess falls into an acceptable range. This does a much better job of accounting for dropped trips and slow zones - OTP has been 80-90% for the last several years on the Red Line, but ETT has been between 15% and 60%.
  • Dropped bus trips are now penalized in OTP calculations, rather than excluded. The presentation notes that frequent routes have more dropped trips.
  • Span of service changes from first arrival/last departure to first departure/last arrival, which is apparently more standard for other systems. The expected spans have been appropriately widened - light rail went from 6am-12am to 530am-1230am, for example - so that the effective span is really the same.
  • Minimum frequency for frequent bus routes is now 15 minutes all day every day, rather than 10 peak / 15 off peak / 20 nights and weekends
  • New accessibility measures for bus stops, ferry docks, and ferries
  • Most elevator outages (even when shuttles are provided) are now considered inaccessible platform hours. Only specific situations like planned replacements are excluded. (This knocks platform accessibility from 99.4% to 97.6%)
  • Crowding metrics added for heavy rail because new data is now available.
  • Updated terminology: “Key Bus Routes” are now “Frequent Routes”; “Commuter Rail” referred to as “Regional Rail”; “Community” routes are now “Coverage”
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The bus SDP changes actually make tradeoffs that "penalize" some standards in favor of tighter standards elsewhere

Frequency standard change:

Prior to December 2024, KBR had 20 minute evening and weekend frequencies compared to heavy and light rail.

After December 2024, the 10 minute rush hour standard for KBRs is being removed, although evening and weekend frequency improve. This means the MBTA is no longer obligated to provide 10-14 minute rush hour frequencies on KBR, which means a poorer rush hour standaed for FBRs compared to heavy and light rail.

IMO, weekend and evening frequencies are a win, but it's a loss of rush hour frequencies, but it is a win for flatter service standards.

Ideally, Boston would need to cough up enough ambition to run a 10 minute network from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, then 15 minute frequency after 10pm and on Sundays.

Span of service standard change:

The new proposed change using outer terminals instead of inner terminals is pretty darn good in how longer routes like the 57 are now getting properly "penalized" for it's sheer distance. As now, longer routes will have a shorter mandatory service span compared to shorter routes like the SL4/SL5. If a route exceeds 30 minutes from its outer terminal to the inner terminal, span of service will decrease, and shorter routes now must have a longer service hours, so the SL4/SL5 now get more service hours required (that it deserves) due to it being a short route.

TimeOLD 2021 Standard - required span of service - SDP
(Route 57)		NEW 2024 Standard - required span of service - SDP
(Route 57)		OLD 2021 Standard - required span of service - SDP
(SL4/SL5)		NEW 2024 Standard - required span of service - SDP
(SL4/SL5)
Depart route origin (AM inbound)5:26 a.m. Watertown Yard5:28 a.m. - Watertown Yard5:44 a.m. - Nubian Square5:26 a.m. - Nubian Square
Arrive route destination (AM inbound)5:58 a.m. - Kenmore6:02 a.m. - Kenmore5:58 a.m. - Downtown5:40 a.m. - Downtown
Depart route origin (PM outbound)12:02 a.m. - Kenmore11:58 p.m. - Kenmore12:03 a.m. - Downtown12:20 a.m. - Downtown
Arrive route destination (PM outbound)12:34 a.m. - Watertown Yard12:31 a.m. - Watertown Yard12:17 a.m. - Nubian Square12:34 a.m. - Nubian Square

By looking at this table above you can see how the SL4/SL5 are now required to run for an extra half hour at the start and the end of the day due to the new SDP standard. Whereas the horrendously long 57 gets a few minutes trimmed from its mandatory required service span due to the length of the route.
 
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I don’t know if this is the best place to ask, but I didn’t want to start a new thread for it. Does anyone know if the 1978 PMT has been digitized or where I could find it in a library? The BPL site didn’t have it listed in their catalog, and I’m trying to find former T expansion plans. The 1974 and 1983 plans would also be helpful.
 
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CheapLeak said:
I don’t know if this is the best place to ask, but I didn’t want to start a new thread for it. Does anyone know if the 1978 PMT has been digitized or where I could find it in a library? The BPL site didn’t have it listed in their catalog, and I’m trying to find former T expansion plans. The 1974 and 1983 plans would also be helpful.
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Maybe someone here has the answer for you, but I always like to recommend directly asking a librarian at BPL.
www.bpl.org

Ask a Librarian

www.bpl.org www.bpl.org
Call, email, visit in person, or fill out a web form. Even if what you're looking for isn't in their catalog, they can track these things down for you. This is what they do, and they are very good at it.
 
ritchiew said:
Maybe someone here has the answer for you, but I always like to recommend directly asking a librarian at BPL.
www.bpl.org

Ask a Librarian

www.bpl.org www.bpl.org
Call, email, visit in person, or fill out a web form. Even if what you're looking for isn't in their catalog, they can track these things down for you. This is what they do, and they are very good at it.
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There is also the State Transportation Library. They used to have a physical location which I believe closed many years ago.
 
