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Stand a little longer with Big Red (tm)
By adamg on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 2:27pm
Now that the Herald has let the cow, er, cat, out of the bag, the T is rolling out a new campaign to convince us that Red Line cars with no seats represent a good idea. And they're calling it Big Red. Just like the gum, only hopefully less sticky on your shoes. Read the T's Big Red brochure.
Here's what a seatless Red Line car looks like without any people:
And here's what a box of Big Red gum looks like:
Hmm, do I smell marketing tie-in? What if Bill Weld moves back to Massachusetts and runs for Senate? OK, so Kerry isn't leaving, but you never know.
Here is a Herald artist's depiction of what a full Big Red car will look like at rush hour (to go with this story):
Ed. This is Why It's Good to Have a Wife Note: Nancy says the Herald kinda blew it with that illustration, that they should have gone with the sardine-can metaphor because the train is going to Alewife. Get it? Alewife, sardines? You know, fish?
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Comments
Good idea..mooo mmooooo
I think this is a good idea....we're only talking about two cars on a red train. More people will be able to mooooooooove along.
-----------------------------------------
who and the what now?
Well, It Will Still Be Better Than...
... hoofing it.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
No Seats?
You will have to have strong calves ...
I Knew I Could Count On You!
Even with our little debate on the other thread, I knew I could count on you for some punning fun!
xxx000
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
By The Way...
If we really try, how long do you think we could milk this?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Wait
Haven't we herd all of these already?
Maybe
Let me ruminate on it for a while.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
I cud stop anytime I wanted to
But I just have to whey in and rennet for all that it's worth!
Haven't we had enough of these cheesy jokes?
Gouda Way to Change The Subject
I knew there was a reason I was fondue you.
What An Udder Waste Of Time
As Swirly said, Havarti had enough of this already?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Yeah... Nobody needed to
Yeah...
Nobody needed to prod her.
Well..
I guess we're just going to have to rennet it into the ground...
Rennet!
I'm not pudding you on; I learned all about that word on a junket I took. It was through the curdish lands. "Whey?" you ask? Just in casein I wanted to fill up Adam's pages with this carp.
Oops. That last one was sorta fishy.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
MBTA plans to address rush hour ridership
1. Remove Seats
2. Allow passengers to ride on the outside
3. Raise fair to $10/day
4. Deter ridership by making stations unsafe
5. increase rush hour train service frequency
Wave to GM Dan! Oh never mind, he's riding in his SUV.
One glaring problem
Did they consider poles in the middle? What are people supposed to hang on to? You can now fit 4 across, and there are only the two bars/straps on either side.
As usual, Boston's NYC simulator only gets it about half right
you beat me to it
all i see in that image is dozens of people smashing against one another because there's not a damned thing to hold on to.
In NYC where there's a lot of standing-capacity, there are stripper poles in the center...
As things are now, WITH seats, there's a lot of people-falling-over when the trains lurch.
This is gonna be hilarious.
What are people supposed to
Schoolgirls?
That's the Green Line
And the guy just pleaded guilty.
But, yes, it is kind of weird that they didn't seem to add more straps, but what do I know? Maybe now that most people know how to use CharlieCards, they'll re-assign some of those station customer-service agents to pack people in so tightly they won't be able to fall down (or get off until Alewife or Braintree, but that's the price you pay for progress).
Well I hear two
Well I hear two complaints
1) They are gonna pack us in there
2) Theres nothing to hold on to
Not for nothing doesnt problem 1 pretty much take care of problem 2 ? ;)
I guess if you're into being manhandled
Some are, some aren't.
I aren't.
Some people pay good money
Some people pay good money to be manhandled
Doesn't it depend on which man...
...is handling you?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
hate that
i hate when tourists touch me "for support" on trains as they are presently configured with just -barely-enough straps and huggable poles.
i'm gonna have to get some shoulder pads and a bigger courier bag, and maybe a boom box, to keep them off me now.
Youve obviously never been
Youve obviously never been in a type 8 green line car
Was this the best they could do?
With all the money they're spending on this program--retrofitting cars, signage, posters, surveys, extra station attendants to warn passengers about the lack of seats on certain cars (!!!), etc.--couldn't they have just, oh, run a couple of extra trains during rush hour, maybe?
