MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

greenline said:
The MBTA is piloting real-time crowding info for some of the key bus routes ( 1, 15, 16, 22, 23, 31, 32, 109, and 110). They've installed counters on the front and rear doors to measure entries and exits. Pretty cool stuff.
https://www.mbta.com/projects/crowding-information-riders
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Counters have existed for years, (APCs) but they're only usually used for ridership data the live transmission of the data is new
 
Balerion said:
1) There are four stops between Firth/South and Tollgate Way. Getting that down to two seems unrealistic. Consolidating the Mosgrove (OB)/Whipple (IB) stop with the Granfield Ave stop seems like the best way to eliminate a stop.
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Yes, I didn't quite catch which stops they meant, so I described the general stretch. But they will be dropping a total of just one stop, so I see that I kind of mis-described what they said. I think it was one consolidation of two stops, and a move of another stop. Sorry about the confusion!
2) What's the deal with the name "Tollgate Way", anyway? There's no such street today and I haven't found one a historical map I checked either.
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Washington St. in that area used to be a toll road. Tollgate Way was the beginning of the tolled section, as you head off toward Dedham. As Downburst described, there was a path to Hyde Park Ave. located there. Later, with the advent of high frequency rail service, there was a pedestrian bridge. Some of the bridge structure remained until about 10 years ago, when it was completely removed.
 
599 Burgin Parkway (former Lowes building across from Quincy Adams) as the location for the new & expanded bus facility continues. The new facility will allow the expansion of the Quincy fleet from 86 to 135 buses, and it will be the first MBTA facility able to accommodate battery electric buses.

There will be a public meeting tonight if anyone is interested, information is here

The presentation is pre-recorded and available here

I live right behind this site, and while I had some concerns about pedestrian access to QA station they seem to have been adequately addressed. People might actually use grasso park now!
 
HelloBostonHi said:
Route 39 no longer runs down Belvidere and around the Prudential Center and now takes the more direct route via Ring Rd to Copley. And some stop moves and consolidations, particularly a bunch of moves to far side intersection stops. http://milesintransit.com/2020/06/14/guide-to-the-mbtas-summer-2020-service-changes/
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What isn't mentioned is that Prospect St/Washington St is "severed" at Somerville Ave right now. When you arrive on Prospect St NB, you have to go right or left. The entire roadway between Bonner Ave and Somerville Ave is closed off with jersey barriers. It's been this way since the weekend and probably has at least another week left.
 
KCasiglio said:
599 Burgin Parkway (former Lowes building across from Quincy Adams) as the location for the new & expanded bus facility continues. The new facility will allow the expansion of the Quincy fleet from 86 to 135 buses, and it will be the first MBTA facility able to accommodate battery electric buses.

There will be a public meeting tonight if anyone is interested, information is here

The presentation is pre-recorded and available here

I live right behind this site, and while I had some concerns about pedestrian access to QA station they seem to have been adequately addressed. People might actually use grasso park now!
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I will never trust this one as delivered in-hand until the ink on the title deed is actually dried and proven to not be an ACME disappearing ink Looney Tunes gag. Quincy's ability and willingness to go the extra mile to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory has been utterly pants-shitting scary on this one.
 
Palmucci certainly seems like he'd be happy if this got shut down

20200624_113934.jpg
 
HelloBostonHi said:
The first of the Neoplans are off to scrap to make way for the incoming increase in fleet size.
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This is probably a dumb question, but those look, putting it charitably, like they're several years removed from their last revenue run. Is there any reason the T holds onto "destined for scrap" vehicles for years? They did this with the RTS buses and some green line trollies too.
While I get the wisdom in keeping salvageable parts and a body shell or two, can't they strip and scrap as they go and literally warehouse the usable parts?
 
Stlin said:
This is probably a dumb question, but those look, putting it charitably, like they're several years removed from their last revenue run. Is there any reason the T holds onto "destined for scrap" vehicles for years? They did this with the RTS buses and some green line trollies too.
While I get the wisdom in keeping salvageable parts and a body shell or two, can't they strip and scrap as they go and literally warehouse the usable parts?
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All of the recent Type 7 scrappings were held as parts donors for the rebuild program at Alstom, so the second the program was done all of the remaining stripped hulks were ASAP scrapped to make room. For a few years there you had quite a few piling up, but it was all in anticipation of the rebuild program. Similarly, you've got 2 wrecked-beyond-repair Type 8's which will probably be parted out when the component refresh program starts on the rest of the fleet...and they'll be scrapped once they're parted out.

The RTS's weren't actually retired from revenue service until the most recent new order wrapped in late-2017. They were rare sightings, for sure, but you could still spot a handful of them at peakmost rush-hour on Charlestown routes until a little less than 3 years ago, and were the designated surge fleet to scramble for rapid transit bustitutions. So they really weren't hanging around too long in Everett mothballs. The work fleet still uses them because they're dirt-simple to repair and are so very lightly-worn since their last rebuild (the T playing keep-away to the peak hours for most of their last decade) that they'll last a good long time as TT wire ice-scrapers, training buses, command post buses, etc.


