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Does the mayor take the T?
By adamg on Tue, 12/15/2015 - 12:59pm
"When people talk about our system and how bad it is, it is really not that bad." @marty_walsh on the MBTA
— Boston Public Radio (@BosPublicRadio) December 15, 2015
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No Marty
It IS that bad.
How about you ride it every day for a few months? Make it your sole means of transportation.. you'll soon see how bad it really is.
So clueless.. so so clueless.
In addition
After using the T for a few months, he should then experience transit systems in New York, London, and other places where they know what they're doing (though some might disagree about NY). And THEN try to tell us how "not bad" the T is.
Ten people on twitter
Clearly it's just 10 people on twitter who think the T isn't bad.
He grew up in Boston
I'm sure he's taken the T.
Savin Hill
Marty may have taken the T in his life. Until recently he lived literally a one minute walk to Savin Hill Station, which I use 5-7 days a week.
But since I first became aware of him when he became a State Rep in the mid 90s through today, I never saw him taking the T from Savin Hill.
These trains were a lot
These trains were a lot younger when Marty rode them. They weren't as prone to signal problems and broken budgets as they are now. At least for as long as remember (and I've been riding O, B, G, and R lines since 1984!
It used to be good, but Weld
It used to be good, but Weld-Cellucci-Romney and now Baker have saddled with it debt and starved it, making it more and more broken. Patrick, while not perfect, did some great things for the T (late night, buying new red and orange line trains, getting GLX going, ordering DMUs for Fairmount). Charlie has undone much of that though in less than a year. Marty doesn't really have a lot of power over the T, thats a Governor issue.
Uh, Patrick was responsible
Uh, Patrick was responsible for the snowstorm failure last year and the current GLX mess. There was no accountability for labor or management which allowed things to continue to fall apart to what we have today.
that would be a lie
Examine the income statements and check back in. The state has showered the T with money and they have spent it all - on salaries and bennies. Very little on capital expenses and even that has only been in the last 2-3 years.
You're wrong.
MBTA has $7,000,000,000 in state of good service backlog and a signal system on the Red Line that's broken, that contributed to a runaway train and could have killed 50 people riding it. The MBTA has been underfunded for over two decades. Stevil doesn't know shit about public transportation budgets.
oh really
Go check their income statements and get back to us with some numbers. We all know they have a 7 billion dollar backlog. The question is how does this happen to an organization that has doubled revenues in 15 years? It doesn't happen by focusing resources on the backlog and that's not exactly "underfunding".
I don't need to know s£!t. I only need to know how to add.
hmmmmmmmmmm I wonder what
hmmmmmmmmmm I wonder what else happened about 15 years agOH I KNOW it was "forward funding" and transferring the Big Dig debt to the MBTA.
Yup
And they gave them a piece of the sales tax to pay for that. And when that wasn't enough, they let them jack up the rates. When that wasn't enough they gave them another state funded revenue stream. And when that wasn't enough they gave them a THIRD revenue stream. And it's STILL not enough - because instead of using that to fund debt that would pay for capital improvements, it went to salaries, bennies and pensions.
Of course what you're leaving
Of course what you're leaving out here is that at no point were any of these forward funding schemes actually expected to cover the full cost of running the T except with the absolute rosiest of all sales tax revenue predictions. Lo and behold, health care costs (for the entire COUNTRY) actually turned out to be MUCH more expensive than predicted, and to the surprise of no one, the sales tax RARELY met the projected expectations.
The T's current situation was entirely predictable 20+ years ago, and the legislature has no one to blame for it but themselves (and health care costs--but we should have covered those because they are not the T's fault).
and what you are ignoring
Is that the T has DOUBLED its revenue in 15 years and still can't make ends meet. They are spending only slightly more on interest and principal today than they did 15 years ago. The T has plenty of money. They consciously CHOOSE to spend it on labor rather than necessary capital improvements.
