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Limited subway service again tomorrow; buses will run regular weekday schedule
By adamg on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 5:03pm
UPDATE: MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott said this afternoon the authority will seek federal disaster aid and that it could be 30 days - yes, 30 - before the T is fully operational again, but only if we don't have another blizzard.
The MBTA says service on the T will be about the same as today, MassDOT says: The Red Line will run between Alewife and Andrew, the Orange Line between Sullivan and Back Bay and the Green Line between Lechmere and Kenmore, except for the D branch, which will continue all the way to Riverside. The Blue Line will run all the way between Bowdoin and Wonderland.
On the Red Line that's still running, trains will operate every six to seven minutes. On the discontinued segments of the Red Line, there'll be "limited substitute bus service" on the Ashmont and Braintree branches. Also limited bus replacement for the Mattapan Line.
Orange Line trains will run every 12 minutes, with limited bus service between Oak Grove and Sullivan and between Back Bay and Forest Hills.
Green Line trolleys will run every five or six minutes. Also:
Along the B branch, Route 57 buses will make stops between Packards Corner and Kenmore Stations. There will be no bus service between Packards Corner and Boston College.
Along the C branch, limited shuttle bus service will be available between Cleveland Circle and Kenmore.
Along the E branch, Route 39 buses will make stops between Northeastern and Heath St. Stations.
Buses, including the Silver Line, will run on weekday schedules, but expect delays.
Please note that parking in MBTA garages will continue to be permitted, but availability may be limited. Lynn, Beverly, Salem, and Wonderland Garages will continue to have low availability. Additional parking availability information can be found here. Illegally parked vehicles in garages that are found to be blocking pedestrian access ways and/or traffic lanes will be subject to towing. Passengers are encouraged to park in garages only when leaving their vehicle on the premises overnight.
MBTA passengers may also park in available Massport parking at Suffolk Downs Station and board Massport employee shuttles either to Airport terminals or to the Blue Line Airport Station.
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Comments
What on earth have they been
What on earth have they been doing all day today, if they can't operate any more service tomorrow than they did today?
Wasn't the point of running limited service today so that they could clear stuff enough to run more service tomorrow?
And why on earth
will the enclosed parking garages have only "limited availability"?
Because they're open to
Because they're open to parking for local residents in addition to the usual commuters. The Lynn garage has been filling up regularly.
Thanks for the clarification
Apparently the T finds it too difficult to provide the same clarification to their customers.
Speaking of miscommunication
The MBTA website and twitter today constantly repeated that inbound E Line service was running from Symphony. However, passengers reported that the station was locked, and people heading outbound were kicked off at the Pru.
Right now, the website doesn't even say anything for tomorrow. There's just a gap between Northeastern and Copley. I assume the worst and that the 39 will be bearing the brunt of this, not that people coming from Forest Hills will be using that either...
check out this "insaniT"
check out this "insaniT" campaign:
inktothepeople.com/insanit-2
So the money goes to the MBTA
So the money goes to the MBTA Unions and the campaign describes buying one of these t-shirts as a way to contribute to MBTA improvement? Explain that one to me.
I can only hope that the
I can only hope that the alliance of the unions will use the money for good...can you suggest a better benefactor for the profits of these t-shirts? Regardless, we call get a way to express our solidarity with other Bostonians and T-riders. Hopefully the money will be used for good.
Here is the new T-shirt with
Here is the new T-shirt with a more thorough description. Thanks for your feed back and please share!
http://inktothepeople.com/insanit-5
The site you link to does
The site you link to does seem a bit short on explanation when it comes to how buying a T shirt will actually help improve service. Do you have any additional info?
I can't make any promises but
I can't make any promises but it is better than nothing. All profits from the T-shirts will go to the Alliance of Unions of the MBTA. Hopefully they will use that money to hire more staff or buy a new train. Regardless, you get a T-shirt to express your solidarity with other T-riders.
Seems like gov baker is
Seems like gov baker is getting us used to his dream of killing the Mbta completely and turning it into an all bus service with all the savings dedicated to highways. A republican wet dream.
Yeah those fricken
Yeah those fricken Republicans in the legislature sure did a great job under funding the MBTA since its inception.
Prior administrations....
What kind of investments did they make over the years to help the situation? The T has been horribly mismanaged for who knows how long but let's blame Baker who has been in office for how long?
Your comment was funny though.
BDS
Baker Derangement Syndrome.
