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Red Line delays are severe due to dead train near Harvard Square
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Situation normal.
Situation normal.
Welcome to Monday Morning
Snow or no snow, this is what Monday mornings are like on the T.
Charlie on the MBTA
To compare the winter storms Charlie Baker has gone through as compared to Bev Scott is like the comparison between the Patriots playing the Atlanta Falcons or Foxboro High school. I will give Charlie kudos for his media skills, if the T breaks down its the unions fault if the T works it is because of Charlie Baker management skills. He should get out and ride the T more often because at the Patriots victory celebration he was booed because thousands of teens playing hooky thought he was Roger Goodell.
Rhyme?
Why does this not rhyme? WHYYYYYYYYYY
But it does, more or less
I admit, a poet I ain't, but ..
Red Line delays are severe
Due to dead train near Harvard Square
Well, OK, I can see it not rhyming if ...
Red Line delays are seveah
Due to dead train near Harvard Squayuh
Gah, curses, foiled recovering New Yorker strikes again!
Are you pronouncing "Severe"
Are you pronouncing "Severe" like "Sevare" or "Square" like "Squeer"?
( of course, "se-ve-UH" rhymes with "squa-UH" )
I was stuck at Davis for more
I was stuck at Davis for more than 45 mins. My husband dropped me off at Alewife at 8am, I made into my office at 5 mins before 10. This is normally a half hour commute!
Haverhill Line also a mess
9:05 inbound train out of Haverhill ran 45 minutes late due to "mechanical and signal problems". 9:15 outbound train out of North Station delayed in Melrose 60 minutes due to fallen tree on tracks near Melrose Highlands.
Ended up taking bus from Wakefield to Oak Grove, and Orange Line from Oak Grove to Tufts. Except for a delay leaving Oak Grove, no significant problems with either service.
delays persisted
I waited ten minutes for an inbound train at Kendall at about 11:15am. The lights kept going on & off inside the station; I don't know what was going on. The train arrival sign was out of commission.
Don't get lazy
Red Line delays you can't bear due to dead train near Harvard Square
I might have suggested
I might have suggested "unfair". Definitely would have saved severe for Revere.
I was just thinking that it
I was just thinking that it speaks to the relative good health of the Blue Line that "severe", which was probably being held in reserve for "Revere", went unneeded for so long that it was finally pressed into service to rhyme with "square". Or to play along...
"Blue line has rhyming words to spare, so use one of theirs for Harvard Square"
Also I have a friend who grew up in Malden who says "beer" and "bear" as if they were the same word, so perhaps the rhyme works regionally.
I don't understand
why rail vehicles in the US don't have passenger operated doors like they do in Europe. Train pulls in the station, you hit the button, the doors remain open for long enough to allow you and other passengers to board or deboard, and then they close again. Keeps climate-controlled air inside the car where it belongs, especially at above-ground stations or on trolleys.
It really shouldn't be that
It really shouldn't be that difficult for a conductor to realize "Hey this train is outside in freezing weather, and all the doors are open. Maybe people are uncomfortable?"
I remember
I thought that the T leaves the doors open so people can choose to leave if they want - emergency exit and all that. I could well be wrong, but I thought it was policy and an exit situation and is true year 'round.
If each car had an employee that could operate the doors, maybe it would be different. But the T has gone the route of reducing employees on the trains, so this is the standard SOP without modifying the existing cars for rider control of the doors.
A Great Feature On Blue Line Trains!
The Blue Line's passenger-operated doors are necessary at Bowdoin, but the feature can be used at any station. It doesn't happen all the time, but when a train has to standby for a few minutes in very cold weather at an exposed station (e.g.: Suffolk Downs), the operator can invoke the option to use it.
They'll close the doors but make an announcement about the delay, explaining that anyone wanting to get on or off the train can simply press the button to open the doors. It's a little thing, but it makes a big difference. Instead of just apologizing for the delay, the driver is actually doing something to make their passengers' wait more comfortable!
Too many Americans would be
Too many Americans would be too stupid to figure out the door controls, and would then pull the emergency brake because they missed their stop.
It's worth noting though that the blue line does have this feature. It's normally only used at Bowdoin due to one of the platforms not being long enough for a full train, but some operators will use it during inclement weather.
Headways at Park towards Ashmont/Braintree
8: 01, 07, 09, 12, 16, 19, 23, 44,
9: 13, 16, 34, 39, 43, 46, 49, 56
10: 03, 07, 10, 13, 16, 19, 28, 38, 41, 48, 51, 57
Two trains between 8:23 and 9:13 when there are supposed to be 15 or 16!
Having spent some time in Chicago, this basically never happens there. They run 22 trains per hour at peak rush hour on the busiest lines and don't regularly have gaps more than about 6 minutes. Yet SOP at the T is 15 or 20 minute gaps.
No wonder no one could get on at Central at 9:30.
Every time I come home from
Every time I come home from visiting Chicago I cry when I have to get on the MBTA again.
To be fair to the T
You are not posting a normal schedule.
I will also note (not to your post, but in general) that today is the tougher day for the T. They are dealing with the after effects of the storm. Could they be doing better? Yup, but yesterday was a quieter day.
Posting what shows up on data feed
Should be 4 min headways, rising to 6 by 10.
The 20+ minute headways were probably Harvard turns. Rare that the T runs short turns unless there's a major delay.
It will be really interesting to see how many fewer such failures there are when the new equipment comes in.
They crossed two trains back
They crossed two trains back at Harvard and two at Park, otherwise everything south waited until an inspector could get to the southbound train stuck between Porter and Harvard; than make a decision to tach on the next train and push after failed attempts to get the disabled to move on its own; then have the first train unload at Harvard; then have the second pusher unload at Harvard, and then have the now 12-car train proceeded empty to Cabot shops (pushed all the way to the portal south of Andew). With 20/20 hindsight, If they knew ahead of time how long it was going to take to get the train moving, it porbably would have been a good idea to cross even more trains back at Harvard, but its not always clear when a train has a mechanical problem if its going to take 5 minutes to resolve or 45 minutes to resolve.