Subway Delay Reports and Discussion (2011-2017)

I aslo got an alert about a track problem. So that's like half the excuses the MBTA has all in one day.

Orange line "track problem" at the Community College portal of the Charles River tunnel around 8 this morning. Severe delays and talk of bustitution.

Red Line having unannounced issues at Harvard. Trains are stopping in the turn with the last car still in the station and waiting until the train ahead clears Central. Sounds like the recurring 'signal issue at Harvard' is back again.

A trolley seems to have caught on fire at Copley.

https://twitter.com/jasonmkaplan/status ... 7077697536" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Adams_Umass_Boston wrote:A trolley seems to have caught on fire at Copley.

https://twitter.com/jasonmkaplan/status ... 7077697536" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brake resisters on an 8 probably. Actually not that rare an occurrence.

On second view that's a 7 so some other problem.

Black seats from that video shot on that Type 7, so it looks like a 3700-series?

Some delays today as large crowds headed to anti-President march.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/2017/01/21/m ... l#comments

typesix wrote:Some delays today as large crowds headed to anti-President march.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/2017/01/21/m ... l#comments

'Some delays' is an understatement. Harvard was packed full at one point. Don't know about other stations but I assume it wasn't that much better.

It looks like most (if not all) B line trains are running to Government Center today. E trains aren't running to Lechmere due to signal work and D trains aren't running from Fenway to Reservoir due to tree removal.

Blue Line Bustitutions between Airport and Government Center all this weekend (18/19) and scheduled for next weekend as well, due to tunnel and track work.
Work that should be scheduled for overnight hours, NO EXCUSES.

All day on Saturday we had jammed packed busses, tourists trying to being luggage on at Airport (it's not their fault), drivers not schooled on the routes to take,
and tons of traffic on the Boston proper side, after all it is President's Day Weekend.

The solution at this point is an injunction from Bakers office to cancel the work for next weekend, and yes we will ask Bakers office for that.

Ken

Sounds like a rock and a hard place to me. Not knowing what the work is. If you do the work at night it will take longer and cost more. What if the work window overnight was not long enough to do what was needed? Not knowing the situation, there probably should have been signs at the airport advising travelers to use the Silver Line.

As Red Wing said, there's a lot of work that you simply cannot do overnight. The last revenue train leaves downtown after 1am - and sometimes as late as 2am if the last-train connection is delayed - and the first inbound train is in the tunnel before 5:30am the next day. Including transportation time and so on, you have a work hour less than three hours long. You can't pour concrete in three hours, you can't string long sections of cable, you can't replace a switch.

No one at the MBTA likes weekend substitutions - they are disruptive to operations, and the busing is extremely expensive. They don't do them unless they are absolutely necessary. If you're asking Baker's office for an injunction, what you are attempting to do is to prevent the MBTA from performing maintenance work that they cannot do in any other way.

That said, the MBTA does a poor job of managing the bustitutions, as you experienced. There's no debate there. The solution, though, is to improve how bustitutions are performed, not to sacrifice essential trackwork to avoid them.

The EGE wrote:As Red Wing said, there's a lot of work that you simply cannot do overnight. The last revenue train leaves downtown after 1am - and sometimes as late as 2am if the last-train connection is delayed - and the first inbound train is in the tunnel before 5:30am the next day. Including transportation time and so on, you have a work hour less than three hours long. You can't pour concrete in three hours, you can't string long sections of cable, you can't replace a switch.

No one at the MBTA likes weekend substitutions - they are disruptive to operations, and the busing is extremely expensive. They don't do them unless they are absolutely necessary. If you're asking Baker's office for an injunction, what you are attempting to do is to prevent the MBTA from performing maintenance work that they cannot do in any other way.

That said, the MBTA does a poor job of managing the bustitutions, as you experienced. There's no debate there. The solution, though, is to improve how bustitutions are performed, not to sacrifice essential trackwork to avoid them.

If it takes longer to do the work overnight, then so be it, what they can do it start work by bustituting the last 2 hours or so of service, and spread the work out over a longer period of days.
The extra cost is something that they have to deal with, period.

Today on Sunday, was worse, 1 manager at Maverick told people that they were going to wrap up the work early, and go back to regular service, that is not due to happen, I have no clue where
she got that info from.

Later in the early afternoon we were on a Green Line trolley and the drive announced that people looking for the Blue Line should not get off at Govt Center, they should ride to Haymarket,
take the Orange line to State Street, and that Blue Line trains were running to and from State Street, once again this information was wrong.

It our case we got off at Haymarket, walked to Long Wharf, and took the Water Taxi home, our building has a contract with BHC so we only pay $5.00 to use the Water Taxi, as opposed to their regular
rate of $12.00. BHC cruises stated that they are never informed when the Blue Line is being shut down for work, and if they would know this in advance they might be able to offer Ferry Service from
the Nickel Dock for a reduced set fare.

As for Tuesday morning, yes there is a growing legion of us who will be calling Gov. Baker's office.

Ken

I have been getting emails for what seems like a month about the "up-coming" weekend closings. They have been available on their website as well. Their have also been signs in the stations. Its not like these scheduled closings weren't known. If someone at BHC just signed up for the email notifications, never mind check the T's website, they would have known about this.

I agree with the rest, as a life long Blue Line guy, the busing is never run well. However, I rather them close and bus to make sure the infrastructure is repaired and safe.

peconicstation, read what I wrote again. You cannot do many kinds of work overnight. It is physically impossible no matter how many overnights you spread it over. Concrete cannot be poured and dried in three hours. Every single two-track rapid transit line in the world requires occasional weekend shutdowns for maintenance work that needs longer windows. The Blue Line is not an exception. If the weekend work is not performed now, it will just require longer bustitutions in the future.

If you want to get Baker to order the MBTA to handle the bustitution logistics better, I wish you all the luck. Poor customer information, no coordination with BHC - those are not acceptable.

But if you are attempting to have weekend shutdowns never happen, you are simply shooting yourself in the foot.