Does the MBTA have an alternate route policy?
A week or so ago I was taking the 39 (slow boat to China) bus from Copley to close to Forest Hills. When we got to the Mission Hill area we came to a standstill.
There had been an accident. We sat there for a while and then a cop talked to the bus driver. The driver then told us that we could wait for over an hour or walk. So most of us chose to walk, on that 90 degree day. I was overdressed and overburdened with library books and close to dehydrated by the time I got home.
Shouldn't the T at least turn around and take you to a subway station or do an alternate route to Forest Hills? They could have briefly turned off Huntington and gotten back on South Huntington to hit all the stops. I wrote them about 10 days ago and haven't heard back. I should call but am trying to avoid more aggrevation since im dealing with insurance companies right now.
Comments
"I'm sorry, driving off the
"I'm sorry, driving off the pre-planned route is not in my job description."
for real?
Is that for real?
Was this on the day of the
Was this on the day of the fatal accident between another 39 bus and a bike? If so, I could see that any other 39 bus in the section between Brigham Circle and South Huntington at the time of the accident would have been stuck there for the duration of the roadway closure. I believe though that they did detour other Route 39 buses around the accident via Tremont St., Columbus Ave., and Heath St. because someone tweeted they saw Route 39 buses on those streets that day.
It was the same day, and they
It was the same day, and they DID reroute the busses. (I'm assuming the OP isn't aware of this, or else this post would seem extremely harsh.)
I'm wondering why the OP didn't just walk to Roxbury Crossing and hop the Orange Line there, rather than walking almost all the way to Forest Hills?
Not on a whim they don't
The T does do alternate routes for buses in the case of street closures or construction detours. But these are all pre-planned and announced on the MBTA website as a Bus Alert. They do not do alternate routes on the fly nor will they ever due to the potential issues involved: lost drivers, missed stops, streets where trucks and buses are illegal, doesn't really help when traffic is THAT bad, etc.
I had the exact same concerns
I had the exact same concerns reading this - you can't just take a bus anywhere, especially the double-length ones - not sure if the 39 is for this example.
If the traffic is at a stop, how is the bus going to possibly turn around? Can you imagine a bus doing a 3-point-turn in the middle of Huntington?
they had closed off the stree
they had closed off the stree so there was space without traffic to turn around.
Buses rerouted on the fly
Buses are rerouted on the fly daily due to traffic accidents, fires, police investigations, unannounced utility or other construction work, etc. Typically the bus driver calls their dispatcher to let them know that they are blocked and asks for assistance. The dispatcher then either directs the driver around the problem or sends an inspector to assist. There are times, however, when a bus gets to a point where there are no outlets that would allow them to go around a blockage. In these cases, the driver may just have to wait until the road reopens or until an inspector can help the driver to back out of the situation. Backing out of a problem area with the articulated buses is very tricky and rarely done. I'm trying to think of how an outbound articulated bus that was in Mission Hill (as stated by the OP) could have been rerouted around the scene of that bus/bike accident on Huntington Ave near South Huntington. I can see where it would be stuck for the duration...
T Time
It will probably take at least a month before you receive a canned response if you receive a response at all. My experience is that if a question gets a response then it will take several weeks. The response will be general.
The T does have the ability and capacity to deal with emergencies. The number of times that Dred Line trains die and riders are forced to reroute to busses proves that they will do this for subway situations. However, the 39 uses articulated busses which probably can not fit on all of the smaller streets that might be used for rerouting on that line.
That they did not provide a means to get to the subway is not surprising. When the system died last spring the bus drivers on the 39 line were clueless as far as how they could help with providing a transportation alternative to Orange line riders. While the bus drivers were no more clueless than usual I believe that the administrators who are supposed to coordinate in the case of emergencies (the entire subway system loosing power should qualify) were utterly incompetent.
You could also chalk it up as a typical day on the Boston subway.
Some buses have a very
Some buses have a very difficult time backing up in any way; buses in some cities (don't know MBTA's story) aren't allowed to back up at all, and if they absolutely must then it's only with the guidance of another transit worker as a flagger. Pulling a U-turn, if it was even feasible with traffic, would be very, very challenging for a bus. Once it's in gridlock it has far less mobility than a car.
I know T policy requires
I know T policy requires either a police officer or transit worker, but that knowledge is based on single buses. As the 39 is double length, they very well might not be allowed to make U-turns. They have a special "lane" (otherwise known as the former E-line) for making the turn at Forest Hills.
it does happen
I've been on buses that have been re-routed on the fly. Typically, though, this doesn't happen at the discretion of the driver, but by an inspector. I don't see how a cop (even a transit police cop) could make that call.
I would send the complaint, even if you only get a canned response.