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Mattapan Line back up several days early; commuter rail still having problems
By adamg on Mon, 02/23/2015 - 7:45am
People on a Worcester Line train warned people on platforms. Photo by Parker Morse.
Lots of canceled trains on commuter rail, and the ones that are running are packed to the gills, partly due to cancellations, partly due to the shorter trains and single-level cars. In at least one case, people were forced to ride in the lavatory.
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And they're still cancelling trains..
...even with the reduced schedule. They've cancelled Rockport trains 101 & 108 (7:40 AM from North Station, returns from Rockport at 9:10 AM) this morning "due to equipment shortage." Shortly thereafter, they tweeted that an extra train will leave Reading at 8:30 AM (I suppose because they realized that TWO trains is not enough for the Reading-Wakefield-Melrose stretch).
Of course, my northside-centric outlook made me think the inner-Haverhill Line riders have it worst right now, then I looked at the Stoughton schedule.
They're running the extra train
from Reading at 8:30 because the train out of Haverhill that's assumed the schedule of the old 7:30 out of Reading left about 40 people on the platform at Wakefield, and then blew through all the remaining stops between Wakefield and Malden without stopping.
When refusing to let some people board at Wakefield, the contuctor even acknowledged that they would be running an extra train.
Think that "packed to the
Think that "packed to the gills" train is the one I'm on. Still not to Yawkey.
6:33a out of Providence...
The 6:33am out of Providence was jam-packed by Mansfield. Sharon riders got the luxury of standing the whole way in, even as we stopped to pick up more at Canton Junction.
Standing on public transit!
Standing on public transit, thats a daily occurrence for bus and subway riders, many of whom spend just as long commuting (due to slow buses and transfers on the subways).
Well, that narrative isn't looking too good.
So, about that ongoing narrative that everything is being done for everyone in the suburbs at the expense of the urban core...leave it to the T to blow that up.
On a more serious note, if another (related) narrative is true, i.e., that the Governor's power base is in the suburbs, well, what now, Governor?
This one is going to be interesting...
Baker has a real mess on his hands. At the rate they're going, it'll likely be April or longer before commuter rail is really back up and running. In the long run, the questions will start again about what is the best method of operation for this system. If Keolis cannot achieve a miraculous turn-around in the next six months or so, there will be calls for their termination. But that would mean that since the 1980's, four outside contractors (three private, one federal) had essentially been run off from this contract due to poor performance and/or contracting issues. If Keolis fails and/or is fired by the Commonwealth, I don't really think there is any option but for the MBTA to directly hire the railroad operations employees and set up their own operating division in-house. This is how ALL larger commuter railroads in the US operate.*
I just can't imagine that happening on Baker's watch - it would seem to be an anathema for him to allow for such a massive public sector takeover. Will be very interesting to watch - only wish it wasn't making my commute so difficult in the process.
*All larger northeastern railroads (LIRR, Metro-North, NJ Transit, SEPTA) are directly operated. Only "larger" contract operations are four Metra (Chicago) lines, which are contract operated by the freight railroads which own them. Metra directly operates the remaining seven lines.
Question
But this begs the question.. is it the contractors or is it something else? (i.e. trains, cars, employees, or intentional sabotoge)
Honestly, I think it's just
Honestly, I think it's just the shitty weather coupled with under-investment. The problems on the commuter rail largely boil down to two things: frozen switches and out of service locomotives. 8 feet of snow like we had would have doomed just about any commuter rail or intercity passenger operation. What's strung it out is that there simply aren't enough working switch heaters throughout the system, and the number of operative locomotives has plummeted.
There's no grand conspiracy. We just have an old system that buckled under the strain of unprecedented snow. We're getting new locomotives now, though they've been delayed entering service for mechanical reasons. If all 40 new locomotives and the incoming bilevels had been delivered this year instead of next, much of the equipment crunch we're experiencing would have been alleviated. It wouldn't have solved everything, but the number of 35+ year old locomotives on the system crapping out in the cold, snow, and ice would have been minimized.
For the record, from what I
For the record, from what I've heard the new bilevels (which are steaming piles of shit) are even more problematic in this weather, since they're far more complicated and have issues with things like the power doors not working in the cold. The Rotems are not helping reliability one bit.
They have an agreed on list
They have an agreed on list of modifications that Rotem is making to the cars at a facility in Rhode Island, including the doors. I have heard that the cars that have been modified are running well, but so far they have finished 25 out of 75 so they have a way to go. The 800-series trailer coaches also have fewer problems than the 1800-series cab cars.
It's the equipment the MBTA
It's the equipment the MBTA is giving to the contractors, not the contractors themselves, but that won't stop people from blaming the contractors.
