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Already slow MBTA subway service just got even slower, T announces
By adamg on Thu, 03/09/2023 - 10:25pm
The MBTA announced tonight that trains on all four subway lines will no longer go any faster than 25 m.p.h. - and that in some spots their drivers are being told to go no more than 10 m.p.h., following an inspection of the Red Line between Ashmont and Savin Hill by investigators from the state Department of Public Utilities, which has suddenly remembered it has the power to investigate T operations.
The T is promising details at a press conference at 10 a.m on Friday. The Herald reported inspectors found trains overshooting stations and defective third-rail insulators, among other issues.
The inspection came after the Federal Transportation Administration did its own systemwide look at the T, which resulted in the T reducing the number of trains on the Red, Orange and Blue lines because it was so short of dispatchers in its High Street operations center that the ones remaining weren't getting enough time to sleep. In a series of emergency reports, the feds also criticized the DPU for not properly overseeing the T to ensure it was safe.
In announcing the new slower service, the T did what it now does a lot: Apologize.
These actions will add additional travel time for people taking the T. The MBTA apologizes in advance for these inconveniences and remains committed to operating the transit system in the safest manner possible.
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Comments
MBTA has brought out my basic
MBTA has brought out my basic human instinct to survive the minute I step inside its wilderness every day and night. I'm not waiting for passengers to get off any more, I'm grabbing a seat for my mid 50s sciatic painful ass. Fuck u MBTA. Fuck u!
Agreed
My 70 year old sciatic painful ass agrees completely. I raced to beat a young 20 something guy to a seat just yesterday. I won.
Not so rapid transit.
Not so rapid transit.
Heh!
The Slow Transit is a more apt name for the MBTA, especially nowadays.
Heh!
The Slow Transit is a more apt name for the MBTA, especially nowadays.
That probably explains the inspectors at Fields Corner yesterday
There were a bunch of them, maybe 5 or 6, wearing yellow vests that said DPU, not T or MBTA, at Fields Corner yesterday afternoon. They were pointing and taking pictures of the tracks in front of the platforms.
If the limit is now 25MPH, is that a big change? I feel like 25MPH is about the max these days on the Ashmont line. What's the alleged real max speed before this announcement?
At least 30mph
From a long time ago, the trains ran 40-50 mph on the Red Line, when they had the older trains. When they opened the Southwest Corridor for the Orange Line, it was 30-35 mph.
25 mph isn't that slow, but when compared to past limits, it is half the limit in the past. Also, where the T sold the public on faster speeds on the Orange Line after a month long shutdown, only to renege on this promise AND extend the slowdown system wide, the public should rightfully be suspicious and angry.
ETA: It turns out there were track defects that triggered the slowdowns.
I'm sure that's all they will
I'm sure that's all they will be doing. Pointing.
Clown show
The hits just keep on keeping on. Quietly happy I don’t depend on the MBTA anymore….
How's that "transit oriented development" going everybody?
Keep on building those buildings with no parking spaces. Everyone will take the T.
Good
Transit oriented development is only more necessary if the service is poor as people are not going to walk further to bad service. Driving a car doesn’t become more sustainable or space efficient because the public transit is currently sub par. We need to keep building TOD AND improve the transit service.
The disconnect between stuff
The disconnect between stuff like this—cajole or force everyone onto a service that at the same time is already near collapse—is why paranoid types think they're trying to engineer a collapse.
People say "never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity" but it strains credulity when it's this obvious that it's this stupid.
Just like how as we continue to neglect our aging electrical infrastructure, power grid and power plants alike, but want people to buy an electric car, install a fast charger, and replace their gas stoves with electric now too.
So does that explain the slower than usual slowness today?
According to reports, it seems that evening rush hour on the Red Line was FUBAR today
Why would a Red Line problem affect the Blue or Green Lines?
The Blue Line has 100% modern equipment and tracks, while the Green Line uses overhead wire rather than third rail and therefore shares no technology with the Red Line. The DPU seems to be overreacting and overreaching.
Possibilities
Someone was speculating on that on Reddit.
Possibilities could include like some sort of sensor or rail/tie work that could impact all lines equally.
