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Anybody seen a B-Line trolley?
By adamg on Wed, 03/20/2013 - 9:14am
At 8:54 a.m., Rebecca, who took this photo, reported she'd been standing at the Sutherland Road Green Line stop for more than 20 minutes, and that she was a mere newcomer there - she could still feel her feet.
At the very same time, Katherine Delaney posted a photo showing things were almost as bad on the Red Line - even more crowded, but at least a train was running.
This comes the day after T General Manager Beverly Scott said she's giving serious consideration to fare hikes of up to 33% and delaying needed maintenance starting July 1.
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Comments
Aw, the poor B-line riders
Aw, the poor B-line riders got a taste of what waiting for the E-line is like every single freaking day.
Your struggle is my struggle
The 8:22 trip out of Boston College went disabled shortly after leaving Lake Street.
As a lifelong Comm Ave/Cleveland Circle resident who has gone to school proximate to Huntington Avenue for the last 15 years, your struggle is my struggle. We will not be divided. We will not be conquered.
But seriously, I've found the "what's worse, the B or the E?" debate rather silly. It's like comparing the 2011 and 2012 Red Sox teams. They demonstrate two different approaches to being shitty.
The E has longer wait times, but a shorter ride. The B wait times are shorter, but that is a loooonnng ride from Lake to Govy. For alternate service, the E has the 39 and the B has the 57.
But I believe we can agree on this: A-Watertown; E-Arborway.
There's a B E debate?
Allow me to save some time: The entire green line sucks.
The B-line isn't the official
The B-line isn't the official transportation of the BLS though. Every day at 3PM, the entire Longwood Medical Area platform gets bombarded with pretty much the entire BLS trying to cram onto a train and of course they only use front-door boarding. As if your 20-minute wait wasn't enough, it takes another 20 just to load the train and sometimes you don't even fit on because people don't move to the f'ing rear of the train. Waves of students continue until about 4PM and the hospital rush begins...
They really need to do something about the BLS-crush hour like rushing out a 3-car train so it's ready at 3PM.
The B line has Brighton High kids
who are rowdy, obnoxious and often pull the emergency brake cord.
That's my point. Whatever you encounter on the E, I also encounter on the B.
Like a fare collection system
Like a fare collection system that wasn't designed to be as stupid as possible.
Nothing Ever Changes
The E train at Huntington and Longwood used to get crammed with BLS students back when I went there in 1970, 43 years ago. And I mean CRAMMED. And that's when there were TWO trolley lines going down Huntington. the E as well as the old Arborway line, whatever the letter used to be, I've forgotten. They were both jammed with BLS students. And it was front door only back then too. They were afraid they wouldn't get our dime. Yes, dime.
And that's when there were
And that's when there were TWO trolley lines going down Huntington. the E as well as the old Arborway line, whatever the letter used to be, I've forgotten.
Arborway was E -- they just made the line shorter. Before the letters came in, though, there was the 57 to Heath and the 39 to Arborway, so I guess you could say that they changed the E from 39 to 57.
But Comm Av. between Blandford St. and Packard's Cnr. used to carry both the A (to Watertown) and the B.
Just like the new slogan
Just like the new slogan promises:
"The MBTA; Transportation option of last resort!"
Hastening the arrival of the inevitable total crisis?
It appears that Ms. Scott may have come to the conclusion that hastening the arrival of the coming total crisis (as opposed to minor crises almost everyday) on the T and talking about steep fare increases is the only way to get the Legislature's attention and force them into fixing the funding problem that they created.
Sadly, short of people getting killed, that might actually be the only way.
Also sadly, there is a day, coming soon, when such a major crisis on the T really would get everyone's (even the Legislature's) attention. Unfortuntately, it would also reflect very badly on our entire region for hundreds of thousands of out-of- towners (you didn't think that the legislature cares about you regular schlubs who suffer through riding the T everyday, did you?).
Could you imagine Patriot's Day/Marathon Monday with a manufactured (or allowed) crisis on all of the T's lines?
Good point
You raise a good point. I wonder if there is data showing the incidence rate of breakdown problems on days like Marathon Monday, the 4th of July Esplanade concert, New Years Eve, etc., days when we are supposed to ride public transportation at the behest of officials. I'm curious as to whether they are higher, lower or about the same.
Google Image Search
NYC Subway Cars, 1970. That's what "deferred maintenance" looks like.