Oh stop it
Everyone has kicked the can down the road for years......might as well add "derangement syndrome" after everyone's name that has been governor here if we're playing that game.
Do the math
Baker's been in office for two months, and he's got one of seven votes on the MBTA Board of Directors.
Blaming him at this point is like blaming Bush for 2014 drone attacks in Aghanistan.
Agreed
Looks like I misunderstood your initial comment.
Selective amnesia.
Where is this amnesty when we are talking about releasing people who have been in jail for 20 years? I mean, it was something they did 20 years ago that put them there - no fair holding it against them now, right?
Huh? Whaaa-aa?
I blame Bush-aker, Dammit!
Minor nit
Actually, it's exactly unlike that. We can certainly blame things happening now on past leaders—sometimes it takes a while for the chickens to come home to roost. But we can't blame leaders now for things that happened in the past, which is what (as you seem to agree) is going on with the MBTA: The T has been slowly failing for decades; this recent snowstorm has just made it all undeniably visible.
When bad weather hits, generally,
The MBTA's failures are laid bare, for all to see.
Baker the Governor was also,
Baker the Governor was also, in a prior gig, Baker the Weld Administration Treasury Secretary whose financial manipulations saddled the T with over $10 billion of Big Dig debt. The need to pay down that debt is the reason that the T has been deferring maintenance ever since, with consequences that we're seeing right now.
So yes, it is perfectly fair to say he deserves blame for the deplorable condition of the T's physical plant. Not all the blame, but a very hefty chunk of it.
Half true
It was debt for past MBTA projects, including some Big Dig mitigation projects.
Also, it was at that time that 20 percent of the sales tax was dedicated to the MBTA.
Also pensions and other
Also pensions and other things, yada, yada, yada. The "big dig" stuff (really just things the T needed to do legally that no one funded) is only 1/3 of the overall MBTA's debt. Forward funding, as you pointed out, is what really killed it. Also, apparently, mismanagement, as it was receiving shit tons of money before 2000 and didn't upgrade the basics.
Can we not resort to
Can we not resort to conspiracy theories? I am as blue as they come and self identify as radical left. Yet, I don't believe this is a Baker conspiracy to destroy the T. Rather, it's decades of underinvestment in maintenance and overexpansion that have left us where we are today.
Bad For Business
Besides, business must be FUMING over this situation. That is why I am so surprise that Baker has been MIA of late on this issue
"Bad for business" is the understatement of the year.
Unless and until "Business" gets on the phone with every member of the General Court and the Governor little will change...that is until businesses decide that they simply cannot commit the necessary time, energy and money to operating in a location where their workers cannot reliably get to work.
And then it will be to late.
No one should underestimate the negative long-term impact that this total T implosion is having on Boston's international reputation. Managers the world over are hearing that our public transportation system is no longer capable of transporting people to work. Just put yourself in their shoes: are you opening your next office in Greater Boston? Are you expanding your office here, or are you expanding elsewhere?
People know that winters here are sometimes bad, but they also know that they come every single year. The effect of the last 3 weeks will not go away when the snow does.
About that Olympics pitch for this world class city
"...this total T implosion is having on Boston's international reputation."
I know - it's the Summer Olympics. But here's to hoping that Boston gets "passed over" until it gets a "world-class" urban transportation system - one
that will be viable even after hosting a future Olympics.
One problem with the Olympic thing
Not that it is to be in the Summer, you covered that well. The thing is that the IOC won't care about the current state. If the organizing committee can show that there will be a well maintained system, that's what counts.
Now attracting regular business- that's a problem. Who would pick Boston over, say, Charlotte when our transportation system has been exposed as patched together with duct tape?
Charlotte?
Do they have a transportation system at all?
A better comparison might be Chicago, Portland (Oregon), Minneapolis-St Paul, the Sf Bay Area, or even Los Angeles (which has built a lot of heavy rail, light rail, and commuter rail over the past few decades)
Re: Who would pick Boston?
There's going to be these GREAT tax incentives - like the one given to Fidelity not to move out of state. (Well, maybe not).
Maybe the potential redevelopment of the T will be the Boston Harbor Cleanup or the Big Dig of 2020. Maybe. I just think it's going to take a Federal
agency to make it happen. In the meantime, we have "no term limits" DeLeo and a bunch of other sycophants who couldn't give a damn. If Charlie Baker can actually pull something off I'll be very impressed.
Well...
