Long summer on the Riverside Line

Just spotted this at boston.com...

Major renovations will suspend service on the D branch during the day from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. and on weekends from June 23 through Aug. 31.

The work, which will be completed in two phases, will include trimming trees and brush; cleaning and digging new drainage ditches; realigning and resurfacing tracks; replacing rail ties; and improving signals. During the construction, the Longwood and Brookline Village stations will be rebuilt and the Hyde Street Bridge in Newton will be replaced.

Buses will run the routes instead. Mild kudos to the T for scheduling the work in summertime, when ridership on the line is a little lower, but let's hope they put on enough buses! Let's see, 14,000 riders a day divided by 50 people per bus... carry the 4... that's 280 loads.

Hot and Crowded as Hell

This week's "Starts & Stops" column breaks the news of hot cars on the Commuter Rail and people not paying fares on the Green Line. I nearly dropped my coffee when I read these startling accounts.

First up is the news that MBCR plans to finally do something about its notoriously-malfunctioning heating, air conditioning and circulation systems on Commuter Rail cars. For the first time in over ten years the full fleet will get a full makeover, which will also include better training for mechanics to (ideally) prevent "hot cars" from plaguing the system during the summer. The price of a more tolerable commute? Over $1 Million. I suppose it's the price we pay for comfort.

Next up is a scene anyone who has set foot on a Green Line car ever is familiar with - the free ride vs. on time service conundrum. On one hand, we have the revenue department and fare-paying passengers, who would like to see every last little sneak pay their fare at every station along the crowded and delay-plagued trolley lines. On the other hand, those on board who have somewhere to be (or don't like sitting or standing in a hot, crowded trolley for an hour), or the operator who'd like to actually complete a trip on time, often like to open all doors and waive fares when the platform is packed from end-to-end.

Stations once notorious for such activity, like Prudential and Lechmere, have eliminated the practice thanks to AFC gates. Now it's the street-level stops that bear the brunt of this issue, and its something that has become even worse with AFC and the implementation of outbound fares on the street. Quite often, operators will still open all doors on the outbound trips, merely suggesting that everyone pay their fare over the PA system. Few people ever do.

So what can be done about Green Line overcrowding? Not a whole lot. At stations like Longwood Medical Area, when Boston Latin gets out, or Fenway, when a Sox game is over, crowds will always fill the small platforms, and collecting fares from everyone would not only be a grueling hours-long process, it would pose a safety hazard. Center-of-street stops like Longwood Medical Area have no room for long lines to wind off the platform, and busy ones like Fenway would become unruly and breed crime or violence.

The unfortunate solution to this problem is a "more of the same" approach. Though new portable card=tapping devices do help in moderately crowded situations, a packed to the gills platform will remain so until a train comes to gobble up the people on it, and this can only be effectively done by opening all doors and eating the unpaid fares of the non-passholding passengers.

Mike

Boston Globe Photo
I'd also like to welcome TH's own Charleston "CS" Sargeant to the CharlieBlog. He and Ron Newman will be contributing to the blog with me, hopefully making this a current and interesting blog!

From the Field: 4/22/07

I went for a nice tour of the city this morning, enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather that we have all earned! I must say first and foremost that Boston shines like the jewel it is in this kind of weather -- warming sunlight with a slight ocean breeze refreshing the city air. Quite a day, indeed!

As far as transit goes, I did some riding around as well (I walked more than usual today), and here's a few notes:

PORTER - I arrived at Porter around 8AM on the Commuter Rail, and those of us heading for the subway were greeted with locked doors all around! Only once someone inside heard us banging on the doors were we let in. I've never encountered this before personally, but I imagine it happens every so often, especially on Sunday mornings.

CHARLES/MGH - I really do like the new headhouse (station house, more accurately). I would, however, like to know when they're going to tie in the information boards to the "Next Train..." system, so they don't just repeatedly welcome you to the station.

