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In advance of arctic cold, MBTA pre-announces delays
By adamg on Tue, 01/06/2015 - 12:32pm
They don't know which lines or when, exactly, but the T is warning commuters to brace for potential delays due to tomorrow's forecast sub-zero windchills, WBZ reports.
But at least we're not alone: Chicago transit officials are also warning of potential cold-related delays.
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Comments
Indeed
Yes, I got this email T Alert at 3:36 this morning:
Was there something new by the T?
Or did WBZ just discover the winter weather page that's on the T's site all winter long?
^ This.
The T uses that same page all winter, every winter. There's nothing specific to this week's weather on it.
I guess
Minor Delays on Green Line due to track problem at Park Street is too difficult for the T PR people to write.
"PR people"?
What on earth makes you think that those alerts are written by PR staff?
Y'all
are aware that these are pre-defined alerts? some jockey in their operations room probably just clicks a few buttons when something is delayed to send out the alert. Yeah there's room for "custom" messages but 99% of the time its a predefined one.
For "pre-defined" alerts
the message formats are very poorly done, as demonstrated in my previous post. Unless you think that stating "All Clear (with a full regurgitation of the original alert)" is somehow better than stating "X Line now on or near schedule".
*eye roll*
I'm not even going to bother to explain why.. not worth the energy. You just hate the T and love to nit pic at it. Give it a rest sometime..
When the T spends money
"updating" an alert system, only to give us alerts that are overly wordy and complicated for people to read at a glance (like the "All Clear- let's reguritate the long poorly worded announcement" nonsense), I would call that a basic failure, not "nit picking."
And if you still disagree, go back and compare the re-written alert in my original post against the alert the T sent out. I think you'll understand my point.
You're the only one who cares
Seriously. You're the only one who cares about this. Are you an english teacher?
I still disagree, and no I don't understand your point. So what it wasn't in perfect english? Who cares. I don't. I could understand what they meant.. and so could you. It's not like it was written in french.
You're the only one who cares about this crap roadman.. no one else does.
And yes you're nit picking.
The issue I have is
not that it's "not perfect english", but the fact it is just too wordy. Not to mention the fact that the way I rewrote the alert was the way alerts USED to be written. So explain how spending $400K on an "updated" alert system that results in alerts that are more poorly written than before is a good use of resources. Answer - it isn't. But that's typical of MBTA management - give the passengers something crappy and tout it as an "imporvement" just because it's using a poor automated system instead of an intelligent human.
And no, I'm not an English teacher. But in communications - which is a part of my job, brevity is everything. And when a situation is cleared, it is totally idiotic for your customers to have to re-read the entire original alert (the "All Clear - let's regurgitate the original message again" idiocy) to figure out that things are cleared, when stating "X Line service is now on or near schedule" (and again, this is how the T used to word their "all clear" alerts under the perfectly good system that was previously in place) is sufficent and more concise.
again, who cares.
The only one who cares about this is you. No one fucking cares. NO ONE.
I really think you just like to complain about anything new with the T. You do this ALL THE FUCKING TIME. STOP IT.
And every time I bring up perfectly valid points
about what is wrong with the T's "necessary" improvements, you and others on this site jump all over me. Perhaps you should look at the larger issue here. An agency that constantly crys poverty spends money to "improve" a system that is NOT NECESSARY in the first place and WASN"T BROKEN to begin with, with the result that said system is now WORSE than it originally was.
But sure, go ahead and shoot the messenger if it makes you feel better.
BS
The new system is much more informative and helpful than anything we day-to-day users had available to us several years back.
Thank you
I wanted to say this but roadman would just try to argue with me. But thank you Michael!
I can only assume....
... that roadman does not actually _use_ the MBTA on a daily basis.
because
All you do is bitch about the T. There's a difference between 'making valid points' and just bitching about the T in general. A valid point is the discussion yesterday about the bus route, complaining about verbiage in an alert is not (even when the original text was readable and understandable)
You do this ALL THE TIME. You and MarkKK are almost identical, I can always know when I see a post about the T how long it'll take you or Mark to comment about it. And usually I can GUESS what the reply will be (and am usually right)
I know I'm not the only who feels this way, we've all done it to you. Maybe you should wake up and smell the Sanka and realize that all you're doing is nit picking at every little thing, and maybe you should take a step back. We get it, you hate the T.
I'm sorry that you think the T sucks. But you know, I think the improvements are great. In the 15 years I've been riding the T, it has come a long way in terms of service and usability. Yes they still have a way to go, but they TRY. And that's key. They TRY. And sometimes it comes out great, like the Time Apps, and others, it blows (like TVs at Park Street). But you don't know unless you TRY. And that's exactly what they are doing.