Outside Contractors Are In Business To Make A Profit ...
... providing good service will always be their secondary concern.
Which is why most systems
Which is why most systems large enough to efficiently run in-house are run in-house.
It's time the T follows suit.
but
but another question looms..
The MBTA can barely manage what it has, what makes you think it'll manage running the CR also?
Well, bringing it in house
Well, bringing it in house would reduce the number of people involved in running it, for one. Remember the T already does everything administrative, like setting schedules and fares, purchasing equipment, capital projects, service alerts, etc.
I see fewer potential points of failure when one entity is doing everything.
To look at it another way, imagine how much worse off the subway could potentially be right now if it had been contracted out?
but
That doesn't mean it will mean better service at all.
Like I said, the MBTA can barely run what it has to manage now, I don't think adding CR back into the fold would make it any better.
I honestly believe that the issue isn't management at Keolis, but just being handed a bag of shit when they signed on. Crappy, poorly maintained, ancient equipment. I think if equip was newer, we wouldn't have as many issues as we've had the past few weeks.
Well duh the issue is the T,
Well duh the issue is the T, not Keolis.
But eliminating Keolis from the picture would make the whole situation much less complicated and eliminate this whole blame dance everyone's been doing. The T would have no one to blame but itself.
My Speculation ...
... is that promotions within the Ⓣ have been driven by factors other than an individual's skills and knowledge of how to operate and maintain the system.
I should think that the person most capable to be the Ⓣ's General Manager, would be someone from within, with years of hands-on experience of the system's peculiarities and vulnerabilities. Bringing in outsiders to make significant improvements or "clean house" can be counterproductive. What employee would't bristle at some stranger telling them how to do their job, when the stranger doesn't understand what the job actually entails?
Alas, changing the internal (and external) politics of the Ⓣ seems a task more daunting than cleaning up after too many winter snowstorms. I'm not sure whether the Governor's new commission offers any glimmer of hope.
They have had a major crew
They have had a major crew shortage as well, and that falls on Keolis not the MBTA
another question
but the question to that is.. if they are being 'fee'd' to death by the T for lackluster performance, where's the money to be made? It's being thrown out the window in fees.
The real question is this
Which is more cost effective for Keolis - to maintain and operate a train, or to just pay the fine for not running the train instead?
IIRC there is a maximum cap on the non-performance fines. Rumor has it that, shortly after MBCR's contract was renewed, they gave the T a payment equal to the maximum fine called for in the contract.
With the exception of
With the exception of Metrolink and LA and much of the DC-area system. Private sector operators are relatively common for most commuter rail systems across the country save for NY and Philly areas. The primary reason MBTA Commuter Rail is run by private operators is that bringing it all in house would be phenomenally more expensive. It's not as though making everyone a MBTA employee as opposed to a Keolis employee would magically make schedules better. Decisions like schedules, fares, and equipment purchases/rehabs, are all made by MBTA management anyway.
This is an interesting point about the commuter systems
I knew this in the back of my head, but didn't bubble it up to think about it recently. It is an excellent observation, point and question.
That said, I know what Baker's middle-of-the-road response would be: "If the T were able to demonstrate, with data, that it would be able to do a better job running the commuter rail in house, then I would consider them just like any other operator."
Well technically Metro-North
Well technically Metro-North does contract out its West-of-Hudson service..... to NJT. ;)
From what I'm hearing, there are rumblings of the MBTA doing a sort of emergency takeover of commuter rail ops. I don't know if that's true, or if it's even possible given the language of the contract. And you know Keolis would sue.
This may well be the catalyst for the T to finally bring them in-house for good (though I know I've been saying that for a while now). It just makes sense.
I'm very curious what his new T oversight committee's findings will be.
T is never going to bring
T is never going to bring Commuter Rail in-house. Adding thousands of new employees to the state's payroll ain't going to fly politically, especially with this governor. In-house or contracted out, we still would have had the same mess we've had for the last month due to years of underinvestment and shitty procurement decisions (which were made in-house by MBTA management FWIW). What will prevent a future service meltdown is $$$ -- not some commission or booting Keolis.
Note though that those
Note though that those thousands of employees are already being paid by the state indirectly. If anything there are efficiencies to be gained by combining payrolls.
Yes, the T needs more investment, and yes it would have still been a mess recently, but in the long run I guarantee you it would be better for the T to run the CR in-house.
However MBTA employees doing
However MBTA employees doing the same or equivalent jobs as contractor employees make more. An MBTA carpenter makes more than a Keolis carpenter, an MBTA electrician makes more than a Keolis electrician etc. If you bring commuter rail in house, once it is time to negotiate new contracts, an arbitrator will rule that the new agreements with the former commuter rail workers should be at the same wage as existing MBTA employees. That will cost big time.
