3 Car Green Line Train Discussion

They're scheduled trips. Although from what I've heard the morning Heath Street trip is staffed by Part-Timers, and the evening trip has 2 scheduled operators and an OT list position (often filled by an operator who does WAY too much overtime).

Also the evening Lechmere trip alternates between the 6:28pm trip and the one before (wanna say 6:20pm?)

Scott10690 wrote:They're scheduled trips. Although from what I've heard the morning Heath Street trip is staffed by Part-Timers, and the evening trip has 2 scheduled operators and an OT list position (often filled by an operator who does WAY too much overtime).

Also the evening Lechmere trip alternates between the 6:28pm trip and the one before (wanna say 6:20pm?)

The 5:10pm and 6:20pm are the scheduled runs out of Lechmere in the evening. Also the 3-car train signs are placed so that potential Passengers on platforms know that the train arriving is three cars.

It appears that the MBTA has stopped running three-car trains on the B branch. I haven't seen a 3-car train during rush hour yet in 2013.

I've seen several this week.

They're back (thankfully), but they did discontinue them for a while during the winter. One of the officials mentioned that at the January meeting. Something about lack of equipment.

Saw one at Copley at about 5:30pm today. A good sight to see!

So long as equipment and personnel are available to run them, there are quite a few 3-car sets scheduled to run each day.

Departing Boston College
AM: 6:50, 7:13, 7:37, 8:00, 8:35, 8:58, 9:22, and 9:45
PM: 4:25, 4:50, 5:16, 5:40, 6:15, and 6:38

Departing Riverside
AM: 6:36, 6:54, 7:12, 7:30, 7:48, 8:06, 8:24, and 8:42
PM: 4:18, 4:46, 5:14, 5:43, 6:06, and 6:34

Thought it was supposed to be 32 3-car trips per-day. That's also what they claimed at the meeting. Reduced schedule to 28 trips now?

Keep in mind that some of these trips turn around and go outbound. That might have been included in the 32 trip count.

I'm pretty certain they all have to turn around and head outbound. What happened to the 3-car trains serving Brigham Circle?

MBTA3247 wrote:I'm pretty certain they all have to turn around and head outbound. What happened to the 3-car trains serving Brigham Circle?

They've pretty much abandoned full-time Brigham short-turns. Gums up the works too much and is more labor-intensive than it's worth. They invariably stumble on this downside every single time they try to introduce Brigham short-turns, but you know how it goes...no long-term memory, no short-term memory.

I thought they stopped using Brigham Circle as a turn back altogether after the incident.

As to three car trains down the E Line... why not just not stop at Heath St (where the train would stick out if it were in the loop, thus they don't stop there). Instead, the last stop is Back of the Hill, loop around, and then first stop Back of the Hill inbound.

I've not been on other lines during crush peak, but the E gets pretty ridiculously crowded. It could use just about anything you throw at it. I'd especially like to see cars with seats removed, but it seems almost every single seat has equipment tucked under it.

I don't think it's the loop they are concerned about, it's just having the long train in with traffic could cause safety issues for boarding and detraining.

Today I rode on a 3 car Green Line Train on the D Line from Beaconsfield to Boylston at around 8:30am. I didn't think the real time tracking was correct but I was surprised when it pulled in with the "3 Car Train" sign in the front. It's the first 3 car train I've seen in years. Was this just a exception or are 3 car trains back in a limited extent?