Out Of Sight...

This morning a conductor was cleaning up all the Metro papers that the idiots left on the floor of the train.
This is clearly not his job, so it's cool he even did it.
BUT.
Instead of picking them up and walking, literally, 4 feet away to put them in the bin, he took about 5 minutes to jam them down between the platform and the train.
Did he think that they wouldn't be visible once the train pulled out of the station.
What an asshole.

Too Bus-y To Do Anything About It

Scene:
Oak Grove bus stop.
A mild mannered T bus approaches.
Eager commuters crane their necks to catch a glimpse of the bus route on the LED sign.
Not surprisingly, the sign is all wacky, and there is a nice white sheet of paper taped to the windshield with the route number on it.
For the first time ever, the sign is not written with a sharpie, but is printed from a computer.
What's this? Route 101? But that goes from Malden Ctr. to Sullivan Square.
Oh, I see, the side LED sign has the correct route number on it.
But wait, there is also a paper 101 sign below the LED.
What is going on?
So I step onto the bus (#0250) and ask the driver if this is indeed going where I want to be.
Yeah, comes the surly reply, it's on the side sign.
But, pointing to sign on the front window, you know this says '101', right?
Yeah, and the side sign says the correct route.
But, there is also a '101' sign underneath, so which is it?
It's 'XXX'!
Oh. why don't you take down the paper signs then?
Well what if they switch this bus to the other route?
Oh-Kay.

Since the bus was stopping at a T stop, they tend to wait for a load of people to board, so it wasn't that big a deal. However, when a bus is coming at you at 40 MPH, and you're waiting on the curb at a bus stop, you look at the front window.
If the route displayed is not the one you want, you generally step back, and the driver knows to keep on going past you.
Now if you had stepped back from this bus, there is no way you could see the side LED, with the correct route, until the bus almost ran you down.
By that point, you've missed the bus.

Free Rides!

If you're especially skint, or you just like sticking it to the man, head on over to Oak Grove in the next few weeks for a free ride on the T.
They are in the midst of replacing the old turnstiles with the new Charlie Card fare gates, and barely have staff watching commuters going into the station.
I have a monthly pass, and you can only see if it is current by looking at the back.
Have I once been asked to show the pass back?
Nope.
Yesterday afternoon the "watcher" was getting a coffee at D&D's while groups of people just waltzed in.
And what's with the coin box they've got going? Do you think they'll check to see if you chucked in $1.25, a token, or a washer?
Nope.
And even if they did open the thing up, how could they prove you scammed them?
Here's an idea to generate more revenue, Mr. Grabauskas:
MONITOR THE FARE GATES.

Expensive Litter-ature

Today the T is handing out full color leaflets telling the travelling public to be aware of potential terrorist action.
They're nice leaflets, 3 panel, nice design, and of course, totally useless.
"If you see something, say something." "Accidentally left behind, or an accident waiting to happen?"
I was handed one by a smiling (!) T employee on my way into the station, and by the time I got to the train, there were loads of discarded copies on the ground, in the bin - where I put mine - and on the train seats.
All these handouts will accomplish is a (most likely) union affiliated print shop making a tidy profit, and the cleaning guy getting some overtime.
The Metro noted that 30,000 would be handed out on the commuter rail. I'm guessing that means that about 100,000 were produced for this event, as they can only have enough staff to hand them out at "key" stations in the T system.
Instead of placing trash around the system, why not have more POLICE on the trains and in the stations?

A Quick Response

I'm stunned. I had sent a quick letter to the Orange line chief - who probably doesn't really know the dilli-o - cc'd the GM, of course, and got a response from engineering.

From the T:


Thank you for your interest and for taking the time to write to us
regarding the new LED signs.

The new signs are part of an on-going project which is updating our PA
and LED announcement capabilities at key stations. The signs you
mention will provide service-related information, such as approaching
train information, next train designation and service announcements.
The information will begin transmitting in early April.

Thank you again for your inquiry and for your continued support of
public transportation.

Sincerely,
Caroline


Caroline Dunne
Infrastructure & Engineering
500 Arborway, Second Floor
Jamaica Plain, MA. 02130
617 222 1820 - Tel
617 222 3918 - Fax
cdunne@mbta.com

DTX LED

I noticed the new orange LED signs at DTX today.
Other than the size and color, are they any different than the old red signs?
That is, are they actually going to tell us anything other than not to smoke?
How much more money can the T waste on stuff like this?
Whose brother works for the sign company?
In case you're not in the know, the T has had LED signs for years in many stations. I can imagine that they cost a good amount, even if the T goes with the lowest bidder.
The thing is that these signs have done NOTHING. EVER.
All they've told is not to smoke and to visit mbta.com.
They are almost as bad as the "announcements" the T makes telling us to hold on to the handrail on escalators.

