Planned Service Suspensions (Was: Orange Line To Close...)

At least part of the problem is slow orders over much of the line while the new track settles. Those are expected to be eliminated by next Monday.

This is standard any time new track is laid. Tie jobs typically only replace every 3rd tie to negate the need, but new track installations and complete replacements require a settling period.

Why is the train frequency so low that people are experiencing 20+ minute wait times? Even if the trains have to be slow, why are there so few of them?

Related to the shortage of dispatchers I bet

Globe article about the slow zones: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/22/ ... -expected/

They replaced 120 cars with 70. Without the Hawkers in the mix, they don't have enough equipment to run the level of service the line actually requires.

Normal weekday peak schedule is 6 minutes. Would available new cars handle a Saturday schedule (10 minutes)
all day?

CRail wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:35 pm They replaced 120 cars with 70. Without the Hawkers in the mix, they don't have enough equipment to run the level of service the line actually requires.

They are limited to a pseudo-Weekend schedule at all times currently due to the dispatcher shortage. From what I've heard they will be running the CRRC's mostly with the Hawkers filling in as needed. It appears the only cars that are being scrapped thus far are the ones from the deadline north of Wellington.

Service levels currently experienced drop beneath those of a weekend schedule. The line is typically dispatched by a single person, shared with the blue line on weekends. Even if the line has to share a dispatcher at all times, the 50% of previous fleet size is still the limiting factor.

Have the Hawkers filled in yet since reopening?

Here we are a week of the grand re-opening of the Orange Line and for a brief moment, Friday of last week there was full speed Wellington, my home station, to Community College. Last week there was full speed from the Community College portal to the Back Bay crossovers.

Now, actually over the weekend the slow orders returned for Wellington to Community. Have things not settled with the track work? And why are there more Xs on the ties? I thought the idea was to X eliminate.

It's probably been documented elsewhere on this forum but they are continuing to do trackwork after hours north of NS. What exactly this work entails I don't know, but the slow zones will remain in place until it is finished (plus settling time).

This morning a colleague and I arrived at North Station at 5:45am, and headed down to the GL platform for an inbound train to Park Street. The first thing I noticed was there were no trains listed on the status board (i.e. "Heath Street -- 3 minutes"). So I looked at mbta.com and saw an alert that the GL is suspended between June 12 and June 25 from North Station to Government Center for the GC garage demolition.

OK, fine... but why were there no signs, no announcements, and no personnel on the platform telling riders? There were dozens of passenger waiting patiently for a GL train, and it's a long wait until June 26... You'd think that on the first morning of the suspension, the T would be all over helping passengers find their way.

We took the next OL train, that skipped Haymarket as part of the same planned service suspension.

In this day and age, Rule Number One is check mbta.com for alerts before you go. Never assume.

Didn't you know the MBTA is short staffed? They don't have time for customer service or to post a sign.