Winter 2015 and Impact on MBTA

I am starting to wonder this as well. Kinda sad that they (both the MBTA and Keolis) let it come to this - just let everyone (passengers) suffer for a month until enough new units are in service. Hopefully it's only a month.

Well the latest rumor is 9 lease units from Railworld (F40PH-2) and 3 from
MPI (unclear if its the three in Davisville or others Boise or Columbia, Pa).
Two ex-Titan Rail/TANX F40's at LTE are back in the shop after supposedly
being sent to Colorado. Speculation is they might be headed here instead.

D

Thanks for that update! Hopefully some of those show up - it'd be nice to go back to commuter rail next month, just waiting for those early trains to come back.

I'm also wondering if the two F40PH-2C's that got ownership-transferred to MassDOT for Pan Am to rebuild are going to end up getting transferred right back to the MBTA when that's done. Any notion of those being immediately usable as quick starter fleet for a Knowledge Corridor commuter rail--far-fetched to begin with since it's only 2 units and the MBB's are garbage for a halfway-economical rebuild into a starter coach fleet--is probably dead now with the budget crisis. Or, rather, now far too improbable a prospect for starting pre-2020. Not that it was ever a good idea to start pre-2020 to begin with since Hartford Line service is going to be on its own barebones starter schedule for the first few years, leaving the connecting options at Springfield much too limited to sustain northern/MassDOT CR at any time before 2020. There's no way you're just going to mothball two newly rehabbed engines for 5-7 years and play keep-away. So if that work is already bidded out, it would be completely irresponsible to NOT transact those two engines immediately back to the T this summer/fall or whenever they expect that work to be done. The Screamers will be gone, but everything else legacy is still aging unabated so a couple refreshed 2C's available in-house without needed to lease is crucial, crucial padding going forward.

The Waterville re-builds coming back home are in the rumor mill at B.E.T. right now. 1006-1015-1017 are back inside being air tested before being set for interchange to who knows where, all we know is that they are to become property of Mass DOT.

Keolis rolled out new schedules this morning for 7 lines this morning: Fairmount, Fitchburg, Franklin, Old Colony(except for Greenbush) and Providence.

Lines without new schedules: Worcester, Lowell, Needham, Newburyport, and Greenbush.

Keolis is of course claiming that they're up to 80% capacity: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/0 ... ticle_More" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How many locomotives were added week to week?

The photo in that article shows an engine packed with snow. Is that a file photo from last month? Comments in the article indicate 50% of rush hour capacity, not 80% implied.

MBTA website banner says 15 trains added!!! Probably off-peak & weekend, lol.

Some were rush hour, some were reverse-peak moves for rush hour trains, and others were off-peak. No weekend changes as those days have been running on regular schedules. For example, the Haverhill line had two Reading round trips added - the 8:30 AM inbound (and it's associated outbound 'revenue deadhead' move from North Station), and the 2:20 PM outbound and return.

It's very scattered as to what service is restored where. The Haverhill Line has probably the least service on the north side right now, with really only effectively 3 peak-direction rush hour trains. The Newburyport and Rockport branches also have three each. Lowell and Fitchburg are closer to full service (with Fitchburg closer than Lowell).

Got this unexpected alert earlier today:

Extra service on Haverhill Line Train 200 will operate Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday departing Haverhill at 5:05 AM making all stops

Last updated: Mar 10 2015 11:32 AM

Glad to see the Western Route is getting a little attention.

Everyone:

"February made me (us) shiver" - song lyric from Don McLean's "American Pie" (1972) which describes
perfectly the month of February 2015...

For example - the average temperature for the month was 21.6 degrees F recorded in my area at Islip MacArthur
Airport which would go down as the coldest recorded month on record - the previous record was 23.5 degrees F
which dated from January 2004...This was a rough month for the entire northeastern United States and what Long
Island experienced is just a example of how tough things were weatherwise...

Weather trivia aside - how is the MBTA faring on what looks to me on the Commuter Rail lines to be a locomotive
shortage? I noticed that there is mention about bringing in some used locomotives - and since regional locomotive
shops seem to be at capacity what about shipping locomotives for maintenance to places like the NS Juniata Shop
in PA and making inquiry to other passenger rail operations that have diesel shop facilities like the LIRR, MNCR and
NJ Transit that may welcome contract work?

How are the rapid transit lines doing - specifically the Red and Orange Lines - at getting a handle on the traction
motor problems that have been sidelining major portions of those fleets? Have the Green Lines been able to get
their outer routes back in operation to some extent?

With the noticeable break in the weather is this helping the MBTA as a whole get a handle on the cold weather
problems that have plagued the system since the last week of January?

For those taking note the Spring Equinox is only ten days away - March 20th this year - and that after this rough
stretch of Winter weather it will be more then welcome by all of us that have been affected - and the MBTA...

MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote:what about shipping locomotives for maintenance to places like the NS Juniata Shop
in PA and making inquiry to other passenger rail operations that have diesel shop facilities like the LIRR, MNCR and
NJ Transit that may welcome contract work?

How are the rapid transit lines doing - specifically the Red and Orange Lines - at getting a handle on the traction
motor problems that have been sidelining major portions of those fleets? Have the Green Lines been able to get
their outer routes back in operation to some extent?

Juniata already has a bunch of new HSP46s to work on. Red and Orange were back to the full number of cars last week; I'm not sure about Green.

Since the March recovery schedules are a fraction of the full regular operations, I was wondering why Keolis still seems to be having issues fully staffing the trains that are running. For example, both evenings this week (so far), 819 has had only three conductors/assistant conductors, which makes for really slow unloading of seven car bilevel trains.

I realize that hours-of-service rule issues came up in February, but given that we're in March, with the major delays more than a calendar week and a calendar month in the past, shouldn't all of the work hour rules have reset by now?

I've noticed that also. The 6:10 and 6:50 Providence trains from South Station often only have 2 conductors/assistant conductors which means you can only exit from the front or the rear of the train at low-level platforms. Also, they are not collecting fares, even when the train isn't that crowded. As a monthly passholder, I find this annoying. I understand that when the train is so crowded they can't walk down the aisle they can't collect fares, but this morning's 7:44 extra from Mansfield was a free ride all the way in from every station for those in my coach without monthly passes and there was no-one standing in the aisles, at least not until after 128. The same with last night's 6:50.

Frode wrote:I've noticed that also. The 6:10 and 6:50 Providence trains from South Stationtheten only have 2 conductors/assistant conductors which means you can only exit from the front or the rear of the train at low-level platforms. Also, they are not collecting fares, even when the train isn't that crowded. As a monthly passholder, I find this annoying. I understand that when the train is so crowded they can't walk down the aisle they can't collect fares, but this morning's 7:44 extra from Mansfield was a free ride all the way in from every station for those in my coach without monthly passes and there was no-one standing in the aisles, at least not until after 128. The same with last night's 6:50.

I've noticed the same short staffing and lack of fair collection on the Worcester line.

All of my trips on the Newburyport line (off peak, admittedly) they've collected fares as normal.