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B Line could be out of service through next week
By adamg on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 9:11am
The Green Line at Harvard Avenue this morning. Photo by Colin Moore.
State Sen. Will Brownsberger, who represents Allston/Brighton, reports he contacted MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott yesterday afternoon about the fact that the Green Line continues not to run down Comm. Ave. On an Allston/Brighton mailing list, he posts Scott's reply:
Promise you we are working very hard on overall Recovery Plan - this is a complicated section for us - but definitely not forgotten. It will be some time next week but cannot say yet with certainty. Will have a realistic goal [by end of Wednesday].
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Comments
While this is sad news
It's literally the first thing I've read to indicate that any member of our State Legislature is even aware that the T is paralyzed. I guess that counts for something?
EDIT: (I take that back: apparently Charlie Baker just yelled at the commuter rail company to "do better", which is an interesting management tactic but I'm not actually convinced how effective it is)
Sen.Will B is about the only
Sen.Will B is about the only legislator that gives a damn about the MBTA. He's been heavily involved in the Green Line service hearings and the infill commuter rail stations in Alston/Brighton for future DMU service.
Go Brownsberger!
I've been very impressed by him. His regular constituent updates are a really valuable source of information.
Laying Low
Given the results of the recent MassInc poll, I'd say they might want to keep their heads down. People seem to blame the MBTA's woes on the Legislature and past Governors. Given that past Governors have moved on to greener pastures...that leaves them in the firing line. Therese Murray is probably feeling that kind of relief you only feel when that shart you thought you just had turns out just to be a fart.
Therese Murray is probably
Rob DeLeo is feeling that kind of relief you only feel when you overturn term limits for the Speaker of the House via a closed door session where two journalists were illegally removed from the chamber.
DeLeo has nothing to fear....
... no one in the House has the courage (or insanity) to challenge him -- and 99 percent of the voters of the state can't vote for or against him when he comes up for re-election in his utterly safe seat. A strong governor might try to push back against him, but we don't have one -- rather we have what looks like an especially gutless one.
B line riders have been
B line riders have been basically abandoned since Sunday, and we're only now getting an update about it? And we only got this info because Brownsberger thought to ask Dr. Scott about it and then passed it along to a mailing list that I had no idea even existed until just now.
At least Adam remembers that we exist, because it seems like no one else does.
Not to minimize what you've
Not to minimize what you've gone through since Sunday, but if you want to feel really forgotten, try living on the Braintree branch of the red line.
At least Braintree branch
folks have had shuttle buses, as poor as they've been. No buses between Packards Corner and BC is totally inexcusable.
Agreed!
Agreed!
Lack of full shuttle bus services
In past "outages" (track servicing/rail replacement/insert reasons here) The T had replaced lost B line services with a consistent shuttle bus option that ran along from BC via Comm. Ave. and down past BU ending just before Kenmore Station.
I am perplexed and confused and can not fathom on what excuses they have on WHY they couldnt have set that route up during these snow days as well and made the determination to only run a very meager route via the 57 bus from Packards Corner ONLY down to Kenmore.
Chances are I bet I'll never hear any reason . I'm just shaking my head lost on what prompted such decisions to not offer a full B line shuttle route on roads that are currently perfectly passable by a shuttle bus since shortly after the worst of the most recent snow had stopped.
What, you want a plan and schedule???
Something like project schedules for restoring each service?
Silly rabbit, that's only what competent management would do!
Perhaps they are using something like agile and figuring it out as they go along.
Details, please.
How is it complicated? Why can't you use the same plow you used on the C line last night?
And why aren't you offering shuttle buses to Kenmore?
Again, just tell us what is going on if you want sympathy. Because as it stands, you're basically suspending service for thousands of commuters without even offering an explanation. Have you lost a ton of drivers? Are the trains damaged? What was it about this last storm that crippled the entire line?
While we're talking about Commonwealth Ave, why hasn't the city attempted to clean the parking spaces yet? There have been 3 parking bans set and lifted, yet not one space beyond Kenmore is clean. The snow goes from the curb out to almost beyond the bike lanes. People have been parking in the travel lanes, and I expect that will happen today after 6pm.
Thank you, dMc.
A simple thumbs up just isn't enough. Your comment is right on.
About those parking bans
At a certain point post-snowstorm, what good does a city-wide parking ban do? During a storm, the job is to keep streets reasonably clear and passable with focus on the major arteries. After a storm, the reason for the ban is snow removal, and they know they're not going to be doing some kind of massive simultaneous city-wide snow removal project -- they don't have the gear for it. So why not set a ban by neighborhood or street or whatever, roll the trucks at that time, and DO THE JOB? I don't get it.
