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Forget getting the trains to run on time; just get the conductors to announce where they're going

Charlie on the Commuter Rail notes that the issue of commuter-rail conductors not announcing where their trains are going at Ruggles grows only worse:

They often don't bother to announce the destination of the train, and sometimes they don't even step out on the platform! Since the trains have been more and more erratic, time-wise (they can vary from the schedule by five minutes or more) this is particularly worrisome. Often passengers have to go into a train and ask the passengers inside where the train is going.

Also, there was a car on the Franklin Line last night that smelled like sewage.

You may recall how the initial "let's mess with commuters' heads and not announce destinations at stations like Ruggles" thing started during the secret work action, which is supposed to be over, but, you know, conductors just wanna have fun.

Meanwhile, Train Stopping shows that what we have on commuter rail is a failure to communicate: In response to a commuter complaining about inaccurate delay info on mbta.com, a customer-service manager at MBCR (which actually runs the trains), replied:

We provide the MBTA with the delay information but we cannot access their website to post delay information; that falls under their purview.

Allegedly the MBTA is working on a fix, but has provide no completion date.

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Comments

I don't understand why this should be a problem. Is the Carmen Union just too powerful and keeps incompetent workers in their positions?

I took the Northeast Regional with Amtrak back and forth to Boston this past week and the conductors were not only extremely competent but very customer service oriented. There were plenty of announcements when arriving at stops and the conductors were also good about telling you specifically when your stop was next as they would pass through the cabins taking tickets every stop.

I realize the commuter rail is often more full and may even have people standing on some of the trips, making it more difficult for conductors to do their jobs. But for what conceivable reason would Amtrak have significantly better conductors than the horror stories of the MBTA/MBCR?

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Announcements on Amtrak can be just as spotty as those on the MBTA. Well, okay, maybe not as bad, but I've certainly been on Amtrak trains that offer no anouncements, save for the signs on the station platform.

But let's go back to the MBTA and erroneous announcements. I seem to recall a post a while back from someone who rode a "sad Red Line train that wanted deperately to get to Shawmut," despite the fact that it was going the opposite direction.

Yesterday, I got that train! Wheee! From Downtown X-ing to Central, each next stop was Shawmut. Nice to see they're so quick to fix errors. What was weird was that when Mr. Automation came on to announce "Entering ______," he got the stations right. Then, as we left the station, he came back on with "Next stop: Shawmut."

At least we know that the MBTA literally does a half-ass job at solving their problems.

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