My parents were commuters back then, and the stories they tell are ghastly: doors flying open as trains sped through tunnels, trains losing power and breaking down in dark tunnels for hours, no air conditioning, etc., etc.
And this is different from
And this is different from the Red Line today how?
air conditioning
is also the reason the subway stations approach 95 degrees in the summer, even though they're underground.
Subway cars used to have air scoops to just scoop in cool air from the tunnels, and it kept the entire system cooler. With the advent of air conditioning and the above ground sections, we forgot what worked fine in the name of progress.
That does make sense.
I never put much thought in to it. Air conditioners take incredible amounts of energy to run, and do create a lot of heat.
Re: Coming crisis...
This is what I'm afraid of as a regular T rider. We've been very lucky no one has been killed or injured due to cutting back on maintenance (which is already happening).
Nothing will happen
The MBTA could shut down on the 4th of July and the state wouldn't do anything about it. Everyone blames everyone else, commuters get screwed, life goes on. Sooner or later they will make good on the threat of turning the T into a peak-hour only system -- who cares about weekend or evening riders anyway? They can always drive...
Sadly, it would take a catastrophic event in which lives were lost for them to devote any real effort into fixing the problems. Just look at how the state all of a sudden decided to start repairing bridges after the collapse of the one in St. Paul. It's horribly to say but had that not happened they wouldn't have fixed the BU Bridge, among others.
Unfortunately, they've
Unfortunately, they've demonstrated it's Boston blood that'll need to be spilled before they fix the T: Remember the DC Metro accident?
This sort of did happen
The B line went down on St. Patrick's Day, shortly after 1 pm I think. It was bus replacement service until late that night, so all of the drunken mobs coming back from the parade had to pack onto shuttle buses.
I went to the gym and grocery shopping. I was not amused.
Yup
I'm waiting for a speeding redline train to derail over a cracked rail in a tunnel between Broadway and Porter some time.
Should be lots o fun.
This is why I'm arguing that
This is why I'm arguing that for just one year, we pass a law where any state taxes collected are applied only to the area they're collected in.
It would both give the T all the money it could ever need, and teach Western Mass legislators a valuable lesson about just whose money they're spending, precisely, when they whine about how they can't support the T.
Simple Arithmetic, Really
Assume no breakdowns. Bear with me here.
First, for each line color take the total number one-way trips that operate in a weekday. Multiply this by the cost to operate that train for a one-way trip. Do the same for weekends.
Next, let's assume here that all riders are equal. Since the fare system is one-way (pay once, go anywhere while "in" the system), take the count of all riders entering on weekdays. Do the same for the weekend and keep these counts separate.
Finally, take the weekday trips * cost / trip and divide by the number of riders. For a giving work-week, this should be the cost per rider. Compare to current cost to ride during the week. Repeat for weekend service, see where the cost per rider goes (up or down).
Mind you, this is simply cost to operate train per rider. It does not include:
* capital projects
* expansion projects
* maintenance projects
If the above makes sense so far, we could do more arithmetic to consider these last bullet points.
Something you forgot
Add in a proprotional added debt load that was supposed to be paid for as part of the enormous car project that car drivers aren't expected to pay for.
Stir.
Already done
See for instance, the Blue Book, or the NTD database.
Not sure what your point is though. And keep in mind that trains do not magically appear and disappear at the ends of one-way trips. They need to be operated in round trips which begin and end (after service is over) at yards or layover tracks. Sometimes they need to run without passengers in order to access these places. And operators are human beings, not wizards. They sign up for fixed, contiguous blocks of time called shifts, and run a certain number of roundtrips within those shifts. They need to get back to where they started at the end of the shifts, one way or another, so they can go home and the next person can take over. And then there's other personnel, such as those folks repairing trains, inspecting tracks and service, or working at HQ.
Mark my words
This Beverly Scott character is going to be a disaster for the MBTA and riders. She's strictly a political appointee of Governor Patrick. She did a lousy job in Atlanta, a much smaller transit system, and she'll do a lousy job here, just on a larger scale.
Same old story
They're all political appointees. It's just a matter of whether they are competent or not. While I have my doubts about her, let's give her a shot.
I think it's fair to judge her by past performance
and her past performance sucks. But still, the governor got her the MBTA job.
I can deal with a blatant political appointee, as long as they are competent. If she were a man, or white, or Asian, or Hispanic, or whatever, I'd say the exact same thing.