RED LINE DIVERSIONS February 17-19

They were passing out flyers on the Red Line this afternoon.

I went to link the info from the T website and it isn't there.

Start of service SATURDAY February 17th through the end of service MONDAY February 19th...

SOUTH SHORE BRANCH bus shuttle between BROADWAY and JFK-UMASS

DORCHESTER BRANCH bus shuttle between BROADWAY and ASHMONT

Bus service will be available at Broadway, Andrew, JFK-UMass, Savin Hill, Fields Corner, Shawmut and Ashmont.

Normal service will resume Tuesday, February 20th

T in the media - February 10th edition

scanning the wires to see what is being reported about the T in the past few days

Police on alert as graffiti artists gather in city
Boston Globe - They were five men with 39 cans of spray paint, speeding away from the Braintree MBTA Station early yesterday, police said

Network boss quits, apologizes for stunt
Boston Globe - Turner Broadcasting apologized for the campaign last week and announced it would pay $2 million in restitution to the MBTA and local governments

Is Framingham getting its fair share of the dollars?
Framingham TAB - Feb 9, 2007... a handful of MetroWest towns recently dumped some T of their own — the MBTA, that is — in favor of a regional transportation authority.

New Charlie Cards has less people skipping out on fares
WHDH-TV- Feb 9, 2007 -- MBTA officials credit the new Charlie Cards with cutting down on the number of people skipping out on paying fares. ...

'T' Riders Complain About Charlie Cards
Boston Channel.com - Feb 9, 2007 There are troubles with the MBTA's Charlie Cards and they've only been out for a month. The cards promise discounted rates on the "T," but some ...

Waban residents lobby to halt meters in square
Daily News Tribune, MA - Feb 8, 2007 Solomon said two weeks ago that a major reason for the meters is to ensure consistent parking turnover for the square's businesses by preventing MBTA ...

Selectmen to discuss MBTA request Monday
Abington Mariner, MA - Feb 8, 2007 At their meeting on Monday night, Abington Selectmen are expected to discuss a proposal from the MBTA that requests the addition of a later train

OUR VIEW: The last spike
The Patriot Ledger, MA - Feb 8, 2007 Timothy Murray, and MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas had the honors of using a long-handed maul to drive three ceremonial spikes into the wooden ties. ...

Trial To Start For Men Accused Of Shooting Pregnant Woman On 'T'
Boston Channel.com, MA - Feb 8, 2007... both charged with first-degree murder and related charges for allegedly killing an infant and wounding his mother on an Orange Line MBTA car in February ...

OUR VIEW: Too many hands?
The Patriot Ledger, MA - Feb 7, 2007 A 75-year-old MBTA electrical engineer says she was assigned just five hours of work a month. She filed an age discrimination complaint, which was rejected ...

Middleboro selectmen approve later train service
Brockton Enterprise, MA - Feb 6, 2007 Selectmen took the vote following a public hearing, at the request of Daniel A. Grabauskas, General Manager of the MBTA, who is seeking community input on ...

The destination of this train is . . .TECHNOLOGY
Daily Free Press (subscription), MA - Feb 6, 2007 When Boston's MBTA launched the CharlieCard in December 2006, thousands of area residents were introduced to "touchless" smartcard technology, which allows ...

bloggers on the T ( February 10th edition )

The T continues to be a popular subject with Boston bloggers..... a sample

Kathy from Cambridgeport has a lovely story

Returning home on Thursday Feb 8, as I entered bus #2272, at Central Sq bus stop on Mass Ave at Pearl, route 47, in Cambridge MA at 10:50pm, the bus driver hit me with a stream of verbal abuse. She demanded I tell her is the elderly gentlemen, who had been sitting in the freezing cold wailting over 1/2 hour for the bus, was "drunk." How would I know? I responded. I'm not gonna let him on the bus, look at him, he's been drinking!

from MBTA Watch
CharlieCard a Success or Failure?

A snafu of sorts occurred yesterday when Mac Daniel of The Boston Globe wrote a story citing CharlieCard usage statistics that were questionable at best.

from Alexx Kay

Recently, I needed to buy a new ticket at the Quincy Center T stop. There are 5 automated machines there. One of these was being serviced by a technician, and was unusable.

I went to the second machine. After going through the multi-step process of telling it what kind of ticket I wanted, it asked me to insert my credit card. I did so, but the machine did not respond in any way. I tried again several times, fast, slow, leaving it in for a few seconds before pulling it out – every variation I could think of. No response.

I went to the third machine. Exactly the same thing happened.

