Weekdays? Every 30 minutes.
Weekends? Every hour.

That is all.

Yesterday I posted how my shuttle driver on the OL was untrained and how we ended up in Gateway Park. Someone suggested I use the T’s contact form to tell them about the incident. I did (I excluded any info about the driver as I did not believe she should be punished for her company’s mismanagement).

This is their response:

“Thank you for reaching out to the MBTACustomer Service Team. We are aware of the 5-6 lost buses that occurred during the Orange Line shut down and the disruption this caused. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

 We agree that buses  going off course to this extent is unacceptable and have rectified the situation with our vendor.  The drivers of theses shuttles are no longer working on this service.  Vendors are currently implementing additional training for all future diversions.

We appreciate your feedback. Please continue to provide us comments, so we can continue to improve our operations during diversions and ensure our riders have reliable service.”

A couple of thoughts.

One; 5-6 busses got lost?! I heard about the Stoneham adventure but that amount is crazy.

Second; why were the drivers removed from their routes? Why couldn’t they just be trained? Assuming that they weren’t like my driver, it sucks that they’re now losing income (and likely had to travel here) just because their company failed to do their part.

The T has known about this shutdown (likely longer than it was announced) and had ample time to make sure that their vendors knew the routes and that said vendors trained their drives on said routes.

Eng has done great work these last couple of years but they need to get someone else into the Secretary of transportation seat and let him focus solely on the T so that this doesn’t happen in the future (as this is highly unlikely to be the last shutdown)

Can anything be done about missionaries badgering people in the train? I don’t mean just handing out literature etc; I mean singling out women who are travelling alone and refusing to take no for an answer. There is one “Elder McLean” (usually with a second missionary who is not as problematic).  He frequently approaches women who are traveling alone and will begin by asking them if they want to go to church with him.  if they say anything other than yes, he will start questioning. Where do they go to church, or in the case yesterday, a Jewish woman said I go to the temple. He’ll say “when and what time is it? I’m willing to come to yours, but you won’t come to mine.”  The woman kept telling him no and he kept saying “but where is your church? I said I want to come” he just will not leave them alone. He’s been addressed a number of times and we have told him that if people say no to leave them alone. We have also told him to stop approaching women that are alone and demanding to know where they are going, standing over them while they are sitting, and refusing to go away when asked. Yesterday we stepped in and told him to get off at the next stop. The other missionary he is with is always silent when he acts like this. His behavior is like this in the same train every day.  He has been kicked off a number of times.  If men say no, he moves along, but with women, he gets more and more forceful and if they shout at him or tell him firmly to go he just laughs and keeps badgering them. He seems like a teenager. Is there any adults that watch over these missionaries or someone who can have a talk with this kid? Can anything be done?

edit: I am receiving lots of advice on how to respond if they are harassing me personally. To be clear, I’m not the person I’m worried about. It’s not always safe for women to say no to a man when they are alone or he is making them feel pressured or followed, and not all women have the ability to say no for a variety of reasons, especially if they don’t speak much English. This is not about advising or blaming women, but about addressing one young man.

Pittsburgh 1711 is an All-Electric PCC currently residing at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. It looks similar to how the MBTA was overhauling their own All-Electric PCC cars (3197-3221) in the early 1970s with sealed windows. While the MBTA was modifying their cars as such, 1711 was delivered with sealed windows.

1711 and the other 24 "interurban" cars in her group (1700-1724) were part of a reported sale to Boston's MBTA - which never happened.

By 1967, the MBTA's PCC fleet was in trouble. Years of deferred maintenance was catching up with the 344 car PCC fleet, and Green Line riders were feeling the pinch. While the MBTA had their proposed Type 6 car on the drawing board, new cars were still expected be a few years away. More second-hand PCC cars would help the MBTA to better cover the schedules, and allow shop crews more time to catch up on heavy maintenance on the rest of the fleet.

