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Amtrak signals go kablooie, South Station commuters go oh, phooey
By adamg on Mon, 11/09/2015 - 7:18am
UPDATE: Some lines not affected by the signal problems are late because of the dreaded slippery rail.
The T is reporting delays on trains from the south due to Amtrak signal problems. And trains that would normally stop at Ruggles just aren't.
Also, trains decided it was Judgment Day on the Green and Red Lines and so gave up the ghost.
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Comments
At least the T is prepared
At least the T is prepared for the winter.
Seriously.
The coming season is shaping up to be another debacle, unless we're really, really blessed with mild weather. I wonder who this winter's scapegoat/punching bag will be, now that Beverly Scott was run out of town on a rail. So to speak.
She left a big mess to clean
She left a big mess to clean up on top of the mess that already existed.
Short of firing everyone to remove the toxic agency culture, massive structural plus labor reform and a massive cash infusion nothing os getting fixed any time soon.
They'll blame the riders
They'll blame riders for resisting fare hikes and service cuts in the past. They'll use this as an excuse to continue cutting schedules "in the interest of reliability".
Already they have announced (and ironically delayed) new timetables for all commuter rail lines and have strongly suggested that fewer trips will be run at peak times. Even before last year the T's "winter" policy was that when bad weather hits they start to reduce trips.
I heard this morning that 70% of young workers consider proximity to the T to be among their top considerations when deciding where to live and work. Lack of serious investment and improvements now will have huge economic repercussions in the future.
Adam, again I express my
Adam, again I express my gratitude to you for day-making humor with your MBTA headlines. It's my only souce of laughter during this MBTA BULLSHIT!!!!!
Get ready for a 10% fare increase.
Due to some ambiguity in the law there is a question as to whether the administration can raise fares by 5% or 10%. Yes, I understand that Baker was elected on a platform of not raising taxes and not raising fees, but apparently doing that isn't on the table. I also recall hearing something about reform before revenue. Anyone else feel the reform this morning?
The choice is 5% or 10%. If there were similar ambiguity with the gas tax does anyone think the admin would err on the side of socking it to the taxpayers? Baker's a joke.
No
There is no ambiguity.. it's 2.5% every year or 5% every other year. It's been quoted years past when they raised fares. Not sure why people think there's a loophole here. Anyone care to explain?
And a 5-10% rate hike in a year.. people would riot. It will never pass and people would show Charlie the door if it did come to fruition.
Would they?
Charlie's base is mostly in suburban SUV country...I think a lot of them would be OK paying 10% more to take the Green Line the three times they come into town to see a Sox game or fireworks every year, as long as nobody touches the gas tax.
Yes
Maybe not the suburbanites. but the city dwellers would. Add in alot of people from the immigrant community and folks who do outreach for the poor. Those people have a far bigger voice than suburbanites. (and usually are the loudest people when the T tries to raise fares)
Do you not remember all the
Do you not remember all the fare increases we had under the Patrick administration?
Since 2012, fares have increased from $1.50 to $2.10. That's a 40% increase. There were protests, but no riots. No heads rolled.
nothing at mbta seems to roll
nothing at mbta seems to roll well, why should their heads be any different?
subway was 1.70 from 2007
subway was 1.70 from 2007-2012 (if you had a CharlieCard); where are you getting 1.50 from?
That's right, not sure where
That's right, not sure where I got the $1.50 from.
My point is still valid though.
I hope you're right
But all those voices didn't keep Baker from getting elected in the first place...here's to having a candidate that people will actually be able to vote for without literal nose-holding, especially if the fares jump as much as I fear.
Lots of those suburbanites...
...are trying to get to work on Commuter Rail, which is at least as dysfunctional as any of the subway lines. With daily commute fares in the $10 to $20 (and more?) range, a 10% increase is notable.
I for one would be OK with a fare hike if it meant I actually saw better service, but I am less than optimistic about that.
Do you really think Coakley
Do you really think Coakley would have been any better on public transit?
HELL NO
24 months or annually?
Gabrielle Gurley has a good description of the issue in Commonwealth Magazine.
The issue is that the legislation references the fare increase in two places with different wording:
The Governor's budget chooses to reference Section 61(d) as they like the interpretation better and from his standpoint you can't really blame him. The legislature wrote it, not him. The person to crap on would be Rep. Bill Strauss - Joint Chair of the Transportation Committee, who presumably should know what their intention was when they originally wrote it (which was NOT 10% every two years). He's enabling the Governor.
Statutory Conflict?
I have not been able to review the applicable sections to see whether, in context, they can be read harmoniously, but if not, I hope that the Legislature sees fit to fix this problem (that it created) by itself, rather than asking for an opinion from the SJC (which will take longer and create still more uncertainty with respect to funding the T).
My guess is that the Legislature will punt to the SJC (which, if it cannot read the sections harmoniously, will just kick it right back to the Legislature with a little opinion that says something like, "could you kindly pay a little more attention?").
This is why legislators should have a software background
Great! So, 25% increase, just don't do it more frequently than every two years.
The word you need is "nor".