I don't think you understand
I don't think you understand very well how government pay is apportioned. Someone cannot simply elect to pay an employee 20% more for doing the same job. I suppose in theory you could opt to hire two people to do one person's job, but if the overtime pay situation is any indication, the MBTA seems to have the opposite problem. Pay is determined through union contracts and (primarily it seems in the MBTA's case) the amount of overtime pay. Overtime pay, in turn, is often itself the result of budget rules that make it nearly impossible to hire more than the bare minimum number of new full time employees, and strongly encourage the use of private contractors, even in cases where it makes little or no sense to do so.
I can't recall ever seeing any kind of report showing that the MBTA is overstaffed (maybe you have?), so it's not clear to me where they would save the amount of money on labor that it would cost to do capital improvements.
I grew up in Boston and took
I grew up in Boston and took the T as well. Current performance is way worse than it used to be, and for the past year, I've opted to drive instead. Which also sucks, but it sucks less than having to worry about your train breaking down every day.
Don't even have to go back that far
Hell, I've only lived here for 5 years and it's gotten significantly worse over that timeframe.
Agree
I have been taking the T on a regular basis since 1997 and I can tell you that the past 3-5 years in particular has gotten so much worse during this time-frame.
My opinion on Marty continues to go downhill. Will not vote for him again.
What is Marty thinking when he says stuff like this?
The T services 1.3 million passenger trips a day so it's not like we don't know what's going on. We ride it and know first hand its problems, of which it has many. Too often, it fails outright.
Instead of telling all disgruntled riders their complaints aren't shit, you'd think Walsh would speak up for Boston T riders and lobby the governor to rebuild the world class public transit system that our world class city deserves.
We could help finance it with the $800,000,000 million cost overrun built into the Boston2024 bid Marty Walsh pushed as the no public money Olympics.
Walsh is pals with Baker now and Baker ran on no new taxes platform. Walsh is carrying Baker's water when he makes the pitch, "it is really not that bad." He's out of touch. Someone should clue him in.
Folks who fought Boston2024 said they had four priorities
it's a good day when that is only rainwater....
To be fair
it wasn't the orange line.
Which more often than not, smells like some combination of urine, weed, and sadness.
Marty says he has always been
Marty says he has always been a "car guy". Taking the T on a saturday to catch a concert or something downtown once in awhile is completely different from using it on a daily basis to get to your job on time.
He can drive his car to his next job after we elect a mayor who knows what he is doing and realizes that public transportation is crucial in large cities.
It's A Classist Attitude — Only The Riff-Raff Take The Ⓣ
So, for those people, it's not that bad.
I don't think it's quite that
I don't think it's quite that simple. In Boston, you have the super rich with their car services, and the techbros with Bridj or whatever, then everyone from the upper middle to the lower middle class takes the T. Once you start getting into the really poor, though, car use starts to tick up again, because they live and/or work too far from rapid transit. The T is only viable if you either work near the center of the system (DTX, Park, South Station, Back Bay, etc) or live near the Red/Blue/Green/Orange line. The more Commuter Rail fares, buses, or transfers you build into a route, the less people are able to count on the T.
Regrettably, for some, I think it IS like that.
If I had a T fare for every time someone insisted that I call a cab rather than taking the T (to the extent that it matters to some, and it shouldn't, I'm a 6'3 male, about 200 lbs.), I'd have a lifetime pass. It was clear from the context that almost all of these people were saying this because that they held that belief (that the T is for the so-called "riff-raff"). I also regret to say that each of these people fell into a particular age cohort (about 55-70). So far as I could guess, their riding years (to the extent they ever rode the T) would have coincided with what must have been an even more horrible time for the T (and cities in general) from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.
Did He Cite Any Other Transit Systems That Are Worse Than The Ⓣ?
The Montgomery Alabama Bus
The Montgomery Alabama Bus system?
!
Why ride the MAB when you can ride your cousin to work?!
Hating on the T is fun
But let's be honest, it beats out pretty much everything other than Chicago and NYC in the country. Kind of sad.
Disagree. DC's system is better
Washington DC has a system that reaches more outlying areas, is cleaner (albeit dimly lit), has fewer breakdowns, and does not consistently smell like piss.