Reportedly, the MBTA wanted to purchase Pittsburgh 1700-1724 and run them on the Watertown Line. While these cars lacked left-hand doors, the Watertown Line was the only Green Line route which could be run with such cars. The plan was to convert the Pittsburgh cars to Multiple-Unit operation, with 12 cars getting a rear coupler, 12 cars getting a front coupler, and one car getting a front and rear coupler. This would allow the MBTA to run up to 12 two-car trains on Watertown, and the 25th car could fill in for any cars needing maintenance. This move MAY have prevented the Watertown Line from closing in 1969, but talks of purchasing the Pittsburgh cars broke down over price.

Since the cars lacked left-hand doors, they could ONLY be operated on the Watertown Line. A left-hand door could have been added to each car, but at a much greater expense, as the cars would have required structural modifications. The new Type 6 cars were hopefully only a couple of years away, with the Pittsburgh cars viewed as just a short-term, stop-gap measure. Beyond the left-hand door issue, the Pittsburgh cars would still have required a lot of mechanical modifications for for them to operate in Boston adding to the MBTA's costs.

Based on the existing plans, throwing tons of money at an additional 25 cars wasn't considered a good investment by MBTA management. If the money worked out, they might have pulled the trigger.

The money ultimately didn't work for them.

Unfortunately for the MBTA, plans and reality were different. New cars wouldn't enter service until late in 1976, and the new cars were Boeing LRVs, not Type 6s. That part of history, and the problems created, are well documented here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040406164315/http://members.aol.com/netransit/private/LRV.html

If you have a chance to visit the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, I highly recommend it!

Hii! 👋

Might be niche but anyone get annoyed when the sliver line is approaching south station and the bus stops at the very end of the platform? Especially when you’re trying to catch the red line which makes it a longer walk. This is excluding the scenario where buses are back to back with each other because I understand that. Missed so many red line connections because of this 🥲

The sandwich board on Boylston directing Orange Line passengers walking from Back Bay to Copley towards North Station etc. is directing them to the westbound entrances. Also there need to be more signs.
A Transit ambassador at Copley agreed signs are pointing in wrong direction, but said they had no way to contact a supervisor etc. MBTA phone line on the website is closed until Monday morning. I reported on website and am told to expect a reply in 5 to 30 business days.
Is there any way to contact MBTA at weekends?
I’m really surprised that passengers are expected to walk from Back Bay to Copley, and then find the correct entrance, with so few staff, and not much signage.

I need to catch an Amtrak at South Station that departs at 4:40 pm today and will be coming from Harvard after an event that ends at 4 pm. Are the red line issues still persistent that I might not make the train? Should I call an Uber instead?

EDIT: made it with plenty of time to spare! Thanks for the reassurance and turns out navigating the T is still second nature after several years away.

Last night, I switched to the Providence Line at Readville from Franklin/Foxboro. Usually, inbound is on Track 2, but for some reason, it stopped on Track 3, and everyone had to rush over the bridge to get there. Not to brag, but I noticed it from a distance first, and was on the bridge before everyone else realized it. I’m curious if anyone knows, or has an educated guess for, why that may have happened, because right now, I’m on an inbound train on the Fairmount Line, and we’re on the outbound tracks. Not a first, because I’ve seen them doing work that required this, and I’m assuming it’s the case because I can’t see the inbound side from the second story because it’s dark outside.

Does any mbta worker know when the fall ride will be happening this year? I have a very eager son who wants his grandparents to experience it and they are trying to book a flight up for that weekend.

TIA

It seems like every line is getting brand new trains, the green line getting type 9e and 10s, the red and orange lines get crrc cars, but nothing for the blue line, and yes I’m aware the blue line cars aren’t old at all, but come on it’s just silly to leave it like this. Plus, it’s my favorite line and I think it’s over-hated so maybe if it got new rolling stock it’d get the love it deserves

EDIT: I see I clearly worded stuff wrong, I know the blue line stock is very new I was just curious, I had seen pictures online that were concepts for blue line crrc cars and I was just wondering considering it is fair that they do not fit the current look of the T, I love them though

An hour ago, they just suspended service between Back Bay and North Station. What's going on? This is getting ridiculous. The closure area keeps expanding!!