KCasiglio said:
We've seen smoother demand over the past couple of years, I think this is a sensible redistribution of resources
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peak-y commutes are coming back - my morning buses are getting slammed out of Somerville into Cambridge/Red Line.
 
A thought experiment I haven't done much math on, but passed my mind earlier: any thoughts on a 30-trip/month pass at a discounted cost-per-ride rate for Commuter Rail? Maybe a similar setup for subway and bus? This supports someone who works 3 days a week in a hybrid situation. I've seen a lot of comments about the monthly passes not being worth it anymore, and fare revenue from monthly passes have dropped considerably. Adding in an in-between option seems like a no-brainer to me.
 
stefal said:
A thought experiment I haven't done much math on, but passed my mind earlier: any thoughts on a 30-trip/month pass at a discounted cost-per-ride rate for Commuter Rail? Maybe a similar setup for subway and bus? This supports someone who works 3 days a week in a hybrid situation. I've seen a lot of comments about the monthly passes not being worth it anymore, and fare revenue from monthly passes have dropped considerably. Adding in an in-between option seems like a no-brainer to me.
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I like this idea, but it sounds like fare-capping is what's in the cards (and seems to be an equitable, well-worn policy approach used in other transit systems like Portland, OR). I think fare-capping essentially gets at your idea but not quite. In general, the MBTA needs to be providing a lot more fare products to people to better incentivize ridership.
 
stefal said:
A thought experiment I haven't done much math on, but passed my mind earlier: any thoughts on a 30-trip/month pass at a discounted cost-per-ride rate for Commuter Rail? Maybe a similar setup for subway and bus? This supports someone who works 3 days a week in a hybrid situation. I've seen a lot of comments about the monthly passes not being worth it anymore, and fare revenue from monthly passes have dropped considerably. Adding in an in-between option seems like a no-brainer to me.
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They kinda did this with the 5 day passes over 30 days, i.e. "5-day flex pass". Seems like they're testing the waters for some other modified pass situation. I still think the LinkPass-1A is a pretty good value for non-commuters, i.e. carfree folks like me, but, a LinkPass priced at about 30 trips would be pretty good as well!
 
Delvin4519 said:
The full service delivery update proposal is now available:

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Wow - I do not like the idea that local routes' standard of service in the middle of the day is 60 minutes. If they think that frequent routes "deserve" 15 minutes all day, then, it should follow that the local routes, if they have less demand, would also be similarly situated with people needing regularity in the middle of the day too.
 
Yeah, that's disappointing, as is the limited weekend span of service. 8:30 am start is not useful for most church services, much less people who have to work, 7:00 pm final arrival at terminals is also too early for getting dinner.

I am happy to see that frequent routes, rapid transit, and commuter rail have decent weekend morning service. No more afternoon-only Sunday commuter rail service, hopefully, and none of the nonsense we have in the Bay Area where BART starts at 8 on Sundays.
 
The EGE said:
Yeah, that's disappointing, as is the limited weekend span of service. 8:30 am start is not useful for most church services, much less people who have to work, 7:00 pm final arrival at terminals is also too early for getting dinner.

I am happy to see that frequent routes, rapid transit, and commuter rail have decent weekend morning service. No more afternoon-only Sunday commuter rail service, hopefully, and none of the nonsense we have in the Bay Area where BART starts at 8 on Sundays.
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Local routes seem to get the shaft here. Seems worth registering a complaint with the T if they have a meeting in my honest perspective.
 
September was the best month for weekday ridership so far following the pandemic.
IMG_6383.jpeg

Commuter Rail ridership is up to 94% of September 2019. Bus, 81%. Rapid transit 56%, which isn't great but relative to its prior peak of 51% that's a sizable jump and the first time rapid transit ridership has crested 400k in this era. Bus ridership also saw a considerable jump from a prior high of 314k. What I'm curious about is how the Red Line shutdown played into this. The MBTA data says that they counted all 30 days for Red Line ridership, averaging 122k on weekdays (the same as the Orange Line, only differing by ~100 riders) so that must be essentially the ridership with no Braintree Branch. The way they had the shuttle buses drop off at Ashmont probably contributed to somewhat stable ridership despite the shutdown. The real standout was the Green Line averaging 110,769 weekday riders. Almost on par with heavy rail.
 
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