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MBTA to increase frequency on several bus lines and end surcharge for using CharlieTickets
By adamg on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 3:53pm
The MBTA announced today it will increase service on a number bus lines on Aug. 30 and bringing back some lines that were canceled in March to reduce the odds of crowding on buses in this pandemic age.
Also effective on Sept. 1: The elimination of the surcharge for using CharlieTickets rather than CharlieCards; a move the T's governing board approved in May.
The T says it's making the changes based on the assumption that bus ridership will increase to about 50% of the levels seen before Gov. Baker made his emergency declaration on March 23 - and says that it will hold back 5% of its buses each day as a "flexible resource" that can be directed to routes with particular passenger crushes on the fly.
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Comments
Confusing
The MBTA webpage linked to above is anything but "Full details". There are a large number of bus routes that aren't mentioned at all, so one has no idea what is happening with them. They won't have "increased weekday service"; they aren't "continuing with limited service"; they aren't "Suspended routes"; they aren't listed in any of the other categories. So we have no idea what's happening with them.
If they aren't being reduced
If they aren't being reduced or increased then they are resuming a regular weekday schedule
Not mentioned = going back to pre-COVID
The way I'm reading it, any of the bus routes that weren't mentioned as increased service, limited service or suspended would be going back to their regular, pre-COVID schedule.
Have noticed a ton of T buses
Have noticed a ton of T buses driving around with “OUT OF SERVICE” signs lately, way more than usual. Anyone know if there’s a legitimate reason for this?
Maybe driving vehicles in and
Maybe driving vehicles in and out between remote yards and some of the more major maintenance facilities for preventive maintenance (where normally a vehicle might run some rush hour routes and then get PM off-peak) and/or just for the sake of running them (it creates issues having engines like that sitting unused for extended periods).
Not Quite...
When buses are sent to and from Everett Shops they are operated by the maintenance staff themselves. If the person driving is not wearing a bright orange shirt with a pair of reflective silver stripes; then it is not being "shifted".
I have noticed all the OOS buses myself.
The official timetables include "cartime" which illustrates how the bus itself is to be operated. When it leaves/returns to the garage; which trips are to be operated on which routes; which operators are to have responsibility at any given time, etc.
Full disclosure: I am currently a member of the Chelsea Transportation Task Force. I have been working for nearly two years with the local community group, GreenRoots, on how to improve MBTA bus service in Chelsea, East Boston and Revere.
On January 30, 2020 we, the City Manager and several city councilors met with the following individuals:
Monica Tibbits-Nutt of the FMCB
Danny Levy, MBTA Chief Customer Officer
I presented my analysis of how the MBTA schedule making software, HASTUS, creates cartime in an arbitrary manner {across all garages systemwide}. Some buses are robot-scheduled to be on the street for just two hours; others are to be on the street for 19. This is HORRIBLY inefficient and prevents the T from using its fleet to best meet the needs and wants of the riding public.
Monica and Danny summarily dismissed my suggestions.
My hope was to experiment with a new type of vehicle scheduling that simply assigned some buses to major terminals with no specific route assignment. The Inspector on duty would dispatch buses on an even headway, defined by an official publicly-available timetable. A fresh supply of buses would always be available at the terminal and could "fill-in" the headway if a bus ran late on the return trip.
Wear a mask, wear it right
I was on the T yesterday, my first trip since early March. I didn't find it very crowded in my non-rush hour trips on the bus and subway. Everyone I saw wore a mask, except for one rider who stood next to the front door, talking it up with the driver like they were best friends. His blue shirt made me think he was a T employee but I didn't see any insignia so I'm not sure. He wore no mask and stood in the "no passenger" front zone for the entire trip.
A few other passengers removed their masks to drink soda or talk on the phone. About 1/4 of them wore their masks under their noses which is just as ineffective as wearing no mask at all.
If the T can't enforce proper mask wearing, I'm not going to ride it at all. If they want to get ridership back, they need to enforce the rules with police and stiff fines if necessary. Wear a mask over your mouth AND nose for the entire trip, or get off the vehicle.
How do transfers from the Red Line work?
If I get on the Red Line in Cambridge or Somerville and ride it to South Station, how do I use my CharlieCard to get a free transfer onto the Fairmount Line?