TJICistan on the Mac Daniel article

crazy statements that only a unionized MBTA worker, a journalist, or an idiot could believe

Sean on changes on the #60 bus in Chestnut Hill

I'm not a transit-junkie and don't pretend to have a grasp on the nuances of individual bus routes. It appears to me that the change corresponds to the Bloomingdale's women's store move. It used to stop near Bloomingdale's. Bloomingdale's moved. Now it stops near Bloomingdale's new location. Maybe it's just coincidence.

johnsu01 on the Jewel concert

Dear MBTA,

Quit breaking the transportation system with stupid stunts. Focus on doing your damn job. I understand that you need money. I can see that from the fact that you increased the price of my monthly pass by 30%. While that is frustrating, it is a lot less frustrating to see you doing things to try to make the system stable and self-sufficient by its own revenues than it is to see you renting out the space the public is paying for in ways that cause tremendous inconvenience to the public in order to raise a few extra dollars on the side. Note that nobody was paying to see this concert. If you need to promote yourselves, try doing it in a way that doesn't damage your reputation at the same time.

John A. Keith may lose sleep over Jewel

Someone, please, fill in the missing part of the story.

For some reason, I won’t be able to sleep tonight unless I know … how did Jewel get from Boston College to South Station via the MBTA? Did she take the Green Line to Park Street, then switch to the Red Line to South Station?

Outraged Liberal is fed up with the T........again

OK, now I'm really fed up. Attempting to board the B Line outbound at BU Central tonight, I was told I needed to go the front door by a "customer service agent" without any validation equipment while people next to me were allowed to get on the train.

Does my CharlieCard (pre-paid corporate pass account) somehow give off an aura that allowed this person to determine that my hard plastic card was somehow inferior to someone else's card or CharlieTicket (or nothing for all I know). Does my card have cooties?

sanny pants says "I love the MBTA. No wait. No I don't"

Insanity Runs Amok isn't happy about the T or the people that ride it

People on the T -- If they aren't having loud, very personal conversations on their cell phone, they are pushing you around with the big ass backpack. Or they are shouting about how the Yankees suck after they watch a game in which the Red Sox have been playing the ******* ORIOLES. Fun times, let me tell you.

and that is just from Friday.............. In case anyone thinks I didn't link a positive T blog, do a search on google blogs.

There weren't any.....hey I found a couple

Thanks to stories appearing on The Somerville News Web site, MBTA workers cleaned up the trash near Davis Square.

menegay writes 'It’s cool to ride the bus'

I used to be a subway snob, I admit it. The bus seemed weird and random and automatically inferior to the subway. (It needs roads?!) And it’s fun to complain about Boston’s transit system, I also admit. But today, I have two glowing endorsements.

Jewel on a Breda

Jewel concert on the fast track

WBZ-TV has video of Jewel singing on a Breda Green Line car during rush hour on Friday

Jewel Serenades Boston 'T' Riders

Anybody make it to South Station for the concert? Hope to have video of that later.

South Station photos
from shersteve at flickr.com

from rbaladiang at flickr.com

T police arrest 5 graffiti artists in Braintree

from WCVB

Five Alleged Graffiti Artists Arrested

Graffiti vandals may be planning to gather in Boston during the weekend to target Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trains, officials said.NewsCenter 5's Todd Kazakiewich reported that five alleged taggers were arrested and faced charges in Quincy District Court Friday, accused of planning to spray paint MBTA property. They pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to tag."There was an MBTA officer who saw them coming from an access road that is typically used by people who spread graffiti on trains and train property," a prosecutor said.

UPDATE: 11:50 AM Metro may have the figures correct

UPDATE 11:50 AM

Christina Wallace in the Friday METRO may have a more accurate read on the numbers released by the T yesterday.

Since the beginning of January, 1.2 million CharlieCards have been distributed and approximately 86 percent of boardings during that month have been with the card or a monthly pass as opposed to the Charlie Ticket. That means, out of 22 million boardings in January, 19 million were made with CharlieCards or passes. “To get this result in 30 days is pretty remarkable,” said MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas, during yesterday’s board meeting.

Ok that is a big difference in what the Globe reported as it does account for the CharlieTicket monthly passes. Wallace however came up with a much higher number of CharlieCards being in circulation saying the number is 1,200,000 over the Globe's number of 575,000. This would indicate that over 50% of the cards that have been handed out since December 4th are not being used.

However I still find the 86% boarding number cited by the T as being high simply from the number of passengers using the vending machines on a daily basis.

UPDATE 10:30 AM
The T has taken the Mac Daniel story off their website.


UPDATE 9:45 AM Friday

The print edition of the Globe has a more in depth article on the first month of the Charlie system and there is a significant change in wording from what first appeared on boston.com on Thursday and is still on the T website. Mac Daniel now writes

Based on the statistics released yesterday, by the end of January, 86 percent of T riders were using CharlieCards and 14 percent used CharlieTickets or paid cash and had to pay the surcharge. Grabauskas hopes to lower the percentage of people who rely on the paper tickets in the next several months.