Boston 2024 needs a big expensive MBTA overhaul plan before 2017, or they can forget about the Olympics in Boston. There is no guarantee that will happen.
Boston has an exaggerated
Boston has an exaggerated opinion of it's importance; many private companies are choosing to locate along 128 or 495. Office parks in Marlborough and Waltham are being developed not only with office buildings, but also with housing and shopping, including super markets and restaurants. All major Boston hospitals now have suburban locations. However, Boston can still be the Hub for gov't , tourism, students and non-profits.
A lot of luxury residential skyscrapers are going up in Boston, but more office space is being built outside the City.
Funny, many tech companies
Funny, many tech companies (large, medium, and startups) are flocking in drove to Boston from 128 and even Cambridge. I went to many a cool talk of companies now coming back into Boston proper as that is what 20-30 yo talent want, and Cambridge now costs to much for any but Google and MS.
I think
you are a few decades late with that view
Is this intentional?
Time to wonder if this is intentional on the part of the T. Orange Line running at 40%? A week without JFK to Braintree? They just start shoveling the tracks today? Will someone in the media demand an answer from their former colleague Joe Pesatauro? Beverly Scott has properly resigned, what of MBTA Board of Managers? Back in the day, the media would be camped outside their offices if not their homes. All main roads and many side streets and parking lots are down to bare pavement. What is the real problem here? It can't be just the snow or the old equipment that worked OK prior to the snow. Seems like something sinister.
My theory is that this is a
My theory is that this is a move to get the billions needed to fix the system to Olympic quality levels for the games.
Re: TinFoil...My theory is that
You may be onto something especially with the Boston 2024 Olympics hiring a former top T official. A week ago, I think anyone of us could have picked up the Braintree phone book and gotten enough electricians, mechanics, laborers and volunteers to have gotten this thing running. What's this, the Red Line or Edaville Railroad?
On the one hand, I never
On the one hand, I never underestimate government agencies to pull one of these when it suits their interests.
On the other hand, from the very beginning of the storm troubles, one major failure mode that has been reported have been the DC motors on the older trainsets being destroyed by sucking snow into their air intakes. One of the Globe stories a couple days ago pointed out that the MBTA has a limited supply of spare motors and they were going through them fast. It's perfectly plausible that they are now past the point where they have enough working DC motors to even keep a sufficient number of Orange and (older) Red Line cars operational.
Fraud
Time for a class action law suit against MBTA for selling a service they can't deliver. Monthly passes are useless
Yes!
Yes! let's bankrupt an already bankrupt transit service by suing them! That'll teach'em!
Not.
*eye roll*
PS - Yeah so you'll get about 50 cents for every fare you get back by suing because that's what you'll get after the lawyers takes their cut. That'll help...
. . o O (seriously where do you guys get this stuff) O o . .
Will be interesting to see
Will be interesting to see the number of LinkPasses sold in March compared to this month.
How long can we live like this?
This is beyond ridiculous. I can only work remotely for so long. And I'm lucky that I even have the option.
Yeah, I can't work remotely,
Yeah, I can't work remotely, so as much as I like to bed in my warm bed during these bitterly cold days, my paycheck is seriously missing those lost wages.
Ironically, I could work remotely if Charlie Baker would let me
As a state employee, I'm required to show up at work EVEN though I have a state issued laptop that would fully enable me to work from home. It's truly ironic that the state, which is MA's largest employer, isn't adopting a work-from-home policy for its employees who can do so. I could save the 4 or so hours I've been commuting each day (up from 1.5 in normal MBTA operation) and put that time into getting a heck of a lot more work done... And wouldn't be further contributing to already congested roads and public transportation.
The Dreadline
Gonna re name it....madness. Any one know what limited bus shuttle service means...my best guess is twofold, limited buses the rest are in braintree and limited in dot to those at Ashmont cuz it's gonna fill the every hour I assume they run one.....I get it great for everyone else.....but what about the rest of us.....oughta be a free ride for shuttle and entry at Andrew....gawsh, just thought of what that's gonna look like......arms up all, buckle in for the samurai subway ride
Commuter rail
Any yet they have made no specific schedule announcements for the commuter rail other than "it will be limited."
"Revised schedules
will be available later today" - per the MBTA's "Winter Schedule" page.
In other words, they haven't yet rolled the dice to decide which trains they're going to arbitrarily cancel.
