MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) discussion

[west point]

Eng is doing what should have been done a long time. IMO he is finding out how many of these problems have been covered up. Evidently reports that went into the circular file have been revived with middle management not having to worry about reporting too many defects. My worry is that Eng may be blamed for these many slow orders and eased out of office in the future.

 

[Fenway]

MBTA workers responsible for checking subway infrastructure for defects either didn’t understand their responsibilities or didn’t fulfill them and, as a result, missed dangerous problems on vast swaths of the subway as recently as March, according to a new report.

The review, commissioned by the T after the agency implemented more than 100 new speed restrictions across the system earlier this year, also found that many workers in charge of inspecting the system’s tracks don’t have enough experience or training.

https://www.mbta.com/news/2023-09-0...medium=news&utm_source=homepage&utm_term=null

 

[Fenway]

Eng is doing what should have been done a long time. IMO he is finding out how many of these problems have been covered up. Evidently reports that went into the circular file have been revived with middle management not having to worry about reporting too many defects. My worry is that ENG may be blamed for these many slow orders and eased out of office in the future.

@west point

Eng made a smart move on Thursday by doing this

General manager Phillip Eng said he was not surprised by the evaluations, which began before he took over on April 10. But, in a decision a key advocacy group panned as a mistake, Eng said no one at the T will face discipline or termination for the failure.

“I think what was evident in this is that the way the organization was set up, it had too many blurred lines, and hence the roles and responsibilities went across multiple parties,” Eng said in an interview. “It wasn’t one person.”

The culture of the T has been the biggest issue for decades compounded by funding from the Commonwealth.

Eng's next step will be the trickiest, convincing managers and workers to forget what they know and start over.

 

[Fenway]

The T has a big problem on the Fitchburg line

 

[BlackDiamond]

The T has a big problem on the Fitchburg line

And for Pan Am/CSX/B&E or whatever they are called this week.

They also have the possibility of additional rain from Hurricane Lee which is currently tracking further North in the Gulf of Maine but could affect Massachusetts as well.

 

[Bostontoallpoints]

https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/0...ed-to-avoid-worker-death/?clearUserState=trueIn a letter sent to MBTA General Manager Phil Eng Thursday, the feds said that “immediate action” is required to prevent trains from colliding with track workers, as they apparently nearly have several times in the last month.

“Over the last month MBTA has experienced four additional near miss events, including two incidents on the Red Line and two on the Green Line. The MBTA also failed to report these near misses as required by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU). Based on these incidents, FTA has determined that a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of serious injury or death of a worker,” they wrote.

 

[daybeers]

Is there a way for the feds to temporarily completely take over operations of the MBTA? They've been given so much time to fix elementary safety issues, with not much progress.

 

[John Santos]

The MBTA is (very very slowly) researching electrifying their commuter rail. The Providence line is a no-brainer, since it is the NEC and is already electrified, so it will probably only take about 5 years, maybe. Next on their list appears to be the new South Coast line, which is an extension of the Stoughton branch of the NEC in Canton, so it is already partially electrified and hasn't gone into service yet. (From the Project Plan it looks like they are initially going to connect the South Coast line to the Middleboro line instead of following the straight route north to Stoughton. This was an existing ROW but the tracks on some portion may no longer exist and it might require much more work to get it up to standards, but still seems to be the ultimate plan.)

Eventually, they are vaguely thinking about electrifying all the commuter rail lines, including the route of the Downeaster at least as far as Haverhill. So dual-mode (diesel and cat) would make sense, eventually.

 

[daybeers]

so it will probably only take about 5 years, maybe

with MBTA at the helm, sure, but it's quite literally two sidings that need wire, that's it.

 

[Fenway]

Is there a way for the feds to temporarily completely take over operations of the MBTA? They've been given so much time to fix elementary safety issues, with not much progress.

