Green Line Operaional Practices

I accompanied my girlfriend to North Station yesterday afternoon to see her off on the 5:20 Downeaster. They called her train at 5:10, so I went downstairs to wait for a Green Line D train. The electronic sign said there was a Reservoir train in a few minutes, and a Riverside train in "20+ minutes".

The Reservoir train arrived as a Cleveland Circle train, and the Riverside train disappeared from the sign, replaced by a Heath Street train. The Heath Street train came and went, after which the Riverside train reappeared "in 17 minutes", but that 17 went back to 20+a couple minutes later.

No Riverside train actually appeared until 5:51 -- that's 41 minutes after I arrived. And when it arrived, it was ONE car, not technically a train at all, and there were enough people waiting for it to fill it to rush hour levels of crowding. When it got to Kenmore, a lot of people from the just ended Sox game squeezed in. Not more than a handful of passengers were wearing masks, Covid be damned.

This level of service simply stinks. ONE car? In 41 minutes? And right after the end of a Red Sox game? This is pure ineptitude. Charlie Baker, you deserve to be trapped on the Green Line forever like your 1948 namesake.

I forget the exact sequence of mouse clicks but there is a page on the MBTA's web site that lets you send a message to them and you can click a box to ask for a personal reply.

Now I have heard rumors that the T has turned Riverside trains at Kenmore inbound after Red Sox games instead of having them continue all the way through to North Station or wherever. No notice, no explanation. But if you knew, then you could take a different train or trains to work your way outbound towards Riverside. Now one of these increments would end for you at Kenmore dumping you into the sea of people from the ball game. (Watch where you are going and be sure to be on a train to your final destination before going beyond Kenmore since you will need to pay another fare to reboard anything beyond Kenmore.)

I didn't know that the signboards in the station were capable of naming Reservoir for a train that would be arriving in X minutes although Reservoir station and Cleveland Circle are the same location. When the Riverside line opened in 1959 the T (then the MTA) envisioned running every other train outbound only to Reservoir but after a few days from opening day that was discontinued in favor of all service (except for a few trains after midnight) outbound to Riverside.

Now my turn to complain about bad service -- from Xfinity Wifi. As I began to type this message, I got as far as "I forget ..." then no more characters appeared in my message on the screen until thirty seconds after I typed them. Then they appeared one at a time, a whole second between every two. This level of service simply stinks.

MOD NOTE: This is not a place to post complaints about the MBTA. Productive discussion on operations and how to improve them are encouraged, however, so let's focus on that aspect and continue the conversation.

Huntington Avenue service always required more cars than could be stored at Lechmere. At the end of every rushhour, trips were scheduled to operate from Lechmere out the Highland Branch to Reservoir, but were very often sent out Beacon St. instead. With Lechmere replaced by the new Somerville facility, this is less of a necessity, but sounds as though that is what was experienced. A car (or train) originally designated for Reservoir got rerouted out Beacon St.

Those signs use the AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identification) to display live data. The AVI is how trains are automatically routed through junctions in the subway. It is not uncommon for trips to be diverted en route for numerous different reasons, which can result in seemingly inaccurate countdown clock data. Additionally, operators can use the AVI to automatically line a switch for an atypical move. Lets say a Riverside train is told to hold for a schedule adjustment at Park Street, and a Boston College train needs to go around it. The operator can stop at the switch entering Park Street, cancel the automatic route, and push a button to take the "Wall Track," OR they can change the AVI to identify as a C or E train and get rerouted automatically without having to stop and incur a delay. Since the AVI is a system in place to route trains rather than operate the countdown clocks, the latter function takes a back seat to the primary purpose. For this reason, the countdown clocks are a neat aid, but are not totally reliable.

In addition, the clocks may look at eastbound service as an indicator of when a westbound train might arrive. If said eastbound train is operating behind schedule and the decision is made to short turn a train to avoid a major gap in westbound service (especially in the evening when westbound traffic carries the bulk of the ridership), it will simply disappear from the countdown clock as it obviously isn't coming anymore. Whenever traveling westbound, the best practice is to take the first car to anywhere between Park Street and Copley (or Kenmore for anything other than the E branch) and wait there for the service you're looking for.

CRail wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 12:00 am Those signs use the AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identification) to display live data. The AVI is how trains are automatically routed through junctions in the subway. It is not uncommon for trips to be
diverted en route for numerous different reasons, which can result in seemingly inaccurate
countdown clock data. Additionally, operators can use the AVI to automatically line a switch for an atypical move.

Is AVI similar to or different to IDENTRA used on SEPTA, TTC and formerly on NYCT IRT Flushing Line World's Fair R33/R36s?

Disney Guy wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:28 pm Now my turn to complain about bad service -- from Xfinity Wifi. As I began to type this message, I got as far as "I forget ..." then no more characters appeared in my message on the screen until thirty seconds after I typed them. Then they appeared one at a time, a whole second between every two. This level of service simply stinks.

Typing into the website is entirely client-side. Nothing is sent to the server (e.g. Xfinity and Wi-Fi are not used) as you fill out the box. Only once you click "Submit" is your message sent, all at once, to the server. If typing into the box is slow, that indicates your computer is overloaded.

I live by the following rule of thumb: When in doubt, take the first train as far as you can, or at least as far as Park Street. So, for example, if the first train goes to Heath Street, take it to Copley. At Copley, if the next train is a C train, take it to Kenmore.

Today, that's good advice for eastbound travelers. When a family of six failed to get on a GovCen car yesterday, I asked them why. They had been waiting for 10 minutes and wanted to go to North Station. I advised them to take any car to GovCen as they would have to take a shuttle bus because no trains were running past GovCen. I found zero signs at Kenmore, Copley, and Park Street telling patrons that shuttle busses were needed for travel past GovCen. None of the Orange Line signs at Park Street indicated that the Orange LIne was also shut down. I found one patron who walked all the way to DTX before he saw a sign that the Orange Line was inoperative.