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Commuter rail just gets worse and worse
By adamg on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 9:45am
Charlie on the Commuter Rail describes what one might think is a scene from a third-world railroad station at Ruggles the other night, except that's probably an insult to third-world railroad stations:
... Nothing came in when or where it was supposed to. The Needham Heights train that shows up at Ruggles at 4:13 PM...didn't. Trains came at the wrong time, half an hour late or more.
And in every single case the conductors didn't bother to announce what the train was.
Some of these trains were coming in within a few minutes of the arrival time of a completely different train. You'd think that conductors would realize that people would be confused, and would announce the destination. But they didn't.
We passengers had to run up and down the station platform every time, looking for a conductor to tell us where the train was going. And even then, most of the conductors still didn't bother to make the announcements. Passengers had to pass the word along instead. ...
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Comments
Working to Rule, my ass!
The commuter rail has become nearly intolerable. And I'd love to find a conductor who will say to my face that it isn't their job to identify the train. If that is truly what they believe, then they should have the courage to tell the passengers that.
In the other thread I see people saying that the conductors are just doing their job, just working the set rules, rather than intentionally delaying the train. Well every time they don't announce the train, passengers have to board, ask those already on the train about the destination, then potentially step back onto the platform. It has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with intentional delay. Every train at Back Bay and Ruggles takes that much longer to load for the simple reason that nobody cares to tell the passengers which delayed train it is.
I've been a mostly happy zone 1 rider for more than ten years, willingly paying extra for the faster and more comfortable ride. No more. In the past three months I have gone from being somebody who loved the commuter rail and bragged about his commute to somebody who was jaded, and finally outraged. I am buying a link pass for January -- there is no time savings on the commuter rail when it is consistently 15 to 20 minutes late.
Try Riding the Bus
At least the commuter rail riders are considered to be important and on their way to work. The MBTA seems to think that it doesn't even have to even adjust schedules for increased run times at rush hour because we bus riders must not really have to get anywhere on time anyway or we'd go all upscale and get cars. Commuter rail riders may complain about delays, but the bus always seems to be screwed up - late, crowded, out of service - because the schedules are pure stupid and they won't change them. Must be because there was some oxygen in the air today.
For me, the commuter rail was only 10-15 minutes late this morning at the last stop before North Station - certainly worth the trudge from North Station to the Navy Yard (kudos to the state workers for a contintuing excellent clearing job on the Charles River Dam, BTW). Since the trains are every 15 minutes during that time, it didn't matter at all.
I didn't even bother taking the bus because I knew that I would be standing at the stop for an indeterminate amount of time, then stranded again on that platform at Sullivan for an hour before the first of four scheduled buses showed up.
Can't we all agree
Everything the MBTA is connected to is woefully run. From the bus, to the subway and trollys, to the commuter rail. We need not decide which is worst. They all suck.
No
They all suck, but at vastly different degrees of suckitude. In increasing degrees of suck:
I used to take the Orange Line to work when I worked by South Station, and that was just fine. It's fairly frequent, I actually found it to be remarkably timely, and it's not a big problem if it's ten minutes late, especially if your stop is Forest Hills. Sometimes a delay, but what the heck, you've got a book -- sit down and read it.
I tried for a month to use public transportation from my home in Rossie to my job in Burlington. This involved getting on an "express" bus at Gov Center -- which eventually stops in front of both the Y and my building. Sounds great, right?
Wrong. Getting on it in the first place at Gov Ctr was iffy. Sometimes they just wouldn't be there, because there was an inbound problem or somebody didn't show up. But getting on the bus in front of the Y in Woburn was a crap shoot. Roll the dice: snake eyes gets you on time, boxcars gets you never comes at all, and all other numbers are from ten minutes to an hour late.
Go ahead, call up the number and try to find something out about where the bus is, whether it's coming, how long you might have to stand there in the rain. You might find out something. You might not. You might just get screamed at.
Sure, all aspects of the T suck. But you don't really know suck until you've depended on the T bus to get to work.
This arguing isn't productive
Believe me, the Orange Line can be a complete and total pain in the ass. Especially north of the city. Last October, there wasn't a single day where I didn't have 10+ minute delay at some point in my ride either in the morning or evening. The month included 3 delays over 30 minutes, too, which the MBTA thoughly never never refunded me for but waiting 14 months to send out vouchers and doing so after I moved and my forwarding expired. And you try reading a book when the entire platform at Malden Center is packed with no train in sight for the last 30 minutes.
Buses suck. Train's suck. Silver Line sucks. Commuter Rail sucks. We don't need to fight amongst ourselves about slight variances in sucking.
And if we agreed it would be?
On any given day, I can take the Orange line (18 minutes away), the Commuter Rail (10 minutes away) or a bus (right in front of my house).
I take the MBCR and the T on a regular basis. Sometimes they're late, and usually it's not by much. Usually they do the job, and sometimes they suck.
The bus? I'll drive, thanks. It is above the threshhold of extreme suckage.
I think it's because, with the rail modes, you get a certain degree of service delay that, although it is for different reasons, is comparable to the kind of delay you'd get if you were driving a car. Let's say the standard of deviation is comparable. So if the commuter rail is fifteen minutes late, I don't really care. I could be that delayed anyway on my own behalf.