A long-time friend who just retired from the T ( he worked on Red Line signals ) told me management wants the Feds to shut everything down and then supervise the repairs. A year ago they shut the Orange Line down for a month and today the slow zones continue to exist.
He told me someone needs to condemn the Red Line 1500/1600 Pullman cars NOW (currently 62 active cars or 10 trainsets) and the Feds doing it takes the heat off the current Massachusetts politicians that inherited this mess.

My sense is Eng is appalled at how bad things are and would welcome the Feds taking temporary control.

 

[BlackDiamond]

The MBTA is (very very slowly) researching electrifying their commuter rail. The Providence line is a no-brainer, since it is the NEC and is already electrified, so it will probably only take about 5 years, maybe. Next on their list appears to be the new South Coast line, which is an extension of the Stoughton branch of the NEC in Canton, so it is already partially electrified and hasn't gone into service yet. (From the Project Plan it looks like they are initially going to connect the South Coast line to the Middleboro line instead of following the straight route north to Stoughton. This was an existing ROW but the tracks on some portion may no longer exist and it might require much more work to get it up to standards, but still seems to be the ultimate plan.)

Eventually, they are vaguely thinking about electrifying all the commuter rail lines, including the route of the Downeaster at least as far as Haverhill. So dual-mode (diesel and cat) would make sense, eventually.

According to this article the first lines to electrify would be Providence/Stoughton and Newburyport/Rockport and would be pilot projects and only partial. I'm not sure if the latter means not all trains are electric, or that the entire lines are not electrified. For Providence/Stoughton, if they had trains with battery capability, they could probably run the short distance from Canton Jct. to Stoughton on battery alone thus not requiring catenary. For the "Rockburyport" lines, perhaps electrifying just the heavily used portion as far as Beverly to start.

(I realize this had deviated from the Downeaster discussion and perhaps ought to be moved to the Commuter Rail forum)

 

[BlackDiamond]

He told me someone needs to condemn the Red Line 1500/1600 Pullman cars NOW (currently 62 active cars or 10 trainsets)

I wonder if there are cars being retired elsewhere that might be in better shape than the Pullmans. I'm thinking of New York's R46 cars that I understand are about to be retired.

 

[jis]

My sense is Eng is appalled at how bad things are and would welcome the Feds taking temporary control.

I don't think FTA has the wherewithall to take over anything and run it absent a special appropriation to support such, which is highly unlikely to happen. All that they can do is shut it down with a laundry list of things that have to be done before they will allow operation and then it will be upto the local authorities to figure out whether they wish to have an operating transit system or not, and do the needful to make it so including finding the money for effecting such. This could involve federal grants that may be available from currently appropriated programs.

 

[MARC Rider]

I don't think FTA has the wherewithall to take over anything and run it absent a special appropriation to support such, which is highly unlikely to happen. All that they can do is shut it down with a laundry list of things that have to be done before they will allow operation and then it will be upto the local authorities to figure out whether they wish to have an operating transit system or not, and do the needful to make it so including finding the money for effecting such. This could involve federal grants that may be available from currently appropriated programs.

It might also put some political pressure on state and local governments to come up with sufficient funds to fix things. That's assuming that the problem is strictly lack of funds to make needed repairs. It also seems that there are problems with the workplace culture that may be more difficult to fix.

 

[Trogdor]

A long-time friend who just retired from the T ( he worked on Red Line signals ) told me management wants the Feds to shut everything down and then supervise the repairs. A year ago they shut the Orange Line down for a month and today the slow zones continue to exist.
He told me someone needs to condemn the Red Line 1500/1600 Pullman cars NOW (currently 62 active cars or 10 trainsets) and the Feds doing it takes the heat off the current Massachusetts politicians that inherited this mess.

My sense is Eng is appalled at how bad things are and would welcome the Feds taking temporary control.

This logic doesn't make any sense. It would seem that, by every measure, someone from the outside coming in and effectively saying "you all suck, shut it down" would be a much worse outcome than MBTA leaders basically owning up to what everybody in the entire Boston region (and any transit observer elsewhere on the continent) already knows, which is that the whole system is a disaster and needs a serious overhaul. Having new leadership (i.e., Eng) come in is the perfect opportunity to do so, blame it on the predecessors, and make drastic actions to right the ship.

