MBTA looks at longer, larger Green Line trolleys

People have been saying "but nobody will use it" and "we don't need to do this, we don't get disabled customers" since the ADA was passed. But I see significantly more people in wheelchairs out and about, in stores, on the sidewalk, and yes on buses and trains, in places where they're more accessible.

There's a good percentage of the population who can walk but have problems with things like stairs. It isn't obvious when someone has a mobility issue like this.

The MBTA is and has been doing stop consolidation, and is specifically looking at the B line right now.

It's also creating AFC 2.0, which means no cash payment on board, and all-door boarding!

Literally addressing both of your concerns!

Balancing schedules on the Green line, even reducing expressed trains, would disrupt the balance where express trains are needed.

When an Orange train sat on the tracks between Forest Hills and Green for 15 minutes expressing that train would have made sense. The entire schedule was disrupted with that 15 minutes of sitting no where, as though in a Stephen King novel.

I can think of at least one other situation where management decisions are incompetent (Courthouse).

How much money does the T waste to replace US flags in stations after they fade? Is the T now in the business of Civics lessons?

On the other hand there are US cities where public transportation is worse.

We were a 1st world nation. Now we're more like a 1.5 world nation, pushing toward 2nd world nation status. Even the consummate 2nd world nation, the former Soviet Union, at least had decent public transportation in Moscow. Do we have to be a totalitarian nation to get decent public transportation?

This is a great accomplishment that can be looked at with pride- come 2030. That is why replacement of subway cars is not as exciting for politicians as it is for the rest of us.

Infrastructure- very important, but very boring.

Either you haven't been there in a while, or where looking. It is listed as having an elevator. Personally, I couldn't tell you were it was either, although I do recall the corner being a mess a few years back.

There's a trade-off though. Lateral seats like that reduce the capacity of the train, and can make the aisles too narrow for accessible access.

The reason the T is embarking on this expensive boondoggle is not improved capacity, it's not greater reliability, it's not enhancing convenience for passengers. Rather, it's just a complicated smoke and mirrors show to reduce staff under the guise of ADA compliance.

Want to improve capacity and maintain schedules? Simple. Buy twelve cars of the current Type 7 design (that's six two-car trains). Then ditch the current "out and back" scheduling (I.e. train from Riveraide must go back to Riverside). Run all eastbound trains to Lechmere, and dispatch the train not back to its origin, but where the schedule states the next westbound train should go. Self corrects the eastbound bunching that occurs, and eliminates the need for the musical trains charade that always happens at Park Street westbound. And you can accomplish it for far less than $3.5 billion.