General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Tallguy said:
One Billion Dollars gets you 21 miles of double catenary? Reasonable? On what world?
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That's not what I meant by reasonable, sorry. I used it to mean that the estimate probably is in the right ball park for what it would in fact cost.
 
HenryAlan said:
That's not what I meant by reasonable, sorry. I used it to mean that the estimate probably is in the right ball park for what it would in fact cost.
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At MBTA track-mile scaling applied to the 1996-99 New Haven-Boston electrification, $30B is THIRTEEN times more. Are you really arguing that we have 13x construction inflation in 26 years for utterly generic railway electrical engineering? 3x, 5x...yeah, I could easily accept that. 7x at can't-manage-a-project-to-save-our-lives and here-Caltrain-hold-my-beer total boondoggle defeatist terms...yeah, I could even believe that. But 13x???

Sorry...that's off-the-wall enough to need explanation. And they're not explaining it. They're just shoving a nice round scare number in our faces that no math on earth can seemingly square and running with it sans fact check. Hazard a guess, please, as to how that can possibly be "in the right ball park." I would love to hear the step-by-step logic behind that.
 
okin15 said:
If I understand correctly, the reduced bus service is due to a group of factors:
  1. fewer operators (getting close to being resolved)
  2. fewer busses
  3. bus maintenance facilities under construction, which maybe is causing #2?
#3 is a very long-term project IIUC. Arborway is only at 15% design, and there are 9 total existing facilities. Does this mean they cannot increase capacity until all maintenance yards are complete ~2040?

A lack of busses feeding stations such as Alewife, Harvard, and elsewhere might contribute to lower subway ridership as well.
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It's the operators, not the bus supply. The T has bought so many new buses that they had a legit glut going into the last batch of retirements. To the point where they now maintain a 28-bus "winter contingency" fleet of surplus straight-diesels on-standby at Southampton at all times, but rarely used in actual service. Their current roster is not utilized to full capability because of the operator shortage and the slow climb out of the COVID service cuts.

The bus facilities capacity has been static for almost 2 decades. If anything, it's more elastic than it's ever been because they've scrapped virtually all of their retired buses instead of long-term mothballing them in various yards for years on end. Full BNRD implementation is contingent on the new/expanded facilities being able to redistribute bodies more strategically around the system, but a climb-back to pre-COVID service levels is well within the capacity of the existing facilities because...well...these are the same exact facilities that ran the pre-COVID service levels (only with fewer dead/retired buses being squirreled away like acorns and taking up space).
 

MBTA Board Updates: The T's Budget Is 'Stable' But Standing On Shaky Ground - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The T's budget team predicts a deficit of $155 million in 2026 that would grow to nearly half a billion dollars by 2028 – and that's after accounting for a $500 million annual increase in state funding from the Governor's proposed budget.
mass.streetsblog.org
At its monthly board meeting on Tuesday, the MBTA revealed that its budget deficit for 2026 would be larger than previously estimated, but assured riders that they could fill the gap without service cuts by drawing from its reserve funds.
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F-Line to Dudley said:
Are you really arguing that we have 13x construction inflation in 26 years for utterly generic railway electrical engineering?
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Nope, read what I said again. I'm arguing that it's a 41 year inflation time line plus hedging for unknown factors.
 
themissinglink said:

MBTA Board Updates: The T's Budget Is 'Stable' But Standing On Shaky Ground - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The T's budget team predicts a deficit of $155 million in 2026 that would grow to nearly half a billion dollars by 2028 – and that's after accounting for a $500 million annual increase in state funding from the Governor's proposed budget.
mass.streetsblog.org
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From the article:
"The MBTA's short-term financial situation in the operating budget is stable, but there are risks, especially at the federal level, that we must monitor," MBTA budget director Joe Regan told board members on Tuesday afternoon.
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After the election it should have been clear to factor in what the current federal administration's could do in the forecasts (such as the tariffs, elimination of federal funds, etc.). Looks like it was never included in the forecasts since mid-November last year, so now the fiscal cliff is much worse than it was. Governor Healey didn't cover the whole fiscal cliff.
 
themissinglink said:

'MBTA Go' App Now Available For Android Users | WBZ NewsRadio 1030

While Apple users got a jump start in November 2024, Android users now have access to the MBTA's official mobile app: MBTA Go.
wbznewsradio.iheart.com
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That app looks pretty good. Nice map, clear info. Probably better than alternatives for some things. Maybe people with iPhones that have been using it a while have opinions.

One thing this looks best at is finding the next available commuter rail train when there are multiple lines and you don't care which you take. Like, if you're at Back Bay and just want to know when's the next train to South Station. That's maybe a rare use case, but I ran into it a bunch during the Red Line shutdowns and needed to get back and forth from South Station to Quincy. I didn't know how to do that other than check three time tables. This app seems to make that easier.
 
ritchiew said:
That app looks pretty good. Nice map, clear info. Probably better than alternatives for some things. Maybe people with iPhones that have been using it a while have opinions.

One thing this looks best at is finding the next available commuter rail train when there are multiple lines and you don't care which you take. Like, if you're at Back Bay and just want to know when's the next train to South Station. That's maybe a rare use case, but I ran into it a bunch during the Red Line shutdowns and needed to get back and forth from South Station to Quincy. I didn't know how to do that other than check three time tables. This app seems to make that easier.
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Which other transit apps do people use? I know a lot of people who recommended Transit, esp for Boston. I normally use CityMapper, but it works best in NYC.
 
thepixelnation said:
Which other transit apps do people use? I know a lot of people who recommended Transit, esp for Boston. I normally use CityMapper, but it works best in NYC.
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I used to use ProximiT but didn't love it. I've fully switched to MBTA Go (on iPhone) since the beta. My big wish for this app is a way to say "you should leave now to make your train" type navigation but that may be beyond the purview of their goals. I also think they should combine MBTA Go and See Say into a single app but maybe that's too much to ask as well lol.
 

Fare gates coming to 2 more MBTA stations, officials say

The gates are designed to ensure that passengers are paid up before they board trains.
www.wcvb.com
T boss Phil Eng said agency officials pushed to speed up deployment of fare gates at South Station and Back Bay Station, which will complement similar technology in place at North Station. The gates are designed to ensure that passengers are paid up before they board trains.
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I wish they would do this at the GLX stations.
 

Delays reported on Green Line after crash involving car, MBTA trolley

Delays were reported on the Green Line’s E branch on Friday morning after a crash involving a car and an MBTA trolley. The MBTA said in a post on X at 8:10 a.m. that delays of about 15 minutes were occurring “due to an auto accident involving a train at Mission Park.” They said riders could use...
www.nbcboston.com
 
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