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It's become the Blue Line riders' bane: Signal woes at Orient Heights remain
By adamg on Wed, 08/02/2023 - 7:26am
Update: The T reported at 9:17 a.m. the problem was fixed and things were back to what passes for normal these days.
Good thing the T has all these alternatives to the Sumner Tunnel in place because it's reporting there are still signal problems at Orient Heights causing all sorts of delays on the Blue Line.
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Comments
Comical
Yesterday AM commute: Knew I had a 9am in-person meeting. Left myself an extra 15 mins on top of the schedule that gets me in by 8:50, so an extra 25 mins total. Green line shits the bed at Arlington, I sit at Park with no communication on my train aside from “standing by.” Eventually I hear ANOTHER train’s announcement of a disabled train, and then in the station. Nothing from my conductor or MBTA digital comms to that point. I walk the rest of the the way, roll in 10 mins late, and nice and sweaty.
Yesterday PM commute: Doomscrolling Twitter on the Green Line and see the Blue Line is a mess due to a signal problem at Orient Heights. Not a fun journey home.
This AM: Just about ready to leave and see there are delays on the Blue Line due to a signal problem…at Orient Heights, again.
For those keeping score, that’s MBTA tic-tac-toe. I’d try to connect 4 but said screw it and threw the sweatpants back on.
I'm screwed 3x
1. Chelsea (broadway) has turned into the cut thru from 1A and 16 to the tobin bridge, so traffic along Broadway backups almost all the way to Revere from downtown Chelsea most days.
which leads me #2
2. Makes the 111, 112, 116, 117 totally useless because they get stuck in traffic which increases headways. Not just in Chelsea but the 112 gets stuck near Wood Island (last time took 25 minutes to get from Neptune road into the station). The 111 is useless because it just sits in traffic on the bridge. And the 116/117 are useless because they fight traffic their entire route (except beyond Revere Center).
So that leaves me with using the Silver Line, which usually is the slowest route, but now its the fastest. Providing I get off at Airport and use the Blue Line to the Orange Line. (Because the Ted Williams now backs up to 16 from the tunnel so its slow moving for the SL)
3. Being what happened today on the BL. Made an already longer commute even longer. And I thought I was doing good by leaving 15m earlier and being on an earlier SL bus to Airport. All time gained was lost waiting over 20m for a train at Airport AND having to skip two trains because they were so full (so took me over 30 to get on a train).
I begged to switch to days (I was working nights) because getting home after midnight was a chore (2+ hours to go something that is less than 15m by car or an hour walk). Not sure that was a wise idea..
PS - Then I get double screwed the last few days because Haymarket Station is closed. Every possible way in and out of Chelsea is absolutely horrid.
Sounds like Chelsea should add bus lanes on Broadway
and anywhere else there is a heavily-used bus route? Maybe the Tobin should have a bus lane as well, for the 111 bus.
This, of course
requires enforcement of the bus lanes, which (looks at police enforcement of traffic laws in general)....don't count on it
Tobin
Tobin has a bus lane. But it only goes over the bridge. It joins regular traffic once it descends into the City Square tunnel.
Broadway in the city center also has a bus lane from City Hall to Everett Ave.
But people drive in those lanes so it doesn't help (especially now because there's so much traffic). Enforcement is a joke, and how can they.. police are stuck in traffic also (ChelseaScanner says this often.. the EMS and CPD are getting stuck in the same traffic)
Its all around bad here in the AM and PM commutes.
I feel so
bad for people commuting from Chelsea and Revere. It’s already way less efficient having to rely mostly on busses, then throw in all the traffic. Commuter rail an option?
for me?
No. That's like walking to Market Basket for me.. which is a 10m walk. Which would put me at N Station, then gotta transfer to orange. I'm not sure it would save me any sort of time at all due to the wait time and transfer times.
fwiw.. for many years before the Silver Line opened, I kept a log of travel times on the T (no matter where I went). And I've pretty much determined (in normal T slowness) that to get anywhere was 45m to 1hr, no matter what mode(s) you took.
Thats why when the Silver Line opened, I laughed because it was about the same to where I worked if I walked to the Seaport from Aquarium vs Silver Line to Courthouse. It was dead on 36m each path I took. So the SL did nothing for me and my commute at the time.
Has it not occurred to anyone
Has it not occurred to anyone that the success of MBTA services could be leading to more people coming to Boston in search of them.
What’s your definition
of success?
Unfortunately
it's getting anyone to respond to his low-effort, nonsensical troll shit