The Red Line switches to turtle time. Photo by Mike Slafsky.
It's severe-delay time on both sides of the Red Line as a switch at Alewife has forgotten the one job it has.
Rose pleads:
HELP send coffee & bagels to Harvard @MBTA!
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Comments
Seriously, when can we start
By anon
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 8:19am
Seriously, when can we start blaming Baker?
Start Now
By John Costello
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 9:11am
He should be back in his office from that photo op of the revamp of Government Center. You know, the place with the nice clean walls but with a signal system made out of kitty litter, deer urine, and pipe cleaners.
Enjoy it well it lasts; those
By anon
Fri, 03/25/2016 - 6:08am
Enjoy it well it lasts; those walls will never be that clean again.
Twenty Years Ago
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 9:14am
That's about right.
I wonder if it we could come up with an initiative petition to eliminate all state house parking perks in favor of transit passes and reimbursed parking at outlying commuter rail stations. This would apply to all elected reps, senators, and executives, including Baker and Polito. Of course the legislature would squish it, but enough signatures might get their attention that people are getting really pissed off at the lot of them.
Get that petition ready... I'll sign!
By Matthew Miller
Sat, 03/26/2016 - 11:51am
I'd also like a rule where everyone working at the T at a management level above basic supervisory positions must take the T to work every day — and if that makes them late, the missed time comes out of their vacation time (or is counted as unpaid leave, once that's exhausted).
Blaming Charlie Baker?
By milo
Wed, 03/30/2016 - 10:49am
The Bay State Electorate at large (most of whom are out in the suburbs and exurbs, where they don't have to depend on the :MBTA at all and therefore don't give a s**t.) should've started blaming Charley Baker, thereby thinking closely before electing him as Governor of the Bay State in the first place, since he's helped wreck the MBTA even before he became our governor..
#Worth10PercentMore
By cybah
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 8:39am
And come July you are going to pay upwards of 10% more for this crappy service.
The Alewife switches seem to be prone to this
By Ari O
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 8:56am
As Adam will tell you. Others, too.
And when they go out, the whole Red Line pays. Maybe some of these new revenues from the fare hikes could be earmarked towards fast-tracking a replacement for them?
Also, the T ought to have SOP in place for these problems, such as short-turning every other train at Davis. But they don't because that would make sense.
Short-turning trains at Davis
By DTP
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 10:51am
Short-turning trains at Davis is not practical, since there are no crossovers south of it, only the Alewife switches north of Davis.
The next crossover heading south is just inbound of Harvard, which is why whenever there's work going on on the north end of the red line, trains are turned at Harvard.
However, even at Harvard there is no pocket track for the driver to use to change ends, meaning this would have to happen on one of the main tracks, which I'm sure the T doesn't want to do in regular service, as it would hold up service for up to 10 minutes (operator has to secure one cab, walk the length of the train, then set up the other cab). So short-turning trains without a pocket track works when NOTHING is running beyond that station, but mixing short-turns in without a pocket track isn't really practical.
So basically, no, it wouldn't make sense, without adding at least a crossover, and preferrably a pocket track.
Took me 1 hour to go from South Station
By whyaduck
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 9:20am
to Kendall Square this am. Gosh, I really hope some of that 9.3% increase is going to go to fixing these damn switches.
I see a lot of walking in my future.
This is the kind of thing that makes companies and jobs move.
By issacg
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 9:44am
and it is totally unacceptable. See my comment below.
The Red Line switches and signals need to get the "Winter Happens" (even when it doesn't and we knew, in advance, that it wouldn't!) treatment IMMEDIATELY.
Not gonna happen. The fare
By anon
Fri, 03/25/2016 - 6:10am
Not gonna happen. The fare increase is to plug an ops budget hole, not capital repair or improvements.
The Red Line doesn't go near any important job centers anyway.
By issacg
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 9:42am
Kendall Sq., Downtown Boston, SB Waterfront - no one works there anymore because they're all too crowded with workers.
For the one-thousandth time: we are choking on our own success (strangling ourselves, really), and we are nearly out of time to fix this before our reputation for not addressing problems contributes to another downturn and we have to wait another 20 years (~ a generation) to break out of it.
See the late 80s/early 90s, Anna Lee Saxenian's book, etc.
This is an interesting read:
By anon
Fri, 03/25/2016 - 6:03am
This is an interesting read: The Immobile Masses: Why Traffic Is Awful and Public Transit Is Worse.
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