Sounds about right. I've seen
Sounds about right. I've seen the modified Fairmount line schedule and predict we'll get maybe one severely delayed AM rush train and no PM rush trains. That would be consistent with the service over the last week before this last storm. I can't speak to any of the others.
Keolis deciding to bus or cancel Fairmount outright would be less infuriating than anything they've done with it over the last month of storms. I'm planning the rest of my winter commuting as if it just doesn't exist along with the Redline south of JFK. No expectations, no standing out in -20 wind chills waiting for trains that aren't coming. Ain't nobody got time for that.
This is
what I don't get. How can you arbitrarily cancel certain commuter rail trains? How are people supposed to get to work or get home if the next two trains, which don't run often as is, are not running at all?
I'd really like to say
I was making a joke. Unfortunately, it's more than a coincidence that the same group of trains keep getting cancelled. And I seriously doubt it's all due to the weather conditions - it could be 70 degrees on a sunny afternoon, and they'd find some excuse to cancel the 5:55 to Reading (and the 6:35 from Reading) trains.
if I might add, canceling
if I might add, canceling pairs such as the two Reading trains you mentioned is due to the fact that the 6:35 from Reading is the 5:55 to Reading. Same equipment. If these trains aren't making the "to" trips there aren't "from" trips and back and forth it goes. So the cancelations aren't totally arbitrary, it depends on where the equipment is and where it can be moved next.
The Fairmount ones get canceled the most if they're down equipment for the other lines particularly on the South side, unfortunately.
Yes, I am aware that trains are paired
like the example you gave. Still doesn't make it right. And I don't see that the T or Keolis has any sort of plan to alleviate this in the short term. Like accelerating the delivery of the new equipment for one.
And, as I've pointed out, this practice has been going on for over a year and has absolutely nothing to do with the winter weather, despite their alerts to the contrary.
Exactly.
If they know they don't have the equipment to make the 5:55 to Reading work, they should just amend the schedule to remove the trip until they can put it into permanent rotation again.
Leaving it in the schedule not only gives false hope to commuters who might prefer to stay in their offices a little while longer knowing they're stuck on the 6:20, but it also bones casual riders who don't realize it's never going to run.
I don't ride the T, but the wife does, and I've been amused/bewildered at how frequently (and often arbitrarily) the 5:55 gets canceled. And now on today's winter schedule, what do we have? *Zero* Reading trains.
Also (and I'm sure roadman is chuckling under his breath at this) - this morning we have something completely new from T Alerts - Re-adding a canceled train back into service!
At some point ...
... people have to start asking serious questions about the recovery plan. Yes, it's cold; yes, there was an unprecedented amount of snow; yes, the T is overburdened and underfunded. But there is almost no evidence of improvement. Is the situation much worse than they are willing to admit? Are the Orange Line trains not just broken, but unfixable? Has the entire power system for the Braintree branch collapsed in some mysterious way? Mayor Walsh did sort of imply that in his press conference this morning, but it could just have been the way the words came out. Has anyone heard if the press is asking specific questions about when, or if, the T will be able to return to its pre-storm level of service, feeble and unreliable though it was?
Where is the Governor??
He is supposed to be a no nonsense manager. Why is he putting up with this nonsense. I get that he doesn't have authority over the T but why isn't he speaking out for his constituents. Marty Baker is useless as he has been as whiney and defensive as Ms. Scott and even suggested that the T should shut down if it snowed this past weekend.
Walsh
I meant Walsh
Is in over his head. In his
Is in over his head. In his position, he should not be complaining to THE VOTERS about how hard his job is, or that he has nothing more to say. His handlers should be all over him about this - showing your frustrations on the air does not inspire confidence.
Seriously - can one single frickin leader in this whole mess show some confidence, and competence, in being able to handle it? Or at least fake you can? This isn't Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, it sucks, but snow is always part of the job in this state.
Somebody needs to be asking these questions
And more. We need a serious investigation into this shitshow.
Seriously!
30 days!?! Refunds need to be extended for monthly pass holders and questions need to be asked as to just what exactly is the plan of attack to get things up and running again. Or do they even have one?
We're gonna fly like an eagle
And this isn't my first Rodeo!
That's the plan. Just see last week's press conf. Any other questions?
Let's get those Brookline turkeys in charge
"It's hard to fly like an eagle when you ride with turkeys".
