Schedule brochures for MBTA routes

[R36 Combine Coach]

On a recent trip, I stopped at the MassDOT Building (10 Park Plaza) and the information kiosk at the lobby. I have some questions/comments to notice:

1. The Rapid Transit (Subway/Trolley) brochure is full color in the electronic (PDF) edition, but hard copy printings are grayscale. What is the reason for the difference?

2. The Silver Line has its own brochure but is still included in the Rapid Transit schedule as well. Same for Mattapan service.

3. Noticed the subway/trolley schedule is very "bare bones": just first/last departure times and headways (frequency) throughout the day. It would make sense for all four rail transit lines to be divided into their own brochures, with more details service schedules, since the Silver Line and Mattapan already do so.

[chrisf]

The Rapid Transit (Subway/Trolley) brochure is full color in the electronic (PDF) edition, but hard copy printings are grayscale. What is the reason for the difference?

It costs significantly more to print in full color than it costs to print with black ink. There's no difference in cost to create a full color electronic document than a black and white document.

[leviramsey]

3. Noticed the subway/trolley schedule is very "bare bones": just first/last departure times and headways (frequency) throughout the day. It would make sense for all four rail transit lines to be divided into their own brochures, with more details service schedules, since the Silver Line and Mattapan already do so.

In general a detailed service schedule becomes less and less useful as frequency increases/headway decreases. I've seen 15 minute headways most commonly cited as the rough dividing line between show-up-and-go and check the schedule.

[rethcir]

I only check the schedule tables for commuter rail. For almost every other trip I just use Google Maps transit planner or CatchTheBus.