mbtasigh

[mbtasigh]

11/14/23, 4:35 PM

First, acknowledgments must be made when due. Late 20th century American philosopher Lou Brown once noted, "OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called 'two in a row'. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a 'winning streak'... It has happened before!" Before this ride, the T across Green, Silver, Commuter Rail and bus pulled off a winning streak of 6 rides across two-plus weeks. A "win" is a ride where the vehicle arrives and leaves on time, and where nobody working for the MBTA does or is compelled to do anything maddening or inexplicable.

B train arrives at Copley in three minutes. At Hynes, *ding* "Train is standing by. Standing by." At rush hour? Peak crowds alight, peak crowds board. Takes about 30 seconds. Then another 15 seconds, then the doors close and the train is moving again. First rhetorical question immediately having gone stale, a second set emerges: Why announce a standby when it lasts less than a minute? Who is being served by such a announcement? Can that even count as a standby?

No announcement or slowdown at Kenmore. None at Blandford above ground either. It's standard business the rest of the way to Babcock. Does the winning streak continue? Maybe it does, thanks to the dispatcher's change of heart at Hynes. They certainly can't all be perfect games, no-hitters or even shutouts. In the MBTA's league, it's about the final score on the board.

[mbtasigh]

11/2/23, 7:30 PM

The Coolidge Corner Trader Joe's used to be open until 10:00 p.m., but when they reestablished normal hours post-pandemic, they made it 9:00 p.m. Need at least an hour to get there from South Station with time to shop before it closes. The two locations are less than 4 miles apart. The T can at least be counted upon to go at least 4 miles per hour.

The Worcester Line's second stop out of South Station is Lansdowne. Takes 12 minutes to travel those two stops if all goes well. No Central Subway, no downtown transfers. Tonight all does go well. From a 7:35 on time departure, it's 7:47 to Beacon Street.

For a few months the T decided that this would be a free ride as an alternative to Green Line passengers suffering through slow zones. They ended that deal in September. They didn't end all the slow zones. Nor have they successfully implemented the years-late, hundreds-of-millions-over-budget fare collection system whereby one might voluntarily reduce the stress on the system by transferring freely between two modes (Green Line and Zone 1A commuter rail) that cost the same to ride. This transfer is available to passholders but not to less frequent riders of the system. So this next trick will cost double.

From Lansdowne it's about a 7-minute walk through Audubon Circle to the St. Mary's stop. Cross over the line into Brookline just as a train leaves the station headed outbound. Next train leaves in 7 minutes. It's at least another 15 minutes to Coolidge Corner. Coldest night of the year so far but it should still be worth waiting. And the 7 minutes goes as advertised. Hop onto the first car, where the farebox is broken. Doesn't cost double after all.

*ding* "This train will run express to Coolidge Corner. No stops in between, this train will run express to Coolidge Corner." Seems like lucky news for someone headed straight to Trader Joe's.

Green Line dispatching is such a black box. Why do trains usually run express? Because they've taken too long to reach their destination, they're bunching with the cars behind and they need to catch up to the cars ahead. So why would a train need to run express when the last one was 7 minutes ahead? According to the current MBTA schedule, Green Line trains are supposed to run every 6-8 minutes at peak time and every 7-12 minutes off peak. Notwithstanding that they don't say when peak vs. off peak is, 7 minutes seems like their ideal service pattern. Tell that to dispatch, anyway. This train will run express to Coolidge Corner. And it sort of does, despite all the stops it still has to make at red lights and despite the transit signal priority work that has allegedly been done on this portion of the line. Trader Joe's by 8:15. That'll be about 5⅓ miles per hour after all. Count on it. Beats 4.

[mbtasigh]

Poster hanging above the tracks of the outbound platform of Hynes Convention Center, October 30, 2023. The Hynes Convention Center station is not accessible, and the MBTA's lack of urgency with regard to accessibility makes this poster's message fall embarrassingly flat.

According to its website (screenshot below, current link here), the MBTA intends to make the Hynes station accessible in part by extracting $30.5 million from the developer attempting to build a new building in the space above the station and above the Mass Pike known as Parcel 13. The MBTA projects the completion date of these improvements as Fall 2025.

