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Social distancing on the Blue Line
By adamg on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 3:32pm
Ari Ofsevit snapped his not so widely spaced fellow riders around 2:45 p.m. today on the Blue Line - at Aquarium outbound after no train came for 15 minutes.
The T responded:
Ari - thank you for this feedback. We will send it to Blue Line supervisors and personnel so they can adjust accordingly.
— MBTA (@MBTA) March 18, 2020
To which Ofsevit replied:
This should be absolute top priority. Trains must leave evenly spaced. Period.
— Ari Ofsevit (@ofsevit) March 18, 2020
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Comments
Blue Line Woes
As a daily Blue Line rider I'm glad this whole ordeal is shedding light on the Blue Line. Far too many people think the Blue Line runs smoothly is somehow immune from the woes of the other lines, when in fact that is never the case. It SHOULD run smoothly, given that it is nothing more than an endless loop, and a pretty short one at that. But somehow the T manages to screw it up on a daily basis.
Physical limitations
The BL is limited by the size (length and width) of its train cars - a direct byproduct of its past as a trolley line. Compared to the OL/RL, this severely limits the number of people that can fit on each 6-car train, which means more trains have to be run to serve the same number of people.
The T has never proven itself capable of managing a high-frequency line. Buses on "key routes" often bunch up, resulting in 2 or 3 times the advertised headway. Running the BL frequently is no exception...
Doesn't MBTA have it's own surveillance methods
And train personnel who can push a button and say "we should increase frequency since the current train is packed like a normal rush hour train..:
Orange line
Also had its own gap, around 2:00pm today. 17 minutes between two Forest Hills-bound trains.
Yes, fewer people there, but equally worthy of attention. The socioeconomics of the OL population isn't that different from the BL, at least for those riders who are still out and about.
FIX IT CHARLIE!
FIX IT CHARLIE!
Keep a regular schedule for now
Before cutting service, the T should keep service at higher levels until they have a better idea of how and when people are using their services. I'm getting a sense that people who are still on the bus or train are going to work. Because they need to pay their bills, or work in an important sector, like health care or a supermarket. Or both.
That's the problem with going to a Saturday schedule
More trains means less crowding.
My own experience on the Green Line yesterday was very different; I boarded a D Branch train just after 5, and instead of the usual crowds there were only a scattering of passengers. When I got off at Eliot there was only one other person in the car.