Edit: Oh, and like they're really going to do something with the feedback from those ridiculous comment cards. Please!
On the bright side ...
It will be a lot easier to find a place to put down a folding bike.
The only thing I find frustrating about this...
Is that I have the Big Red theme song stuck in my head now! Argh!
So kiss a little longer, hold hands a little longer, hold tight a little longer. Longer with Big Red!
HELP!
SNL Big Red Lumberjack Toy
Rather than the gum commercial, every time I hear the words "Big Red" I think of the stupid Saturday Night Live commercial for the Big Reg Lumberjack toy that spins around and sprays red slime all over the room:
And of course, "Clean-up kit sold separately."
Ashmont line only
I predict these cattle cars will be used almost exclusively on the Ashmont line, where the service is slower and the cars more crowded.
How do you figure?
The ashmont line is more crowded and slower? The Ashmont line has less ridership and equal service due to "social justice"...
All tracks lead to Alewife
so what does it matter? :-)
I'm not so sure that the Ashmont line has less ridership anymore now that so many graduate students and young professionals have moved to those areas of Dorchester.
Do you have any current stats?
I've been told
by a guy who knows things, that one of the MANY flaws in the operation of the red line is that it would be optimum to run 2 out of every 3 trains to Braintree, but the T can't do that because the discrimination suits would pour in. So everyone suffers, its fantastic
I can get stats, guy at work wrote his thesis in college on the red line operations.
Already running more trains from and to Braintree
Often two trains to or from Braintree will pass before one to or from Ashmont. Also, trains are stacked from Alewife and Braintree in the morning to give optimum rush-hour service inbound. Ashmont service inbound is much less frequent.
Hence, the cattlecars for poor public-transit dependent Dorchester and Mattapan residents, a "captive audience."
Both Branches
Run on the same headways. Any time you get two braintrees before an ashmont, that is an anomoly where it is off schedule. (which on the T is probably all the time, so maybe you're right. Either way, when the morning starts, both lines are scheduled to have equal runs and every other train should be an Ashmont.
Your comments about "poor Dorchester", etc. is the exact reason there is equal service. Even when the "do the right thing" and ignore the correctly engineered train schedule to provide "equality" people assume that the big bad T treats the poor city folks worse...
Just because the schedule
Just because the schedule says it doesnt make it true. Remember a while back when they found out the MBTA was, on a regular basis, cutting out buses from the middle of the schedule in places like Mattapan, Chelsea, Lynn and others where they could blame "traffic" for the missing buses?
Schedule Schmedule
The actually do intend to run every other train to Ashmont. They are not allowed to diverge a Braintree train to Ashmont and vice versa due to several things most importantly their obligations to the unions that do not allow them to deviate from schedules. If an operator started their day at Braintree, they have to finish it there. They also aren't allowed to work overtime, so they have to stay to the schedule, or the T pays dearly.
Trains do fall off schedule over the course of the day and perhaps a Braintree train doesnt fit in between the ashmont trains, so you will get two Braintree trains in a row...but there were two ashmonts before that. There isn't a big evil conspiracy at the T to provide worse service to Dorchester. There are many factors that screw things up. The worst is the signalling system that causes gridlock in the downtown area. Its an old train that has problems, but they arent able to fix them.
Bottom line is that over the course of the day, the same number of Braintree and Ashmont trains run the tracks.
If It Happens Every Day Is It An Anomaly?
"Any time you get two braintrees before an ashmont, that is an anomoly where it is off schedule."
It is funny then how the same anomaly occurs every night around 5:10 PM when I'm waiting to get on the train at Charles Street, and every morning while I'm standing at Savin Hill. There are fewer trains to Ashmont than Braintree.
Things Have Changed, Then
Been a while since I lived in Dorchester Lower Mills, but I can tell you for a fact that, back in the day, the Ashmont trains were fewer and every new car was put into service to Quincy. Standing at Park Street waiting for my train, I didn't have to see the signage to know whether it was my ride or not. Silverbird? It's going to Quincy. Crappy old bluebird? Ashmont.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Again
Mythical perception. The fact is that the Bombardier cars run more frequently on the Ashmont line that the Braintree line because of fear that it would be misconstrued that the nice things were only going to the rich south shore folks.
Not Mythical. Past History.