The Blie Line has its own problem…
…right now: a power line down necessitating bustitution between Suffolk Downs and Maverick. Took me three and a half hours to get home last night. As of this morning, the problem has not been resolved and shuttles are still running
Blue line was down at 6:15am,
Blue line was down at 6:15am, all shuttle buses. what's going on there?
Nothing will change
so long as some old rich guy in Winchester can still charge an extra $900 a month for "Transit-oriented Development" for his dilapidated tinderbox/shoebox overlooking I-93.
And so long as the Mass. legislature doesn't reveal who votes on what, and hires a private firm to do private audits.
The Hub!
New Normal
The Globe is reporting that the T keeps loosing bus drivers and expects to cancel at least 5% of bus trips. At a presentation to the oversight board it was noted revenue is way down (which tracks ridership) and one of the board members responded:
So to be cynical, they could be using the speed restrictions as a way of just cutting service across the board.
I feel sorry for anyone who depends on the T for transportation and has no alternatives.
Split Shifts An Issue?
Anecdotally, I know two people who considered applying as bus drivers/operators. They both changed their minds when they read that they would begin their jobs with what they called "split shifts." They said this meant new employees would work X hours, then leave (off clock) for a few hours, and then come back to work another X hours. This was unpalatable to them. That policy does not sound like a way to attract new people.
Always been the normal
Split shifts in bus transit are a necessity. Ridership demand peaks early morning and late afternoon, more than 8 hours apart. So if drivers work 8 hr shifts, you need more people, peak somewhere mid day and have even more labor costs.
Or
They could just run peak level service all day and make people happy.
hold on now
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa we wouldn't want people to be able to get places if it's not during six particular hours of the day. that's just crazy talk.
wouldn't help
The point is using drivers optimally. I don't know how to fix it. Would people be willing to work every day at shorter hours? Part time drivers with access to health care at lower hour schedule?
Thank the Carmen’s union
Seniority and all
Who's in Charge Here?
There's always someone like you who wants to blame the workers for an obvious management problem.
Charlie Baker's MBTA criminally hid understaffing issues for years to keep budgets down. If he had been honest about the scope of the problem, he could've used the issue as a negotiating point with the union. Instead he chose to let the entire system fall apart and here we are.
How the fuck do split shifts
Have anything to do with Baker? There are always people like you that point fingers at the sky because they can’t admit the union is preventing hiring because of their dinosaur rules and policies.
Let me help you find the key passage that answers your question
Split shifts were here before Baker
BUT let’s assume they are Baker’s fault. Ok, he gets the blame. He’s also no longer governor so are you just going to point fingers or come up with a solution? Seems like you just want to point fingers at Baker, which solves nothing.
Projection
Excuse me finger pointer, I'm responding to you blaming the employees.
The problem needs to be fixed, which starts with management being honest about the scope of the problem. Luckily, the FTA already did some of that, so lets hope Maura Healey will use that information to hire more employees and yknow, negotiate with the union as I said.
Fingers crossed she's not a Pioneer Institute shill like Baker and wants to hire public service employees.
charlie did like all Republicans, pushed do more with less
I agree that split shifts are a normal feature of transit systems that has always been challenging. Charlie was the financial wizard that saved the big dig by screwing the mbta. And I get that it was a reasonable choice at the time, but he should have put the same wizardry to work investing in the MBTA, instead of pretending that the democrats were to blame.
If we had spent money investing in the MBTA, it would be cheaper to run now. We should give up bus fare collection. Considering how many people transfer to the subway, we wouldn't lose that much money.
One billion dollars
The T is literally falling apart in front of us. But the powers that be are spending a billion dollars on a new fare collection system.
Bizarre.
Bullshit
My FIL was the president of the Carmen's Union and he worked splits a good twenty five years into his career because THEY PAID EXTRA MONEY TO GET PEOPLE TO WORK THEM.
But that was decades ago when a bus driver working splits could support a wife at home, three kids, and his elderly parents all by working split shifts.
Pay enough to make it work and people will do it. Pay only enough to support half a household and people will take a pass because split shifts are hell for parents.