Orange Scorn

Mr. Mac feels slighted, and perhaps a bit scared....


I was leaning on the conductor’s booth door this morning when it opened up. The conductor, a middle-aged woman, apologized, as did I for leaning against the door. Then she went to the middle of the train to check something out, and when she came back to the booth she said to me “You shouldn’t lean against that door because I might have to open it again. In fact, I might open it up on purpose if you’re leaning against it”. How about that?

You Knew I'd Be Pissed About This

Right then, another fare hike.
Another year of no improvements.
Another lame excuse.
And yet another reason to HATE UNIONS.
Really, does an organization as small as the MBTA need 30 unions?
I'm not familiar with the details, but why?
So say you've got your unions for the people who repair the trains and drive the trains, and maybe another for the conductors.
Who else is part of a union?
The cleaners?
I'm pretty sure they're 3rd party contracts, not T employees.
The management?
Nope, they are definitely not unionized.
Who else then?
In reality, you don't need any unions, as this country has LABOR LAWS.
The only people benefitting from the union are the union bosses.
The T has raised fares about 54% since I started taking it daily into Boston, say in the last 6 years or so.
I want to rage quite a bit longer on the fare hike, but I've got so much to say that I can't type as fast as my mind is grinding away.

"Got to stay in touch even though we’re on the move/Keep your lines open, say, what’s new"

here's an old story i forgot to report:

one afternoon my green line train was stopped for 15 mins+ between kenmore and hynes convention. one simple action prevented anarchy: the conductor actually picked up his microphone and told us WHAT WAS GOING ON! i know, it's a crazy idea but i swear it's the truth. he not only told us why we were stopped (the signals were down or something like that) but he told us how long we should expect to wait. whomever this man was, he should be schooling his coworkers in common sense.

They Should Call It The Brown Line

Because it's SHITE.

Really, how hard is it to schedule?
Last night there was a South Station bound bus sitting at my stop, just idling. With all the lights on. So you assumed you could get on. But there wasn't a driver in it.
So instead, we waited 10 minutes until a very packed bus from Logan showed up.
The Logan buses have luggage racks, meaning there isn't much standing room if the seats are taken, and they were.
As it pulled up, 2 more SS bound buses showed up, but we weren't allowed in them.
Then they didn't even express the far-too-full bus I was on through to SS, even though there were 2 empty buses behind us. They just kept letting people get on.
By the time we got to SS, I felt like I was on one of those Japanese subway cars. You know, like this:



When we got to SS, the 1st bus behind us had 5 people on it, and the 2nd one had 2.
That's some good planning.

The List

I've been getting a list together of all the orange line cars that have maps showing the Auditorium stop on them, as well as showing a green/orange connection at Forest Hills.
Auditorium was changed to Hynes/ICA in 1988/89, and the Arborway section of the green was shut down around the same time.
For years I've been asking the T to get the maps fixed.
The response?
"We checked out the cars, and didn't find any with the old map."
Uh-huh.
I'll have the full list of car numbers to send to the orange line chief in a week or so.

Get. Out. Of. My. Way.

What is wrong with you people?
Are you drinking before work?
Why can't you walk in a straight line?
Tip: A set of stairs is generally about 6' wide.
That means two people can walk side by side up or down the stairs.
When you walk in the middle, nobody can pass you.

SICK

This is stupid.
The T is just now coming up with a computerized system to track employee absences?
Some people that read this may think that my comment reeks of conservative republican politics, but 2 fingers to you, my friends, you can't pigeonhole me into one ideology.
The problem is the unions. You can do no work, and someone will try to defend you so you keep your job. Why are they even unions anymore? The company I work for doesn't have one, and I get 5 sick days per year, and 10 vacation days. If I use them up, that's my problem.
21 days absent? Unless you have a short term disability, then that is insane.
From today's Boston Globe:

http://tinyurl.com/9fulw

A Diversion

I'm pretty much all about travel by train, but sometimes I have to fly somewhere, like Chicago, which you can read about in the previous post.
All I'd like to say about plane travel, no matter where you are coming from or going to, is that PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS.

The scenario:

You're in the gate area, waiting for your row, or group, to be called. What do you do? You SIT DOWN UNTIL YOUR GROUP IS CALLED. YOU DO NOT GET UP AND STAND IN A GIANT GROUP AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE GATE.
The wife and I were in group 3, and of course everyone got up and stood around, so that we couldn't tell where the line began to get on the plane.

Query to "up-talker" girls in front of me:

Me:"Are you in line?"
Her:"Uh, as much as anybody else is."
Me:"Are you even IN group 3?!"
Her:"No."
Me:"Then get out of the line. Jeez."