And while I'm at it, you're complaining about a improvement that cost 500k in a software upgrade. That's pocket change in terms of software costs. My last company updated its time keeping software for all 9000 users, licenses, training, and lots of other stuff. How much do you think that costs? I'll give you a hint, its in the double digit millions. 500k is nothing by comparison.. I just spent that in Microsoft Office upgrades ALONE last year.
Enough.
GovDelivery
One other thing I want to add, and I'll drop the whole thing (I have far to much to do tonight to bother anymore)
You are aware that the system that the T uses is a company called GovDelivery? This is important to know which throws out half your argument.
Keep that in mind while I tell you a story.
Initially the T-Alert System as rolled out as an internal system that the MBTA bought and managed. For an initial system, like any new software system, it was very buggy. But the MBTA fixed it and used it for a few years.
MassDOT decided that they wanted something similar for road alerts. In comes GovDelivery. MassDOT uses GD, not only for alerts, but just about every single piece of customer facing communications (i.e. email).
Well rather than have two separate systems that do not talk to each other. Plus a internally managed system by the T that I'm sure the T had no interest in managing (as do most IT folks like myself these days like to outsource this stuff.. less headache). Soooo MassDOT folded the T-Alert system into GovDelivery and scrapped the inital system. All the T has to do now is probably go into some GovDelivery portal to update T-Alerts (hence a predetermined alert) and *poof* the messages go out. (and also get updated to MassDOT users also)
This is why you had to re-register for T-Alerts a few years ago. You also got many more features when they did this. It also allowed you to consolidate all your notification accounts into one using GovDelivery. Essentially one source for all things transit related in the state.
And regardless of what you think, it is FAR better than the old system in terms of timely notifications, up to date information, and management of your account. Far better.
So you want to nit pic, go nit pick MassDOT.
The MBTA lowering
The MBTA lowering expectations and quietly ceasing to do what it always has done in order to claim "it's impossible" in the near future since 1964
When equipment is *from* 1964...
If you're dealing with equipment that has been around since 1964, and it's now 2015, you shouldn't expect it to still work the way it did back then. A huge amount of MBTA infrastructure, including rolling stock, is way past its expected lifetime. Some stuff didn't even get the midlife overhaul that is assumed when those expected lifetimes are calculated.
I'd rather they lower expectations, if that's closer to reality than pretending everything is just hunky dory.
My Blue Line Train Crept Along Very Slowly Today ...
... and they're only a few years old!
Took the Blue Line
to the airport a couple of weeks ago. Although they're only seven years old, those Seimens cars are already getting very long in the tooth.
I ride everyday
and I've never experienced this. The only issues I've ever had are 'wire problems' further up the line.
Where were you?
My post was in reference to
the appearance of the cars, particularly the interiors (and no, litter doesn't count). Funny you mention wire problems though. Because the day I was going to the airport, they were running shuttle buses between Airport and Wonderland, and exactly ONE train between Airport and Bowdoin, due to a wire failure.
really now?
really now. I think the Blue Line Car's interior is far better than any other line right now. Even the Breda's from 2001 are dingy looking now.
The BL cars still shiney in some spots.
upholstery
I could do without the upholstery on the orange line trains, especially the night I sat down on a seat someone had peed on. At least with the plastic seats you can see what's on the seat.
Oh my god, that is the stuff
Oh my god, that is the stuff of nightmares! That is like, BART level nasty.
Give 'em a break!
How fast were you going when you were only a few years old?! Bet you crawled too!
uh
please name some equipment from 1964 and before that is still in service. Sorry "work" cars do not count along with the trolleys at Boylston (and Mattapan Line)
The oldest cars still in use are the 1969 Red Line cars...
Red Line -- Ashmont to Mattapan
Aren't they still running pretty antique equipment on this line?
You musthave
commented after I re-edited it and added Mattapan to it.
OK OUTSIDE of Mattapan.. which btw always shuts down in cold weather because they ARE old. Anything else?
OK Outside of Mattapan
which always shuts down in cold weather because the T really doesn't want to run it anyway and looks for any excuse to substitute buses.
FIFY.
When did they finally pull the really old....
... Red Line cars (on the main Red Line) out of service?
(I don't remember seeing Mattapan mentioned in your initial post, but then I don't necessarily always notice everything).
refresh
refresh the page with SHIFT held down.
True.
