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Orange Line back to full strength for first time since January
By adamg on Fri, 03/06/2015 - 4:16pm
Repairing another train at Wellington. Photo by MBTA.
The MBTA reports that for the first time since Jan. 26 - the night before the first blizzard - the Orange Line has its regular fleet of 96 Orange Line cars, in 16 trains, running for the evening commute.
Interim T General Manager Frank DePaola credited "the skilled machinists and repair persons who have been working around the clock at the Wellington maintenance facility."
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Comments
Thank you to these workers
Thank you to these workers who are forced to repair an entire system with duct tape and paper clips.
yeah
regardless if it is snark.. I gotta give the folks at the shops on the T credit for keeping 30+ year old cars in working order. That takes a lot of skill and talent, especially for what they have to work with.
I haven't waited more than 5
I haven't waited more than 5 minutes for the orange line all week. And this morning the escalator at State was working, instead of being closed off, for the first time in weeks. Its bizarre living in a functional city again.
You may have gotten lucky
Yes, the headways are supposed to be five minutes, and I have to admit that the longest I waited this week was probably 8 minutes, and that was at Forest Hills waiting for the train to leave, but there's always odd bunching, which means on the other hand gaps in service.
That said, when I am griping that I sat on a train at Forest Hills while there was a train on the other platform and the announcement that a train was waiting to get into the station, that's the griping I can get used to.
Thankfully, the Orange Line winter nightmare is over. Now let's hope that the stuff clogging streets and sidewalks melts. Of course, the director of the Boston Marathon was interviewed in the Globe noting his fear that the staging areas will not be cleared in 6 weeks. I hope he's just worrying.
And baling twine. Don't
And baling twine. Don't forget the baling twine.
I'm curious if they used non
I'm curious if they used non mbta mechanics, you know to help out with the massive backlog of need maintenance.
No
Pretty sure that's against the Union contract but more to the point all mechanics are not interchangeable. The skills these people have makes them unique. It's not like there are non-union orange line rolling stock experts just waiting for a job.
The bigger question is why Keolis which isn't bound by as many restrictions is having so much harder of a time resuming normal service. Kinda puts a damper on the whole "private industry does it better" argument.
Bostondog is correct.
Bostondog is correct.
What makes you think Keolis
What makes you think Keolis doesn't have the same labor restrictions?
My comment was for the mbta
My comment was for the mbta portion of the comment. I cannot comment on the commuter rail .
Kinda puts a damper on the
Not really. It does put the damper on the "private industry, handed a bunch of ill-maintained wrecks by a public entity and expected to magically make them work, can do so, and does it better" argument, but I don't think anyone is making such a silly argument to begin with.
When something's gone and you depend on it, you notice it
After the first storm or two, I noticed the Orange Line wasn't running right because there would be only one trainset at Forest Hills and the platforms would be five to six abreast. By the time a train got to Ruggles, you couldn't move. By the third and fourth storms, it was chaos. When they opened the Orange line to Oak Grove, that night I had to wait 40+ minutes for a train at Downtown Crossing because when the trains came, they were stuffed. One night I left at around 5 and didn't get home until almost 8:30.
Now that the Orange Line is back to normal, it runs much faster and much better. There are times where people get panicky and stuff into trains (like yesterday, during that squall) but it's been very smooth sailing.
The Irony
We haven't invested properly in the system, which means we need highly skilled mechanics to maintain the system with the duct tape and bubble gum they are given for the purpose. Which means we need to pay them more than the average Yogi mechanic. Which is interesting because when you look at the budget which has doubled in the past 14 years - almost all of it has gone to wage/benefit increases and very little to capital expenditure. So we don't invest in the infrastructure which means we have to pay more to get even more skilled mechanics? Now that's a vicious and ironic circle of life.
First of all I want to thank
First of all I want to thank you for the positive comments regarding the shops. It means alot to us in the Authority that have given up our time with our familys for weeks due to the storms.
I do know that the system has effected lots of people. All we can do on our end in the shops is keep on trucking and we are.
Most of us are from the aviation industry and the testing and hiring prosses proves that. The testing tries to ween out the hacks. We are commited to public safety 1st. If there is a glimps of an issue which might seem small to others , its a big deal to us. We take pride in our work.
I am In no means a spokesman for the T and never will be. I turn wrenches. But once again thank you
No, no, no
Thank you.
I'm not going to lie. I'm glad you guys were working essentially nonstop to get this done. I hope come nicer weather you all will be able to finally enjoy some free time. By that time we will all be once again taking for granted your hard work.
As a whole, I am sure that the T mechanics work well. I was surprised to learn a few years back that there's a blacksmith at either Wellington or North Station because the T has to make some parts on their own. Ingenious.
"the budget which has doubled
"the budget which has doubled in the past 14 years - almost all of it has gone to wage/benefit increases and very little to capital expenditure."
Really? What about the 94 new Blue Line cars? 927 new buses? 60 trackless trolleys? 86 Commuter Rail coaches? 14 locomotives with 28 more on the way?
How about rebuilt stations: Kenmore, Science Park, Arlington, Copley, Savin Hill, Fields Corner, Shawmut, Ashmont, State Street, Aquarium, Maverick, Airport, Wood Island, Orient Heights, Wonderland, North Station, Charles/MGH? Added elevators at Park Street, Downtown Crossing, Porter, and Harvard? The new Assembly station? The Government Center project in progress?
The complete replacement of the subway and bus fare collection system?
Then there's the new or extended lines: Greenbush, TF Green, and the Silver Line. And the preliminary work on the Green Line Extension.
Look at the budget
According to that these things are costing a fraction of what compensation increases are costing. Not saying they aren't important or weren't done - just saying in the scheme of the budget they aren't eating up as much incremental revenue.