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Going nowhere fast at Kenmore
By adamg on Mon, 06/10/2013 - 10:36am
Kenmore busway a bit crowded this AM. Photo by Nikki.
Downed wires at Copley and the resulting fire around 10 a.m. mean no service and lots of grumpy commuters forced to go upstairs for buses at Kenmore Square, shuttling between there and Arlington.
Scott Lovejoy wonders why more people didn't hop on bikes at the nearby Hubway station.
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Comments
Why not hubway?
Because the number of bikes in the Kenmore stand is hovering between zero and one. <whine>And walking is hard! </whine>
The Kenmore stand holds a
The Kenmore stand holds a maximum of 17 bikes. That's a drop in the bucket compared to even a single Green Line car.
Hubway only functions because they move the bikes around in vans.
There are several other
There are several other kiosks within walking distance, check www.hubwaytracker.com
I know. (Don't you think I
I know. (Don't you think I checked the Hubway map before posting? I didn't have the "17 bikes" figure memorized.)
And if you add them all up, it's still less than the capacity of a single Green Line car.
Per the Green Line dispatcher
regular service has just been resumed between Kenmore and all points eastbound.
However, expect every other Government Center train to be turned at Park Street for the next two hours. After all, massaging the schedule numbers is far more important than serving passengers.
Um, Actually, It is...
When your subway system's primary dispatching system is "employees standing at the tunnel entrances with schedules in hand," then, unfortunately, yes, massaging the schedule numbers is far more important than serving passengers.
This is not an excuse for the downright criminal failure to have modernized the Green Line to even 1950s standards, mind you - and it's only going to get worse.
Update
Eastbound service from BC is still terminating at Babcock Street and crossing back. Passengers are being put on shuttle buses from Babcock to Kenmore.
Just another example of the T's outstanding "customer service".
Because a few bikes isn't mass transit
Its a niche, similar to the number of cabs at taxi stands.
Why I would not take the hubway
Because I hate riding bikes.
I've got nothing but mad love for all bicyclists but if I had to choose between biking to work and missing a couple of hours pay for being late, I'm going with the smaller paycheck.
So, between the beginning
of this disruption and the conclusion, the MBTA sent out a total of seventeen (that's right, seventeen) separate alerts to riders. And that doesn't even count the additional alerts sent out regarding the subsequent B or E line problems that magically appeared after the wire issue at Copley was fixed.
But I guess management has to "justify" their new (and wasteful) toy somehow, even if it means annoying the heck out of their riders with the needless and long-winded updates.