That's effectively what they seem to be doing
At least down here in the remoter corners of the city: They plow out a lane on main streets, then magically, one morning signs appear along the route warning people to move their cars and then the big rigs come in and get the road back to the curb.
This doesn't apply to business districts, though: There, they just show up one night and move the snow away. I saw it late one night on Centre Street in West Roxbury - was quite the show.
Right
I've seen that too, with the signs. I'm not sure why Comm Ave hasn't been prioritized, though.
They did clear snow on Comm
They did clear snow on Comm Ave. They sent the big machines two nights ago. They flung the snow on the big piles that are there right now, making them larger. Where else is it going to go?
Restoring service on the Green Line is far more important than a few parking spaces. People are parking in the travel lane since yesterday, regardless of the ban. And they should be towed.
Walsh does not appear to believe ....
... that traffic law enforcement is a priority,
Maybe this is true, but
Maybe this is true, but interestingly, I did see a BPD officer ticket every car on Neponset St. near 93 this afternoon, since the snow emergency is still in effect.
Where else is it going to go?
Into dump trucks, and away. In that kind of environment, without a thaw to solve the problem for you, eventually that is what you must do.
So, you can have one or the other, but not both? The MBTA does not plow the streets of Boston, and the City of Boston does not run the Green Line.
They brought the dump trucks
They brought the dump trucks too. What snow you see there now is what was left after they hauled off a bunch. Half the sidewalk is covered by 8-foot high mounds of snow as it is.
The city of Boston does not run the Green Line but the city of Boston does control the streets, sidewalks and curbs. The city of Boston could help prioritize a shuttle bus route with cleared out shuttle bus stops that would replace the trolley service in this time of need. Instead of making excuses, the city could offer the tools that they have to help the T: big machines that can clear out the space needed by MBTA shuttle buses and waiting riders.
But the city of Boston doesn't care about the riders of the B line. The people in charge seem to only care about a few parking spaces, and they don't even bother to enforce their own parking ban.
Evacuation Route
It's especially interesting because Commonwealth Ave is considered by the state and/or federal government as a major "Evacuation Route" but you can bet that would not go well right now...
I always wondered about these "evacuation routes"
Evacuate to where? The ones in East Boston point straight to the ocean.
The Point of Parking Bans
Parking bans also keep people from parking in the travel lane reducing what should be two lanes to one...major cause of gridlock
national guard was out on comm ave last night
I saw a bunch of National Guard folks plus some giant bulldozers last night, around Packard's corner, but haven't been by today - did they get anything cleared out?
Shuttle buses...
I think they MIGHT be offering them now? During my 40-minute wait for the #66 at Comm and Harvard, I saw two Kenmore-bound buses make stops at the B-line's inbound Harvard Ave station. Who knows where they go active, though, since there's no stops at Griggs, Allston, or Warren (I saw a couple buses drive past while walking between Warren and Harvard, and they were still "Out Of Service"), and there wasn't an outbound shuttle at any moment during that time.
Cars Parked in Travel Lane
I sent a post to the Brookline Police about cars parked in the travel lane along Beacon on Monday and was assured that no parking signs would be going up that night. Never happened
Comm Green line
How is it possable to not even provide shuttel bus's to the thousands of stranded residence living on a major street in this city!!!!
Cringe
*possible
*shuttle
*buses
*residents
*? not !
Real impact
Yesterday, I had the day off. I refused to drive down to Boylston/Newbury St to go to a few stores that I need to buy from. I like to go to those stores because they are small local companies with single locations or regional stores with a single store in the Boston area. But because of the parking situation on the streets downtown, I wasn't willing to risk it. I would have taken the T but I couldn't take the B Line and I had heard horror stories from the 57 too.
So, I didn't go. I'm contemplating going to a different store outside the city instead. One with a plowed parking lot. Dollars lost. It amazed me once I was outside of the city this morning how well the roads were doing in places like Newton and Needham compared to the hell I had getting out of my neighborhood.
Blame "smart" growth
The goal is high density and minimal building setbacks from sidewalks (to engage pedestrians), all resulting in no place to put snow. Massive parking lots have excess space to more cheaply plow snow. Setbacks provide space to put snow other than the narrow space between sidewalk and roadway.
So, "smart" growth is stupid where it snows. Ditto for snow bank extensions, er, curb extensions.
Everyone's different, I guess
Some people like to live in a city, which sucks royally for a couple weeks every year (OK, maybe a couple months this year) but is very liveable the rest of the year.