I think job sharing could help here.
Most part time jobs pay so little they wouldn't help.
needs of the business, you
needs of the business, you start at the bottom and work your way up, you know that going in, or very soon afterward. seniority is king. no one is forced to pick up a pick and shovel, you choose to.
Nobody wants to work splits, so we have a driver shortage
With the changes expected with the Better Bus Program, perhaps it's time to rethink split shifts all around. If more buses will be running on standard headways throughout the service day, it should be easier to schedule with normal shifts, and less splits, since service will be steady throughout the day and not concentrated on rush hours.
This won't solve all the issues, but could be a good starting point.
When they can't hire enough
When they can't hire enough people to run the service, it means the system is broken. Longtime employees are benefiting from this seniority scheme, and nobody wants to be the newcomer on whose back the system sits. The general public suffers as a result.
In other countries it doesn't work this way. Leaving the hardest jobs for the least experienced people who are getting paid the least is not an efficient scheme.
The commuter rail is pretty reliable, in my experience
It's run for the T by Keolis, which is a subsidiary of the French national railway company, SNCF. They do a pretty good job.
Yeah, my buddies
They also make a point of trying to cut back service and their Big Idea as of late has been to install exit turnstiles at North / South station to greatly slow people down and make the train experience more aggravating. It's as if they are trying to make people reconsider their decision to take the train.
The CR is more reliable but the schedule is so sparse that few people can use it as their primary source of transportation. It's really only for M-F, 9-5 commuters.
Commuter Rail vs. T
Are we surprised that the suburbs and exurbs get better, more reliable service than city dwellers relying on the MBTA? And don't even get me started on how new lanes, fewer tollbooths, and lower gas taxes encourage driving while public transportation disintegrates.
*Edited to fix "howe" typo
no.
they don't do a great job, and the commuter rail is neither reliable nor very useful.
it's gotten worse since operations were sold off to Keolis.
I loooove the CR, especially
I loooove the CR, especially for getting to the airport, but it's always a crapshow as to whether the schedule is going to actually work. Essentially there's a window of about two hours where I can take a flight and be able to CR it.
Also nice for occasional event nights downtown - seeing a show, etc.
Useless as a day to day service, unfortunately.
This problem is solved on a daily basis
Offer sign-on bonuses and yearly bonuses. Increase the starting pay and dump split shifts. People will be lining up. Carmen’s Union wouldn’t allow any of this though because they’re dinosaurs and need to ‘protect’ the existing members.
Split Shifts
I don't see how they can eliminate split shifts, due to ridership demand patterns, but they could certainly distribute them more equitably. It would help for hiring purposes, if a new recruit were told they would have two split shifts a week, rather than every day.
I think Taylor has made
I think Taylor has made comments that the impact of hybrid and remote work is a permanent state, so it is not realistic to expect ridership numbers and fare revenue to go back to 2019 levels, some other source of funds will be required to make up for the lost fare revenue to avoid more service cuts. Almost every large transit agency in the U.S. faces the same problem, it is even a bigger issue in the Bay Area were BART ridership is now only something like 30-40% of what it what it once was.
I don’t think you understand
I don’t think you understand how service cuts work.
The point isn’t to make things worse for passengers. It’s to save money.
While this speed reduction does make things worse for passengers, it will only cost the T extra money, as some conductors will finish late and get paid overtime.
Perspective
As far as I know no one has died on the T since the FTA speed restrictions so, even ignoring the debate about whether those are too draconian, they seem to be accomplishing the goal already. Yet here we are slowing down public transit to about half or even a quarter of its normal speed for questionable reasons (especially given that there are major differences between each line) and with no explicit timeline for when it will be returned to normal speeds.
At the same time at least 430 people died on MA roads last year, yet we never see proposals to say nothing of mandates to drop all road speeds to 10-30 mph (even though such speeds are a proven safety benefit for vulnerable road users).