Then we get on the plane. It's packed, and people are standing in the aisle, as if they have no idea that there are people trying to get by them. The stewardess is announcing to NOT PUT YOUR JACKETS IN THE OVERHEAD BINS SO THAT BAGS CAN FIT THERE.
What are the people directly opposite me putting in the bin?
THEIR JACKETS.
When some people couldn't find an empty bin to place their bags, the stewardess went from bin to bin and asked who owned the jackets within. Who claimed a jacket?
NOBODY.
So the woman just chucked them on an empty seat.
Anyway, that's that.

The Windy City

Went to Chicago last weekend. It is not actually the windiest city. The award goes to the Blue Hills area of Milton, MA, but I digress.
As you probably have heard, Chicago's transit is called the el, even though only a small portion of it is elevated.
Only had the chance to go on the Red Line, but it was ok. Nice stations, smaller trains than Boston, and certainly a bad map design. They try to use the real dimensions between stations, so that the downtown loop area needs to be on a seperate inset.
They should take a cue from London Transport and map a diagramatic map and get it all in one area.

Fiery!

If you've taken the Silver line to South Station, or even just read my last post, you'll know that sometimes a bus waits while others pass it to continue on.
Some go to Logan, so they are off the catenary or whatever.
Well last night a bus to SS was waiting for a Logan bus to pass it so the SS bus could pull over to the shelter and pick us up. But the Logan bus wouldn't move, and finally the SS bus pulled up, and then the Logan bus decided to pull up next to it, blocking the SS bus from pulling out, since the catenary was blocked by the diesel Logan bus.
Am I rambling?
Anyway, we all pile on the bus, and driver is cussing out the driver of the Logan bus for not moving quickly enough, and then blocking her in.
I think she may have been channeling some of my rage.
Cool.

Where Should I Start?

What is the problem with the Silver line? You get on the bus and it sits. Forever. How is this "rapid transit"?
Last night I got on a South Station bound bus, and it sat there for 10 - YES, Mr. Mac, T-E-N, minutes.
In that time 2 buses passed us, also bound for South Station. The driver must have know there would be other buses coming along, so why didn't he mention that, or why even let us on the bus?

What is the problem with the idiots at the Red/Orange interchange at Downtown Crossing? I change there every night, and invaribly there is a group of people standing right in front of the door while people try to get off the train. Yeah, this happens at other stops as well, but none as bad as this. Last night I tried to get off the train and had to stare down four 12 year old girls whose parents are so STUPID that they didn't tell them to get out of the way, and the parents were right there looking at me like I was the asshole.

Dwell On This

The Scene: Red line, northbound train
The Time: 18:00
The Problem: Dwell Time

As a daily Orange and Silver line rider, and a former daily Red line rider, I'm familiar with the differences between the lines.
Say what you will about the Orange line - old, dirty, etc., but the Red line has the longest dwell times. You know, how long it is between the stopping of the train at a station and when it leaves.
The Red line takes forever to leave the stations, with at least a 3 minute wait.
What used to be a 20 minute ride from South Station to Davis is now an extra 20 minutes with the longer dwell times.

(This Is) The Modern World

I was sort of excited to see the new Charlie Ticket/Card machines on the Blue line. Taking a cue from London Underground and installing a "touch-in-touch-out" ticket system is a good idea, especially for regular riders.
The test line is the Blue, presumably because it has the lowest ridership, and is good as a test.
Of course, the T can't do something without messing some part of it up (read: Silver Line), and what they messed up in this case is the design of the machines. When was this thing made, 1983? It looks like an ATM prototype. Check out the metal number buttons. Who uses mechanical buttons? Why make something with moving parts? Hey, MBTA, have you seen an ATM lately? How about a TOUCH SCREEN. Even with the physical design errors, they could've done a better job on the machine aesthetics. I especially like the "press 5 for audio" coupled with a dotted line to the number pad, and bland 'wintel' box color scheme.
Idiots.

Not Sold Here

The Place: Downtown Crossing T Pass Office
The Sign: Weekly Pass Sign, with Breakdown of Weekly Pass Types
The Message: NOT SOLD HERE
The Format: Handwritten, in sharpie, of course, on the top and bottom of the sign.

If you don't sell weekly passes, then why have you got a sign advertising them in the first place?
Do you think that a fast food joint that is not "a participating location" would advertise the latest food promotion?

Also spotted on the back wall of the very modern wood-paneled office, a sign advertising the T's Work Pass Program.
The best part about that one, other than the horrible "cartoon" design, is the phone number that contains only 7 digits, making it at least, but probably far more than, SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD, as we added the 508 area code back in 1988, making it necessary to show the (617) in front of boston area phone numbers.

Progress.