Living in the metro Boston area, one quickly develops a hate/love/hate relationship with the MBTA, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, better known as “The T.”

The T isn’t a bad system. It’s just been so poorly mismanaged for so many years that one wonders how they manage to get the trains and buses moving. They do (and get away with) the dumbest things. That’s another whole story to be told by people who know the subject much better than me. Every once in a while, however, they will get something right. And this time, they didn’t just get it right, they nailed it.

Normally, the last train out of Boston on a weeknight on the rail line I take is at 12:05. On weekends, it’s 11:30. Tonight, however, I have the options of a 1:00 AM or a 2:00 AM train. (I’m fortunate enough to be able to take either the Newburyport or the Rockport trains.) They’re adding additional service for tonight’s “First Night” celebration.  (link)

This means I can go to my friends’ party, take a cab to North Station, and still be able to avoid driving into the city in this weather.

Mike is a happy camper.

Sometimes you have to love hating the MBTA. Today is one of those days.

Since I have to get to the Comcast Service Center, I told my boss that I was going to try to catch the 2:20 train and then work from home the rest of the afternoon. I left the office about 1:50, giving me 30 minutes to get to North Station.

Of course, the Silver Line was delayed, and after waiting for ten minutes, two buses showed up at once. Of course, I then walked into the New England Medical Center station as the Orange Line train was pulling out.

By the time I got to North Station, I missed my train by two minutes, forcing me to wait another 50 minutes for the next Newburyport train.

If you live in the Boston area, you probably love to hate the MBTA.  It’s a good system that’s unfortunately run by monkeys.

One of the nice things about living in Salem is being able to take the train into work. What I really like is that during peak times, there is a train running every ten to twenty minutes. If I miss a train, like I did this morning, the next one isn’t too far off. My commute is interesting because I take the train to North Station, where I connect to the Orange line. Then I take the Orange Line to New England Tufts Medical Center. That’s where I pick up the Silver Line to Union Park Street, a couple of blocks from my office. In the afternoon, I do the same thing in reverse.

What would be really nice are monitors in the Orange Line station that show the commuter rail lines. That way I can tell if I need to hurry or not to my train’s platform. Today, I took my time getting to the train platforms only to find that I almost missed the 4:45 Beverly train. Other times I rush only to find myself waiting ten minutes. Monitors in the subway station would really help.

Will the T ever do it? I doubt it.

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Originally uploaded by mikehillwig

The T has had new cars for the blue line on order for years. They finally started taking delivery of the cars but they haven’t been put into service yet. I understand that this is due to some regulation that requires the cars to be tested for 500 miles before being put into revenue service. The first of these cars was due to be in service the first of the year, but I hadn’t seen one yet.  They’ve been testing the cars on the test track near the orange line.

Today, I saw one of the new cars operating on the blue line, but I don’t think it was in service. The interior lights appeared to be off, and I didn’t see any people in the cars. Still, it’s exciting to know that the crappy old blue cars are going to be retired soon enough.

This is a pretty bad picture, but it’s hard to get a picture of a moving vehicle through a shrub at a distance.

I was in Portland, OR, recently, and I’ve come to a conclusion. Those of us who ride (and pay for) the MBTA are getting screwed. Hands down, we’re just getting screwed.

Now, I understand that Boston is a much larger metropolitan area than Portland with many more routes to cover, and I understand that our system is very old. I also understand that our system here has historically been run by idiots.

Let me start with the most basic thing. TriMet, the system in the Portland area, was clean. The buses and trolleys were clean. People didn’t eat on the vehicles from what I saw, and people always took their coffee cups off the vehicle with them and threw them away on the trolly platforms. Oh, yeah, there were garbage cans on the trolley platforms there.

The automated fare vending machines were incredibly easy to use. The machine-printed ticket clearly stated what zones in which the ticket was valid and when the ticket expired. I will say that it took a little figuring to determine that the airport was in zone three.  Oh, yeah, there were no shuttle buses to get from the airport terminal to the light rail. The light rail station was right at the terminal.

