New Red and Orange Line Cars

Had my first ride this morning, the beeping wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I was expecting, and for it being in the peak rush, it didn't feel cramped at all.
 
beck4537 said:
MBTA should hire Andy Byford. He helped turn around the subways in NYC and London. Would be a great addition to the T staff.

www.nytimes.com

Andy Byford Resigns as New York City’s Subway Chief (Published 2020)

He arrived two years ago to turn around the city’s failing subway, making significant progress.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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To do what? Issue Twitter statements while Baker's handpicked FCMB members drive actual policy? Byford just left the MTA because control had so obviously been wrested away by a micromanaging Governor that there was no longer any point to being in a leadership position there. Why would he find the reporting structure in Massachusetts infinitely more attractive when that was his main beef with New York?

T GM's aren't "T GM's" anymore. It's not a job that's going to attract 'star' resumes.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Boston Globe reporting on the change requests:
"The MBTA is still tinkering with those new Red and Orange Line cars.
The agency now wants to upgrade the digital displays coming on the 404 new cars, increasing the size of the screens to 24 inches and doubling the number of displays in the cars. Each New Red Line car will have eight screens, Orange Line cars six screens.
They will convey passenger information such as maps of the line that show the train’s current location and information about bus and other rail connections at various stops.
“We think these are really helpful in terms of communicating with customers,” said MBTA general manager Steve Poftak. “People like them and we felt it was an important customer amenity, so we are going to have them on all 404 cars.”
Other changes include handrails that suspend from the ceiling along the center of Red Line cars, which are larger than the new Orange Line cars. The cars will also receive de-icing equipment...."
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...line-trains/Yj4Eke1miwu05VWmWKoO5O/story.html
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“They will convey passenger information such as maps of the line that show the train’s current location and information about bus and other rail connections at various stops.”

Now thats what Id expect from brand new subway trains coming on line in the digital age/21st century. This is amazing!
 
HelloBostonHi said:
Test track woes: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01...-monday/?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=
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Grifters. Those developers are notorious tax cheats currently $700K in the hole to the Commonwealth. Filing a nuisance suit here is one of the few distractions they can mount to further delay needing to pay up. They won't even get the building permits to build what they want to build on the property with that hanging over their heads (much less get permits to do anything air rights over the RR easement), so their dev considerations are a load of BS. This is trolling for more favorable terms, and it's no skin off their backs if the state doesn't blink (which it's not).


Also...test track a full year late??? Is somebody auditing this to make sure we're still getting our money's worth? If the Red pilot cars are going to end up completing most of their initial testing without this track ready, were they really as hard up for test space as we were led to believe when they greenlit this expense?
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Also...test track a full year late??? Is somebody auditing this to make sure we're still getting our money's worth? If the Red pilot cars are going to end up completing most of their initial testing without this track ready, were they really as hard up for test space as we were led to believe when they greenlit this expense?
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is there enough existing track to test on as is? I seem to recall the track was intact up to an intersection, I think Cypher st, on whatever its called.
 
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Hopefully, there are no more glitches that will cause the new trains to be out of service. Now that they seem to be running properly, does anyone know when we will be seeing some of the old rust buckets yanked out of service for good? :)
 
That's actually a good question. At some point they will have enough new trains in service to start permanently retiring old sets. I wonder if the T has any kind preliminary timeline for that.
 
rlol.PNG
 
statler said:
That's actually a good question. At some point they will have enough new trains in service to start permanently retiring old sets. I wonder if the T has any kind preliminary timeline for that.
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My understanding that for the Orange Line the retirements are a higher priority than fleet growth.

As soon as the new cars can be depended on, they'll start retiring the least reliable old cars (and hope for an immediate lift in "effective fleet size" even though the number in the fleet isn't growing). Once we have a new fleet the size of the old, deliveries beyond that will actually start growing the deployed fleet.
 
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Yeah, I figured that the oldest & least reliable will start to be retired first. But that would mean that they'd run out of room to store them all, wouldn't they?
 
Java King said:
All the improvements are absolutely needed! However, does anyone feel that the aesthetics of these new red/orange train cars are kind of "clunky" and very utilitarian with little design for beauty as well as service? I just did a quick Google search of Asian and European subway car design, and the images are sleek and modern. In our own backyard, the images that came up for Montreal seemed functional as well as stylish. Example Munich had some really nice ones too. Example I'm wondering if we are so desperate for ANY improvement, that we overlook the amazing opportunity to have them look good too! People have been fawning all over these new cars, but I just wished they looked more 2020 than 1990.
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Java -- Google or better yet ride in the old "Tube" -- all of the old tunnels necessitate narrow cars which someone in the vicinity of 2m in height will have trouble managing except in the center of the car

This is London -- if you talk to anyone from London who has ridden the T -- they just love it here

Of course with entirely new construction for the Jubilee and Crossrail -- there is both state of the art
architecture and passenger traffic management in the stations and of course state of the art design and features in the trains. Still the vast bulk of the Tube looks, sounds and runs very old and tired
 
whighlander said:
Java -- Google or better yet ride in the old "Tube" -- all of the old tunnels necessitate narrow cars which someone in the vicinity of 2m in height will have trouble managing except in the center of the car

This is London -- if you talk to anyone from London who has ridden the T -- they just love it here

Of course with entirely new construction for the Jubilee and Crossrail -- there is both state of the art
architecture and passenger traffic management in the stations and of course state of the art design and features in the trains. Still the vast bulk of the Tube looks, sounds and runs very old and tired
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The London tube trains are downright claustrophobic.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
Ever seen the Glasgow Subway? They're like toy trains, you can't even stand up all the way in them.

image.jpg
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When they quote the Green Line as being the "third oldest" operating subway in the world...well, ↑there's↑ looking at the second-oldest. Built at a time before planning was future-proofed enough to account for generations of humans not born into growth-stunting potato famines or where waistline demographics would eventually take up half the platform widths.:oops:

Glasgow's trying to solve that whole headroom/neck-craning issue now with next-gen car specs such as this Stadler mockup. . .

360px-Innotrans_2018%2C_Berlin_(P1070539).jpg


Diffuculty: lowering the floor to carve out extra headroom for standing up straight means the cars have to be even narrower width than before to make it work.😧
 
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