And some people like to live in the suburbs, where it sucks all the time.
I'd love to see whatever
I'd love to see whatever asinine calculation you use to determine what an appropriate set back is, and how that translates to some whack crusade against Smart Growth.
> The goal is high density
> The goal is high density and minimal building setbacks from sidewalks (to engage pedestrians), all resulting in no place to put snow.
Yet my street in Boston, where there are front yards on both sides, is no more clear than the streets that have setbacks. Problem really is not lack of setbacks.
Not one for conspiracy theories, BUT...
...it is interesting to note what IS working and what IS being prioritized, Green Line-wise:
D-Line, Newton, Wellesley, suburbia.
C-Line, Brookline
E-Line, as far as Prudential -- South End
And what's NOT:
B-Line, students, working class
E-Line, Symphony and beyond -- students, working class
I kind of hope someone can tell me I'm way off base.
B Line is always the worst
Given the T's history on breaking promises to underprivileged groups, I'm not going to dismiss the possibility that this was more of the same. But there are other potential reasons: The B line has a lot of problems - it has more street crossings, curves, hills, etc, than the C or D line. I've seen cars drive onto the tracks at Packard's corner twice now, and I'm sure there have been more instances. It has more stops to clear. The D line and C line both connect directly to Riverside and Reservoir maintenance shops - prioritizing access to and from the barns might have been a factor.
D line has no street crossings
...which makes a huge difference. And the C has many fewer, and none of them get gummed up with ballpark traffic or are as poorly designed as Packard's Corner
D line
D Line can be explained pretty easily. The tracks sit in a culvert and not in a median. Its very easy to plow out this line because the snow has a place to go.
B and C lines. Not so much. They probably have to work with the city to make sure the piles along the track don't overflow onto the tracks or when the T plows back on to the street.
And I'm sure that the yards at Reservoir and Riverside that hold much of the GL fleet may have something else to do with it also.
Just an observation.
Someone wants BU, BC, etc, to
Someone wants BU, BC, etc, to pay up more to the city.
I'm guessing it's more about expediency...
I have no idea either way, but by your logic the South Shore branch of the Red Line would have been done before Ashmont, Blue line would have been after D-line, etc.
I have no idea what the specific problems are line-by-line (and how they relate to locations of train depots/switches/etc that are behind the scenes), and I too would appreciate more specific information about what is blocking progress in each line, but I doubt folks at the MBTA have time for conspiracies at the moment.
Moreover, for any such theory to be true, they'd really have to fear the wrath of the politicals/legislature from more affluent communities, and as discussed before, it seems like most of the political world is MIA, especially from suburbs.
E line
The E-line is the least essential T line. The 39 bus exactly parallels it up to Symphony Hall. You can easily walk from Brigham Circle to the Roxbury Crossing Orange line stop in 10 minutes and you can easily get to the D-line in 10-15 minutes from the back of the Hill area. It increases congestion on Huntington beyond Brigham Circle. Etc... Given the need to prioritize which lines get dealt with first, I think it has to be last.
As for the D-line, the T is a regional, not city service. I know that when I talk to people coming from other parts of the state to Boston, taking the Pike to Riverside and then riding the D-line in a very popular choice. I don't know if the data backs that up, but I suspect it does. So the D-line is probably more important to overall system than the other Green line branches.
I know it's terrible for everyone impacted, I just don't see a conspiracy.
thanks
Thanks for some sanity to these postings. let's not confuse these folks with common sense...
Conspiracy or Priorities?
I don't think there's any particular plan to stick it to one population over another, but the Governor, who said something today about "not being in charge of the T" or something like that, who waited until Bev Scott said "I quit" to sit down with her and talk about what's going on, has taken a more hands on approach with the Commuter Rail contractor (Keolis or whatever erectile dysfunction pharmaceutical-sounding company is running that...Veolia? Are they doing this on purpose?) with whom he said he would be meeting. Shouldn't the Secty of Transportation be doing that? These aren't state employees, it's contract management. Seems kind of bass-ackwards.
Of course the commuter rail serves the folks who voted for the Governor (and his no new taxes pledge). Priorities. A conspiracy requires planning, and obviously that seems to be in short supply around here.
Baker
His comment about "tired of excuses" is typical upper level executive management idealism. No real solutions just more finger pointing.
How about he come up with a solution and work with Keolis and FIX the problem rather than just point fingers.
I've grown very tired of this finger pointing.. enough already. Every day this drags on brings credibility of the baker administration, the MBTA, Keolis, and just about everyone else involved into the toilet.
