MBTA Winter 2015: Failure and Recovery

bigeman312 said:
I hope they start pricing lots differently based on how popular they are. Fore example, according to the MBTA, Braintree fills up every weekday. They should raise the price $0.25/day each month, until the garage is no longer full every day. Also, they could add more parking to Braintree, if it seems like it will be profitable.
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Hell yes. There are lots that are full before 8 AM (e.g. Oak Grove), while other lots never pass 50% (e.g. West Newton CR). These should not all be using the same pricing structure.

sm89 said:
Oak Grove has some "priority monthly parking" program or something like that where people can pay (a lot) monthly and have a reserved spot for them self at the station. I wonder if they would expand that program. Also I like the idea of the demand-based pricing you propose. They should complement increased parking fees with better access though (bus connections, bike parking, kiss and rides).
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I've noted that Pine Banks Automotive on Main Street appears to lease 30 or so spots in their lot to commuters. I'd love to know what they're getting for those spots.

metasyntactic said:
If this gets the T to do more TOD, then that sounds great. The article that I read did mention they were thinking of building garages (underground?) to replace the surface spaces though. Are they talking about surface lots for T employees or lots next to stations for commuters?
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Every station with significant surface parking should be leased to a developer, similar to what they did with Woodland.
 
metasyntactic said:
If this gets the T to do more TOD, then that sounds great. The article that I read did mention they were thinking of building garages (underground?) to replace the surface spaces though. Are they talking about surface lots for T employees or lots next to stations for commuters?

Also this bit from the Commonwealth article on it sounds like a good move:



More amenities in stations is great. Is there any reason there can't be other amenities like vending machines? (imagining like Tokyo subway platforms)
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Speaking of amenities, what happened to the coffee/store kiosk at the northbound redline downtown crossing platform?
 
West said:
The Globe has interviews with Joseph Aiello, Frank DePaola, and Brian Shortsleeve:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...with-fixing/fuwk6bC2RpS2qyEn8h8xyK/story.html
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Brian Shortsleeve, Chief Administrator:

We’ve challenged the group — as per the legislation — to balance the fiscal year 2017 budget based on own-source revenue and cost control. The T may very well need additional state assistance in the future. My focus, though, will be, “What should we spend it on?”

I would argue that if we need more state assistance, or if we say, for the sake of argument, that the money is there, that we’ve got to do everything we can to control our existing costs and our revenue. So that if we do get state assistance, let’s spend it on or let’s invest it in a world-class automated fare collection system that you can tap to swipe on every vehicle, that you can use to tap on every single mode of transportation. . . .
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Really? That's what you'd spend it on?

That's almost as cringeworthy as his response to the "What was your experience with the T while you were growing up?" question...
 
You're right. That totally misses the big picture.

In terms of upgrading the fare collection system, here would by my low-hanging-fruit fare system upgrade:

  1. Equip Commuter Rail conductors with handheld Charlie Card readers (they employ these Card readers at Fenway Station after Red Sox games)
  2. For inbound trains at Zone 1A stations, have passengers tap their Charlie Cards for a normal subway fare ride. The pricing is already set up for this. The equipment already exists. It is just a matter of having conductors hold these devices and let passengers tap Charlie Cards when going inbound at Porter, Back Bay, Yawkey, Ruggles, Forest Hills, etc. This especially makes sense on the Fairmount Line.
 
I just hope that whatever contingency plan that they may have in place, works for this coming winter. It has also been said that it will not be as harsh & rough like last winter was.
 
More busing due to the Winter Resiliency Improvement Program:

MBTA

Buses replacing Red Line service between JFK/UMass and South Station on Nov 7-8 from start to end of service.

Buses replacing Red Line service between JFK/UMass and Braintree Stations on Nov 14-15 and Nov 21-22 from start to end of service.

Buses replacing Orange Line service between Jackson Square and Forest Hills Stations on Nov 2-5, Nov 9-12, and Nov 16-19 from approximately 8:45 p.m. through the end of service.
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It looks like they are feverishly trying to replace and upgrade third rail/heaters before the weather turns. Call me a hopeless optimist, but I am encouraged by all of this work (even if the shuttle buses have effected me a couple times).

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Also:

MBTA is finally attaching snow plows to Red, Orange passenger trains

Hopefully this will help.

Winter-weary Bostonians, take heart: Your transit authority is attaching plows to passenger trains to prepare for the season’s snow.

