Monday, January 15, 2007

odds and ends (January 15th)


If you are planning on visiting San Diego in the near future you may not want to tell people you are from New England. The city is in shock after their beloved Chargers lost to the Patriots on Sunday. This may come as a surprise to some of you but the rest of the country is sick of the Patriots winning so much.

Tom Long reported last week in the Northwest Edition of the Globe that North Station will be selling the LinkPass as a CharlieCard starting in February. I would assume this means the same for South Station, Back Bay and other T pass sales outlets.


MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera said "Beginning in February, Charlie Cards will be available at North Station. Customers will receive their link pass on a Charlie Card."
Long also asked Rivera if there was any limit to the number of people who can use a CharlieCard at the same time and she says "there is no limit to the number of users who can use a card on the T."


The column also looks at Amtrak's Downeaster Service that connects Portland, Maine with North Station which is now 5 years old and doing quite nicely. Last year, 333,800 rode the train.


Just a horrible tragedy on Sunday at the Mansfield Commuter Rail stop as a northbound Amtrak Acela hit a 15 year old boy and killed him as his mother watched in horror. Commuters who take the Providence line can attest on how the Acela just appears in seconds as it flies by the local stations at speeds in excess of 130 mph.

Bus and trolley users in Pittsburgh are in shock as earlier this month as the Allegheny County Port Authority announced drastic cuts to transit service in the Pittsburgh metro area. Pittsburgh will eliminate 124 of 213 weekday bus routes starting June 24.

Boston is far from alone in rolling out smartcards for transit riders. USAToday looks at programs across the US that have done so including Seattle, Atlanta, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles.

In Manhattan Monday a homeless man was killed when he fell in front of a #6 train at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

Riders on New York's L subway line will soon be the best informed commuters in the system. L line will get real-time train arrival information, which will be displayed on electronic message boards on station platforms. The signs, which will get train locations from a network of onboard and track-side computers, will take the guessing game out of using the subways, officials said. Upgraded sound systems also have been installed in the stations on the Canarsie line.

A Chicago transit blog (CTA Tattler) looks at The exasperated motorman.

Finally on this Martin Luther King Day, Seattle's "Bus Chick" looks back on his roll in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A very moving piece and reminds us of a day when transit riders were forced to city in the back of the bus as a matter of law.

6 comments:

Ron Newman said...

Does this mean I don't have to buy a Zone 1A pass anymore, and can use a CharlieCard LinkPass instead for zone 1A travel in February?

Fenway said...

Ron Newman said...

Does this mean I don't have to buy a Zone 1A pass anymore, and can use a CharlieCard LinkPass instead for zone 1A travel in February?


A good question that needs to be answered.

Ron Newman said...

As for Pittsburgh -- shutting down 60% of the bus system forever? What are they thinking? They could never recover ridership after doing that; it's much worse than a fare increase.

Anonymous said...

Ron Newman said...
As for Pittsburgh -- shutting down 60% of the bus system forever? What are they thinking? They could never recover ridership after doing that; it's much worse than a fare increase.


It appears that Pittsburgh plans to raise fares as well. I guess we can count our blessings with the T

Anonymous said...

to use commuter rail 1A, must get a charlieticket, if gotten on a charliecard, will not work on 1A.

Anonymous said...

Ron, as I'm sure you know, you can't use a CharlieCard for zone 1A travel until the commuter rail and inner harbor ferries get CharlieCard readers. That's why the Zone 1A pass exists -- so they can refuse to sell you one on a card.

What's new is that these pass sales offices are getting CharlieCard machinery, so they'll be able to sell you a LinkPass on a CharlieCard instead of on a ticket.

If you want Zone 1A travel, you'll still get a Zone 1A CharlieTicket.

(Maybe it will now be on paper vending machine stock instead of pre-loaded on a T-pass-style thin plastic magstripe card. I prefer the plastic CharlieTicket passes, since bus fareboxes read them quicker than paper ones.)