> Fairmount Line Zone 1A
> Fairmount Line Zone 1A CharlieCard Compatibility
> Under the pilot and as part of the first phase of the MBTA’s Fare Transformation project, the T has installed CharlieCard validators on all Fairmount Line Zone 1A station platforms with all CharlieCards able to be used at these stations, including those CharlieCards loaded with stored value, monthly and daily passes, and reduced fare passes, including Youth, Student, Senior, or TAP passes. After a CharlieCard is tapped at a platform validator, the validator will issue a paper proof-of-payment for customers to show the conductor when onboard the train.
> Fairmount Line riders who pay with a CharlieCard can also transfer for free within 2 hours of their first tap to local buses, the Silver Line, and the Red Line at South Station. Riders transferring from buses to the Fairmount Line at any Zone 1A station will pay only the difference in fare when they tap a platform validator with their CharlieCard.
https://www.mbta.com/news/2020-06-19/more-frequent-service-the-fairmount...
Orange Line has been
Orange Line has been increasingly crowded in afternoons. The robot announcement that tells to keep a safe distance from each other does no good. And of course you get the coughers and chatterboxes with no mask in every car guaranteed. No enforcement whatsoever. Can I get an Amen?
Orange line
It seems like I am going to have to kill 40 minutes every day waiting for the commuter rail train just to get to Forest Hills. It has been impossible to keep distanced on the orange line, especially yesterday, with 9 minutes between trains and the E line under construction. I thought I had a good seat, and then someone sat down next to me, pulled down his mask, and started eating pretzels.
Where did they get the drivers?
I thought the T's main rationale for implementing the limited Saturday-level service back in mid-March was because too many bus operators were forced off-duty to quarantine.
Now, apparently, the T can wave a magic wand and restore "a regular schedule, similar to (or better than) pre-COVID service" for "most bus routes"? And, they can actually offer "significantly more service" (than pre-Covid) on 21 high-ridership routes? And, they can apparently do this just by cutting service on a few express routes?
There's something wrong here. Either the T lied about not having enough operators back in March (to save money by running less service, or perhaps to have enough buses to run the subway-repair shuttles instead of contracting to Yankee Line), or the T is lying about the amount of bus service they'll be providing this fall.
The number of drivers calling
The number of drivers calling in sick either due to needing to be quarantined (there was a sizeable number of infections among the drivers early on, and they're exposed to each other at the garages, so boom), or simply being afraid, was really quite large back in the April/May timeframe, and has gone gradually down. What's been happening in the meantime is that any drivers above the number needed for running the Saturday-like service have been directed as needed when they show up to work to the routes with the most crowding or the most gaps in headway right then. The number of drivers doing that has gone gradually up. And now there's enough drivers that switching to a Weekday-like schedule is possible without having huge gaps everywhere.
The express buses tend to be really long trips, they do use lots of resources.
i never understood the
i never understood the benefit of having a charlie-ticket and a charlie-card ?
Tickets
Charlie Tickets have limited but important use. If you’re a visitor, you can obtain a ticket for a few rides from a fare machine at any subway station. They permit transfers between buses. They work for day, week, and monthly passes, allowing use on commuter rail where Charlie Passes still don’t work.
The big question
Why doesn't Boston have charliecard vending machines in stations like almost every other transit system in the world. RFID dispensing machines aren't special or hard to obtain.
Charge $1 per empty card to cover costs.
The replacement billion dollar fare system is still years away.
There's something about
There's something about plastic cards, I think. I have a Montreal OPUS card, and those not only cost a few dollars, they're only available at certain stations, and you have to wait in line and talk to a human being.
My other theory is that it's a stupid attempt to get a little extra money out of that subset of visitors who will be on transit in the first place, at the expense of lots of locals who don't live near a station, and have to keep asking different bus drivers for Charlie cards. "Ask an MBTA employee," yea, but even the people in the booths at busy subway stations don't always have them.
RFID cards were expensive when Charlie was first introduced?
That is my best guess. I recall that the MBTA was the first US transit system to use RFID cards.
DC's SmarTrip was first in
DC's SmarTrip was first in 1999. The Charlie system launched in 2006.
thats like offering a
thats like offering a portable device that makes fone calls; and, a portable device that makes fone calls and text messages for the same cost.
why not just offer the better of the two to reduce confusion.
32
I don't see 32 on the list. Gah.
Already back in regular service
Route 32 was returned to near-to-normal service back in June, so it's not included on that list.