In my view, having the feds come in and take over (if that's even a practical option, as noted by more recent replies above) is basically saying there's no confidence in the current group to make the right decisions, regardless of how bad past leaders and politicians were.

 

[Fenway]

It might also put some political pressure on state and local governments to come up with sufficient funds to fix things. That's assuming that the problem is strictly lack of funds to make needed repairs. It also seems that there are problems with the workplace culture that may be more difficult to fix.

The workplace culture is their biggest hurdle

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09...-blew-by-them-25-mph-monday-according-report/

The worker safety crisis at the MBTA seems to be getting worse.

Two new reports of subway trains coming dangerously close to employees came to light Tuesday, including a near-miss on Monday when a flagger apparently signaled for a Red Line train to stop only to have the driver blow past the track workers at 25 miles per hour.

Both episodes — the second reportedly happened on Sept. 11 — occurred on northbound tracks between Harvard and Porter stations during regular service hours and involved the same Red Line operator and track workers, according to MBTA reports obtained by the Globe.

 

[daybeers]

That's terrifying; only a matter of time before a large-scale tragedy takes place at the hands of MBTA management.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Reluctantly agree with the shut it down approach. We live a half mile from the Red Line Alewife station, and my spouse used to bicycle to the station almost daily. Now I drive her into MIT most days. She just can't count on the T getting her to work on time, or at all. She does take the T home most days, when time isn't so critical, but the Red Line continues to lurch forward a few feet at a time and then stop for a while to catch its breath.

Massachusetts starved the MBTA for decades and allowed a culture of see-nothing, do-nothing to become completely pervasive.

If Boston wants a mass transit system, we are going to have to build one.

 

[Fenway]

That's terrifying; only a matter of time before a large-scale tragedy takes place at the hands of MBTA management.

I fear you are correct

 

[Brian Battuello]

And another version of the same story, in text:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/09/20/healey-fta-mbta-readio-boston
The key takeaway:

Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing asked Healey how something like Monday's incident happens "when we're on notice about making sure those aren't happening anymore?"

"Well, I think part of this is culture and this is one of the problems that we are confronting and that this new leadership team is confronting, and that we're working with employees on; making sure people understand that if there are issues, they need to raise issues, they need to say something as soon as they see them. We're not going to tolerate anything less and near misses are unacceptable," Healey said, adding that she had more meetings on the situation at the MBTA planned for Wednesday.

----------

The interview attempts to be reassuring, but the fact that the conversation is happening at all is very concerning.

 

[west point]

Shutting down portions of a line may e only way to increase safety? For stop zones may have to go back to old methods such as track torpedoes? Is it possible some of these problems are due to lack of sleep?

 

[Fenway]

Eng made some major moves on Friday

https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/0...-staff-email-says/?share=se2necskwermtsultlt2

MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng announced a major personnel shakeup at the transit agency Friday morning, shuffling around top leaders in key positions just as the MBTA faces increased scrutiny from federal regulators this month and paused some track work this week.

In an all-staff email obtained by the Herald, Eng said the MBTA would restructure under four divisions — operations, safety, capital, and administration — in the first major reorganization in roughly a decade. The move takes acting titles off some top officials and demotes others.

 

[Tlcooper44]

Eng made some major moves on Friday

https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/0...-staff-email-says/?share=se2necskwermtsultlt2

It appears as though Eng is more or less doing a good job, albeit rather slowly. I see incremental but meaningful decisions being made roughly once a month since he’s taken over.

That said, it remains to be seen whether or not the ship is salvageable.

 

[daybeers]

Red Line frequencies were just quietly reduced to the level of service from the summer.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Yup. My spouse said that she just missed a Red Line coming home from MIT last night and it was 20 minutes until the next one, right at rush hour. She said it wasn't even that full since so many people have given up on the T. I am still driving her in twice a week (and then driving back home) just to make sure she gets there in time for class.