MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

themissinglink said:
commonwealthbeacon.org

MBTA estimates 25% of south-side commuter rail fares not being collected

“That’s a lot – 25 percent,” Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said. “That’s a really big loss of revenue.”
commonwealthbeacon.org commonwealthbeacon.org
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I was just wondering about this on the Fairmount Line. I don't ride that often, but you're supposed to be able to use a CharlieCard and I've never once seen one of those validation machines working. I rode the other day and told the conductor the validation machine was broken. He said "Yeah," walked away, and I never saw him again.

Is that still supposed to work? Or they gave up on that integration? Or just no one cares about the Fairmount Line?
 
ritchiew said:
I was just wondering about this on the Fairmount Line. I don't ride that often, but you're supposed to be able to use a CharlieCard and I've never once seen one of those validation machines working. I rode the other day and told the conductor the validation machine was broken. He said "Yeah," walked away, and I never saw him again.

Is that still supposed to work? Or they gave up on that integration? Or just no one cares about the Fairmount Line?
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Not collecting fares on Fairmount when the validators are broken is reasonable. How many people are riding this line that aren't connecting to another service and don't have a pass?
On inbound trips, in theory you're supposed to be able to show the receipt from paying on board to an Ambassador to gain free entrance to rapid transit but they don't understand the nuance of the fare policies in the first place. Even more insane is expecting someone starting on the Fairmount line to explain to a bus driver why they don't have to pay (especially say Fellsway or Lynn). How are you supposed to pay the difference in fare to board a 50x bus downtown?
On outbound trips the conductors can't read CharlieCards or tapped credit cards to see who has already paid. The validators can't even read tapped credit cards in the first place.
I really hope there is finally a push to a unified fare structure because the current system is totally nuts.

validator.jpg
 
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themissinglink said:
commonwealthbeacon.org

MBTA estimates 25% of south-side commuter rail fares not being collected

“That’s a lot – 25 percent,” Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said. “That’s a really big loss of revenue.”
commonwealthbeacon.org commonwealthbeacon.org
Click to expand...
commonwealthbeacon.org

MBTA backs away from commuter rail fare loss estimate

The MBTA is backing away from a statement made last Thursday by the agency’s senior manager of fare policy and analysis, who estimated 25 percent of fares on the south side of the commuter rail system are not being collected.
commonwealthbeacon.org commonwealthbeacon.org
 
At Thursday’s board meeting, Eng said the new “fare engagement representatives” are performing mostly an educational role now, but T officials have noticed fare collections have increased about 35 percent when the representatives are at above-ground Green Line stations.
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From the Commonwealth article — this is a really high number especially considering some people may still not be paying. Hopefully continued presence of these employees (article said 16 were hired) leads to a decrease in evasion even when they’re not around.
 
nortor said:
From the Commonwealth article — this is a really high number especially considering some people may still not be paying. Hopefully continued presence of these employees (article said 16 were hired) leads to a decrease in evasion even when they’re not around.
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I'd be interested in how much the new headcount costs vs the amount of revenue actually recovered.
 
bakgwailo said:
I'd be interested in how much the new headcount costs vs the amount of revenue actually recovered.
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On some other thread I did the math and with each person receiving a 100k per year salary you basically need to convince like 1/3 of non-monthly pass riders just on GLX to pay. It's almost certainly worth it.
 
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nortor said:
From the Commonwealth article — this is a really high number especially considering some people may still not be paying. Hopefully continued presence of these employees (article said 16 were hired) leads to a decrease in evasion even when they’re not around.
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I walked by two of these 16 fare evasion staff members at the fare machines located above Medford/Tufts station reminding anyone passing through to validate at the machine or use the reader on the train.
 
Question prompted by a ride staring out a barely transparent window: Why are the T commuter rail windows so easily damaged by the car wash system?
 
RandomWalk said:
Question prompted by a ride staring out a barely transparent window: Why are the T commuter rail windows so easily damaged by the car wash system?
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Because for the most part, they're not glass. They're polycarbonate, which is much more impact resistant (250x that of glass) but as a plastic is softer than glass, leading them to being much more easily scratched.

Polycarbonate is also incredibly good at absorbing basically the entire UV spectrum - its better at it than most sunscreens. But doing so means that radiation has to go somewhere - and in transparent PC's case, it tends to manifest as clouding/hazing/yellowing. Basically, it gets a sunburn. Now, there are UV coatings for polycarbonate, basically sunscreen for the window, and I'd be shocked if the T doesn't spec that, but see above property of easily scratched. It's also not particularly chemically inert - use the wrong cleaner, and haze happens. And one of the worst is benzene - which happens to be plentiful in petroleum fuels, especially gas. Diesel has less of it, but it's still there and it stays in the exhaust, especially from the tier 0 emissions locos.
Ultimately, the windows just need replacing every x years. That said, look at NJT for what happens when you aren't careful enough. Some of NJT's MLVs have windows that are so bad they might as well be frosted - good luck telling which station you're at. I haven't seen a MBTA train quite that bad yet.
1000038163.jpg

(Pic from the Internet)
 
The 900-series Kawasaki bi-levels are particularly prone to cloudy windows since they're now 19 years old with no rebuild date in sight. Those are mostly confined to the northside nowadays. The 700/1700-series Kawasaki rebuilds and the Rotems all have much newer windows, and the single-levels don't seem to be as prone to this despite their overall decrepitude.

The NJT MLV's are all-world bad for this. I think that was revealed as an actual factual design flaw on their windows, though I don't know if there's any program planned for replacement.
 
Commuter Rail schedules change on November 18. Only a few notable items:
  • Fitchburg: Silver Hill returns with 2 inbound and 3 outbound stops. It adds 2 minutes to each of those rush-hour trains (in addition to 1-2 minutes added as padding on all lines).
  • Kingston: No longer shows a timed transfer from M/L Line at Braintree for the last outbound train. The transfer is still possible, but I guess it's no longer guaranteed. Timed transfers on other lines are unchanged.
  • Lowell: The summer construction schedule with limited midday service is still in effect
 
RandomWalk said:
Are windows really not a routine line replaceable item? Do they need to wait for a rebuild?
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They only stock enough replacements in the warehouse at any given time for big-deal things like a window break, not for improving general aesthetics.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
They only stock enough replacements in the warehouse at any given time for big-deal things like a window break, not for improving general aesthetics.
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Which is one of the big problems with underfunded transit systems.

Sure, reliable, frequent, on-time performance is first on commuters lists. But second is the quality of the experience. There are a lot of riders that won't use systems that are consistently dirty, poorly maintained, dingy due to poor windows, etc. Transit is a product/service -- the experience matters.
 
It really sucks that the Worcester line is going back to 2-hour gaps between trains in the middle of the day on weekdays. The Worcester line needs more service, not less.
 
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