Conflicting wording in statute
46 M.G.L. 61(d) reads:
An annual rate of 5% and an increase every two years means an increase of 10% each time. However, 46 M.G.L. 78 contains this line:
So the final draft of the statute that went into effect is inconsistent. It's not so much an "ambiguity" as a direct conflict in the wording of what came out of the sausage-making factory that is the State House.
When the bill that created this statute was originally drafted, "annual" did not appear in § 61(d); it was apparently added as part of an amendment when the bill went to conference committee (a process where the two chambers of the legislature reconcile differences between the version that one chamber passed and the other chamber passed). Without "annual" the statute is internally consistent and very clearly says "5 per cent" in three places. With "annual" in there, the part of the statute that actually says what the MBTA shall not do is now in conflict with the part that describes a report that they have to produce when they do increase fares.
During the amendment process, did someone on the committee succeed in adding one single word to the bill, unnoticed, in order to allow the MBTA to get away with doubling their biannual fare increases, but they didn't realize they had to subtly tamper with the text in two other places?
Obviously the original intent of the bill was 5% total over two years, but a tortured reading of the bill as passed into law, by someone looking to maximize fare increases could be something like, "When proposing to raise fares, the MBTA must merely produce a report that shows how they could keep a fare increase below 5%/24mo, but they can propose a fare hike of 5%/12mo, meaning the actual fare hike every 24mo can be 10%."
If you think that argument sounds ridiculous, welcome to the land of lawmaking. This mess will make some lawyer(s) lots of money.
More detailed discussion on this and the history of the passing of the legislation:
Even if the ambiguity were
Even if the ambiguity were resolved, a fixed percentage law is a bad idea. That's how we end up with weird fares like $2.65, instead of a round number like $2.75 which would be easier for the public and bring in slightly more money for the T.
Fairmount a disaster...
...delayed and then canceled trains, other trains not stopping to pick up riders since they were behind schedule (leaving hundreds on platforms) Folks performed a mass migration to Hyde Park where trains stopped but then said they were full, leaving hundreds more on the platform. ...weird way to run a railroad.
45 degrees and sunny.
Old Man Winter works in
Old Man Winter works in mysterious ways.
Why are we blaming the T for
Why are we blaming the T for Amtrak's problems?
Red line seemed slower than
Red line seemed slower than usual this morning.
The MBTA blames Keolis, their
The MBTA blames Keolis, their CR subcontractor, for late trains regardless of the underlying reason, whether or not its under their control, so why shouldn't commuters blame the MBTA?
I start a new job in DTX tomorrow
Will be my first time working in an office since 2003. Since I'm not about to pay downtown parking prices to get to a $12/hour before taxes PT job, I'm gonna Green Line it in.
This post is reducing my optimism.
Will, what are the hours like?
May I ask if this office job has the standard 9-5 hours you have (IMO, properly) railed against over the past few years?
It's PT
So I believe it's 2-8 a few weekdays a week and a weekend day here and there, which suits me reasonably fine.
How many miles is it?
You might want to experiment with various modes of skipping the lower speed portions of the green line.
In some situations, walking between stations or just walking the final mile can be very helpful. Also see if anyone you know has one of those free trial of Hubway cards (except they are reeling in stations by the day).
I live in Brighton
So my initial plan is to park my vehicle with A/B sticker over by Riverside and take the train in from there.
Don't pay hourly garage rates
Don't pay hourly garage rates. Get a monthly parking pass it's MUCH cheaper.
Red Line Reductions
Is it just me or every Monday or other days this past month, they have been reducing the number of Red Line trains running especially on the Braintree Branch during the morning rush hour? The overcrowding is beyond unacceptable and must be addressed immediately.
There is a way to track this down
Use one of the tracking apps.
This one is good since it only the line with little geography.
That said, if you really want to know what is up, Wuensch's app is a bit more accurate.
As of writing this, there are 2 trains heading to Ashmont versus 4 trains heading to Braintree, with 4 each going north from each place. Naturally, you would have to correct for distance.
Signal problem started Sunday folks
The signal problem started on Sunday. I dropped family at Hyde park for an MBTA train scheduled to stop at 7 AM for Providence. I then went home and cranked up a GPS tracker.
Much to my surprise as I watched the map the train headed outbound suddenly backtracked to South Station.
Then T alerts started showing it late by 10, 20, and eventually 30.
It seems the signals went out and they got as far as Ruggles and then had to back up all the way to South Station, then go out on a different track.
When the train arrived at Hyde park it was on the wrong track and people waiting on the platform had to run up and over the pedestrian bridge to board on the inbound side instead. Once passed there they were able to get back on the right track.
Right after that T alerts noted all inbound trains would not be stopping at Ruggles. This included Providence/Stoughton, Franklin, and Needham inbound lines.
The temporary boardings at Hyde Park for inbound morning trains were supposed to go back to the correct track today. i don't think that happened.
Those temp boardings for inbound trains on the outbound track were the result of the big fire that toasted the signal electricals at Forest hills earlier this year.
Stay tuned and watch the schedules and alerts.
Oh yes... the planned schedule changes planned for Nov 9 (today) were pushed off till later. North side trains won't change till sometime in December and South side trains won't change till spring.