MBTA

This holiday season, no weekend red line service north of Harvard Square.

WickedPissah — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:39:00 +0000

Everyone can agree that the economy is rough. This holiday season, more than usual, is important to local retailers. Small businesses in Porter and Davis squares now have another hurdle to deal with starting November 5th, no red line service on the weekends. The residents probably aren't happy about it either.

According to service advisory posters in red line stations, and yesterday's article on Boston.com, the red line will terminate at Harvard until March 2012! On a side note, the MBTA's own website doesn't mention the service advisory yet.

The MBTA's brick and mortar location for their merchandise website, MBTAgifts.com, is located in Porter Square.

No Red Line north of Harvard on weekends

BostonUrbEx — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:32:03 +0000

Recently, if you look out the windows on the Red Line between Harvard and Porter, you'll almost always find workers pressing against the wall to let a train by. In case the water-stained tunnel walls don't give it away: they're working on the corroded tracks as we speak. However, that may not be enough time to keep the tunnels in shape, and as The Globe explains:

The MBTA will close the Red Line north of Harvard Square on weekends from November through March to complete $80 million in repairs designed to keep trains from derailing, transit administrators said yesterday.

Starting Nov. 5, weekend service will stop to allow T crews to plug tunnel cracks and seal water leaks that have eroded the concrete track base and corroded power lines. Then crews will replace damaged track, supports, and electrical components.

Where Have All the Bus Stops Gone?

Brett — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:15:48 +0000

Fire up Google Maps to find out where to catch the bus, and it won't help much; dozens or hundreds of stops are displayed in the wrong locations, have the wrong bus lines associated with them, or aren't shown at all.

Try this mess at Brigham Circle, for example. You'll spend a long time waiting for the 39 on Tremont Street, yet that's where Google Maps now declares the 39 stops; the stop for the 39 on Huntington Avenue is gone.

By the way, here's what we were promised for live transit updates about a week ago. Here's what we got instead.

Want to report that the stations or stops are in the wrong locations? Sorry, can't do that.

MBTA's 2010 Blue Book is out

JohnAKeith — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:53:38 +0000

The MBTA's annual Ridership and Service Statistics report, a.k.a., "the blue book" was released on May 10.

This report includes a true treasure-trove of statistics through which to pour - most popular / least popular lines and routes, including number of entries and exists, schedules' adherence, types of buses and subway cars in use, etc. This is for all bus, subway, trackless trolley, ferry, and THE RIDE routes.

Top 25 subway stations

Top 25 bus routes

To download your own copy, click on this link. (Warning, .pdf)

www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/documents/Bluebook%202010.pdf

Oh, and here's an interesting tidbit of information. The T estimates that upwards of 1/3 of riders use an app to check bus/subway schedules on a regular basis. (Source: TransportationNation.org)

What, there's a road race and a ball game today?

roadman — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:42:36 +0000

Apparently that's news to the MBTA management, based on the latest T alert:

Green Line experiencing 15-20 min delays on all lines between North Station & Kenmore stations due to increased ridership for the Boston Marathon & Red Sox game. Please allow extra time for commute. 18/2011 11:26 AM

Get to the MBTA's website ten times faster

Brett — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:14:56 +0000

Can't get to the MBTA website? Use the automatic Coral content delivery network. Simply append "nyud.net" to the real website hostname for any site, like so: http://mbta.com.nyud.net/. This works for almost any URL.

The information does seem to be up to date; at 5:07PM one page I pulled up showed an alert from less than ten minutes ago. It's also significantly faster, as the main MBTA page loads in about 3-4 seconds via Coral. By itself, it's over 30 seconds.

Please help spread the word to other blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc- the more people that use Coral, the less load there will be on the MBTA's website, which means everyone wins. Bookmark mbta.com.nyud.net for the next snow emergency!

How do you get to Fenway?

JohnAKeith — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:36:48 +0000

Seen inside the Copley Square outbound stop.

The Green Line Revisited

TheRLeePost — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:05:41 +0000

Please check out this sight on a better alternative to the GLX proposal and saving $705 Million in the process. The Green Line Revisited.

Mass. Ave. bridge shut as cars collide head on

bostonzest — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:04:34 +0000

A head-on collision at rush hour on the Mass. Ave. Bridge left one dead and created massive traffic problems.

Proposed Alternative to Current GLX

TheRLeePost — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:16:38 +0000

I've done up a multi-page web site on an alternative to the proposed Green Line extension into Somerville and Medford. I'd like to get some feedback, and/or otherwise promote it. The alternative isn't dissing the use of the Green Line, merely making better use of it than the GLX will do. The current price tag for the GLX is a mind boggling, highly exorbitant expenditure for a short extension of a light rail tram in an already owned rail corridor.

There are no words to describe the size of the ripoff that is the GLX. For $10 billion the Swiss bore TWO tunnels, each 30' wide and 35 miles long, yes, 35 MILES, through the mountains, TWO of em. The price tag actually includes another 24 miles of connecting and support tunnels. The tunnels are sized for HIGH SPEED trains to be traveling at well over 160 miles an hour (which is the minimum in the EU for high speed rail).

Add punchline here

JohnAKeith — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:25:33 +0000

Copley Square Green Line MBTA stop is done!

JohnAKeith — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:28:08 +0000

The MBTA had its grand-opening ceremony today to announce the completion of the Copley Square renovation project.

There are two entrances to this Green Line station - outbound is at the corners of Boylston and Dartmouth streets while inbound is near the corner across the street, next to the Boston Public Library, Central Branch.

All token gates are open, the escalator (up) on the outbound side works, and both inbound and outbound now have elevators.

MBTA real-time tracking lost

Brett — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:52:37 +0000

As of a few minutes ago, Nextbus is reporting "no predictions", and every mobile app I have tried have reported no feed data available.

UPDATE: A ham sandwich (also, feeds are working again.)

Expect unattended bags ...

JohnAKeith — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:03:11 +0000

In this Sunday's "Starts and Stops", the Boston Globe's Eric Moskowitz reports that the MBTA is collecting backpacks and school supplies for the Home for Little Wanderers.

Backpacks can be dropped off in boxes near commuter rail ticket booths at North Station, South Station, and Back Bay.

Or just leave on a bench on your way through the terminal; the helpful T police will take care of the rest.

A handy, illustrated guide of who to avoid on the T

morisy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:08:11 +0000

Remember the Boston Herald's MBTA Dirty Dozen? Yeah, me neither, but we still went ahead and compiled the list of MBTA wanted posters in a fun, embeddable format for you. You can also check out the MBTA's own site for semi-regularly updated wanted posters.