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Your odds of catching a new CRRC-manufactured Red Line train just doubled: three years after the first new Red Line train hit the tracks in December 2020, the MBTA started running a second set of new Red Line cars earlier this month.

Followers of the TransitMatters New Trains Tracker recently noticed two new trains running simultaneously on the line. MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo confirmed that two new trains have been running together on the Red Line periodically since the start of this month.

To date, CRRC has now delivered 106 new Orange Line cars and 16 new Red Line cars, according to MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo. All of the remaining 46 Orange Line cars, plus 28 new Red Line cars, are currently in production at the Springfield factory.
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It should not have taken THREE years

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2024/01/23/at-long-last-another-new-train-is-rolling-on-the-red-line
 
Fenway said:
Eng is trying and honestly, I can't recall him being less than honest when asked a hard question.



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Boy I really like Eng. it’s never good to place too much faith in one person, especially with a set of problems as big as the T, but it really seems like he knows what he’s doing.

I especially appreciated his enthusiasm to meet with planners early - to me, this is critical at making p transportation something people actually will use regularly. If the destination is a station, people will use it.
 
Fenway said:
Overtime on the T is another issue

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Meh. Overtime is something every transit agency deals with, and has dealt with since forever. And since the start of COVID and resulting staffing shortages, the choice has been OT or service reductions.

Of course, they single out the top earners to try to get people riled up, but if they were to make massive reductions in overtime pay, the alternative (hiring more people) suddenly means a lot more overhead costs for employee benefits and other non-wage costs. In lots of cases, it’s cheaper to have someone work 12-14 hour days than to hire another person and have new healthcare, vacation, training, pension, and other benefits and ancillary costs. And I’d bet that the vast majority of the overtime falls into that category.

Even if it didn’t, if they can’t hire enough people to fill those needs, then you’re not going to get any of the other “what could we do with that money instead?” benefits if there’s nobody to deliver it. Now, one way to address staffing shortages is to offer higher wages, but then you’re simply taking away the “OMG OVERTIME” budget figure and replacing it with a much higher base wage figure that probably wipes out any savings that way.
 
Just saw this plaque on the front of South Station today.

20240305_112625.jpg
Thw last sentence is a hoot.

"I'm proud that I ride a public transportation system that nine years ago (i.e, 1981) shut down in the middle of the Christmas season and today (1990) is well on its way to becoming one of the best in the nation."

The Green line was a bit messed up today, as all the lines, except the E to Heath St.is shut down west of Copley for track work.
 
MARC Rider said:
Just saw this plaque on the front of South Station today.

View attachment 36025
Thw last sentence is a hoot.

"I'm proud that I ride a public transportation system that nine years ago (i.e, 1981) shut down in the middle of the Christmas season and today (1990) is well on its way to becoming one of the best in the nation."

The Green line was a bit messed up today, as all the lines, except the E to Heath St.is shut down west of Copley for track work.
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I remember that shutdown. It was for one day in December 1980 because the MBTA had run out of funding. Ed King called in the national guard. I also remember the Boston and Main Strike on the commuter rail about 2 months later in 1981. That lasted 2 weeks.
 
I happened to come into South Station on the LSL last night and semi-dreaded taking the Red Line to Alewife for spousely pickup. I missed a train by seconds, but amazingly there was another two minutes later. Being a transit nut, I pulled up an app ("Transit") that predicted I would get to Alewife at exactly 9:07pm. Whilst shuffling along, I also pulled up the MBTA slow order web page, and found that it matched my experience perfectly. It claimed that there were no slow orders north of Harvard, and sure enough, we zipped right along at a rate seldom seen, and pulled into Alewife right on time.

I won't get used to it...

Red Line.gif
 
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Brian Battuello said:
I happened to come into South Station on the LSL last night and semi-dreaded taking the Red Line to Alewife for spousely pickup. I missed a train by seconds, but amazingly there was another two minutes later. Being a transit nut, I pulled up an app ("Transit") that predicted I would get to Alewife at exactly 9:07pm. Whilst shuffling along, I also pulled up the MBTA slow order web page, and found that it matched my experience perfectly. It claimed that there were no slow orders north of Harvard, and sure enough, we zipped right along at a rate seldom seen, and pulled into Alewife right on time.