The 86% figure still seems to be too high given the fact that many monthly passes in January were still CharlieTickets and all Commuter Rail and Express Buses passes still are tickets.

The article in the print edition also focuses on the T's claim that fare evasion is being stopped by the new system

The T, which previously projected that the new system would boost revenues 3 percent, now expects a jump of 9 percent -- or about $21 million -- in fare collections by the end of this fiscal year, June 30.

That increase is over and above the 25 percent fare increase that took place Jan. 1, MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said. "The numbers that we have seem to indicate strongly that fare evasion was greater throughout the system than we thought," he said.

The effort to curb fare evasion is being helped by additional security cameras , new, higher fare gates, and more T "ambassadors," who assist passengers in learning the new pay method but also are alert to people trying to jump the gates

I showed this article a few minutes ago to workers at Harvard Square and their reaction was laughter.

I think the system is collecting more revenue but fare evasion wasn't the problem. One of the main reasons the T wanted "Automatic Fare Collection" was the documented fact that T employees were robbing the system blind at the T's counting room in Charlestown. Also with the new fareboxes on the bus and trolleys dollar bills can actually be recorded which was not possible with the old fareboxes.

As far as fare evasion is concerned I have seen more people pass through faregates without paying in the last month than I have ever seen before. It is much easier just to follow somebody through a gate. A CSA isn't going to do anything unless the Transit Police happens to be there.


Original post from Thursday night 2/8/07 11:45 PM
The T is using a story by Mac Daniel on boston.com as an official press release

This story, written by Mac Daniel, appeared in the Boston Globe on February 8, 2007.

Numbers for the first month of CharlieCard usage show that despite fare increases the T's new automated system is being quickly adapted by riders, with 575,000 of the plastic cards in circulation after the program's first 30 days.

By comparison, the Chicago Transit Authority's ChicagoCard had 372,000 in circulation as of December, nearly four years after its introduction for bus and subway service.

The use of the CharlieCards has also seemed to change the way people pay to ride on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subways, buses, and trolleys. For the first time in the authority's history, the new fare card has made credit and debit card transactions account for more than 40 percent of the T's revenue.

"We have exceeded our expectations for the first 30 days," MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said today in a telephone interview.

In January, 86 percent of T riders used CharlieCards and paid the lowest amount under the new fare structure. About 14 percent of riders paid a new surcharge by using CharlieTickets or paying cash, a number Grabauskas said he want to lower in the next several months.

In addition, 87 percent of all bus passengers used the low-fare CharlieCards, while 13 percent of riders paid a surcharge. On Green Line surface stops, 96 percent paid with CharlieCards and 4 percent paid a surcharge.

OK what the article DOESN'T tell you about Chicago.

Chicago Cards cost $ 5.00 and are only good for Pay-Per-Use fares or a 30-Day Pass.

While the Chicago Card does offer a .25 cent discount on the 'L a regular farecard ( similar to the CharlieTicket) has the same value on a bus and transfers are issued. Chicago bus riders have not warmed to the Chicago Card since a trip and transfer is still $2.00 when boarding on a bus ( it is $ 2.25 when boarding at a rail station )

Chicago Card info

Reading the Chicago blogs the problem is the Chicago Cards have an alarming failure and it takes about a week to process a replacement unless you travel to the CTA office in the Loop.



Plus the monthly and weekly passes are still offered by CTA Transit Card for the same price so there is no compelling reason to switch to the card.

This statement from Grabauskas can not be true

In January, 86 percent of T riders used CharlieCards and paid the lowest amount under the new fare structure. About 14 percent of riders paid a new surcharge by using CharlieTickets or paying cash, a number Grabauskas said he want to lower in the next several months. In addition, 87 percent of all bus passengers used the low-fare CharlieCards, while 13 percent of riders paid a surcharge. On Green Line surface stops, 96 percent paid with CharlieCards and 4 percent paid a surcharge.

It can't be true for the simple reason that many January passes were issued on CharlieTicket stock as the retail locations had not been converted. I think anybody who has ridden a bus or the subway in the past month would find these figures out of whack at least for January.

Of course the T is being cute with this. Instead of issuing a press release on their own they simply republish the Globe article by Mac Daniel.

Mac you have been had. Any commuter will tell you these figures are not correct.

After Greenbush - what should the T do next?

On Tuesday the T celebrated the end of the construction phase of the Greenbush Commuter Rail line that will complete the reconstruction of the Old Colony routes that were abandoned by the New Haven Railroad in 1959 when the Southeast Expressway opened. The cost of restoring these 3 lines is close to ONE BILLION DOLLARS with Greenbush alone costing $510 million.