Get used to this...
No one at Keolis is saying anything, but I've heard rumors from folks on the railroad that it might be two weeks or more before this "recovery schedule" is over. Buckle up.
Among those with a tough commute
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, who boarded a train in Worcester at 6:45 a.m., arrived at South Station at 8:55.
This is an interesting note about Polito.
I see a couple of scenarios:
1) Keolis doesn't know that she took (takes?) that train, so didn't do what often happens when a boss shows up;
2) Keolis knew she was on the train, and the system is so f$%^ed that they couldn't do what often happens when a boss shows up; or
3) Keolis didn't know that she took (takes?) that train, is getting ripped a new one right now, and is somehow, magically, going to make things tomorrow.
This is (hopefully) about to get a whole lot more interesting. I wonder if anyone on the train recognized Polito and gave her an earful. Alternatively, I wonder if people recognized her but are so beaten down by this inexcusable debacle that they said nothing.
Same train
There was really only one train on the Worcester line today. The 502 arrives at South Station at 7:02 if it's on schedule, so early that it's not heavily used. Most people try for the 506 or 508. The 506 is the one Polito, and I, and anyone else who made it to the city by 9, were on. The 508, scheduled to get in at 8:42 (on the "recovery schedule" - it's an express on the normal schedule, getting in before 8:30) was about an hour late as far as I can tell. So the choice today was (a) try to cram on the ridiculously overcrowded train, if they'll let you, and be later than expected anyway, (b) be really, really, really late to work, or (c) work from home, if you're so fortunate for that to be an option for you.
I picked (a) today. If tomorrow looks anywhere near this bad, I'm picking (c).
Leave it to the MBTA to make sitting in a car in the parking lot which is the Pike in Allston look like the smart choice.
Was it that tough?
Only 30 minutes late. Sad that it's come to that.
I think what's even more alarming is that the Worcester to South Station trip is normally scheduled to take 1 hr 40 minutes.
That's brutal. And really, really slow by commuter rail standards. Average of 27 mph. Even American commuter rail usually manages to do mid-30s mph.
The Worcester line should get
The Worcester line should get a speed boost soon, now that the state has purchased it from CSX. CSX maintained it to standards great for freight, but not good enough for passenger, and the T is still working on bringing the track standards up. Plus the signal system needs to be replaced, Beacon Park is still a single-track bottleneck, and the Newton stops will remain a bottleneck until they're finally twinned.
>The Worcester line should
>The Worcester line should get a speed boost soon
...
>the T is still working on bringing the track standards up. Plus the signal system needs to be replaced, Beacon Park is still a single-track bottleneck, and the Newton stops will remain a bottleneck until they're finally twinned.
The MBTA took control of Beacon Park in what, fall 2013, on a deal that had been in planning since 2008 or so. Why has there been zero progress towards this supposedly "simple" double tracking? They should have been driving spikes the day the deal closed.
They've had complete ownership of the line since fall of 2012, I believe. And yet fixing the track to address heat delays didn't start till last summer, and will continue through this summer.
Are there even tangible plans or rfps for re-signaling the line?
Are there even sugarplum-level dreams of redoing the Newton platforms?
Sorry, the timetable for getting a speed boost shows no semblance of "soon."
>Even American commuter rail
>Even American commuter rail usually manages to do mid-30s mph.
Really? I didn't look into their methodology, but these guys say low 30s is average, suggesting that just as many RRs average in the high 20s as in the mid 30s: http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/FactBook/APTA_2010_Fa... (see page 12)
The problem with the Worcester line is that it's something like 45 miles long but has 9 stops (soon to be 10) in the last 14 miles of the line. The line *needs needs needs* new signals and interlockings ASAP to allow schedules to be more flexible in allowing long-distance express trains to run simultaneously with locals. And even better would be the use of MUs, at least out to Framingham, to allow faster acceleration between stops.
Getting some high-level platforms at Back Bay would also be nice...
After observing how the T is
After observing how the T is unable to run 4 trains per hour through a single-track without late trains causing huge cascading delays, I'm skeptical that they'd be able to manage a two-track express-local passing scheme.
Caltrain manages to squeeze a lot of express trains through a two-track line. They even have timed transfers from express to local trains! But everything's better managed out west. http://www.caltrain.com/schedules/weekdaytimetable.html
High-level platforms should be a priority at the busiest stations that don't already have them. But oversize freight clearance might be a problem.
My understanding is that much
My understanding is that much of it boils down to the signalling systems and interlockings. The Worcester line just doesn't have the ability to use the two tracks very densely due to the signaling system and lack of interlockings/crossovers between the two tracks.