"The current set of PCC cars have been in continuous revenue service since the late 1940s except for maintenance and rebuild programs" -Wikipedia
Signals and switches
Some of those are pretty darn old.
not really
The oldest are the Green Line
Orange Line North (Haymarket to Oak Grove) was recently re done a few years ago
Orange Line South (Haymarket to Forest Hills) are from the 1980s when the SW Corridor was built
Red Line, Braintree Line is from late 70s, early 80s.
Red Line, Alewife is from the mid-1980s
Red Line, Cambridge line is was updated when the stations were updated to six cars in the 1980s.
Blue Line was re done in the 1990s.
And in transit world folks, the late 70s/early 1980s is not considered very old.
30 years old is old.
do you still drive the same car you drove 30 years ago? use the same electronics? no?! wow, crazy. it's almost like these things are less effective as they get older, especially when they're in heavy use on a daily basis.
While there is a point in
While there is a point in there somewhere, comparing a car to a train or aircraft or something that is actually designed with heavy use in mind, and without planned obsolescence factored, is just a really poor analogy. For example, there are DC-9s still in use today, and they were last produced in 1982. I would imagine there are 737s in use that are pushing 30+ years old.
Sure, they aren't going to be as good as they were 30 years ago, but comparing them to a car is kind of obtuse. Besides, I doubt you service your car as much as the T does their trains.
That said, the trolleys the MBTA uses are absolutely horrific in design, and the T makes their design flaws far worse in how they use them. Entry through stairs (mitigated slightly on the newer trains, but only on underground stops), and only one open door at most stops. It's a clusterfuck, but one we've expected out of the MBTA. I've ridden plenty of mass transit systems around the world, and I can honestly say that only Taganrog, Russia may have been worse in terms of design/execution, but it cost a quarter to ride. Prague has similar trams, but they do they intelligent thing and have on-board validation of tickets, so the train will sit at a stop only for a short amount of time.
The T would rather inconvenience 100 riders to maybe avoid a few fare evaders. Because of this, the average Joe that is commuting to/from Boston College each day loses about 10-15 minutes of their life to their commute each day, and I would imagine that adds up over time. But hey, at least a few cash-strapped schlubs didn't get a free ride! But I digress...
This is right on. Some of the
This is right on. Some of the winter snow removal vehicles (plows and other special equipment) I've seen are from the mid 1980s and are totally rusted out. They do try to keep equipment going but a lot of it is just complete crap. A lot of MBTA vehicles in general are in really rough shape, even the ones that are under 10 years old. Daily driving plus harsh New England weather don't bode so well for these cars. I think one of the major issues is not having the funding to replace them. From what I've seen, they try to repair them and keep them on the road until they completely die or fall apart.
I like to make the best of it
I pretend that I'm riding the Opportunity Mars rover to work.
Temperature, not wind chill, right?
I presume that the anticipated equipment problems are because of the low actual temperatures, right? Why the hell would wind chill have any effect on inanimate objects?
Yes, you're right
Although mightn't windchill be an issue with those Green Line heater things that start fires every so often? But I went with windchill because I happened to know where that was heading and was too lazy at that moment to look up the expected actual temperatures.
I just love the fact that you just used "mightn't".
Plus 2 for that one.
Adam'll Often Use Clever And Interesting Text
Didja
Channeling theszak--
Channeling theszak--
Which large transit systems (with subways) perform well in very cold winter weather? (is it too much to ask the MBTA to emulate them?)
Chicago? Toronto? Montreal (the guys with rubber wheels)?
Well, I'm glad that I didn't
Well, I'm glad that I didn't sell my car. The MBTA is absolutely pathetic.
No Repeats
Better not have a repeat of 2 winters ago and last winter when multiple trains failed, track problems at jfk wrecking morning and afternoon commutes in 2 days and the old constant signal problems.
Welcome to Boston where Blistering cold and 40 year old trains and 1980's equipment don't mix very well.
I'm watching you two go back and forth
But do you realize anything the T does has to be bid on and they have to take the lowest bidder ? Do you know how easy it is tho have the Mattapan line shut down due to snow ? Wouldn't you rather know that ahead of time that the line will be shut down ? How about the other lines and yes the green line is the worst when it comes to bad weather because there's a lot of factors built in like running on the street, motor vehicles blocking the rails or maybe an auto accident. Then there is the green line car itself which has come a long way when it comes to bad weather. It used to be worse. The orange and red lines have what they call track circuits and if there's any signal problems there are huge delays just because of that and then you have the vehicles on them lines which for the most psrt hold up pretty well. I think before anybody comments on the T you really need to do your homework on the overall picture. Yes things could be better but you should be happy with what you got. Would you rather be out on the roads in a snow storm ?