That completion date projection is unsubstantiated nonsense. The BPDA's website (current link here) tracks this project from initial proposal in February 2020 to a scoping determination issued by the BPDA in June 2023. (Put aside that this is only an "initial proposal" in the sense that the same developer's 2014 proposal at the same site, offering comparable improvements to the station below, went essentially nowhere in six years.) No timeline for the current developer's response is given. No expected date for the vote of the BPDA board is given. Nobody has any idea when or if this proposed project will ever be built, or when or if the MBTA will get its hands on the $30.5m earmarked (pre-Covid, pre-inflation) for accessibility improvements. The chance that there will be higher platforms and elevators at Hynes in Fall 2025 is a guaranteed zero percent.

Meanwhile, the buses advertised in the poster above are inaccessible to anyone with mobility issues who can see that poster where it hangs, stuck as such people would be where they sit, two levels and dozens of stairs below the ground level where those buses board.

[mbtasigh]

10/30/23, 5:35 PM

Down the stairs to South Station. At the height of rush hour, there must be at least some trains running. And the good news is they installed a departure board right at the bottom of the stairs, so if it's not looking good, back upstairs it is, to a 10-minute walk to Boylston in the rain.

| Alewife -- 15 mins |

Back upstairs it is.

[mbtasigh]

10/30/23 8:32 AM

Rainy day at St. Mary's. Arrive just as the train is arriving and it's a full one. Last one to board, umbrella down, wallet out. Step behind the white line as the operator closes the doors, locate Charlie Card, tap in. As the car starts moving:

"Please step all the way into the train, please move all the way behind the white line."

Look down, toes behind the line. Look back, nowhere to go anyway.

"We are, we're all behind the line."

*silence*

Arrive at the junction just behind a D train, so second in line into Kenmore. Of course that means, as soon as the car comes to a stop:

*ding* "Attention please, this train is standing by for a schedule adjustment." Two minutes to sit and wait.

Hynes, move back two doors in the car via the platform. Riders getting off, so plenty of room.

Smooth ride to Boylston. While waiting to take the curve, check the app for the Park Street Red Line departures. If a couple are coming in the range of 5 minutes or so, it's theoretically possible to get to South Station faster than the walk from Boylston down Essex Street. 8 minutes, 16 minutes, it says. Might work but the Red Line doesn't get the benefit of the doubt in 2023. Back out into the rain.

Boylston is accessed by a single set of stairs separated down the middle by a railing. On each side of the railing, people can go up or down two by two, but not wider than that, and not comfortable for passing. Two people in front, a pair of friends are about to march up, obviously side by side and obviously slowly. The person behind them sees this and quickly changes course to go up the left side. Looks like that'll be the fast lane, nice. Switch behind that person, who's obviously in a hurry and will make it to ground level much faster.

Nope, fake out! The person who switched sides now pulls a double switch, walking exactly. the. same. speed. as the two friends on the other side, as inch by inch, the Red Line begins to look like the better choice.

[mbtasigh]

10/24/23 9:45 AM

Arrive at St. Mary's. 6 minutes to next train arrival. Go across the street for a coffee, walk back with time to spare.

Board on the second car, move all the way back. Next stop is Kenmore, get off to let a couple people on. Guy with iced coffee and McMuffin hops on and stands nearby, grabbing another bite. "Attention passengers, we are standing by for a few minutes for a schedule adjustment." McMuffin Guy gets off, goes back up the escalator.

Moving again, Hynes no problem, then to Copley Junction. Stopped. Three minutes pass. *ding* (second car operator's PA system does not work) *ding* (PA system still does not work) *operator now shouting from the front of the car* "WE ARE STANDING BY DUE TO A POWER PROBLEM ON THE WEST TRACK AHEAD OF US." This train is on the east track.

Three more minutes pass. *ding* (second car operator's PA system still does not work) One more minute passes. *ding* (now the operator of the first car is using the PA) "Attention passengers, we have been standing by due to a power problem ahead of us on the WEST track, on the WEST track up ahead."

Train inches ahead, stops. Inches ahead, stops. Some kind of stinging insect is buzzing along the inside ceiling of the car, back to front, side to side.