Unlike Paul Revere we have no need for a ride
">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHBmHnIhOME[/youtube]
You know what would be a huge olive branch
Announcement that the T is waiving fares until further notice, and that any February pass is good for March, too. Yeah, it would be a huge budgetary hit, but the state is already way in the red for snow removal (funny how there's never any issue with armies of private contractors plowing the roads, but when it's shoveling transit it's suddenly a bit deal) so it could come from the same pot. It would make buses run faster, it would mean that the T could remove some fare collectors and have them work snow removal and it would be a good faith effort to say "until we can provide decent service, just use the T because the roads won't fit anyone more."
And I totally don't blame the T for this! This is the intersection of not one but two 500-year events: way more snow than has ever been recorded combined with what may go down as the coldest month ever recorded in Boston. Usually, when we get snow, it melts (that big blizzard in 2013? The highs the week after were 36, 45, 44, 42, 42, 47). It hasn't been above 40 in damn near a month.
Unofficial policy now?
I can't recall having to tap my pass when boarding a bus at Forest Hills so far this month. That hasn't been true for subway or inbound buses, but the ones taking crush loads have been opening the rear doors and waiving passengers on without tapping. I agree, though, that an official announcement and an extension to all service would be a good idea.
My experience over the past
My experience over the past week has been confined to the 66 bus, where passengers who enter properly through the front door have all paid, while the handful of people who squeeze in the back door don't.
I wonder what the budgetary
I wonder what the budgetary hit is going to be of both the huge number of people who refuse to buy a March pass, and the smaller, but probably still significant number of people who stop using the T altogether in the months going forward, not only out of the rational economic decision that it's not worth it, but out of disgust and anger with how the T is treating their customers.
Offering such a pass extension/refund would cost them money but probably earn them a lot of people back from that second category.
They've made statements that
They've made statements that they aren't giving refunds for subpar service. It's ours and ours alone to put up with. Yes, they depend on ridership #s and funds, but they also know that for some of us it's the only way to get around, so we will put up with it. There's a big difference between a service like the T and say, a private company's products where there is an alternative. For most of us, there is no alternative. Therefore, why should they care how the public feels? they'll charge us T passes, because if they don't, in a month they'll probably say they can't run a service because they lost so much money in refunds. Until the companies that are affected by their workers' commutes, or who cover transportation costs in the form of T passes for their workers, get involved and start complaining, I don't see T management caring about how the public feels. Beverly Scott has quit and is trying to wash her hands of this, despite what she says about staying til April. I don't think there is anyone else at the helm there. Baker admonishes them but doesn't offer solutions. Walsh is busy (and rightfully so) trying to manage the absolute clusterf*ck that is snow removal in the city. I'm FB friends with some T employees (conductors) who are equally as frustrated with their own management and service as we are. It would be great if there were a spokesperson or advocate for the riders themselves. We should be getting our local reps involved whom this affects - whoever the councilpersons are in Brookline, Brighton, Allston, Cambridge, Malden, Charlestown, Melrose, Quincy, Braintree, etc - it affects all these places, and there should be a unity among leadership in these places to advocate for the riders in their neighborhoods. So far the only leader I've seen say anything is the Mayor of Somerville.
I think the big issue is they
I think the big issue is they do not have enough people to keep up. They must be offering as much overtime as people can take, but there is only so much that workers can do. I don't think the trains are broken beyond repair, but they have such a large number that require minor to moderate repairs that it has become overwhelming, same goes for the track and power systems. They can bring in the National Guard to move mounds of snow at parking lots, but the National Guard does not have the skill to repair subway cars or repair frozen track switches.
The Orange Line and older,
The Orange Line and older, red-and-white Red Line cars use DC motors that the media has been reporting are prone to destroying themselves when they suck snow into their air intakes. (The Blue Line and newer, stainless Red Line cars use AC motors which apparently do not have this problem.) My guess is we've gotten to the point where they've run through so many spare DC motors they literally don't have enough functional Orange/Red trainsets to do anything more than "limited" service.
So, am I to assume that the
So, am I to assume that the Orange Line between Back Bay and Forest Hills will have some sort of shuttle service? Going from 39 to Back Bay to Chinatown (or 42 to Dudley to South Station) tomorrow morning sounds absolutely hellish.
I truly feel the MBTA is
I truly feel the MBTA is hiding something or misleading customers. People that don't travel to the South Shore are being the most ignorant. So I pay for a monthly pass andI have barely any service from Quincy while other people can just get a free Pass @ Andrew?! That makes sense. NOT
Dr Scott.....
Translation: See ya, wouldn't want to be ya!
