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On first day with fewer trains, Orange Line circles two drains
By adamg on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 9:01am
It's not just that the MBTA chose today to cut service by 20% on the Orange Line, but there's a "track issue" near Community College causing 20-minute delays. Also, it's frickin' cold out.
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Comments
Wait till schools come back
I don't know what worse waiting on an ice cold platform or waiting for a train with hundreds of high school teens acting out scenes from West Side story or the Warriors.
"The Warriors"
I haven't thought of that old clunker in years! Can you believe when it came out in 1979 it caused riots in movie theaters? Then-state senator Michael Lopresti tried to have it banned and the Globe agreed with him. Looking at it now, it is the silliest, most effete movie ever. The outfits alone are laughable. They remind me of a night at the old 1270 or Buddies. :-)
Oh, man, that was very much a movie of its times
New York in the late 70s? "The Warriors" is right up there with "Times Square" and, of course, "Escape from New York."
You know what I'd like to see
Hundreds of high school kids, some of which have parents who were not alive when the Warriors came out, reenacting the film. Oh, to see 6 kids riding roller skates (no, not roller blades, but the skates with the fat wheels 2x2) wearing overalls, or perhaps a bunch of kids wearing pinstriped baseball uniforms and black and white face makeup. The possibilities are endless.
That would be as classic as the film itself was.
you laugh
Roller skates made a comeback during 'lockdown' for a number of people ... the tiks and toks are full of videos of people teaching themselves moves.
But
Were they all wearing overalls?
On the subway?
Ok but...
We all know how old you are now.
MBTA
Has the MBTA given specifics of what they plan to restore with the stimulus funding beyond some nebulous reference to bus routes? (And at this point they won't even acknowledge the express busses that existed for decades until last May.)
I will cut them some slack if they decide to ditch all heavy rail and replace them with sensible DMU/EMUs.
I assume...
That it will be used to pay down Big Dig debt or given to Keolis as prepayment for future services or something equally short sighted and stupid.
People are driving less but
People are driving less but is the state cutting its budget for highways? They are cutting bus routes but are they closing any infrequently used roads? Of course not. More welfare for the resource hogging drivers who are ruining our only planet and less service for public transportation riders.
Out of touch administration....
... led by limo riding governor strikes again.
Roads don't work that way.
Roads don't work that way. There's no way to save money by closing a lane of the Mass Pike because traffic is down.
Because
Based upon personal observance, driving is actually up. I still go into my office twice a week and partner goes in full time. Partner's commute is opposite the typical one. YMMV
Make that three...
There's also a "single-tracking" affair at Wellington that will last until mid-April.
As anyone who is familiar with Forest Hills or Oak Grove single-tracking will know, that's a guarantee for longer headways. When service breaks down, it also takes a lot longer to restore.
Single-tracking isn't
Single-tracking isn't circling the drain. It's making needed repairs on a fast-track schedule.
Of course it means longer waits. If it meant shorter waits, they could close one of the tracks permanently and do single-tracking all the time.
Plus all of the new cars have
Plus all of the new cars have been pulled from service after one of them broke down Friday morning and caused a massive delay
Oh, it's worse
If you arrived at Sullivan at say 8:01 AM this morning, where the usual wind tunnel platforms were in full effect, then you got to watch single tracking at it's finest: A Northbound on the Southbound platform at 8:10, frequent announcements of "up to 15 minute" delays, a Southbound finally at 8:20.
But. as the Southbound pulled in, the MBTA employee shared the information that the train was only going one stop south, and then you'd have to get off at Community and board a different train. Not sure how the timing worked out on that one, since the train was also too densely packed to get on during a pandemic - we're talking 7 people in each door area alone.
The next trains were ( you guessed it ) 4 stops and 20+ minutes away. But we were still experiencing "up to 15 minute" delays.
Given the 4 buses that left for downtown just during the first, er, understatement period, it would have been helpful to be informed of the actual situation, and not the generic 15 minute lie used every time.
These service reductions
will only serve to further reduce passenger counts, as people abandon the T because the service becomes inconvenient and untenable.
At a time when passenger counts are increasing (my experience is that the Red Line is about ten times busier now than last summer), service should be increased as well -- not decreased.
While one can see the idea of a reduced commuter rail schedule, buses and subways are a completely different story.
Many bus and subway commuters take more than one mode of transit during their commuting. Increased wait times and increasing dwell times due to more crowded vehicles also lead to missed connections and transfers. Then you you have to wait again.
It took me 50 minutes to go 1.8 miles on two buses with wait times this afternoon. I will be switching to cycling as soon as the weather warms back up, probably tomorrow. That only takes 13-17 minutes depending on traffic lights.