Oh, yeah, their system is cheap. An all-day, all-zone pass was only four dollars. On top of an inexpensive system, they’re expanding their MAX light rail system while still keeping fares low.  The fare collection system is brilliantly simple. You show your proof of fare to the bus driver. If you’re on a trolley or the MAX train, they have random fare inspections. If you don’t have a valid ticket, you pay a hefty fine. It’s that simple.

The best part of the system there is the “fareless square” where you can ride within most of the core downtown area without paying a fare. That would never fly in Boston. Probably the biggest thing I noticed is that there was no stigma attached to riding a bus in Portland.

I’m convinced that the people of Boston are getting screwed. We just spent close to a half billion dollars on a train that will serve a very small number of people. That money could have gone into replacing the silver line bus service with actual light rail, bringing high speed, frequent service to an under served part of Boston. And that would be good for revitalizing a part of Boston that could seriously use it.

I was also in San Francisco, where I rode BART and MUNI both. Again, those systems work so much better than what we have in Boston. But that’s another entry for another day.

Oh, I love this time of day, watching the international departures leaving Logan from my living room window…

Getting home on the T was an adventure tonight. First, when I got to the Silver Line stop at Union Park street, the sign said the next bus would arrive in five minutes. That bus ended up arriving about ten minutes later. This is for a bus that is supposed to run every four to five minutes at rush hour.

When I got to the Orange Line, the MBTA police was searching bags. I wasn’t selected for a search, and I’m glad. I really have objections to being searched without a warrant, especially from transit police. I’d have to think about that one a bit.

When I changed to the Blue Line at State Street, the platform was very crowded. This usually indicates the train is going to be packed. Oddly, when the train pulled in, there weren’t many people on the train, but that quickly changed. As the doors were closing, this woman in her early twenties, jumped on and held the door for someone. This woman looked much older than she really was due to the fact that she was wearing way too much makeup. She finally gave up and let the door close. It appears that her party got on the car behind us. When we stopped at Aquarium, the held the door open again, and her boyfriend jumped in. How do I know he was her boyfriend? I would say that their sucking face most of the way between Aquarium and Maverick. I can’t say I blame her, though. He was pretty hot.

When I got off at Maverick, the 121 bus with the very cute new driver was waiting.

It’s always an interesting commute in Boston.

Seriously…

http://derspatchel.livejournal.com/464500.html?thread=4181620

My comments got published on BadTransit again this morning. (more)

I needed to make a Trader Joes run today. This should have been fairly simple. I usually take the T to Coolidge Corners and it’s right there. So I got on the Blue Line en route to Government Center where I’d jump on the Green Line. I do this almost every day, and it’s no big deal. Well, as soon as I got on the T at Wood Island, they announced that the last stop would be Airport and that shuttle buses would take us to Government Center. Now, I would have appreciated knowing this BEFORE I got on the train, either at the station’s entrance or some overhead announcement. But not here in Boston. They decided to tell us AFTER we get on the train.

So at Airport, I jumped on the same train, headed back the opposite direction, got off at Wood Island, and jumped into my car and headed toward Salem, going to the Trader Joes in Swampscott. With only $20 in my pocket, I decided to see how far I could stretch my budget. I did well. With two quarts of soup, a package of crackers, and a small container of non-fat plain yogurt (for Reggie), I walked out of the store spending $8.11. The soup will be a fine addition to my steak and peppers/onions for lunch tomorrow.  The soup at Trader Joes is usually really good, although it could certainly use salt and pepper.  I bought Roasted Corn and Red Pepper soup as well as Tomato with Roasted Rep Pepper soup. They were each $2.49, and they’ll last me three or four meals. You just can’t stretch your food dollar better than that.

I really should tighten my food budget more often. It forces me to get creative, and frequently, it causes me to come up with some good stuff.

Due to a broken wire at airport station, the last stop for my blue line train will be Maverick. Shuttle buses will replace the trains to Orient
Heights where the train service will resume. The poor souls going to the airport…

Maverick square is a mess with massport, silverline, and assorted mbta buses tring to get people back on track, literally.

I fear that my 121 won’t come anytime soon. Perhaps I should just walk home.

This is a moblog entry.