As I said, my observations were from a while back. At that time, ALL of the new cars DID go to the "rich south shore folks" (as you call them.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
since when
The cars have only been around 15 or so years...
WHAT Cars???
For goodness' sakes, I'm talking about the period from 1971 to 1994 here. I said, "... back in the day." I suppose I should have been more specific.
Do you know what a "silverbird" and a "bluebird" are, in MBTA terminology? I mentioned them in my very first entry on this thread. That's what they ran then and for quite a few years afterward. And they ran the new silverbirds to Quincy, almost exclusively, while the old, dingy bluebirds went to Ashmont.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
ok
I glossed over your post and missed the part about how far back we are talking. I know what bluebirds and silverbirds are. What do they have to do with now? The point is, NOW things are so PC that the T has to make sure that more Bombardiers run on the Dorchester branch so that there is no perception of social injustice. This is the same reason that they run the same number of trains on each branch.
The reason the new silverbirds ran to quincy was because they were the only ones compatible with their signal system.
What a meanie!
Can't the poor guy reminisce?
I apologize
Not intending to be mean here...sorry Jim. Of course, Im only 30, and I was too young to remember the bluebirds. I'm jealous, actually.
No Problem, Anon-A-Mouse
I was only trying to point out that it hasn't always been the way you say it now is.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
There's actually a very simple reason why
why the old 'Bluebird' cars were exclusively used on Ashmont trains well after the opening of the South Shore extension to Braintree.
Until they were rebuilt into "Boston Redbirds" (as opposed to the more famous NYC Redbirds), which IIRC was around the time the Alewife extension opened, they weren't compatible with the automatic train control system originally in place between JFK and Braintree.
Sorry...
... but that is far too clean to be an MBTA vehicle.
Seat? I Don't Need No Stinking Seat
I like the idea for the selfish reason that I don't sit while on the T even when there are seats available for a few reasons.
1. If you are sitting and an annoying and or smelly person sits next to you, it is harder to move away from them without being too obvious. While if I am standing, it is easier to more subtly move away.
2. My mom and other older Greek female relatives instilled enough guilt in me, that If I am sitting, I always get up for anyone who is older or with kids or anything like that. I don't do this for altruistic reasons, but so I don't feel bad about myself. It is kinda like the story of Abe Lincoln and the drowning pigs. Thus, why sit when I will just get up anyway?
On a side note, I think it would be kinda cool to be on one of these cars during the times when it was not close to full. With all the extra space you could do something fun like have a ipod dance party or play floor hockey.
Check out my sports, politics, music and Watertown issues blog
Bowling
Definitely bowling ... with a video of it to go on YouTube! Yesss ... a strike on the T!
Impromptu disco
Forget the no-pants thing. Get some battery-operated disco balls with suction cups, throw some money DJ Nitetrain's way and party 'til Braintree!
Bowling?
You could do that with the seats there too...
True, but ...
you wouldn't have to get down on hands and knees to retrieve the pins if the seats were out.
Um, Swirly?
Why does it sound like you've tried this?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Missing the point
You can either dance OR bowl with 27 more people when the seats are removed.
Electric Slide
With the third rail!
haha
good one fake smiling dan!
1. If you are sitting and an
I've given up on worrying about being too obvious. I'm never going to see these people again, so if they're doing something wrong, I'm not really concerned with hurt feelings if I slight them.
Learn manners and/or hygiene or be prepared for people to react negatively.
What would the Herald be without a perv patrol?
So the Herald follows up its scoop with a warning about how the new cars will be grope magnets.
It's based on a quote from a single source who didn't want to give his name, padded out with quotes from other people about crowding in general, not gropers. And fails to explain exactly how overstuffing Red Line cars without seats will be that much more attractive to candidates for a groin kick than overstuffing Red Line cars with seats.
Weak.
Im not sure if I agree with
Im not sure if I agree with the story but I can see how it can play out. Currently with the seats in you can only have so many people lined up or jammed into your proximity that can "grope" you. In a seatless car if you are in the exact middle of the car there will be many more people swarmed around you within "groping" reach, and if everyone is pushed against each other then it will also be harder to see where all those hands are (where as the seats currently act as barriers keeping too many people from occupying one space.)
Ha!
What is this..a joke?
what
A rabbi, a priest, and a weasel walk onto a red line car...