*ding* (second car PA is not working) *ding* (first car operator again) "Attention passengers, we will be moving shortly, there is a power problem ahead of us on the WEST track [as though passengers should be relieved that it's not the east track]."

Train inches ahead half a dozen more times. The stinging insect tries a couple light fixtures, a couple window panes, looking for a way out. There is no way out.

Train inches over the junction, 3 MPH or less. Now entering Copley. Train pulls all the way up so that the train behind it can also stop in the station at the same time. Platform inspector inspects both trains with apparent interest while walkie-talkie in his hand squawks and buzzes.

Thirty-one minutes for three stops, St. Mary's to Copley. Get off the train, go upstairs, walk a mile and a half to final destination. Stinging insect's status and destination unknown.

[mbtasigh]

10/23/23 8:30 PM

Arrive at South Station just in time to catch the 8:35 to Lansdowne, two stops taking 12 minutes. Wait, they changed the schedule. The 8:35 is now a 9:00. Not worth waiting around for that.

Red Line isn't worth waiting around for, either. Departure boards in South Station Under have been grim as hell for a long time now. And even if a train does happen to arrive, who knows how long it will take to get two stops to Park Street, or what misadventures or waylaying could take place along the way.

So it's a half-mile walk up Essex Street to Boylston. Rat #1 stands impassively in the headhouse doorway until a sustained clapping of hands sends it scurrying down to the dead space to the left of the stairs, right where accessibility improvements would seem obviously plausible if not for the facts of historical preservation that adhere vaguely to this 1897 station, one of the original two in the system. Rat #2 strikes a similar posture of impassiveness halfway down the stairs and eventually darts to the right, to an area of the platform nominally open to riders but separated from the rest of the station in such a way that train operators might decide to declare it off-limits and to scold riders who stand there.

B train to Boston College arrives right at 8:40, making the switch from the Commuter Rail seem like a wise choice. Trip through the Central Subway is uneventful. At Kenmore the other track's arrival board displays a Cleveland Circle train one minute away. To switch or not to switch? Seems to be moving fine, and the B is faster than it used to be since they eliminated two surface stops west of the BU Bridge.

Sticking it out, along with lots of new passengers at Kenmore. The train surfaces at Blandford Street and takes on still more passengers. Near full now, at least for an ostensibly non-rush hour train. It's 8:57, so the Landsdowne train has been soundly defeated. But then come the two slowest blocks of this stretch of surface running, between Blandford and BU East. If BU is buying all of the streets around here, can't they also cut down on the ROW crossings and stoplights? The answer is no: the train is only "for" BU to a point.

BU East. *ding* "May I have your attention please. This train will be running express to Harvard Street. No stops in between BU East and Harvard Street, this train will be running express, doors will be closing." At this last sentence, nobody who needs to get off the train has been able to do so successfully. Nor has anyone really gotten on, because the people on the platform are trying to make sense of the announcement before boarding. A crowd at the top of the stairs stares at a crowd down below, and then the two crowds try to pass through each other while the operator repeats the announcement a second time, this time also saying what operators in this situation always say: "There is another train directly behind us making all local stops." The next train on a track should always be directly behind the one in front of it, but this is the MBTA, so it could be at least a few millimeters out of alignment and it would take years to find out.

Most of the boarding/alighting shuffling is done now, and a third time: "Once again, this train will run express to Harvard. Doors are closing." And this time they do. Train departs, local passengers wait in the October chill until the next one arrives from the stop behind. Directly behind, as advertised.

Takes at least three minutes to re-load this second train, though, thanks in large part to the guy with a huge shoulder bag who insists on standing (1) directly in front of the main passage behind the operator, blocking everyone's way to the rear of the train, and (2) directly in front of an empty seat, which now nobody can use. The college kids learning how to use the train for the first time are common practitioners of this offense, not so much for people old enough to know better, but hey, it's never too late in life to be clueless. He stands right in front of this empty seat and right behind the operator until Amory Street, then hunkers off into the night. Arrival at Babcock Street at 9:15 pm, with the expressed train ahead still in sight as it turns the corner into Allston.