The T is definitely in bad
The T is definitely in bad shape and has gone way downhill over the past several years, but after living in Atlanta for a year I can say that MARTA is much worse than the T. At least the T goes places that people want/need to get to.
He is correct.
The MBTA is really not that bad. It is worse. It sucks.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
Sweet baby Jeebus will someone please stop allowing him to eat paste on the job?
He's right, though. For all
He's right, though. For all that the T could obviously be greatly improved, it's pretty damn good. Boston is probably in the top five cities in the US for public transit.
but really
How many cities in the U.S. have public transit that consists of more than buses - i.e., public transit that includes subways and trains? According to Wikipedia (by no means the authoritative account, but useful for fact-checking), there are 11 in the continental U.S. We're probably better than Atlanta, I'll give you that - but not much more.
The MBTA drives me nuts at times, but....
... it is VASTLY better than MARTA (in Atlanta).
THIS ISN'T MADNESS!
Not a fair comparison
The MBTA is to MARTA as the Red Sox are to the Braves.
But we had the Braves first!
But we had the Braves first!
And we had the MBTA before they had MARTA
One thing they both have in common is mic-dropping Bev.
I have a personal suspicion about that
Bev was cut out of all of the MEMA stuff and then newly inaugurated Gov Baker was talking tough and ripping the T during that notorious snowstorm press conference. My suspicion was that he was trying to line things up to fire her so that he could portray himself as the new "demand accountability and take action" governor. I think she realized this too and so she submitted her resignation before he could do that which left him in the "Oh shit, the T is my problem now" arena instead.
I have no inside information so this is just based on my read of the people involved and their actions as seen through the media but it certainly seems plausible to me.
No I agree
No I agree with your statement. I think she knew her time was up.. so she left early to give Cholly a big FU and make the T his problem.
Dr Scott was a lot smarter than people gave her credit for.
She was fired from her job in
She was fired from her job in Atlanta. The only thing she has going for her is that people in power like her and keep promoting her to higher administrative office each time she is fired.
*yawn*
*yawn*
Just not gonna.. not in the mood today.
MARTA.. itsMARTA
WORST.TAGLINE.EVER.
I agree. The T is better than MARTA.. at least it goes places. And doesn't stop at city or county lines because of voters who don't want the 'undesirables' in their communities.
Plus we have the commuter rail system. MARTA doesn't have that.. or anything comparable. Although they are desperately trying to build one between Athens and Atlanta, and Atlanta and Chattanooga.
Sad.. Marta has been building the Belt Line for far less time than the T has been building the GLX. It's gonna open sooner than the GLX (if the GLX ever gets built). Who says the south doesn't do anything right?
And doesn't stop at city or
I'll have to introduce you to this little town called "Arlington" some time.
Hingham also held the line
Hingham also held the line against the T for many years.
However
Buses STILL go to Arlington and Hingham... in Atlanta.. MARTA.. Subway and bus service stops at the county and city lines.
Speaking of Atlanta...
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/atlanta-officials-approve-citywide-st...
BeltLine
Part of that is the Belt Line I talked about above.
At least Atlanta sees value in transit.. and down there, it's so desperately needed.
Grid Lock Traffic for miles......
That isn't saying anything.
That isn't saying anything. Public transit in the US is a joke compared to Japan, Europe, etc and it will continue to be so until we stop prioritizing cars over transit.
Translation
His core supporters in the construction unions and public service unions don't take the T to work.
Marty doesn't care about the working class, poor or white collar workers of Boston because they are too fractured of a demographic to pose a threat to his voting bloc.
The people affected most can't vote for Mahty
The further out you go from Boston, the more you're impacted by the poor/unavailable service.
Then it's someone else's problem.
Eggsactly. I live one stop outside of Boston on the Red Line
I can't vote for Mayor Marty and I'm very much affected by the Red Line problems. Quincy has a four stations filled with commuters from the Neponset River Bridge to the Cape.
Mayor Marty: do you want to know how bad the T is? I live right near the North Quincy Red Line Station and work near the Wellington Orange Line Station. On a normal day the commute time is so long and miserable by subway that I just drive on the Expressway (HA!) to commute. That's how much I don't want to be on the T.
oof
I feel some of your pain: I used to live in Malden and work in Harvard Square, and the daily hellscape that was my commute drove my blood pressure through the roof.
