Seriously MBTA

Train on the Fitchburg line courtesy of mbta.com

Ok The T does a pretty good job considering what they are dealing with.  However, there are certain things that  just make me shake my head in wonder.
One would think that if shuttle service were running every weekend for 2 months it would be helpful for that information to be on the MBTA website and for it to be easy to find.  One would be very wrong.  I can sure as heck find out about elevator repairs but shuttle service which cause delays? nope nothing. (Try to find any information on this delay here, I dare you!)

I knew the weekend service on the Fitchburg line was suspended and shuttles running from all outlying stations to the South Acton station for continued rail service into Boston from an article I think on Universal Hub.  This was more than a month ago so I didn't remember the details.  When my girlfriend asked me about the shuttle service I thought it was still running but seemed to remember they were running trains as normal over Memorial Day weekend.

The reason for this is good, they are double tracking the line from South Acton all the way to the end to help speed up service and reduce/eliminate congestion.

I ended up being right, but it took two Google searches, plus fumbling around the MBTA site to find it.  Needless to say it was not on the T site but instead I found an article from Wicked Local Acton (division of the Boston Globe focused on communities) that talked about the closure and sure enough they were running trains as normal this weekend.

This service change was not just for one month, it was from April to June.  How can the MBTA in good faith not make this information available easily to riders.  It is not on the alert section for the rail line, all I get is Porter Square elevator work (important but not useful to me).

One of a myriad of examples of the T not doing the outreach and providing the information for train users that it very easily could be.  If folks show up to the station expecting a train at a certain time, and they don't see the signs for buses or shuttle what are they to think?  What if it was their first time using commuter rail?  Do you think they will try again?  No not likely.  Now the T just lost a customer all because of poor outreach and communication of major work closures.

To be fair this is an issue for the MBCR and not the MBTA proper but either way SOMEBODY should make sure the info is easy to find.  I shouldn't have to search so hard for it, at least I knew what I was looking for.

Lets do better MBTA.

To DC I go

Jim and I have both had a very busy two weeks, my midterms came up and well Jim is just slacking he is so busy :P I am sitting in NYC Penn station waiting for my 5:45 Amtrak train to Washington DC for vacation. I will be showcasing the Solar Decathlon currently going on as well as cycling in DC including the just opened DC bike storage outside Union Station. I will also have pictures of the DC bike share scheme and the DC metro, which I feel is second best on the east coast, only to Montreal. So for now stay tuned for more updates and have a safe and happy Columbus day weekend.

-John

Friday Infrastructure: A jaunt to York

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Yep late again, fell asleep last night and meant to write this then, whoops!

Today we are showcasing something a little bit different. As you might have figured out I really like focusing on cycling and walking and using them as a viable means of transportation. However, these 2 cannot solve all our problems, in fact for many places a car is still needed in some form and distribution is needed to be done by trucks in some cases as well. That is where electric drive comes in, however for long distances there is another piece to this puzzle, which are the Railroads.

I am a huge train nut, not an avid train spotter, but I would be if I had the time. So one of the wonderful things about the city of York, UK is, yes it’s a cycling “capital” (I use that term loosely because really its still not really great for infrastructure, just better then non existent.) It is also the home of the largest train museum in the world and a vital link between London and Edinburgh being ~2 hours and 200 miles from each.

The picture for today is indeed a picture of York rail station, built in 1877 it is quite distinct and holding up well, but could use a bit of updating. They do have some bike storage and it was full when I saw it, but its very small and nothing to shake a stick at.

One might notice the sign hanging in the picture, it notes over 60 trains a day to London from this station and going online to the East Coast line website the time for some of these trains varies from just under 2 hours to about 2 hours and 10. It is ~190 miles from York station to London Kings Cross station.

For reference the distance is about the same from Boston South station to NYC grand central. There are 10 trains a day here with the regional taking 4 and a half hours and the Acela taking 3 and a half. Which is quite sad if you think about it, the Acela has a higher top speed than any of the British trains but the rails here are so bad and there are too many stops along the way that it never reaches any good speed, not the mention they had to skimp on the breaks to save money so it can’t even go its top designed speed.

It is hard to give fair information because in the uk prices are hugely dependent on how far ahead you can book. For my time in the uk I was able to book about a month+ in advance and were getting £15 fares for a whole lot of travels, I also had a 30% off discount card. The trip to London from York can cost anywhere from £11(17$) to £96(153$) with the lower fares on odd hour trains. To compare the Acela will cost lowest 93$(£58) to 124$(£83) one way and business class only. There is seriously something wrong here….

If they were truly serious about the Acela then 1 maybe 2 stops, in the uk there are 4 stops on most trains between London and York, if you needed more you take a slower regional which makes sense. There are currently 6 stops between Boston and New York for the Acela.

There is not much I can say about the station, it does its job and its great to be able to take the rails pretty much anywhere anytime in the UK. I wish I had that option here. There will be more later on how the UK system works and what I don't like about it and how it is currently run.

Google Maps
Sustrans map

Amtrak
National Express East Coast
York Station
City of York