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T's definition of 'soon' extends to six years
By adamg on Fri, 11/08/2013 - 10:18am
The MBTA issued a tweet on this morning's massive Red Line delays:
We apologize for delays this AM but we'll soon be replacing 44-yr-old Red Line cars w/ new ones.
And by "soon," they mean the fall of 2019. At the earliest.
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Massive Delays to Be Replaced by New Massive Delays
The contract will be awarded in "winter 2014-2015", so what they mean is "reports of massive delays due to 44-yr old Red Line car breakdowns will soon be replaced by reports of massive delays in delivery and testing of new cars." With a 1-year window for awarding the contract, at least that should get awarded right "on-time".
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/03/27/deliv...
http://charlieonthembta.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-blue-car-trains-existre...
No surprise there
They define "soon" the same way they mean "there's another train right behind this one."
Comment of the day!
Comment of the day!
+100,000
When someone says
the sign that shows when the next two trains are coming should not look like this:
Alewife 20+
Alewife 20+
Charlie
I hear Charlie's coming to the commuter rail soon, as well.
Yep
In 2007.
Should have left it at We Apologize for Delays...
because "this morning" and "soon" are just undoing the good work of the apology
Question about disabled trains....
Maybe a dumb question, but I've always wondered this about disabled trains.
Are the trains themselves un-driveable or unmovable in that the propulsion systems have failed and the train simply can't move, or is it more legal/technical in nature? In other words, a matter of an "idiot light" or bad gague on a dashboard that makes it illegal for the train to carry revenue passengers under railroad law?
I ask only because it seems I rarely hear about passengers getting stranded in dead trains in tunnels between stations. (I'm sure it's happened, but it seems like the alerts are more of the "disabled train at Porter" variety)
Not sure if it's typical, but
Not sure if it's typical, but I was on the train that became "disabled" by Alewife this morning. We pulled out and about 30 seconds later came to a pretty sudden halt. After about 20-25 minutes of T officials walking the length of the train (must have been close enough to Alewife for them to walk?), they told us we couldn't continue to Davis but that the train would function in the other direction and head back to Alewife. We flew right back in with no problem and they took the train out of service at Alewife.
The train remained powered up the whole time with the AC running. No idea why the train would go in one direction but not the other.
No fun sitting in the tunnel but I don't see this getting any better unless I'm unaware of possible action besides new cars expected later in the decade. Hope I'm missing something though.
I can only provide an
I can only provide an anecdote, but I have gotten stuck on a disabled train between Porter and Davis, and as I recall, when they got us out of the tunnel after about 2 hours, the alerts were about a disabled train at Porter.
When you're stuck on a train like that
Is the atmosphere more Kumbaya or "Lord of the Flies"?
Both
It can be anything, really.
The train is picking up the signals incorrectly and is incapable of getting up to speed, the doors aren't closing properly/at all (this varies in severity, usually you can isolate one lone door so it simply doesn't open to begin with), the trains brakes are not applying properly, the brakes are taking too long to charge up, the acceleration is poor (or worst of all, no acceleration), there's a problem drawing enough power from the third rail. Can really be just about anything.
A lot of things are rules/regulations. I'm pretty sure it must be illegal to operate a train with an entire doorway isolated (not just one door, but both doors in one doorway).
If the problem is a pair of
If the problem is a pair of doors that won't open, they can close that car and keep the train in service to the end of the line.
I've seen them do that
But I always wonder, how exactly do they isolate a car/pair? Is it possible for car isolation to fail on top of the double-door failure? That would ultimately lead to doors resulting in a whole train out-of-service.
When you say "can" do you
When you say "can" do you mean "should be able to" or "what they do now." Because I'm wondering if an inoperable door would fall under the category of federal railroad law forbidding use of such a train under those conditions.
Maybe some of these rules should be temporarily relaxed?
I'd rather see the T continue to operate trains even if they're less than "100%", rather than taking them out of service and causing delays. Change the rules until all of the new equipment arrives?
*cough* we already have the
*cough* we already have the MBTA on super secret double probation.
Hmm.
"Soon-ish".
So when is the MBTA ridership
So when is the MBTA ridership going to rise up and throw the bums out at the statehouse which keep treating them like 2nd class citizens? Oh wait, sorry I forgot no one usually runs let alone votes against incumbents in this state. /own worst enemy
Notice that
Notice that the MBTA website doesn't say anything about the new Orange Line cars which should also be out around that time (Fall 2019). I think the T hates the Orange Line riders, it's also most common that they don't tell anyone why the train is stalled on that line even if the train is stalled for more than 30 minutes.