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Jim Morrison would have approved of the newest additions to the Downtown Crossing T stop
By adamg on Wed, 11/02/2016 - 11:57pm
Mr. Kappus wondered about all the new doors being installed throughout the Downtown Crossing T station. The T replies:
These are fire/smoke partitions that are being installed as part of the DTX elevator project. Upon fire alarm, those doors will close to create a point of safety for people as they egress.
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Comments
a little communication?
So would it be so hard to the T to put up a sign that says, what they are doing. Don’t bother to ask any employees because they only give the shrug response. Same with the Forest Hills track closure. You put up a sign saying track one closed, nothing else. Like maybe tell people why it’s closed and for how long. A little info would be nice… BTW the outbound ride to Forest Hills is now at least 6-7 minutes longer each afternoon as we sit at the last four or five stops and then at the new unmarked stop just outside the station as we wait for the station to clear.
yes, please!
Like how after YEARS of the B line terminating at Government Center, the MBTA deciding that during AND after the renovation, the B line would terminate at Park Street.
As if the B line isn't atrocious enough (literally 10-15 minutes to go a mile above ground), you now have to just sit and wait at Park Street if you want to continue on.
I don't think the MBTA should be required to hang a notice for every change they make (the fire door addition was very obvious to me as soon as I looked at the photo, and fire safety is not even remotely in my wheelhouse), but when they're affecting service, passengers should be notified.
The problem with the B Line terminating at Park Street
is that the trains sit for several minutes at Park Street after unloading before turning around to go back to BC for "headway reasons". So any "advantage" to not going to Government Center is lost.
I've stated this before, but it bears repeating. ALL eastbound Green Line trains should go to Lechmere. Westbound trains should then be dispatched from Lechmere based on which train is supposed to depart next per the schedule, and not this "train came from Riverside, so it has to go back to Riverside" nonsense they do now. If you do that, bunching is no longer an issue, and the need for enroute "schedule adjustments" is eliminated. It also gives a reliable data point for actual "X Minutes" information on the westbound train arrival signs, instead of the current idiotic "X stops away" legends. These advantages, plus the fact that people coming from east of Park Street will not have to transfer for certain lines, more than outweigh the extra few minutes one may have to wait for a particular train.
I agree with that
But don't the MBTA employees have to get back to the station they came from, to pick up their personal effects and/or cars if they work start of service/end of service?
OK, if a person is nearing the end of their shift
then they can swap with other crews before leaving Lechmere in order to get back to their "home" terminal. Hardly rocket science to implement. In fact, they often do this already - I've been on trains that have been held awaiting arrival of another train, so the crews can swap out for this reason.
They swap crews to get trains
They swap crews to get trains from the Heath St. line back to Riverside or Reservoir for mileage inspections.
The employee schedules are very complex, with a mix of full timers and part-timers, and mandatory breaks as part of the labor agreement. People need to finish their work at the same place they started it.
There is also a weight restriction on the Cambridge side of the Lechmere viaduct that limits how many trains can be on the structure at any one time, which is enforced by very long signal blocks between Science Park and Lechmere. The section of the viaduct between the Gilmore Bridge and Lechmere will be replaced as part of GLX construction, but until then, the weight limit reduces the theoretical capacity and frequency of service to Lechmere.
Even if these issues could be overcome, you would still need to increase the number of vehicles and employees required to run the Green Line because the B, C, and D lines would all have their round-trip travel times increased to accomodate the added travel time to Lechmere.
Your idea would not work.
Doors of Perception
The Doors took their name from Aldous Huxly's 1954 book "Doors of Perception" which details Huxley's experiences with mescaline. The tile of the book itself is taken from William Blake's poem "The Marriage of heaven and Hell". The line in the poem is "if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite". Bands had vision in those days.
Morrison
Ah, see I was thinking "No One Here Gets Out Alive" when I read "doors that close when there's a fire alarm".