BAD TRANSIT writes about Greenbush this week and I understand where the rage is coming from. Unlike the other 2 parts of the Old Colony Division that were restored (Plymouth/Kingston Line and Middleborough/Lakeville Line) Greenbush was fought very heavily by the residents of the towns it will serve. The T HOPES that by 2010 they will have 4200 inbound passengers every weekday.

We could debate if Greenbush was a sound transit idea for decades to come but the fact is the money is spent, construction done and the line will operate starting this summer. What is more important is what the T does next.

Politicians in the New Bedford and Fall River area are pushing for the restoration of Commuter Rail to their areas. The State of New Hampshire wants to work with the T in extending Commuter Rail back to Manchester and Concord which was done briefly some 20 years ago. These are noble ideas but it is time for the T to focus on the transit needs of riders inside Route 128 (I-95).

It is time for the T to finally end 50 years of promises by itself and the former MTA and extend the Blue Line to Lynn and Salem. This is a project the old MTA wanted to do in the mid 50’s when the line was extended to Wonderland but was stopped at the State House by supporters of the former Boston & Maine Railroad which operated the commuter rail then. The project has been talked about, designed, talked about, redesigned over and over again.

2 years ago U.S. Representative John F. Tierney (D-Salem) announced the reauthorization for the Blue Line extension project to Lynn as part of the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU). The $286.4 billion legislation passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 412-8 and was signed by President Bush on August 10, 2005.

What happened??? I can’t track it down. There seems to be more interest in extending the Blue Line to Charles-MGH because of heavy pressure by Partners Healthcare to do so. I have no problem with that connector as it would finally connect the Red and Blue lines but it shouldn’t be done at the expense of extending the Blue Line to at least Lynn.

Then we have the proposed extension of the Green Line from Lechmere to West Medford which now appears to be getting some traction. But what project does the T have on the front burner?

Silver Line Phase 3 which would be a one mile bus tunnel connecting the Silver Line-Washington St with the Silver Line Waterfront busway at a cost of $1.2 billion. Honestly compared to the Blue and Green Line proposed extensions I can not see the justification of the Silver Line project for Boston transit needs in the near future. I just can not see a united Silver Line generating the ridership numbers needed to justify the amount of money being set aside for it. The money would be better spent building a no frills trolley line between North and South Station with possibly using the abandoned portal into Boylston Station. That option certainly would not cost $1.2 billion.

The T should give a call out to Seattle where King County Metro after building an expensive bus tunnel in 1990 closed it in 2005 to convert it to light-rail and bus operation.

The T has other pressing issues to deal with. The cars on the Orange Line are over 20 years old and unlike the Blue Line there are no firm plans to replace them at this time. The Red Line also has cars that were originally built in 1969-70 ( and rehabbed in the late 80's ) that will need to be replaced soon. Even the newer Red Line cars bought in 1993 will soon need an overhaul as the T is having major problems with the on board computer system designed by Digital that they can no longer get parts for since Digital products are no longer supported by Hewlett-Packard the company that now owns what is left of Digital.

The Green Line is what it is : 110 years old and showing its age.

Please offer some feedback on what the T should do next.

Charlie's Mailbag - February 8th - T Employee Appreciation Month Update

The mailbag at charlieonthembta@gmail.com brings some good news this morning.

From Fred who started the idea of T Employee Appreciation Month

Just wanted to let you know that I received a letter today back from the T, Cheryl Hinton, Director of Bus Operations thanking me for my letter about Operator Wright and letting me know he received an official commendation and it was going in his permanent record. I have another letter ready to fire off for another good service effort by a driver.

I'm glad they at least respond.

- Fred

That is great to hear.

Please let us know about the GOOD T employees by clicking here.

faces of commuters

another tip from a Chicago transit blog CTA Tattler

A reader turned me on to this pretty fantastic set of photos of New York City train commuters emerging through the train turnstile.

Unfortunately, I really don't have enough Web page real estate to show off these photos by Bill Sullivan. So just go over to Bill Sullivan Works and see them for yourself.

A tip of the hat to Tom at windycitybits.com, via live from the third rail.

Just proves the faces of commuters are the same everywhere

I don't think we will see this in Boston

I saw this item on a Chicago transit blog "Live from the Third Rail"

From metro.co.uk:

Soft porn films are being shown on giant video screens at a bus station in Bulgaria. The plasma TVs at the terminus in the capital Sofia show bus times during the day but switch to porn at night. A station spokesman said: 'We wanted to give the passengers something to take their minds off the cold and to pass the time while waiting for a bus.'
.
I mean, come on, it can't be any worse than Skin-e-max. However, I want to know where the bus station in Bulgaria is getting sufficient money to buy Plasma screen TVs. And can you imagine who gets the job of picking out the softcore porn to show to bus passengers?

So if anybody visits Sofia, Bulgaria please give us a report.....