COPLEY - Work progresses, though honestly I can't visibly tell what's different now than several weeks ago when I was last there. I got a few shots of the outbound headhouses, as they'll be meeting the wrecking ball at some point in this process (one met a wayward taxi last year, so there's not much left to dismantle there).

LECHMERE - I finally rode a Type 8 out to Lechmere. I had never done this yet, but with their return to the E line I was given the chance and took it. Lechmere yard consisted mostly of Type 8s today, and I imagine this is now the norm. Now I've just got to ride one out to Arbor- I mean Heath Street...

ARLINGTON - Work is much more visible here, at least from street level, as they have torn open the old entrance stairwell. Unfortunately I didn't make it here in time to capture it on film, but I did record what's left of it (photos coming soon).

WORLD TRADE CENTER - I had never noticed the security panels in the roadway until the recent incident, and I really like that whole system. They have installed new information screens here, which today were only displaying the T logo, date, and time. The new advertisement panels added at WTC brighten up the station quite a bit, and I actually somewhat like them! They also added some at Courthouse, but I didn't get off to explore further.

ROUTE 1 BUS - The Mass Ave Bridge detour and a Greek parade detour really fouled up the 1 today, but I eventually made it to my destination. On the bright side, I suppose, is that I got to ride a 1 down Comm Ave and through Kenmore Square!


Mike

I would also like to welcome Ron Newman to the CharlieBlog! He will be contributing with posts on various transit topics. Welcome aboard!

Farewell to the LRV, Part II

The LRV's grand finale is changing as fast as the weather.

Here's the latest:

-- The Wednesday "second to last" trip did NOT run.

-- The "final" public trip has been pushed off to Friday

-- There MAY be an additional trip today at 11, but it might be a private trip for the media.

-- The weather is 50/50 as to whether it will snow or rain Thursday night and Friday.

I can tell you that I will be in town Friday, hoping for the final trip of the LRV. What effect the weather will have on this whole thing remains to be seen. I'll post more if I get it.


Good luck!

Farewell to the LRV

This is some "unconfirmed" news but I'm going to share it with the risk of being inaccurate, as it is somewhat urgent.

It has been posted over at the Railroad.net forums that the final two "revenue" trips of the Boeing Light Rail Vehicles in Boston (and the world) will be MARCH 14TH and 15TH at 11:00AM. These trips will depart Riverside station at approx. 11:00AM and run inbound and presumably back out to Riverside in regular revenue service.

I will be there, with cameras and camcorder in hand, as will probably a small group of fans. Like them or hate them, this is the end of an era in Boston transit, and if you've got the time, you'll be glad you joined in.

The thread at RR.net can be found HERE.

UPDATE:
This is confirmed via Jonathan Belcher's NETransit roster.

"Last two revenue runs of Boeing LRVS will leave Riverside eastbound at 11:00 AM and Government Center at 11:44 AM westbound on Wednesday March 14th and Thursday March 15th"

If you can, come pay your respects to the elders of the Green Line!

Mike

The Grease Hits the Catenary

The state auditor released a report today blasting the T for its ineptitude surrounding the purchase of the Breda-manufactured "Type 8" streetcars. (See Boston Globe article)

"Ill-advised decisions by the MBTA directly contributed to the faulty acceptance design of these vehicles and their propensity to derail," noted the report, which slaps an "accurate and conservative" figure of $101 million that will be spent in the next 20 years by the MBTA to keep the trolleys on the tracks.

The MBTA argues that the forecast cost is more like $54 million if you subtract routine maintenance costs.

Regardless of the anticipated cost, this is a major blow to the MBTA.

What is most important about this entire debacle, which has dragged on for a decade now, is that the MBTA learn from their obvious mistakes, whatever they may have been, and that such a disaster never happen again.

Fire at Park Street Over

News this morning of another Green Line fire, this time at Park Street.

The Boston Fire Department ordered all electricity shut off, but the fire was apparently out quickly and service has been restored. Sounds to me like an electrical fire, not unlike others that have occurred here and other underground stops on the trolley line.

WBZ has reported that the station was evacuated around 11:15 this morning, but less than an hour later service is back to normal.