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Man, even when the T wants
By roadman on Tue, 11/10/2015 - 2:25pm
to run the E line, they seem to have the darndest trouble. The latest issue, as per this T alert:
Green Line E branch service suspended between Prudential and Heath Street in both directions due to demonstrators blocking the tracks. Use Route 39 for service between Prudential and Heath Street.
As a point of comparison, MassDOT didn't detour traffic off of I-93 at exits when the Somerville 17 blocked it. They let the police move the protesters off the highway instead. Too bad the MBTA apparently doesn't have the common sense to do similar here.
It's also interesting that the web site alert, which I've quoted above, mentions the reason for the service suspension (demonstrators), but that the text alert I got on my phone doesn't. Another MBTA information fail.
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Comments
Northeastern student
Northeastern students protesting low adjunct professor pay. I don't really understand why they would block the T to get their message across.
http://www.wcvb.com/news/protesters-at-northeastern-block-trolleys-mbta-...
Highly paid full professors
Highly paid full professors can afford to pay for parking at Northeastern, and can find an alternate route around the blocked roadway. Low-paid adjuncts probably take the T, and an E trolley can't just take a right on Ruggles Street.
I nominate this bizarre post
I nominate this bizarre post for deletion (or at least editing to report the story of what happened). Universal Hub is better than this, Adam.
Please tell me how they could run the E line through a group of protesters standing on the tracks.
Thank you
I try to refrain from roadman's endless rants about how the T alert system sucks because I've grown tired of them (and replying to them)
But I agree. I'm seeing pictures on twitter where the protesters are blocking the tracks, so yes.. tell me also how the T can run trains when protesters are on the tracks themselves.
Oh and btw roadman... 93 was not shutdown, but it was pretty hard for traffic to keep moving when the entire highway was blocked. They didn't need to 'shut it down', it shutdown on its own with no moving traffic. Same with the T. The T could have kept running but those trains are not going anywhere.
Well, the MBTA could do what MassDOT did
with I-93 - let the police move the protesters out of the way. And I meant to say that MassDOT didn't deliberately detour traffic off of I-93 when they found out about the Somerville 17 blocking the highway. I've amended my original post accordingly, and revised my opening statements to better reflect the nature of the situation.
Sorry some people here felt my original post was somehow inappropriate for the situation. However, given how often and easily the Green Line dispatcher suspends all or part of E line service on any given day, and how the T always provides very vague reasons (if at all) for the suspensions, I stand by my original words as clarified.
And I still maintain that an alert system that deliberately gives the customers minimal and inconsistent information (like the text alerts, which a rider on the system is most likely to see, giving less information than the web site) is a huge fail.
You obviously
You obviously do not work with end users. Not everyone is savvy like Uhubbers. Sometimes LESS information is more valuable than MORE information.
If I have an outage with phone or internet at work.. I don't go into an elaborate detail about how the router crapped out or how I f'd up the config or the server crashed and had 0x00000234 as the error. No, I don't. I simply say "Phones are experiencing problems at this time". That's all. Nothing more nothing less, because most users don't care WHY. They just want to know that we're aware of the problem. The only people who want to know the WHY is management (and I often send out a separate email detailing what the issue is for them only)
Same with the T. People want to know if the train is coming or not.. not much else. It's only the rail nuts like myself (and you to a lesser degree) that care about the why.
I think you purposely pick on the T Alert system because its an easy target for you and your dislikeness of the T. Some of us... many of us.. like the system. And many of us remember what it was like before T Alerts, which was no information at all and we were stuck playing the "where are the trains/buses" game. I'll take a simple notification about a delay or issue over no information at all.
As the saying goes "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth".
Giving a specific location
and/or a basic description of the issue causing the problem in your alert isn't excessive detail - it's reaonable information that will help the customer make their decisions. And most people using the T are smart enough to realize that a derailment is going to cause a longer disruption than a signal problem.
Especially in this case, when service suspensions between Brigham Circle and Heath Street seem to randomly occur at various times throughout the day simply for scheduling reasons. When a suspension is because of a legitimate issue like "we don't want to run over people blocking our tracks (a very good thing BTW)" - it would be useful for people getting those text alerts on their phones to know there is an actual reason behind the delay other than operational convenience.
The service suspension lasted
The service suspension lasted less than half an hour. How much faster do you expect the police move the protesters and declare the scene clear?
Huh. The first UHub post I've ever read that feels slimy.
Protesters are blocking the T and this post is about how somehow this is the T's fault.
Also a mention of the I-93 blockage protest, because somehow that's related. I mean, it might be related, but this story doesn't have any details to relate, so...
See my response
to Cybah above, and my revised original post. That may calm you down.
How do I calmly explain that you made a bad post?
Your post is bad, your defense of it is weird, and I don't know why you're writing these things. Even after your edit, the post is still not up to the standard of reporting I expect from UHub.
You stated that the MBTA lacks "common sense," which is a nebulous thing to report and not really measurable. I still don't see a meaningful connection between The Somerville 17, MassDOT, and this situation other than "protesters impeded transportation," and I don't know what point you're trying to make by connecting them.
And in your comments, you seem to be taking this personally, which is extremely weird.