Our crumbling infrastructure: Copley T stop

Here are some comments engendered by the Pix @ Copley and then some of other UHub Reader / Participant's Comments

1. First on the pix -- it looks better @ 100 plus then Alewife does @ 40
2. 2nd as someone pointed out -- its all about prioritizing renio / maintenance and growth on an old system like the T -- you have everything from the new Green Line stations of the GLX to Early 21st for the Blue Line back to Mid Century Modern for the Red and Orange Line and all the way back to Late Victorian for the Central Subway
   1. the recent renovations were all about ADA Compliance mostly on the Green Line as most of the other Lines are now fully compliant or the work is underway
   2. anything which could be stretched to fit the definition of reno for ADA was plugged in
   3. a lot of money has been invested recently in raising the platform levels on the Green Line such as the Glasshouse renovations at Gov't Center and lesser expansion of the connectivity of Prudential
   4. Symphony and Boylston being the only remaining non-compliant underground stations
   5. However -- in this context fixing some old Ceilings on the old Central Subway -- hard to fit that kind of work into the scope of the ADA projects
3. -- Heat in the Stations and Tunnels -- has the T figured out how to reno the Laws of Thermodynamics -- I think not
   

   Only now in the 2010's are you seeing new technologies like regenerative braking in cars starting to pare back some of the brawn and heft of the HVAC units on these trains through energy recapture so they can suck less juice and radiate less waste heat for doing the same job.

   1. Sorry that makes no difference as far as heat in the tunnels are concerned -- remember the expression --
      

      there is no such thing as a Free Lunch

      -- well it applies to energy as well as economics

   2. you just move energy around from place to place and change how it manifests itself -- but ultimately it ends up as heat -- rejected to the environment
   3. there is no true regenerative braking as you have a Prius or a Leaf -- actually T Transit Vehicles since the days of the PCC use resistive braking
   4. the energy put into moving the vehicle is converted to heat -- if you use traditional friction brakes it goes directly into heat -- if you use electromagnetic braking the mechanical energy is converted into electricity by running the motors as generators -- and then it is dissipated as heat using large resistors
   5. air conditioning the trains does generate more heat in the tunnels than just using fans to move the hot and fetid air around and the air in the stations also warms either directly when the vehicle is in the station and the air conditioning is running or also from air blown into the stations from the tunnels
   6. Any heat inside the car [mostly due to people] gets rejected to the surrounding air plus the losses inherent in the air conditioning systems equipment
4. This summer has been particularly brutal as not only has it been hot its been humid - making the evaporative cooling used on the platforms in the stations virtually useless
5. Ultimately if the trains and stations are busier with more people and more vehicles -- it will be hotter down there
6. The only true solution from the perspective of the comfort of the rider waiting for the train -- air condition the underground stations and reject the heat to the atmosphere above or drill deep holes and use a ground water heat pump -- I suspect the Greens would SCREAM at either of those ideas

There is some good news in the pipeline as the T replaces old vehicles:

1. the new equipment is more efficient as the motor controls are now based on semiconductor switches which work like a light dimmer rather than the old dissipative types of controls using resisters to reduce the voltage to the motors when you are not at full speed
2. The new air conditioning equipment is also more efficient using variable speed fans and more efficient motors
3. The lighting will be all LED with a substantial reduction in heat output for the same or better lighting
4. The bad news -- the cars hold more people -- and we are tending to be fatter and hence -- well I hope there are air fresheners as well as air conditioners

Anyway -- we are all supposed to LOVE the T since if we don't use it at least it takes our neighbor off the highways :-}>

Posts about the T always get a thousand comments here, as if people think complaining will somehow make billions of dollars appear and fix a 100+ year old system.

So let's just lay it out so we can stop having the same threads over and over again.

The T will never get better because no one wants to pay for it.

and of course, you will have those people who say baker and co. should just pass a law and/or fix it, but are they really willing to pay more in taxes state-wide? especially since western mass doesnt feel like it should pay? and raising the fare will never be enough.

There are some great ideas and plans to improve the T, but they aren't going to happen, so just live with it and move on.