Believe it or not, in past winters, Red and Orange line trains could either clear snow or carry passengers. They could not perform both tasks at once.

But this time around, the two lines—which bore the subway’s brunt of the transit crisis last winter—will each have 40 trains equipped with sleek, stainless steel plows attached to their front undersides that can function even when passengers are aboard. Each line will have 20 installed by December and another 20 by January.
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I guess they purchased small plows that don't interfere with with ATO. I know Chicago has something similar. This is a great step in the right direction. I am confident that the T could better handle last winter's weather now, even though Red/Orange line cars are one year older.

We'll see what happens when the T gets tested next month.
 
It took a lot of experimentation to finagle plows that wouldn't interfere with the ATO pickups - and stainless steel is not a fun material to work with. These 40 plows are being made at Everett; if they are effective, additional plows would be fabricated to-spec by a machine shop so as to not take up Everett's time.
 
Despite all of the sniping directed at MBTA employees, there are some seriously talented craftsmen and machinists in the organization. There are many stories of these folks coming up with solutions and items to keep the trains moving. I hope they get some recognition.
 
Semass said:
Despite all of the sniping directed at MBTA employees, there are some seriously talented craftsmen and machinists in the organization. There are many stories of these folks coming up with solutions and items to keep the trains moving. I hope they get some recognition.
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+1.
 
Everett Shops in particular has some incredible people working there - they are to thank for the T managing to recover as quickly as it did.
 
Semass said:
Despite all of the sniping directed at MBTA employees, there are some seriously talented craftsmen and machinists in the organization. There are many stories of these folks coming up with solutions and items to keep the trains moving. I hope they get some recognition.
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Not just recognition they should get a $$ bonus

That's what would happen if they did a similar tough innovation in entrepreneurial private industry [e.g. Google]

Another improvement one would have thought already was available
http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...nger-trains/LL2auuEkCo9u1mVyuBXNHM/story.html
The T is also planning to use non-corrosive de-icing fluid for the third rail this year, which it did not have in advance of last winter. Buildup of ice and snow on the third rails, which provide trains with their power, was also cited as a major problem for the Red and Orange lines during the 2015 blizzards. (The Green Line and outdoor portions of the Blue Line do not use a third rail for power.)
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Is the MBTA Winter ready? State leaders and T officials say 'yes'

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) - Winter ready? It's a question weighing on the minds of MBTA commuters as the snow and ice season moves in.

FOX25's Robert Goulston sat down with Frank DePaola, the MBTA's new General Manager, who promises last year won't happen again under his watch.

MBTA PROMISES YOU WON'T SEE A REPEAT OF LAST WINTER
At the height of the snowfall, commuters said train rides that normally took twenty minutes lasted more than 2 hours.

...
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I cross my fingers and anxiously await the first test. According to the forecast, it seems like the T probably won't have to deal with winter weather until December.

We'll see what happens. I'll remain cautiously (foolishly?) optimistic.
 
This is really dumb for the T to do. Their constant "this winter's gonna be great!!!!" campaign has been driving me nuts for months now. They need to underpromise (like saying we've made improvements and hope to have a better winter) so they can overdeliver if things just go generally well. This is just setting them up to overpromise and then underdeliver if anything goes wrong. It's all about public perception. People already hate the T, so a couple more months of uncertainty will have far less impact than what they are doing now saying everything is going to be great and then collapses again.

Bad PR strategy.
 
^Keeping in mind, of course, that one bad storm can shut everything down, several climatic factors are suggesting that this winter should be substantially easier on us than last year. Ultimately, they might not be under-delivering at all, though I agree it's still risky for them to do what they are doing.

A small part of me postulates that if the winter plays out extremely easily (think to the <10' of snow we had 2011-2012), that the public will begin knocking on the T for spending too much for a winter that "didn't come".
 
The weather could go one way or the other, but the one thing that we know for sure is that the T's equipment that's years past its retirement dates all now have one more year's worth of wear and tear.
 
MBTA tries to assure riders it’s ready for winter

For transit riders preparing to navigate through another season of cold and snowy commutes, the MBTA has a message: Winter happens.

That’s the slogan that the agency is using for its “awareness campaign” to help customers navigate its system as the icy weather sets in.

The MBTA says it has spent millions of dollars that it hopes will lead to better results than last winter, when harsh weather caused repeated outages and delays that led to a major shakeup in how the agency is run.

...
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