Good primer
Here's a good primer on what's holding back the Worcester line: http://www.archboston.org/community/showpost.php?p=213803&postcount=339
And they manage to time those
And they manage to time those Caltrain expresses through the horrific Palo Alto winters.
Are you ok with the T
Are you ok with the T commuter rail's on-time performance the other 9 months of the year?
Worcester line
Yeah, that sounds about right. The Worcester line has 15 stops in all. But that's not that many. 15 stops in a 44.3 route-mile line is not very much and doesn't call for MUs on the long-haul trip. For all-day inner service, yes, MUs make sense. But for the full-length route, if the signals and track were upgraded, then the Worcester line should be on the upper end of the speed range, even with loco-hauled trains, because it makes so few stops relatively speaking.
The main part of the Caltrain line (SJ to SF) is, coincidentally, almost exactly the same length as the Worcester line (slightly longer, actually). Caltrain uses similar equipment and practices to MBTA CR. Caltrain has something like 22 weekday station stops -- more than 15. Yet an all-stops local typically takes 1 hr 33 minutes. It has more stops, on a slightly longer route, and yet operates at least 5 to 10 minutes faster. And Caltrain is no paragon. They're actually rather poorly run by international standards.
Express Caltrain trips ("Baby Bullet") making no more than 7 stops can cover their 47.3 miles in an hour. Express Worcester trains require 1 hr 17 minutes, as scheduled, making 9 stops over 44.3 miles. And I'm not sure I believe that time. I don't travel to Worcester often but the last time I did, I made sure to use the express, and it still wound up taking over 1.5 hours.
You are right that there is a need for upgraded signals and additional interlockings. That will open up a lot of schedule flexibility. They could lift the speed limit east of Framingham from 60 mph to at least 79 mph. But west of Framingham is already outfitted with upgraded cab signals. Yet it consistently takes 44 minutes in the morning to go the 22.9 miles from Worcester to Framingham. That's only 31.2 mph with only 5 stops to handle.
Now some of that is probably dwell time (hey, that could use work too), but the best that can be managed is 39 minutes over the same section, which works out to 35.2 mph at best. Now that sounds a lot better than 27 mph, but keep in mind that this section of the Worcester line has inter-station gaps of almost 4.6 miles. That's huge. In this section of the line, west of Framingham, the train should be making up the time that it loses while east of Framingham.
For example, looking at Caltrain again, the weekend Baby Bullet from SJ to Milbrae has a comparable inter-station gap at 4.8 miles on average. Yet, it manages to complete that 33.8 mile trip in 48 minutes, averaging 42.2 mph. Much faster. If the MBTA was averaging 42.2 mph west of Framingham then it would shorten the all-stops local trip by about 11 minutes, a much more reasonable length. And then if they ever got around to fixing the east-of-Framingham section, then we'd be talking about how Worcester was "only an hour away" by commuter rail.
Why did it take so much
Why did it take so much longer to get the Mattapan line going again that it did for all the other light rail (B,C,D, E)? Is it something about the people that use it being less important to the MBTA, or is it the equipment? If it is the equipment, when will the MBTA get new trolleys for the mattapan line, since the B,C,D and E lines have all have at least some new trains, and even their oldest trains are newer than the Mattapan lines.
There are far fewer people
There are far fewer people riding Mattapan than every other line. They only have so many track maintenance people. Getting the Red and Orange lines dug out first is going to take priority over Mattapan.
Well, the usage stats on the
Well, the usage stats on the Mattapan line are pretty suspect. The conductors almost never charge people (especially from Ashmont -> Mattapan), and, from my experience the thing is packed to the gills running 4 minute headways during rush hours.
I think they still don't use
I think they still don't use fare collection data to determine ridership -- they send people out to count by hand.
Remember that news story from a few years ago about how the fare revenue data was useless, and randomly high or low by millions of dollars every year?
because
It will never happen. Many of the rail crossings on that line cannot support the weight of newer trolleys. This is why the red line was never fully extended to Mattapan when it was converted from trolley service in the 20s.
Mattapan is more 'historic' than a real transit line..
Well it really wasn't
Well it really wasn't extended due to political issues - Milton didn't want to lose its 3 stops, and Lower Mills didn't want to lose its 2 stops if heavy rail was put in. Most likely Cedar Grove and Butler would have been gone, and Milton/Central/Valley Road would be combined to 1 stop, with Capen St being combined with Mattapan. At this point it is a historic/legacy line running some of the oldest (but nicely overhauled) trolley cars in the country, so it is kind of cool.
olympics
Are the MBTA failures supposed to make public receptive to the Olympic Big Dig Payola Redux?
"Something drastic needs to be done about the T, and this nice salesman says that the Olympics is the way to do it!"