On the bus, however, you get the service delay, and then on top of that you get the traffic delay. So it's double the suckage.
I agree with you that the Orange Line sucks worse north of the city. My ridership is almost all between Forest Hills and Back Bay, and I'd say that's pretty much the best stretch of it. When I have to get on in Charlestown, I think it sucks. Malden Center, I don't even know where that is. It's probably over the border into Greater Suckistan.
Your experience
From your exposure to these lines, the bus is much worse. What if someone takes a commuter rail into Malden Center than the Orange Line to Mass Ave and the No. 1 into work. They may have a wonderful experience with the bus, but very negative ones with the Orange Line and Commuter. That experience, though, can co-exist with YOUR experience. We don't need to decide who is the most right about what's the most wrong. The whole system is flawed and the common denomenator is the MBTA.
Sure
I'll agree with that. I don't want it to become a "versus" situation, but I just get tired about endless press coverage of commuter rail woes and the commuter rail getting "bad" when the entire system is screwed up. Will somebody please tell the Glob and the Metro and the Herald that the commuter rail is still doing better than other branches of the same service? They don't seem to care.
The bus routes and schedules have been this way for years, people have been complaining about it for years, and nothing has happened in all that time. Never mind that a very simple and cheap option - change the schedules to reflect rush-hour run times - has never even been tried. Let commuter rail performance slip to even a fraction of those same poor levels and suddenly we have a regional tragedy?
In the mid-90s the red line got so bad that I handed out joke "sleeper car service" announcements. These promised that if you boarded by 10pm the night before, you could arrive at Park Street by 8am.
Perhaps commuter rail is only getting a taste of the poor service they are expected to get used to, like the subway and bus riders? Time will tell.
Swirlygrrl: "I'll agree with
Swirlygrrl:
"I'll agree with that. I don't want it to become a "versus" situation, but I just get tired about endless press coverage of commuter rail woes and the commuter rail getting "bad" when the entire system is screwed up. Will somebody please tell the Glob and the Metro and the Herald that the commuter rail is still doing better than other branches of the same service? They don't seem to care."
Lost causes, perhaps? I can't tell you, but I think the noise of late has to do with Gareth's list:
"They all suck, but at vastly different degrees of suckitude. In increasing degrees of suck:
Subway part of the T
Trolleys (aka Green Line)
Silver Line
Commuter Rail
(insert five extra degrees here)
Bus "
It wasn't that long ago that Commuter Rail would have topped the list, yet now it is worse than the Silver Line. It is the speed of the slide that gets the notice. Plus, there is a difference in what should be possible. Buses are never going to stick to schedule (even with re-printed schedules) as long as they are required to fight traffic. Trains should in theory be able to run on time. That's part of the rationale for pricing the bus at significantly less than the train.
Here's one way of looking at it:
Here's one way to look at it: We can all agree that our public transit sucks and is getting progressively worse.
True, the bus has issues
But my situation isn't so bad. I live about 50 feet from a bus stop serviced by three lines, and 100 yards from a stop serviced by 8 lines. They all go to Forest Hills, and during commute hour, it's rarely more than a five minute wait. It is slower than the commuter rail (as scheduled, not as practiced) not because of inconsistency, but because you spend some time in traffic for that mile ride, then wait a second time for the orange line.
But when everything is running properly on the train, it is only about 15 to 20 minutes faster. My experience with the bus has been that it is consistent, just not as fast. Since the train is now anything but consistent, I'll save some money next month and see how things go.
No Pass Tuesdays
On my ride in this morning there was discussion among several passengers about instituting "No Pass Tuesdays." When the conductor comes by, we should all refuse to show them our passes. It might not be very constructive, but it would be a simple way for us all to show our displeasure with the abysmal level of service we get.
No Pass
I've been doing that everyday lately, and the conductors don't care. They never ask for the pass. I think the only way to make a noticeable statement would be to not purchase a pass.
passes vs. tickets
I used to buy a monthly pass (Zone 8, $2-freakin-50/month). In November, I switched to 12-ride tickets.
On October 31st, I bought two 12-ride, Zone 8 tickets. Total cost: $186. I finally used the last punch a couple days ago. Of course, your mileage may vary -- I took a class this semester, so I had to drive in one day a week, and I went on vacation the week of Thanksgiving. Still.
Folks, we need to keep a
Folks, we need to keep a drumbeat of pressure on the MBTA/MBCR.
The whole system is swirling the drain at this point. They need to feel some pain or nothing is going to change.
I encourage everyone to a) keep submitting claims for every 30 min delay (I've cashed in $100 + recently) and b) Keep writing to your local state reps and the Governor's office.
Question-- can anyone explain to me to whom the MBTA and MBCR are accountable? On Gov Patrick's website FAQ section, it claims that
"Since the MBTA is a quasi-independent agency, Governor Patrick has no administrative control over its daily business. Issues regarding the MBTA can be directed to their Complaints/Commendations line at 617-222-5215."
It seems to me the Mass government could do more than advise us to keep banging our heads against a wall.
Do you want more state accountability?
I'm all for contacting your legislator, but I certainly don't think more state control of the MBTA is a good idea. State government is run as poorly as the T. The solution to all this is better funding for the T. Once we start to solve that issue it can't be a crutch for the T to blame poor service on. Pressure should be applied to your legislators to fund better sources of revenue for the T.