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Red Line trains don't go; riders' lives full of woe
By adamg on Thu, 09/24/2015 - 7:41am
Park Street under the weather. Photo by Johnmcboston.
UPDATE, 9:55 a.m. The problems and delays continue.
The governor said yesterday the Red Line's resilient enough for this coming winter, but he didn't say anything about this morning's commute, which first came to a halt around 6:30 a.m. because an inbound train went express to Valhalla near Kendall, then, later, because the signals at Alewife decided they were sick of hearing about resiliency and were going to show that Baker guy what they thought about that.
Bill Donuts exclaimed to the T:
thanks for keeping ppl at porter square waiting for an hour this morning! I'm sure no one had to be on time to work
And the T responded:
Hi! We know how frustrating this is. Ops &crews in the field are working to clear this as quickly & safely as poss
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Comments
AGGGGHHHH!
AGGGGHHHH!
Leadership
Wish Baker was out there on the platform pressing the flesh and explaining how privatization would solve this in a way that spending more money on repairs never could.
He really doesn't get that it
He really doesn't get that it isn't just a freak winter problem. I understand that he doesn't want to pump money into a broken system, but what about people who need the T to work right now?
Problem is money for repairs
Problem is money for repairs keeps getting diverted to some midlevel managers at the MBTA no one has ever heard of.
Damn you Old Man Winter!!!
Damn you Old Man Winter!!!
rhyming
Adam, Do you have a premade list of rhyming headlines for any MBTA train line (color) which is experiencing trouble?
I probably should
But, no, I just wing it.
Adam-- The Dr. Seuss Of Our Time
n/t
With a headline so good you want to sing it
UHub is shocked when Adam says "I just wing it."
confirm/deny
The character of Fezzik (The Princess Bride) was loosely based on you.
"No more rhymes now! I mean it!"
"Anybody want a peanut?"
Adults, Kids
"....surly meanie, three-martini lunchers"
"I just ate a thumb tack"
doesn't quite rhyme, but Ralph did his best.
Obviously the answer is to
Obviously the answer is to keep reducing funding to the t and definitely not take pressure off the existing lines by expanding. Just keep doing the same thing and it will get better on its own. Baker did a great job crippling the Mbta last time he was in government he can finish the job now and just kill it.
The MBTA has been crippled
The MBTA has been crippled since 1964 thanks to our public transit hating suburbanite legislature.
Because...
Because only losers need public transit, amirite?
Seriously, I'd love to hear what business owners think about this. At my company, we normally work from home about half the time anyway, so we could handle last winter's bullshit pretty well. But what about other companies that aren't set up this way? Either they declare a "work from home" day, which generally means that nothing gets done (there's a lot more to working from home than having an internet connection, you need the tools and organization to make it work), or they make people come in, which again means lots of lost productivity plus unhappy workers. I'm sure Baker flapped his gums plenty about being "pro-business" when he was running for governor, and obviously there were enough chuckleheads who believed him..."Oh, you say you're PRO-BUSINESS? Okay! All good!"
But hey
Everyone keep moving to the red line! It's clearly the best line to live on in the city despite also being the most problematic!
Because people always have a
Because people always have a choice of what neighborhood they move into. Cost never plays a role.
Most problematic?
...says someone who has never lived on the Green Line.
Hey, would I be the first one
Hey, would I be the first one to complain about the rhyming transit headlines? I find them REALLY annoying - just say the Red Line is down again to get the info across quickly.
No, you wouldn't
But so far the notes from people who still like them outweigh the complaints.
I was on the red line...
at 7:15 (out of Ashmont) and 10:15 (out of Park to Quincy). There were mega announcements, but I had no actual delays. Less than 4 minute wait each way.
The Green line, on the other hand, was shit today.
And we're spending $3 billion
And we're spending $3 billion to extend our slowest form of local transportation to an area already laden with transit.
You mean Somerville, right?
And by "laden with public transit" you mean "every bus from 7:15 to 10:00, which can only go one of two places because of the city's topography, is already filled to capacity", right?
And sadly, this is why many
And sadly, this is why many people who must be on time to work, have to commute by car. The T is too often unreliable.
MBTA trying new techniques
This morning, my red line train from wollaston got taken out of service at JFK. Operator told us control center told him to reverse the train heading back to Braintree. Next train didn't show up for 15 mins leaving three more trains to wait before getting on. Three trains later, boarded an Alewife train from Ashmont platform at JFK to downtown crossing. After downtown, the operator once again tells us line control told the driver to take the train out of service at park street then reverse at the switch and head back south as an in-service Ashmont train. Said there was service behind us, next train didn't show up for another five mins.
MBTA can't get anything done right and yet they're trying new techniques of reversing trains to spread out what service it does have. And yet announcements should ease the pain an many feel ever going rush off,
Already having problems before 6:30 this morning
I got to Harvard at 6:30 am by the station clock and it was obvious that the Red Line inbound was already having severe problems. There was a train waiting in the station -- it stood there for at least 5 minutes. The countdown clock said 5 minutes until the next inbound train and 20+ minutes before the one after that. And the "5 minutes" before the next inbound was still unchanged 5 minutes later. I turned around, went upstairs, hopped on the first #1 bus, got off at Hynes, and took the Green Line to Arlington, arriving there about 7:10. That was probably a lot earlier than the Red Line would have gotten me there.
I also noticed no taxis waiting on the stand at Harvard, which is unusual for that hour.
I free-lance and my work schedule varies as to both time and place, but there are severe penalties for being even a few seconds late. I make up for that by allowing at least 30-45 minutes extra for my morning commute, figuring I can hang out in a nearby hotel lobby or coffee shop and read my paper if I get there early. By the time I report for duty, any hassles of my commute are forgotten. It's a strategy that has served me well over the years and it worked very well today.
I also find that by commuting very early, I avoid most of the delays that I see reported in the news media (including UHub), since they generally seem to occur later in the day. There are also fewer people on the T, and less traffic on the streets for the bus portion of my commute. This is the first time in many years that I've had to resort to a "Plan B" to get to work on time.