Thanks Deval. This was an excellent appointment. I guess Olga Roche was already busy at the time, running DCF, or we would have gotten her instead.
scape·goat
Nope
She would have have to stayed around to be a scapegoat. She did a dixie last week, remember?
Wonder why.
But why stay till April?
Is she obligated to stay till April?
It seemed like her quitting was an end-of-her-rope decision, so you'd think she'd want to leave right away. Why is she staying til April? Does anyone think there is someone else running the show in her place until then?
While I am thinking of it...
I think Adam deserves a lot of credit for keeping us up to date with MBTA information for whatever direction people are coming from and also the citizen commentary and information.
As soon as I heard it would be limited service tomorrow I really began to wonder. That was BEFORE I got to this subject heading. Another blizzard might well shut down Boston.
Thanks, adamg
This is definitely the most reliable site to find news about the MBTA.
At this point...
...it seems like public transportation in Pyongyang works better than the freaking T.
It might be
But, you would be shot for expressing your opinion on UHub.
Outrageous
ok, a foot of snow on Sunday and very cold temps today, but there is NO EXCUSE for not running the Red Line to Ashmont and Braintree. Good god, how many of us are going to be on clogged Dot Ave. tomorrow in 8 degree weather waiting for "limited" shuttle service.
Speechless
I've been riding the Red Line for decades and this is just a totally unacceptable horror show.
Let's give the "T" its Last Rites
...
You driving?
Think parking in Boston is tight now ...
As much as I hate driving,
As much as I hate driving, because it usually takes a lot longer than the T, at least I know I'll get home eventually driving myself. When they say all the commuter rail trains are "delayed" (for hours) like they did Friday night, I seriously wondered if I'd ever make it home. Thankfully I did make it to Milton after almost 3 hours, and my ride into work was 2 hours that morning. That was after driving in on Thursday, which was also awful, but at least I controlled my own fate, to a degree.
So, unless I'm allowed to work remotely, it's back to driving I go, although there's now a bunch or people here in Milton looking to carpool, and I assume that is happening in other communities too. Oh, and I got a monthly pass at the Pru. I bet garage passes are getting harder to come by.
school vacation week
Will result in a few less traveling...but far from enough of an impact
further dysfunction
My (work-subsidized) T pass up and expired today. It had a February LinkPass on it, so I've just lost two weeks of fares. Maybe it's an omen?
Something I didn't know until
Something I didn't know until recently is that the card itself has an expiration date.
The physical cards expiring
The physical cards expiring was all over the T service alerts a couple months ago. I assume the cards physically expire for some arcane security reasons.
You can get them to transfer
You can get them to transfer your LinkPass to a new card at a T sales offices at Back Bay, Downtown Crossing, Harvard, North Station, or South Station.
No, this can only be done at
No, this can only be done at the CharlieCard store in DTX.
I can't speak for the other stations, but I know North Station doesn't have a T sales office. Keolis has ticket and information windows, but they are Keolis only, they can't help you with anything MBTA.
Oops, you're right. I was
Oops, you're right. I was thinking of where they are supposed to have new cards available all the time. But yeah, they can only transfer info/value from one card to another at DTX.
Your employer might be able
Your employer might be able to give you a new card with the rest of your February pass on it - mine expired in January literally mid-commute (got me on the bus, would not get me on the subway 20 minutes later) and although the one T employee available was a complete dick about it, I called payroll when I got to work and they had a new one for me right away. (I may have missed an e-mail about mine expiring, it turns out, although the thing failed so catastrophically I couldn't get the fare machine to give me ANY info about it, so I'm not sure.) I had to pay full fare to get in - they wouldn't even give me credit for my bus transfer - but at least I didn't have to wait in the 7th circle of hell that is the CharlieCard store.
Raise the issue with your company.
Many people's transportation is subsidized by work. The MBTA could not give two sh*ts about individual riders, but they might listen if companies that pay for employee transportation get involved and start complaining.
Correct me if I'm wrong...
...but can an "authority" request Federal disaster relief funds? Doesn't the request come from the governor, much like National Guard deployments, etc.?
Something stinks about the political and governmental response to this whole situation.
And speaking of stinking situations, to look at everything on the T's website, it would appear that Symphony station should be open tomorrow. But I still haven't heard back from my complaint/inquiry from 7 a.m. today, so I'll have to assume it'll be closed. Meanwhile, how exactly is someone supposed to get from, say, Park Street to Boston College? The B train will get you to Kenmore. The 57 bus will get you to Packard's Corner. Then what?