I..
I used to live in Medford near Wellington and Worked in Belmont. Grueling commute every day. Was faster to *walk* home via Route 60 than to take the T some days.
yes
HUGE pain in the ass to try to get from one somewhat suburban location to another.
I don't want to delude anyone into thinking that the tram and train system in Melbourne is perfect, but look at how far-reaching it is. Every street in the CBD has at least one tram line running along it, and they splinter out to all the surrounding suburbs. Can you imagine if we had more than our four little colors going through the city and to points beyond?
Sad Part
We USED to have such a system.. it went away when most of the streetcars went away in the 1940s..
You used to be able to take a streetcar all the way to Nashua NH and beyond...
But wait, we have a plan!
The Urban Ring -- estimated completion date Spring 2071!
They're planning CR to New
They're planning CR to New Hampshire again by about 2020, probably serving Nashua, Manchester, and maybe all the way to Concord. http://www.nhrta.org/
Regularly used to not bother
Regularly used to not bother waiting for the 77 bus from Harvard and just walk. Sometimes I'd catch up to the bus after the dozen-traffic-light nightmare that is Porter Square; sometimes I'd just walk all the way home.
I had the exact same commute
I had the exact same commute ca. 2004/5. Highlights were nearly always riding the T outbound one stop to Oak Grove just to go in the other direction, because the T was already impossibly overcrowded inbound from Malden, and sometimes taking 2+ hours to get home if I didn't get to the OL before it switched to a "one-track operation" (9pm IIRC) due to signal work that went on for like two years.
Funny how Koch didn't seem to
Funny how Koch didn't seem to have much to say about it last winter, but coasted to re-election. I too take the Expressway from Quincy to avoid the T, and my neighbor who is in her forties and has never owned a car went out and bought one this year so she won't have to rely on the T this winter.
Quincy was treacherous!
Quincy was treacherous! Sometimes I go to a store on Atlantic St. It wasn't plowed for weeks; cruised on packed down snow.
Even in Boston though
If you live in the South End, Back Bay, North End or Fenway and work in the city, you are likely making good money working in a office/campus and the MBTA is a key part of your life, but one you can survive without intermittently. If you are working at a service job in Boston and live in Boston, you're probably living in Mattapan, Hyde Park, Rosi, etc... and when the T goes down, you can't get your kids from daycare or school or you start missing shifts, etc... and that's how a poorer person living close to the edge of financial ruin can easily fall off.
Marty's basically telling those people he doesn't care about their issues or opportunities.
FTFY
Marty's basically telling those people again he doesn't care about their issues or opportunities.
Yep
We all brought in camping gear (sleeping bag, cot, etc.) for our cleaning lady, as she was swing shift and sometimes could not make it home! We made sure that she had a towel, facecloth, hotel toiletries, and bedding.
Does Marty or Charlie give two shits about this? No.
Lot of work needed to get to "not that bad"
The service area of the MBTA is huge. I'm very impressed that I hop down to the Blue Hills trails via the CR and then an 8 minute Uber. I'm happy I can travel to Providence RI or Harvard Sq from anywhere in the city, I just wish both trips didn't take the same time. I'm glad I don't need to own a car, even if it would make certain trips (even in-city) vastly easier.
However, the condition of the system is kind of embarrassing. It's ridiculous that it's so overcrowded during predictable hours. It's a shame to the city that so much of our stations are crumbling, leaking, and pissed in. When a Red Line train rolls in to a dank station looking orange with rust, is delayed 20 minutes due to a broken-down train ahead of it, with a duct-taped closed door, that reflects on Boston.
And it's nice that we're slowly getting improvements and upgrades. The new Green Line cars
for the fantastic GLX projectlook great and remind me of Dublin's LUAS, a tram that belongs in the 21st century. And the new Green Line countdown signs underground are great to finally see. But both of these things still lag dramatically behind what other places do, and what we should. Again, many of Dublin's bus stops have signs like these:We produce this same data; why can't these sort of timers be deployed easily at Ruggles, Kenmore, Dudley, Haymarket, and other major bus terminals?
