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They haven't started building the new Red Line cars, so it's not too late to put in comfy seats and widescreen TVs

NFL game on a Red Line shuttle

They're busing Red Line riders between Park Street and Kendall Square today because Longfellow. And naturally, they've hired private coach buses rather than use T buses, so that means riders get comfy seats and, as Adam Castiglioni shows us, NFL football.

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Comments

          ( the wastefulness of outsourcing services to private vendors! )

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These busses are owned and operated by a private company and it's always cheaper for the government to outsource.

The above is sarcastic but that's the mentality of people pushing for the privatization of services.

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There’s 2 different lines having busing this weekend.

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Yeah, this has been going on through much of the fall, and they've only had charter busses the last few weeks that they've been doing things on other lines simultaneously.

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Sunday you had the Red Line out North Quincy to Braintree, as well as the Longfellow work; and damn near the entire Southwest Corridor, too.

Cabot, Arborway and the entire North Side would be at their limit. Quincy is a quiet, small garage.

We've seen much strange and new bullshit this year; at least this is justifiable.

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Since it's only one stop, I imagine many people would choose to simply walk across the Longfellow Bridge instead of dealing with a shuttle bus — regardless of how fancy it is — so maybe they didn't need to use a lot of them.

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I imagine that a stop at a hospital may have some sick people that may not want to risk the trek across a bridge in close to freezing weather.

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It's a decent walk from MGH to Park Street, and the shuttle was from Kendall, arriving at Park, and vice versa. Unfortunately, you're sentiment is correct enough that with the right (i.e. bad) traffic conditions, it's almost nearly a similar investment in time to take the shuttle bus.

However, given the capacity of the T with other diversions/closures, I'm sure this was justified. And, to the best of my knowledge, these diversions with private charters were already budgeted for as part of other projects (such as needing to fund a diversion for weekend work on the Longfellow), and, yes, sometimes taking that project budget and outsourcing it to a private charter may be cheaper at times. So, in case anyone else is wondering, don't assume this is an "extra" cost.

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Took the Orange Line yesterday. It was the T’s own buses past Ruggles.

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The Cambridge elite gets private buses with comfy seats and Tv's meanwhile in Quincy and Braintree riders get T-buses with no heat and surly drivers.

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Is that a possible Title VI violation we detect in the cold, bitter afternoon air?

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Not all of the busses are "comfy," and they are slow as hell. City busses would be much preferred. And I am not "Cambridge elite," so stuff it.

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Can we at least agree that Yankee Lines is the best discount luxury money can buy?

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Just how slow the shuttle is. And those buses don’t help due to the slow egress.
The should set up Charles st to be a two way bus way for these weekends.

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If I understand things correctly (haven't taken the shuttle buses this fall), the buses at Park St go down Tremont, right on Boylston, right on Charles, right on Beacon, before winding back to Cambridge St.

Wouldn't it be easier and faster to have the buses turn right into Park Street, load there, and then go up the hill to continue back towards Cambridge St? Instead of circumabulating the Common? They could close off Park Street (the street itself) for the weekend if needed.

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I wonder the same thing every time they do this. They probably don't want to have people have to cross Park St, or some other lame reason.

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I think you're being a little generous categorizing the Bills as NFL football.

EDIT: Crap. This joke worked better before I looked at the standings and realized they actually have a winning record.

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Are falling apart, today blowout home loss to NO, they are reverting into a Tomato can.

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I would have hit the thumb thing if it was still around.

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The BU Bridge work this summer used shuttle buses. They were nice coach buses but NO big flat TVS! The B line was shuttle bus along Comm Ave, and it was a great example of what could be: coordinated efforts between the T and Boston police to assist T passengers and enforce traffic laws. There was a coned lane for the buses. Maybe when they do the other half of the BU bridge - maybe they’ll have flat screen TV!

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Nice thought, but please don't give management any excuses to further delay work on refurbishing the tracks and signals.

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from Yankee Line, earlier this fall. No TVs, but very comfortable ride.

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would be very interested to hear the MBTA's explanation for why when the Red and Orange lines are both shuttling, Red gets coach buses and Orange gets MBTA buses...regardless of the intent it's not a good look from a racial equity standpoint.

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The buses I saw were also super non-accessible, with steep winding stairs to get onboard, even though the T signs all said "All shuttle buses and stops are accessible to persons with disabilities." They claim that there is at least one accessible bus at each shuttle stop, but I have friends who have been having problems with that.

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