Thirty days of this? Time for another Boston T Party.
Well, the 86 would get you to
Well, the 86 would get you to Chestnut Hill Ave, but you're stuck either walking from there or Chestnut Hill on the D line.
I've been told that while,
I've been told that while, yes, the website and MBTA twitter are adamant that E Line service inbound from Symphony was running today, the stations was not open and passengers heading outbound were kicked off at the Pru.
They can't even announce their fuckups right. Pathetic.
You're absolutely right.
I wrote the T yesterday and again today to inquire about the discrepancy. It's comforting to know that the MBTA's "do not reply to this email" auto-response works just fine, unlike just about everything else at this miserable agency. Haven't gotten an actual answer, don't really expect to, and not sure I'd trust whatever answer I got.
(As I mentioned yesterday, the driver didn't deign to announce that Prudential was the last stop until after we left Copley. So anybody (like me) who could have switched from the E and had a shorter walk from Hynes than Prudential were SOOL.)
Bev abdicated the Throne
And instead of 'Let them eat cake' Bev the no show queen of the MBTA says 'Let them Walk'
I do think that there will be
I do think that there will be "Bev people" leaving en masse with her in April. So we can look forward to the T saving some money on salaries there, right Charlie?
How come they can operate the D line?
But they can't operate the orange line from FH? And why can't they operate the C line down Beacon St? It has it's own right-of-way. The B and E lines I understand.
Most of the people who use the underground portions of the green, orange, and blue lines feed into it from above ground. No way 'limited shuttle service' will cut it. And the D line is going to be beyond nasty. Even on normal days it's heavily used.
The D has to run in some
The D has to run in some capacity because of the equipment yards at Reservoir and Riverside.
I'm curious how they managed
I'm curious how they managed to dg out the entire D line but can't dig out the less than half mile between JFK and the tunnel to Andrew on even one branch of the tracks.
Money
It's because the D line serves some well-to-do suburbs, and the Ashmont branch serves lowly Dorchester (this is a battle we have fought for years!)
Budget? what comes around...
Be sure to search back on info on the Big Dig....that's where the money went...they combined depts./agencies, shifting the burden of highway/tunnels etc to the T who was running efficiently at the time. Check your hx. Mr. Baker was Admin and Finance in charge of that budget back then under the Weld Admin. Will be paid off in 2038!!! What do we do till then?
Why no official MBTA comment from Scott?
The sources are tweets from other people. Why hasn't the MBTA issued an official statement explaining the problems, and the plans for a solution?
Everything we hear dribbles in from a third party. If it's all about money, tell us what we need, and how much it will cost, so this doesn't happen again.
On the C line, there were trains running up and down the line on Sunday afternoon with no passengers. Why can't they carry passengers? The tracks seem fine.
The lack of information in such a critical situation is galling.
If it's all about money, tell
*We* just elected a governor who ran on a platform to not increase revenue. *Now* we want to hear "what we need" and "how much it will cost?"
We *need* to own our shit.
Giving a blank check to
Giving a blank check to people that have a history of spending money very poorly is an issue. The MBTA needs to submit an itemized list of what they need to make sure the money doesn't go to featherbedding instead of vital infrastructure. Make sure the requests for funds, contracts, and ledgers are open to public scrutiny to keep everyone honest.
Who are the Communications Directors for MBTA and DOT?
Because the communications staff of these agencies are clearly asleep at the wheel.
Find out who THESE people are, post their email address or Twitter handle everywhere, and press them of the importance of info for the ridership. If they get enough complaints of a lack of info, maybe they'll be responsive just to stop the influx of emails. It's THEIR jobs to manage the dissemination of information to the ridership.
Anyone know
Where one gets this limited shuttle service? Is it only at Ashmont or does it do pick ups along the Ave, and to push the envelope anyone have any clue how often they run....T says 6-7 for their tunnel trains but nada on these buses.....oops limited shuttle buses....whatever those are and wherever one gets one.....
Seriously....anyone ?????
Typically
The shuttles make posted stops along Dot Ave. as well as Ashmont and Fields Corner stations. But, the temps are going to be single-digits tomorrow, and I expect hordes of people will be waiting quite a while to get on packed buses.