The MBTA system is certainly better than nothing. It's better than a lot of other places. But it needs a tremendous amount of upgrading and work to bring it into the realm of "not that bad" given the legacy of neglect. The goal should be an average day having no single train spontaneously fail and die. The goal should be 24-hour service. The goal should be modernization and system expansion, such as NSRL and Urban Ring. The goal should not be "not that bad", and an unmet one at that.
Forest Hills
Forest Hills version of that bus sign would look something like this:
Forest Hills actually does have a bus monitor
But does anybody use it?
When it's not surrounded by a
When it's not surrounded by a 20 odd pack of teenagers with nowhere better to hang out, yeah. A nice big mounted one up high with good visibility would be fantastic
Oh my goodness
Posted... February 6, 2014. As we're approaching the 2-year anniversary of this article, does anyone know why this never got off the ground?
Dudley
Dudley has them
Ah, The Bus Countdown Clocks...
I have seen them installed at Ashmont, Mattapan, Haymarket, Maverick, Central, and a few other stops. They have been there for months; but when they have been turned on (usually the screens are turned off) the only information they have been displaying is that they were manufactured by Solari. Now as to when the next 22 to Ruggles or 450 to Salem is due...
The signs at Dudley Station have been active - and actually displaying bus route info! - for a few months. Alas, it seems someone loves hurling bricks at the one affixed near the Dunks.
And whatever happened to the one at Ruggles? There was even a whole ceremony - with special guest star Lt. Governor Tim Murray! - to unveil and activate it. I cannot remember the last time it was active and displaying, you know, useful information.
Forget the low-hanging fruit, MBTA, just look at all the fruit rotting on the ground...
The one at Ruggles is usually
The one at Ruggles is usually off or displaying an error message.
actually it does
The T starting putting these TV screens in that do the bus routes also.. I think I saw one at Forest Hills that had real time information on it. Whether people use it is to be determined.
The one at Haymarket has never worked.. it's had a plastic bag on since the day it was installed earlier this year.
I've used it
It tells me the same information as my phone app, which doesn't help when you are expecting a bus to arrive and it doesn't show and none of the T employees can tell you anything.
same data
it's the same data anyways which is why it's the same.
yep
So I'd rather wait closer to the actual bus stop than inside the station with the crowds, waiting for the page to cycle to the bus I am interested in.
The last time I got angry at a supervisor at Forest Hills for a bus that may or may not show up, he told me that the way they schedule buses at FH doesn't make any sense and it's a wonder they are on time at all.
It'd probably be cheaper
and certainly more helpful to provide bottom-of-the-line smartphones to everyone who doesn't already have one than to pay for signs that provide the same information but in a less useful way. And I'm not entirely kidding.
Blue Hills
There's really no need to take an Uber to get to the Blue Hills. The 240 runs every 30 minutes or better on weekdays and Saturdays from Ashmont and is a free transfer from the Red Line, so there's no extra cost. Stops at Chickatawbut Road which is right on the trails. Sunday schedule is far more anemic, but can still work. Other buses (238) runs to the east side of the park from Quincy, and you can run/hike from one to another. And the 32 isn't too far from the northwest side of the park.
Timing & start point
This is good to keep in mind. But coming from the center or west of the city, the Red to 238 to the far eastern edge of the reservation is about 1h15, while the Franklin line from Back Bay to Readville then an Uber to the summit trail on the western edge is about 38 minutes. Expense is higher, but it's half the time of the trip.
Signs are neat and all, but
Signs are neat and all, but anyone with a smartphone can download free apps from the T website to see this exact same ETA data. With the T having a $7B backlog on maintenance, I'd rather they spend their money on that than things like this.
