New Red and Orange Line Cars

Re: Orange vs Purple

Joel N. Weber II said:
Wouldn't it be great if there was some station somewhere south of Ruggles where we could give people the option of boarding either the Orange Line or the Needham Line, and we could let people vote with their feet and gather some hard numbers on which is better overall?

The 2014 MBTA Blue Book has typical weekday boarding numbers:

Page 14: Forest Hills Orange Line: 15,150

Page 74: Forest Hills commuter rail: 112
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Somewhat of an apples to orange comparison, though. The CR - from my memory, maybe they improved this - platform is kind of off and hidden, and there is no notifications in the station saying when the next CR train is. They are infrequent enough that one is almost always better off going to the OL platform than a gamble to the CR platform unless you have the schedule already opened/memorized and know it is going to be there within 5 minutes.
 
Re: NIMBYs and meetings and traffic

datadyne007 said:
You seem to be making a general case against park-n-ride facilities which I can't agree with. Alewife serves as the single point of rapid transit access from pretty much all of metro-northwest Boston. The alternative is all of those cars driving into Boston. I do agree that the Alewife park-n-ride doesn't work as well as it should because it has poor road ingress & egress. Alewife does its job of stopping those cars right at the far edge of the rapid transit perimeter, but it fails miserably at the "get in" and "get out" mission of the park-n-ride by dumping all the garage traffic into the mess of local roads.
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Alewife also has seven bus routes: the 62, 67, 76, 79, 84, 350, and 351 - which have 3,500 inbound riders on a typical weekday (and there are frequent accusations that the express buses are drastically undercounted as well). Considering that none of those routes serves a lot of local traffic, that means that those barely-noticed bus routes deliver as many or more people to Alewife station than cars do.
 
Re: Orange vs Purple

bakgwailo said:
Somewhat of an apples to orange comparison, though. The CR - from my memory, maybe they improved this - platform is kind of off and hidden, and there is no notifications in the station saying when the next CR train is. They are infrequent enough that one is almost always better off going to the OL platform than a gamble to the CR platform unless you have the schedule already opened/memorized and know it is going to be there within 5 minutes.
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The orange line has scheduled headways of 6 minutes during peak hours from 6:30-9:00am or 20 trains.
The Commuter Rail has four inbound trains at 06:36 07:11 08:03 08:33. It also tends to be crowded, standing room only on rainy days, by the time it reaches Roslindale Village; the Orange Line, not nearly so crowded.
 
datadyne007 said:
You seem to be making a general case against park-n-ride facilities which I can't agree with. Alewife serves as the single point of rapid transit access from pretty much all of metro-northwest Boston. The alternative is all of those cars driving into Boston. I do agree that the Alewife park-n-ride doesn't work as well as it should because it has poor road ingress & egress. Alewife does its job of stopping those cars right at the far edge of the rapid transit perimeter, but it fails miserably at the "get in" and "get out" mission of the park-n-ride by dumping all the garage traffic into the mess of local roads.
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Oh no, far from it. I can see how my post reads that way. My point is that if a neighborhood is against a new transit station due to traffic concerns, the traffic expectations should be based off of parking supply, not the transit itself. Red Line as it is is built correctly, the big parking sink is by the only place where it comes near a highway. The error is in the mess of a roadway network around Alewife. I'm displeased with MassDOT doubling down on the awful star intersection layout for 2/16.
 
Re: Orange vs Purple

Randomgear said:
The orange line has scheduled headways of 6 minutes during peak hours from 6:30-9:00am or 20 trains.
The Commuter Rail has four inbound trains at 06:36 07:11 08:03 08:33. It also tends to be crowded, standing room only on rainy days, by the time it reaches Roslindale Village; the Orange Line, not nearly so crowded.
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40 minutes, 52 minutes, and 30 minute headways vs every 6 minutes - would anyone go to the CR platform unless they know its coming in the next few minutes and need to go to South Station (or Ruggles) vs somewhere on the Orange - plus to your point that it gets packed by the time it rolls into Forest Hills. Off peak hours is even worse headway time, too.
 
chmeeee said:
Oh no, far from it. I can see how my post reads that way. My point is that if a neighborhood is against a new transit station due to traffic concerns, the traffic expectations should be based off of parking supply, not the transit itself. Red Line as it is is built correctly, the big parking sink is by the only place where it comes near a highway. The error is in the mess of a roadway network around Alewife. I'm displeased with MassDOT doubling down on the awful star intersection layout for 2/16.
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Gotcha & agreed. Thanks for clarifying!
 