Earlier stuff that hung around awhile like the last of the non- work fleet Boeings and the two 1975-wrecked pre-rebuild RL 01600's that were parked in Codman Yard for decades were different in that they were ancient enough to probably still have some asbestos onboard.
 
HelloBostonHi said:

The first of the Neoplans are off to scrap to make way for the incoming increase in fleet size.
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They're also scrapping the 5 NABI CNG buses still leftover on the property from the last procurement, and 1 additional RTS that was set aside to be stripped to stock parts for the work fleet. Looks like Chuckran of Bridgewater is the leading bidder so far; they've won the last 5 bus scrap bids the T has posted and have dismembered well over 400 Yellow Line vehicles in the last 4 years.


Not on the scrap list: 2 Neoplan body shells delivered in contract settlement after the manufacturer went bankrupt as parts sources, 1 low-floor shell from an aborted magnetic induction battery experimental project 20 years ago that never netted any production buses, and 2 out-of-service RTS work buses that were kept out of the latest refresh of work RTS's. Guessing those flotsam will each have to be individual listings later on.

The one Neoplan diesel that will live on in perpetuity is the demotored emergency training unit at the Broadway Trolley Tunnel training facility...parked behind the static-display Type 8 wreck-preserve and the saved Blue Line 0600 pair.
 
In case you missed it! They're proposing takeing 1 lane each way on the Tobin for a Bus Lane!
That would be huge. Boston Globe Story here:

A reserved lane would eliminate a major source of delays on one of the MBTA's most popular bus routes.​

What the article describes:
  • Tobin is the missing link in getting 111 into the city quickly (including that the new N.Wash bridge will have a bus lane)
  • Officials are considering different Bus/HOV schemes
  • Generally it'd be a full-time bus lane *each way* across the bridge
  • Implemented when construction finishes next year
More than 400 buses cross the Tobin each weekday, and in pre-pandemic times, carried nearly 14,000 riders prior to the coronavirus pandemic. About 85,000 total vehicles had crossed the Tobin each day.

Boston and Chelsea have already implemented or announced bus lanes on local roads used by the 111. And the North Washington Street Bridge over the Charles River, which the 111 also crosses, will have a bus lane when construction of a new bridge is completed in the coming years. But the Tobin is often the worst choke point for the 111.
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I'd like to use tolling to create a "self-enforcing" HOV lane:
1) Buses (including private shuttles with 9 seats or more*, or whatever a "Paul Revere" or "Josephs" operates) go free
2) *any* other vehicle using the lane would be charged higher-than normal fare dynamic price
3) Such as, during rush hour, "Non Buses using this lane will pay an $8.40 toll",
  • The "not a bus" toll would be designed to be punitive, but also self enforcing
  • Got a carpool and willing to split the current high price? Great, pay the current congestion price
  • Rich dude from Melrose in a hurry? If there's space in the lane at the current price we'll sell it to you.
  • Late for a flight and pulling into the bus lane? Great, we'll send you a picture and platepass bill>
  • Sensors would be every 10th of a mile so no "duck into the bus lane and duck back out at the sensors"
At off-peak and counter-rush (uncongested times), it'd still be a premium-priced lane if you "strayed" into it, but maybe just a $1 "we told you so" fee.

* eg bigger than a Minivan or an UberXL
 
Incidentally the MBTA Data Blog has a great, multipage article on bus use during COVID

COVID-19 and MBTA Ridership: Part 4

MBTA Back on Track Blog
www.mbtabackontrack.com www.mbtabackontrack.com

I'd say that given that 28, 23, 111, and SL5 had the least drop (down less than 70%) during COVID, that they represent the most important routes for essential workers:
DailyBusRidership.JPG
 
I can't stop thinking about how awesome HOV/BUS lanes on the Tobin would be.

The I-93HOV were (and will be again) such an important part of how the 325/326 and Logan Express NH buses work. I have to believe US1 lanes would revolutionize transit in Chelsea-Everett-Revere-Saugus-NE.Malden
 
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So a month into the project, the Bus/Bike lanes on Washington Street in Chinatown are a running joke.

The lanes have become the defacto double parking lanes. Zero sign of enforcement. No one gets to use them for travel, not busses, not bikes, not even SOV traffic.
 
JeffDowntown said:
So a month into the project, the Bus/Bike lanes on Washington Street in Chinatown are a running joke.

The lanes have become the defacto double parking lanes. Zero sign of enforcement. No one gets to use them for travel, not busses, not bikes, not even SOV traffic.
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So just like the Silver Line ones on Essex ?
 
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