The priorities for transit safety in this state are completely out of wack and are encouraging more people to stop taking the relatively safer (a lot safer in a direct VMT comparison) public transit and to drive instead, which puts themselves and others in greater danger. There really needs to be a systemic approach to transit safety that takes those trade offs seriously, or even acknowledges them, but there just is not. instead pushing anyone who has a private vehicle off public transit and immobilizing everyone who has no other choice is treated as simply inevitable (it isn't) and without costs (which are actually profound).
We could make the trains and
We could make the trains and the roads 100% safe by mandating a speed limit of 0 mph.
The T already seems to be headed in this direction.
Those are a mixture of
...eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta picta) and red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans). Painted turtles are native to New England, but the red-eared slider is a turtle of the Mississippi Valley. A popular pet species, it has established itself in our area despite the harsh New England winters.
And unlike the T's rolling stock,
turtles can move pretty darn quickly when they've a mind to.
Apologies not excepted
As punishment all T managers should be ordered to ride the vomit express for the St. Patricks day parade in full uniforms trapped in a steel box with thousands of pissed off passengers. Even Stevie Wonder could see that next Sunday is going to be a disaster for the thousands of families taking the red line to the parade.
The good news is that the T
The good news is that the T no longer needs to publish their map of slow areas. It's all slow.
So if this is a federal
So if this is a federal problem now, and they're imposing these speed restrictions, why can't the federal government step in to fix this fucking mess. Is Boston not a vector of GDP and innovation for the nation? They can't just throw up their hands and say this is a state problem. Ayanna Pressley, who doesn't answer ANY inquiries what-so-ever, I am looking at you! This IS an issue of equity!
State
DPU is a state agency.
I'd guess this refers to the
I'd guess this refers to the fact that the (Federal) FTA is also involved, even though this particular story was about a state agency.
But seriously, federalizing the T, it's a bold move but the Commonwealth government has consistently fumbled and bumbled with transit for decades. It would be hard for the Feds, or for that matter a small team of trained chimpanzees, to do worse.
Thanks. I thought it was
Thanks. I thought it was federal. However, I don't see why this should merely be a state issue. This should be thought of as a national issue--it is part of a pattern of a nationwide degradation of--basically everything.
we should implement a policy
we should implement a policy of standards for the US, fabrication, operations all things . we have the critical mass here,let the rest of the world get on our train or get out of the way, we got the brain power , plus we are the land of MIT and Harvard. keep it simple and lets roll.
I'm sure the fed is in this
I'm sure the fed is in this mess already with us. I am left to assume that the declaration of the slow down areas on all lines, most especially the red and orange, are probably FTA dictates. We get a ton of money for the T from the fed, and right now, here's hoping some of Biden's infrastructure repair/rebuild money finds its way to the MBTA, but I for one want federal oversight. It's been a horror show that Gov Baker wouldn't touch, Wu is willing but needs allies, and Gov Baker II (Maura) looks to be doing about the same as her predecessor.
Holy cow is that slow, and
Holy cow is that slow, and across the entire subway? The impact of this will be monumental.
When does it end?
Seriously when does it end? The T does not seem to think it is important to give us any indication of how long this restriction will be in place.
This is completely unacceptable. highway speeds would never be simply reduced to 10-30 mph, and if they were they would never do it without warning and a clear plan for return to normal speeds, yet this is somehow acceptable for public transit (which is a significantly safer mode of travel).
you want safety, you got it .
you want safety, you got it . cant always squeeze the help to make numbers !
My Orange Line commute this morning was
Average.
16 minutes from Forest Hills to Back Bay (headways between trains are a separate issue.) The only thing I noticed was that we went slower entering Back Bay Station. Sure, I remember when it was a 13-14 minute commute, but they were doing that run in 20 this time last year, so progress, I guess.
Mission Impossible: MBTA
Good morning DPU. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to visit the T and create the appearance of a state agency doing stuff.
Your options will be limited as you are not permitted to waste any state funds or other resources as the T is only a public transit system. As always, if you fall through a stairway hole or get crushed by a ceiling tile, the state will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
This subway train will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck DPU!
Boston, a 45-minute city.
Boston, a 45-minute city.
T
Let’s not forget to raise the cost of riding the T, make it impossible for folks to park their cats on the streets and build buildings galore all over the place….