We don't want blame. We want transit service that WORKS. But instead we have administrators (MBTA, State, etc) all just pointing fingers at each other which isn't solving anything, and does not get us any closer to our goal..
TRANSIT SERVICE THAT IS RELIABLE AND WORKING.
Good point
However, maybe it's easier to deal with Keolis where a private firm has been awarded a specific contract with specific performance goals vs. the MBTA which has a kludge of constituencies, mandates and management teams?
With Keolis, if they fail to deliver, they get penalized, right? With the MBTA, if they fail to deliver, we all wonder how to fix the MBTA.
Which will work...
...until Keolis gets beaten so thoroughly that they decide it's cheaper to pay whatever penalties there are to walk away rather than continue to operate here. Things are so bad I'm almost worried that it is a possibility.
Honestly I'm hoping this is
Honestly I'm hoping this is the catalyst we need for the T to finally bring commuter rail ops in-house.
Because...
...the rest of the system is running so well these days?
D,C,B
And D,C,B pretty much converge at Resevoir, Cleveland Circle and Chestnut Hill Street.
What I don't get is why the T doesn't initiate some trains out of Resevoir. That would really help with the over-crowding on the D which is pretty but at capacity by the time it reaches Resevoir.
Probably always been that way..
in the eighties and nineties, i lived in Allston. When I commuted to/from Park st, I'd count all the other Green line trains while I waited on the Park St platform for the D line. It would take 5 D trains before a B would come. &, of course, the D trains weren't really crowded (especially the 3rd, 4th, and 5th D trains) and the B train was brutally packed.
Finally learned to take any train to government center and then grab the B back. MUCH better chance of getting on the B then.
So, 30 years later, the B is still the bottom of the priority list despite it's high use.
D,C,B,E
The C and D lines have plenty of students. And I can promise you very few of the affluent residents of Newton and Brookline are taking the T. And noD line has had it worse than the Eas they have been closing that die to heavy traffic and diverting riders to the 37 bus..which ends up in that heavy traffic
Spot on
Someone should do a spatial analysis to find the correlation between days of the T being down and neighborhood-level poverty (I'd do it myself and send it to Brownsberger's office, but my stats skills aren't quite up to the job). I bet the results would be pretty interesting.
Why not Turn the B @ Packards corner?
Does any know why the MBTA can't clear the B line to Packards Corner and turn the trolleys there?
Because there's nowhere to
Because there's nowhere to turn them?
No switch
As far as I know, Packards corner has no switch to do this. The closest switch is much further before, and much further after. Essentially youd block the other trains doing a maneuver like this.
Switch
There's a switch to turn trains between Babcock and Packard's Corner, and another one at Washington Street. That's it, really, for the B line.
Alternatively, why not extend
Alternatively, why not extend the C via Chestnut Hill Ave to Boston College, until they can clear the rest of the B line tracks? They probably need to clear out that section first anyway, to get to the trains in the Lake St yard.
Possible Solution
There is a crossover at Naples Road. I have seen it used in recent memory, so it is operable.
One potential idea to restore at least limited B Branch service in several steps:
1) Clear out tracks and grade crossings on the westbound rail at least to Warren Street.
2) Make up four three-car trains with at least one on standby at the Blandford Siding.
3) Assign an Instructor to Naples to help supervise single-track operation beyond that point.
4) Have the regular Comm Ave official posted at Warren Street.
5) Run a three-car train on the westbound and have them wrong-rail eastbound
6) Have the next train holding at Babcock Street WB ready to go out when the track is clear.
7) Turn all trains at Park Street to reduce runtimes and headways
8) After the end of service, hire some guys with shovels and backhoes to clear the eastbound tracks and grade crossings; hire some others to haul away the snow in some of those large high-capacity trucks that can periodically dump out their contents and be refilled again --- what are those called?
Alas, that's Division Nine turf, so I have no say over there. But just a suggestion. And good call by the person above who proposed running C trains up the hill to Lake Street.
the 57 band aid is a joke
After arriving at Kenmore last night around 7:30pm and witnessing the throngs of people waiting for the bus I decided to walk home. I didn't see a single outbound 57 in the time it took me to walk to packards. However I did see several inbound 57s stuck in the gridlock that stretched all the way to the BU bridge.
After being apart of that hellscape I decided to ride my bike to work this morning. I would much rather face a gruesome death under the wheels of a snow plow or dump truck on comm ave than deal with that BS again.
Kind of an update
Brownsberger reports: