Green Line D branch: complete summer shutdown

[statler]

Bernice Sookie, 48, who left herself an extra 90 minutes for her commute from Jamaica Plain to Newton Center

I would hardly call this temporary busing adequate. You could almost walk this in 90 minutes.

Can we check Mac Daniels bank account? There has to be a nice deposit from the MBTA for spreading this propaganda.

The inbound trip took about 20 minutes, while the outbound, with more stops, was a bit slower.

Unless by 'a little slower' they mean '80+ minutes slower' I guessing she ended up with a little extra time to kill.

I must ride a completely different T than y'all, cuz I ride the T a lot and on the whole their service always seems to work well for me. I've even been diverted to their shuttle bus service before and I always been impressed by how well it ran.
I don't actually doubt that the T is capable of pulling this off without a hitch.

 

[TheBostonian]

Why not take the E Line?

Good idea.

 

[statler]

I must ride a completely different T than y'all, cuz I ride the T a lot and on the whole their service always seems to work well for me. I've even been diverted to their shuttle bus service before and I always been impressed by how well it ran.
I don't actually doubt that the T is capable of pulling this off without a hitch.

And of course on the day I write this there is a massive delay on the Orange Line, thus doubling my commute time.

Fuck me. :x

 

[Ron Newman]

And of course on the day I write this there is a massive delay on the Orange Line, thus doubling my commute time.

caused by the shooting incident?

 

[statler]

And of course on the day I write this there is a massive delay on the Orange Line, thus doubling my commute time.

caused by the shooting incident?

Yeah. There was really nothing the T could have done differently, but still... :?

 

[pharmerdave]

On D line, A for effort, D for delay
Many riders cite longer commute
By Julie Masis, Globe Correspondent | July 1, 2007
For some commuters, it may finally be time to invest in that parking space in the city.

Since last weekend, the MBTA has shut down service on the Green Line between Riverside station in Newton and Reservoir station in Brookline, leaving many students and workers with more commuting and less sleep.
One of them is Kenneth Elliot, who says he lost his license after driving under the influence and now uses the T to get from Braintree to his job in Newton. The 23-year-old carpenter said his normal two-hour commute now takes 20 to 35 minutes longer.
Expressing his displeasure during a cigarette break in the Riverside parking lot Monday afternoon, Elliot said, "I'll walk before I take the Green Line once I get my license back" this month.
Buses are replacing Green Line service between Reservoir and Riverside until Aug. 3, while workers do maintenance and repair work on the tracks. They will clear brush and branches, improve ditches and draining, and replace railroad ties. This will allow the trolleys to go as fast as they did in 1993, MBTA general manager Daniel Grabauskas said in remarks posted on the MBTA website. T spokeswoman Lydia Rivera blamed lack of maintenance for the deterioration since '93.
Repairs will also make it possible for the low-floor, easy-to-board cars to traverse the D line. Service between Reservoir and Fenway stations will be interrupted for repairs during most of August.
Dan Youngston, 19, who works in Northborough, didn't have time to stop at home to grab something to eat after work before heading to his evening calculus course at Boston University. He said he might get hungry during class.
"I might just end up driving the whole way in, because I can't be leaving right from work every single day like this," he said. "I'm going to look at getting a parking pass at BU."
Derik Provencher, 19, who works in a Cleveland Circle restaurant, said he had to give himself an extra half-hour to commute from Newton.
But not everyone is dissatisfied.
Joe Losavio, 46, who commutes to his computer networks job in Government Center from Southbridge, said his two-hour ride to work became longer by only 15 minutes in each direction, which "wasn't too bad." Losavio called the MBTA workers "very good," observing that there were plenty of them onhand to direct commuters to shuttle buses. He said the buses picked up passengers promptly, were not delayed by traffic jams, and were not overcrowded.
T spokeswoman Rivera said bus replacement service is running smoothly.
"We haven't heard complaints from customers regarding the service," she said. "We haven't encountered any problems with the service. Obviously, it's an adjustment for the customers."
She said one customer even told the MBTA that it took him less time to get to Boston on the shuttle bus.
At the closed stations, T customers aren't the only ones being affected.
At the Sweet Tomatoes pizzeria in Newton Centre , employee Avi David said customers have been complaining they can't park next to the restaurant on Langley Road. The parking meters have been covered by red plastic bags to reserve spots for MBTA buses.
"People keep coming in and grumbling," David said. "To me it seems ridiculous because they can park only 20 feet away. But people in Newton don't like to walk."
Joe Ghazaly, who works at the Riverside bus terminal in Newton, said Peter Pan and Greyhound bus drivers were angry all day Monday because it's hard for them to turn around in the parking lot with all the MBTA buses parked there.
The change in T service also affected visitors to the city.
Jack Weinacht, an employee of Orlando-based Invivo Corp. who was in Boston for two days to visit hospitals, said he regretted not renting a car.
"We didn't know anything about this interruption going on. We were confused for quite a bit," he said, adding that the commute from his Newton hotel took about an hour.
"We went van to bus, bus to train, feet to hospital," joked his colleague Michael Gemmati Jr. "The only thing we didn't do was fly or take a boat."

 

[ChunkyMonkey]

T will take 10 new cars for its busy Green Line

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | November 12, 2007

After fighting for a decade with an Italian company that MBTA officials once accused of supplying defective Green Line trolleys, the T said yesterday that it has solved past problems and will take an additional 10 cars from the company.

For riders on the T's most-crowded line, that will mean more trains available for service, resulting in fewer delays, said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA.

"It's easily the largest fleet size in the last 25 years, maybe ever," Grabauskas said.

The first of the new trains went into service last week. Once the T gets the last of 10 new cars, by the middle of next year, it will have a total of 209 cars to carry the 200,000 passengers who ride the Green Line each weekday.

Green Line trains typically have two cars. The line's branches extend into Jamaica Plain, Brookline, and Newton.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority signed a $222 million contract in 1995 with an Italian company now known as AnsaldoBreda to provide the trains. The company was supposed to deliver 100 "Breda" cars, but T officials halted delivery of the trains in 2004 after frequent breakdowns and a $50 million lawsuit from AnsaldoBreda over the terms of the contract.

T officials have fumed over the years that it was their worst purchase ever. The sides settled in 2005 and agreed to work together to put 85 trains back on the tracks, using the remaining train parts as spares. The cars are assembled in Littleton.

Grabauskas said the Breda trains, which are lower to the ground and easier for disabled riders to use, have been performing well, and both sides agree they can use most of the spare parts to assemble more new trains. Grabauskas said the $222 million contract has not been paid off because Breda trains have not been in service long enough to determine whether they meet long-term performance standards specified in the 2005 settlement.

Grabauskas was out of the office yesterday, and T officials could not say how much the company is owed. The 10 newest cars will not cost the T more than it has already agreed to pay.

The T deploys 150 trains on the Green Line during rush hour; the rest of the fleet is used for spare cars during breakdowns and scheduled maintenance.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/ar...ill_take_10_new_cars_for_its_busy_green_line/