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Green Line to Lechmere
By violetly on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 11:27pm
This is my first post here - I wanted to vent about the nightmare that is the short commute between Government Center and Lechmere. Those of us who make that commute typically spend 15 - 20 minutes on the platform as train after train ends at Government Center, putting more and more people off to stand and wait for a train going on to North Station and/or Lechmere. If you're really having a lucky day, a North Station train will come along and most people will crowd onto it - commuters connecting with Commuter Rail at North Station. Then the next train will be a Lechmere train that is relatively empty. But it isn't unusual for the Lechmere train to come first, so that everyone crowds on to that one, followed by a North Station train, which is useless to those of us trying to get to Lechmere.
The other day, I arrived at about 4:35 to find at least 130 people on the platform. A Lechmere train came along - I couldn't get on it (the people who insist on standing by the doors don't help...) This train was followed by not one, not two but four almost-empty North Station trains and then five or six Government Center trains before another Lechmere train finally arrived. I didn't get to Lechmere until 5:10 (I can walk it that fast!)
They used to run a shuttle between Government Center and Lechmere - in fact, there is often an empty train sitting on the platform across from the outbound platform. The bus shuttle that ran while they were building the new North Station was pretty good - I'd happily go back to that in place of the lousy service we now get.
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Comments
The trick.
Hi. The trick is to get off at Park Street (assuming you're coming from the Green Line and not the Blue Line).
You see, everyone going to the Red Line gets off at Park Street, so the train empties and you can get on.
People who try to get on Green Line trains at Government Center are simply doing it wrong.
I do the same thing, you
I do the same thing, you have to know where the influx is coming from and beat it. Sometimes that means taking an extra trip or walking a few blocks but it is well worth it. I find Park Street to be a little chaotic, they need to do a better job with signage especially going from Red to Green its not quite clear which staircase you have to go up to get to which Green Line arm, theres that one option that puts you behind that stupid fence...
I do that all the time with the buses in my area, you get to know the point at which a bus reaches critical mass with people so you walk a few blocks back (the bus stops every block) and get it right before the really busy bus stop. You walk on, have your choice of seats, go all the way to the back corner and just squeeze in and turn on your headphones before the mass of people pours onto the bus at the next stop (this method only works if your going all the way into the next major hub, otherwise your never getting off that bus in time.)
But then youll miss the rare
But then youll miss the rare train the starts its trip at the 2nd track at Gvt center.
The best plan is to go as far as possible. Sometimes a north station train has its trip extended to lechmere so wait at north station.
Ugh!
More to the point, the Lechmere MBTA trains come so infrequently that it's not uncommon to wait 15 minutes to as much as a half-hour or 45 minutes for a Lechmere train if you're at Park Street waiting. They're often quite crowded, and yeah, the people who refuse to back away from the doors don't help matters, either. All this being said, when the good weather comes back, I'll be back to bicycling downtown or hoofing it back to Somerville on foot, rather than waiting in the Park Street MBTA station for a Lechmere train.
Hah
Now you know what my commute is like EVERY DAY waiting for an E line train inbound (the only train to Lechmere).
It's the same in the morning going outbound. I know everyone complains about their specific line coming in really slowly in the morning, but the E line is the only one that comes into Park completely packed to the brim (with everyone traveling from Lechmere/West End to Arlington/Copley). Having the E Line (which already runs slower than every other line if you look at the schedules) be the only one running to Lechmere is an absolute disaster).
Mystery to me
It's obvious that there is not enough service to Lechmere. There used to be service that terminated at North Station, which took some of the load off.
The MBTA's idea that only 2
The MBTA's idea that only 2 of the 4 Green Line branches need to go to North Station, where the Commuter Rail is, and only one needs to go to the end of the line at Lechmere is one of the most baffling and dumbfounding practices that anyone has ever engaged in.
It really is a microcosm of the system-wide shortsightedness and general stupidity/obliviousness at the MBTA.
Even worse, current practice is to
"short-turn" many of the North Station trains at Government Center when the C line is even slightly behind schedule.
The real solution to the Green Line scheduling problems is to run all eastbound ("inbound") trains to Lechmere and base their new westbound ("outbound") destination on which line is to leave next, and not where the train originated from, In other words, if a car from Riverside arrives at Lechmere when the schedule says the next car out is to go to BC, send that car to BC instead of back to Riverside.
Among other things, it's a "self-correcting" system - i.e. it doesn't matter if trains get bunched up on their way to Lechmere. And it would provide 2 minute westbound headway between Lechmere and Copley during the AM rush hour, and eliminate the need for holding trains at Park Street for "headway" adjustment.
From what I've heard
They're not allowed to switch a driver's route midday. Having to suddenly switch from running a B train to running a D train must be more than their brains can handle.
Ways around this
Like a small employee lounge in Government Center where they keep a B, C, and D line driver waiting or something like that.
It's like there isn't a single civil engineer in the entire MBTA hierarchy.
Another disgusting thing about the Lechmere trains:
Just afew short years ago, one could get a B, C, or D car from Lechmere station, if they needed to go someplace in any of those general areas, or even go directly to Kenmore Square, and just sit on the trains as they departed from Lechmere Station, without having to change trains or anything. Now, they've blown all that by not having the B, C, or D cars go to Lechmere, which is rather sad, imho.