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Three-car trains to start on BC line on Monday
By adamg on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 2:42pm
The MBTA says it will start running experimental three-car service on the BC line during morning and evening rush hours. As on the Riverside line, the T will run two of the longer trains in the morning rush and two in the evening.
"The performance of the three-car trains will be closely monitored as we consider the possibility of increasing capacity on other trains," T General Manager Rich Davey said.
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Comments
Great news
I can't wait to see one of these behemoths rolling down the tracks
This is indeed great news if
This is indeed great news if it can alleviate some of the overcapacity issues. However, there would be a need for this more than 4 times per day. I have seen packed double trains at all kinds of hours.
Also I am worried that this does not do any good if they just split an existing run and put those into the 3 car consists. And do they even have enough stock available to do this more often?
The MBTA doesnt appear to
The MBTA doesnt appear to understand that Friday at 9pm is a very popular time on the B line. They insist on sending 1 car trains that get so full they make Indian trains look roomy.
All trains on all 4 Green
All trains on all 4 Green Line branches are scheduled to be two-car trains on Friday nights. If single cars are showing up, it means they don't have enough operators to cover the scheduled work.
The B line also has 2-car trains scheduled on Saturday nights, but the C, D, and E have singles Saturday after 6 PM.
Missing from the presser:
Missing from the presser:
"... and as a special treat for our C Line customers, we will run single car trains approximately once per hour, when there's an appropriate break between the card games at Cleveland Circle."
Makes me wanna swallow a knife.
Despite whatever
you may have read in the Herald, the C line does normally run two car trains. The larger problem is that the Green Line dispatcher always seems to find excuses not to run the trains beyond Government Center to North Station.
I still remember one day a few years back when we had to get off an inbound C train at Government Center due to an unplanned "rerouting". The reason we were kicked off? The dispatcher "short-turned" the train at the request of the operator, who stated that she had to pick up her son at day care. Had I not been standing near the front of the train and heard the whole conversation, I wouldn't have believed it.
And of course, I never got even an acknowledgement from the T when I reported the incident to them.
And despite whatever you may
And despite whatever you may have overheard while skulking at the front door, the C Line regularly does NOT run two car trains.
I've ridden singles at least four times this week alone, between 07:00 to 23:00. One was after morning rush (IB), one was just after evening rush (OB).
I personally have only seen
I personally have only seen them twice on the D line, going outbound in the morning. Has anyone else seen different?
Yeah, that's the idea for now
Just two trains in the morning and two in the afternoon, as an experiment.
Complain all you want about
Complain all you want about your particular branch, but at least you have one. There have been so many lies from the T about the E-line and other things too that someone had ought to keep a blog called "The T's Broken Promises."
My Experience
I had a chance to ride a three car train this afternoon. I was surprised to see it coming, but happy to see it. I noticed they had a sign in the front of the train that read "Three Car Train," most likely to spread people out between the three cars, but, as usual, everyone went to the front car. Also worth noting is that in addition to the three operators needed to operate this behemoth of a train, there was another T employee in the front cab, presumably teaching the operator the intricacies of operating a three car train.
Here's what confuses me: the 3-car train pulled into BU East (IB) at 3:40pm. The train was not crowded. We need the three car train at 5:00, not 3:40!! Hopefully, the T won't screw this up as they continue with this experiment.
Efficiency!
An inbound train stopped at BU East can now have the middle car on the platform at BU Central, while the third car idles at BU West.