Perspective
I'm not sure how much Marty takes the T, but I will say I think that depending on what line(s) you take, how you use it, and when can influence your view on the T a lot. I take the 132 bus and Orange Line to work daily. That bus is rarely late or "missing" (compared to when I lived in Everett and used to take the 110, 112, or 97). I work 8-4 most days so I am *just* missing peak rush hour on the train where there are no seats, or no room at all. And there are sometimes delays but they are usually minor. Last Winter was probably the worst commuting I ever experienced thanks to the track issues between Oak Grove and Wellington. But all in all, the every day is pretty uneventful in my experience. That said, if I was a Green or Red Line commuter I would not feel the same way--they seem to have constant problems. And it seems like when something goes wrong, it goes wrong hard (ie ghost train or when multiple lines all have problems at the same time in the morning).
What's most disappointing for me is that the MBTA just can't move forward and dig out. No more late night service, no GLX, waiting years and years for new trains that are way overdue, etc.
When I used to use the T
When I used to use the T daily, it was typically "uneventful" too - but that's because it was so all-around, consistently miserable! I posted above about riding the OL outbound one stop just to be able to fit on the returning inbound train and about the 77 bus being worse than walking. These were daily situations. I also used the Red Line for a while to make connecting trips to the CR and the intercity buses at South Station and I'd have to plan for an hour's ride from Harvard in order to make sure I'd get there in time. When moving, I had turned down more than one apartment after looking at it and realizing what I'd have to "rely" on for "rapid transit" service. (For example, imagine trying to use the Blue Line to get to a destination on the RL during rush hour. Hah!)
No, no trains catching on fire, no derailings, not even daily breakdowns. But the breakdowns happen enough that you have to plan for them anyway. And nearly daily there would be some mysterious stop and wait for ten minutes, with no explanation, either at a station or in the tunnel somewhere. So no, not really "eventful" but still so consistently awful that the only people who use this thing are those who absolutely need to.
"..it is really not that bad."
Define "that".
Well, SEPTA and MARTA and
Well, SEPTA and MARTA and BART are probably worse? So it isn't literally the worst in the country. It's behind NY and DC, I think.
(No subject)
Bad
I don’t use the T on a daily basis, but having grown up here I am used to its quirks. Until recently I didn’t think much about its deficiencies and thought it wasn’t “that bad.”. But, in the last year or so I’ve changed my mind. After last winter and now that a family member is using it on a daily basis I see it really is rather pitiful. Horribly overcrowded cars in the same places at the same times day after day. Constant delays even in the nicest weather. Green line cars that creakily limp through tunnels below ground and have to stop continually above ground. Trains always stopping in the middle of a tunnel for unknown reasons. Announcements about stops on the trains that are often unintelligible and sometimes completely wrong. This is really not acceptable. A modern city that cares about public transportation really has to do better.
"It is really not that bad"
"It is really not that bad" = ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A tone-deaf statement
Things are that bad and only getting worse. I regularly ride the Orange Line and 39 bus and both have noticeably declined in recent years. Rush hour headways frequently drop to 15+ minutes on the Orange Line. The 39, which normally runs with 60' articulated buses, frequently gets stuck with shorter 40' buses these days. When I emailed the T's customer service I was told there was a backlog on repairs to the 60' fleet so they had to switch to the shorter buses to maintain service.
GLX is delayed again, possibly for good. Late night service is ending. Signals are shot on the Braintree branch to the point we're bypassing them just to keep trains running. In what other situation would this be considered "really not that bad?"
In what other situation would
I would say "it's better than nothing," but in some cases, it's actually not. The T is so awful and so unreliable in some places that it would be better to actually not have it; people's commutes would be more reliable if they didn't keep trying to rely on the T and keep having it shit all over their day again and again. At least if you walk or bike for example you can determine the length of your commute after one shot, and it'll be the same +/- 5 min, each day, rather than 10 min one day and an hour the next like it can be on the T. At least if you drive, the traffic jam delays are more-or-less consistent and you are responsible for maintaining the reliability of your own vehicle rather than relying on the clowns that run the T and over which you have no control.
Someone ask him the cost of a
Someone ask him the cost of a token
No Fair!
That's a trick question.