Jahvon09 said:
CRRC's new Springfield assembly plant might do maintenance work for the MBTA's new rail cars.

New facility is almost near completion. Get a sneak peak inside by viewing some of the pics posted on the website! Looking good! :cool:
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Jahvon -- I guess its in the definition of the word almost -- my looking at it -- it seems to be where a building is when the exterior is complete and the real work in fitting-out begins

I would expect such a facility would need some heavy traveling crane capability and a number of other finishes that will still take some time
 
whighlander said:
Jahvon -- I guess its in the definition of the word almost -- my looking at it -- it seems to be where a building is when the exterior is complete and the real work in fitting-out begins

I would expect such a facility would need some heavy traveling crane capability and a number of other finishes that will still take some time
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And some track work which they appear to be working on, in some of the pics. Ok, nearly complete.

I imagine that overhead rolling cranes WILL be put in, to lift heavy parts and machinery for the rail cars when production gets underway. Quite similar to the jetliner assembly plants at Boeing.

Also, "pits', so that work is done underneath the cars to help assemble parts from below. :cool:
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Do the replacement CR platform offset from the Orange station, by the municipal parking lot behind Citizens' Bank. Connect with simple outdoor sidewalk and don't integrate all platforms at once into the OL station structure like Malden Center. Not worth driving up station costs or fattening the station footprint for a Needham platform that's not going to be used for more than +15 years before the NEC squeeze forces full conversion to rapid transit, and the Needham stop will see its utilization crater with the extension and mass-cleanup of the area bus schedules.
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Thanks so much for the detailed description of how this OLX to Rozzie might be constructed. Just curious about the CR platform, though. I've always assumed that any OL station would mean discontinuing the CR stop, leaving Belvue as the first post Forest Hills station.
 
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bakgwailo said:
Mockup of new Rolling Stock has shipped. Hope we get a lot more nice pictures of it once it gets in here :)
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Bakgwallo -- as someone posted on that site-- "Ship is delayed because of "Signal Problems""

That seemed to be the most pertinent and profound contribution

One can easily see why some people might feel that the Social Web was Satan's Greatest Invention*1 -- as in "Idle Hands are the Devil's Workshop" -- there must be close to a dozen people who without reading anything recently posted are all asking "CHINA -- why can't they be made here" -- then someone answers "Springfield" then there is question as to "why if so is the mock-up being shipped from "CHINA"" and then the answer about the plant not being ready to produce anything -- and then 3 posts later the cycle repeats

*! -- the above is mostly in jest :p -- so don't get started on the fact that not only am i Global warming Denialist -- but I'm also a fan of the devil
 
I seem to remember that all production shells will come from China too, with Springfield doing all other door, window, interior, and truck work.

Rail shells are hard to get right, so they often are made at the HQ plant and shipped (as will be the case with CRRC). The tube has to be flat and square and rigid and water-resistant and flawlessly welded.

The enormous jigs/frame/tables that are needed don't make sense to travel or rig locally.

Motors shafts and armature winding are the other precision task. Where will motors come from?
 
The work will probably be done elsewhere, then shipped over to the new plant in Springfield. Usually contracted out. Sort of like how Boeing does for the manufacturing of its -planes.

The parts are all made elsewhere and are then sent to the assembly plant. Also, they will have to keep a steady supply of parts being delivered. And set aside a place at the plant where the parts can be kept until they are needed. So that there is no slowdown or delays because stuff is on backorder.

Probably the worst thing that can happen is a work stoppage because parts are on backorder. That would possibly mean a delay in getting the 1st set of cars out for testing & ssubsequent deliveries.

I would tend to think that when shipments of the shells begin, that they would be sent over via cargo ships. Like how the mockup (now enroute) is being sent over It'll take a month to get here. :cool:
 
The motors, armature windings, rotors & brushes will more than likely be made to better withstand harsh weather conditions, such as the rough winter that we had in 2015.

They will be better shielded against the snow on the track beds.
 
Arlington said:
Motors shafts and armature winding are the other precision task. Where will motors come from?
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Those, along with the rest of the propulsion system, are coming from Mitsubishi Electric Co. in Itami, Japan.
 
Thanks. I am inclined to feel good about Mitsubish propulsion. Should I?
 
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