The T has posted the "limited
The T has posted the "limited" commuter rail schedules for tomorrow:
http://www.mbta.com/winter/
It's even more "limited" by
It's even more "limited" by cold weather breakdowns. None of the 3 trains between 8 and 9:15 made it to Hyde Park on Friday. The T didn't announce any delays until 8:45, but by then people were jumping on the bus from Cleary Sq to Forest Hills to try their luck with the Orange Line...although all things considered, at least we had that option.
Good luck to those further out on the commuter rail. I honestly have no idea how they get to work, or home, when service is so severely compromised.
It officially fed up
That's right, me. The guy who has been patient since the Patriot's won the Super Bowl and all this crap began 3 weeks ago. The guy who has dealt with the crowded trains, since it is an issue of historic snowfall and Carter era equipment.
I can only speak for the Orange Line, but others who have been following the Red Line as close as I have the Orange Line can chime in.
Last Friday afternoon, the Orange Line was running 6 6-car trainsets. The line has 20 6-car trainsets and typically runs 18 at peak. Where were the other 14? And now, given the 12 minute headways and the fact that it takes 12 minutes to get from North Station to Back Bay, I assume they are running 2 trainsets. My assumption was that their motors were broken, but in the 3 weeks that the motors have been an issue, what has been done to repair them? And for that matter, was it really 84 broken motors, or has it slipped their minds to swap trains in the sets? And if they knew last week that 6 was it, why didn't they say then that it was going to take 30 days? And why 30 days?
And why don't we, the riders, get updates on snow removal. For instance, last Friday they could have said that 40% of the Orange Line that was shut down was cleared and 35% of the Braintree Line (I'm making up numbers here, of course), but they wouldn't say. I mean, the numbers could be depressing, but at least we would have known what we were facing.
I guess if I knew what the exact problems were (number of motors to be replaced, miles of track to be cleared) and the progress in solving them, I could live with the problems. But despite claims to the contrary, I don't think anything is being done. I see nothing. The broken motors could be fixed at a pace that has nothing to do with the snow. Yes, this past 15 inches of snow is bad, but it's on the small side for what we have been dealing with.
If the T could show progress, I'd have more faith in them. But as it is now, fuck 'em (the management, not the grunt workers.)
There was one day last week
There was one day last week (I think Thursday) where when I left work at 5:30 - you know, in the middle of rush hour - there were only four trains running on the entire orange line. And they weren't even spaced out, all of them were in the downtown area. So of course by the time I got to DTX, they were all gone, and there was no time to next train posted.
From what the tracker looked like, those four trains were the only four running, as a new train would only be sent out when one reached the end of the line.
I know the orange line got hit hard last week, but to the point where there were only four trains servicing the entire evening commute? Something deeper's going wrong.
Unless they ruined a lot more motors recently....
... the drastic curtailment of the Orange Line makes no sense at all. I guess I get to count on around 5 hours of commuting time for the rest of the week (and then how much longer?)
Exactly!
Exactly!
The fact they don't tell us anything of import makes me wonder about the true cause of these unprecedented delays. Weather is a challenge but should not cripple an entire system like this, especially not for 30 days.
Meantime you can see where trains really are here:
http://sites.harvard.edu/~wuensch/T/subway-map.html
Something fishy is going on
Something fishy is going on here... This is starting to look like a wildcat strike or something. Except the management is striking.
From the complaints and
From the complaints and frustrations I've read on Facebook from the conductors themselves, I wouldn't be surprised. The T's workers are being run ragged right now. And a lot of them rely on the T to get them to work too!
The orange line is scheduled
The orange line is scheduled to run 16 trains during the peak on weekdays - the most they are ever scheduled to run these days. And many days (before the snow started), they could only manage to muster 15 functional trains in the morning, and the frequency would suffer. Not sure where you're getting 18 from - they haven't had that many working at once in a very long time.
My bad on the numbers
I knew there was a reserve. I swear that when they had the map at Back Bay Station showing the locations of the trains I once counted 18 trainsets- of course 6 were between Sullivan and Oak Grove.
Still, the basic count for trainsets last week as 4- that a quarter of what is usually there. What happened to the other 11 sets?
I just do not understand why
I just do not understand why they can't run a shuttle on the B line. How are people who don't live within easy walking distance of the 86 supposed to get to the 57 so they can get downtown? It makes no sense.
switch to a 7 day pass until the system gets back to normal.
I'm only doing weekly passes for now.
Unfortunately weekly passes
Unfortunately weekly passes are not offered for the commuter rail. If you want any sort of discount at all, you have to go monthly.