I'll be the apologist
Every day, I take a bus from Roslindale Square to Forest Hills, then the Orange Line to Back Bay. I cannot claim I do the exact commute home, since I walk from Forest Hills to get the exercise. I will say that the commute is not that bad. I never experience a wait for a train of more than 10 minutes peak (aside from that clusterfuck back in February)
You cannot compare the T to New York, London, Toronto, Tokyo, or other cities of that ilk. For an old and underinvested system, it does well.
And according to reporting when he was elected, Walsh used to take the T to the State House.
yes but
To a certain extent, yes - it's all relative. The MBTA isn't as bad as MARTA, and it's not as bad as one might expect, given its age and years of neglect. But that's sort of the point: why shouldn't we be able to have transit as good as what they have in London, Tokyo, Paris, even New York? We may be a small city, but we're a reasonably prosperous one, and we're home to some of the best schools in the country. Why shouldn't our illustrious governing officials have prioritized a truly world-class (uh oh, there's that word) transit system? It's not just one administration, of course; it's years and years of terrible policy.
Anyway, yeah, sure. Some days, the T works about as well as I expect it to - but I'd love to be able to expect better.
Not a fair case
Sure, right at Rozzie Square you can take one of 9 different buses to FH. But let's say you live a mile further down Washington St. Now you only have 3 routes (4 if you're above Metropolitan Ave.) and the frequency goes way down. Sometimes 25-30 minutes between buses during the day. And don't even get me started about service from FH after 7PM (walking not really an option). Imagine having to get to Norwood or Walpole and not being able to get on a 34E because its already jammed full and the next one isn't for 45 minutes and it too will be jammed full.
Fair enough
I just gave my opinion, just like the mayor (who has never had to take a bus, bustitutions notwithstanding) did. There was a comment here about regular 15+ minute waits for the Orange Line, which is utter BS.
That said, the frequency of the 34E hasn't really changed, but they did bring back the limiteds. And after 7 (when I am a lot more inclined to walk) the 34E is hourly, as it has been for decades.
More than a SIGNAL PROBLEM
TODAY, there was a signal problem delay on the Green Line from North Station. The other day, on the Red Line, there was a signal problem at Braintree. Therefore, delays.
The luxury apartment construction in the city is extraordinary. Residents will no doubt take Uber and have a personal driver like the Mayor.
Yes, it is that bad.
THERE IS NEARLY ALWAYS A
THERE IS NEARLY ALWAYS A GODDAMN SIGNAL PROBLEM down here on the braintree line. And the rush hour headways frequently top 10-15 minutes. Rigoddamndiculous. Marty could not be further out of touch.
Per https://twitter.com/red
Per https://twitter.com/red_line_alerts: between December 1 and December 14, the reasons for the 28 acknowledged delays of service on the Red Line during that time period were: 8 disabled trains, 7 signal problems (all at or near Braintree, one of which led to runaway train never comin' back), 5 medical emergencies (which caused 2 evening rush hour commute rounds of bustitution lasting well into the night), 4 "police actions," 2 additional start-to-end-of-service shuttle replacements, and 2 "other" delays (1 blamed on the BFD, 1 blamed on "switch" problems).
And half of these delays occurred during rush hour!
"...and a partridge in a pear tree."
Seriously, if it hasn't been done already, someone needs to do a "12 Days Of Christmas" parody for MBTA delays.
Ask and ye shall receive
Winter on the MBTA
On the first day of winter, the T did give to me
A runaway train from Braintree!
On the second day of winter, the T did give to me
Two cars impeding service
And a runaway train from Braintree!
On the third day of winter, the T did give to me
Three switch failures
Two cars impeding service
And a runaway train from Braintree!
On the fourth day of winter, the T did give to me
Four trains on fire
Three switch failures
Two cars impeding service
And a runaway train from Braintree!
The rest of the song.
This is an argument nobody
This is an argument nobody can win, because "really not that bad" is not a quantifiable claim.
However, I will point this out: in many American cities, the vast majority of people don't bother with public transit at all. In Boston, people do, because it's often more convenient than the alternative.
it's often less horrible than
Fixed that for you.
How Ironic
We are having a debate on the daily disaster known as the 'T' before the first snowflake falls.
Or the city council
Get real. Only thier subjects do.