I won't get used to it...

View attachment 36041
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Amtrak should hire their IT Person to fix their Systems!
 
I understand that there has been a derailment (with no injuries) on the Green line after it had recently been reopened after being closed for 18 days for track maintenance. Maybe someone can post a link to an article which is not behind a paywall.
 
I asked for a "share" link and got this, see if you can read it.

Headline: MBTA Green Line service resumes after derailment near Kenmore
Date: Mar 10, 2024

Green Line service resumed early Saturday evening, hours after a westbound Green Line trolley derailed west of the platform at Kenmore station just before 9 a.m., the MBTA said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03...fter-derailment-near-kenmore/?s_campaign=8315
 
Brian Battuello said:
I'm told that is still behind the paywall. I sent Rasputin a PM with the text. It didn't really say much, MBTA derails are not really news any more :-(
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For me, it came up with a box in front of the window asking me to pay $1 for 6 months. When I clicked on that, it went to the subscription page, but when I then clicked my browser's back arrow, it let me read the story without paying.
 
Brian Battuello said:
I asked for a "share" link and got this, see if you can read it.

Headline: MBTA Green Line service resumes after derailment near Kenmore
Date: Mar 10, 2024

Green Line service resumed early Saturday evening, hours after a westbound Green Line trolley derailed west of the platform at Kenmore station just before 9 a.m., the MBTA said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03...fter-derailment-near-kenmore/?s_campaign=8315
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From Eng's quote, it sounds like he's mystified as to why the car derailed.
 
MBTA plan would introduce battery-electric equipment on one commuter rail route

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...lectric-equipment-on-one-commuter-rail-route/

Bid solicitation documents posted Friday on the MBTA website seek a fleet of battery-electric multiple unit trainsets to operate on the nine-station, 9.2-mile Fairmount line, offering service every 20 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on weekends. That would be a significant increase from current operations with Keolis’ standard diesel-powered commuter trains, which run every 45 minutes on weekdays and at 90-minute intervals on weekends.
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The MBTA document accompanying the bid solicitation calls for the equipment to be in service by the end of 2027 and says it would offer benefits including “zero own-source emissions,” operational flexibility allowing pilot usage on other MBTA lines, limited lineside infrastructure needs or requirements for track outages for construction; high reliability “which eliminates the single-point-of-failure found with catenary-only systems;’ shorter trip times, and better ride quality.
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https://www.wcvb.com/article/commuter-rail-delays-littleton-tractor-trailer-hit/60232011

LITTLETON, Mass. —
Delays were reported for several MBTA Commuter Rail trains on Monday afternoon after a tractor-trailer was struck by a train in Littleton.

Police said the collision occurred at approximately noon. No injuries were reported.


The truck driver, Eddie Barry, said he was headed for a nearby bottling plant when he got stuck in stopped traffic. He said he thought the vehicle was all the way across the tracks, so he got out to check what the holdup was.

"Where were you when it hit?" NewsCenter 5's David Bienick asked.

"Right there in front of a truck, talking to a truck driver," said Barry.
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Only in Massachusetts

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/28/metro/new-crrc-mbta-deal/

The MBTA now plans to pay CRRC another $148 million for the hundreds of new Red and Orange Line cars that the Chinese company still owes the transit agency, T officials announced Thursday, bringing the total cost of the contract to more than $1 billion with a promise that all the cars will be delivered by the end of 2027.
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Well the alternative would be to cancel the contract and start over, meaning the Red Line fleet which, except for the newer 1800 Bombardier cars, is well beyond its service life and is being held together with duct tape and chewing gum, would have to soldier on for many more years while a new supplier was signed and new cars produced.
 
AmtrakMaineiac said:
Well the alternative would be to cancel the contract and start over, meaning the Red Line fleet which, except for the newer 1800 Bombardier cars, is well beyond its service life and is being held together with duct tape and chewing gum, would have to soldier on for many more years while a new supplier was signed and new cars produced.
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over the proverbial log .... up the proverbial creek without a means of propulsion. :p
 

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