last night's T-fubar

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

So I know that the Red Line from Harvard to Davis was completely screwed, with shuttling going on, but I'm wondering if anybody had issues with buses from Davis just... not coming? Specifically the 88.

We waited for an 88 heading to Lechmere with a young woman who had apparently just missed the last one, and we stuck around ten minutes past the arrival date (courtesy of mbta.com) of the 88 at Highland and School and then finally just took a cab. Returning at the end of our evening, ten minutes past the show-date for an 88 heading to Clarendon from Lechemere, we saw an 80 and took that instead. We texted a friend and there was nothing on the web site during that time about bus-fail.

Anybody else? It was f'ing cold out there.

Comments

[georgy.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem waiting for the 89 at Davis between 6 and 6:30. They were pulling buses off of their routes to serve as the Alewife shuttle. (At some point, Silver Line buses were even spotted in Davis.) The thing is, the MBTA wasn't really communicating about the bus route changes/delays -- in fact, I don't think they really knew what was going on. At one point, an Alewife shuttle bus pulled into the Davis busway, and the MBTA attendant on hand decided to turn it into a 96. Just right then and there.

I saw 3 87s while waiting for my 89, but nary an 88.

[hefox.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certian I saw what was suppose to be the 4:30 89 turn into the an alewife bus >:O. And hardly anyone got on it.

Saw two 88s come at the same time a bit later though.

[lonelyholiday.livejournal.com]

At one point, an Alewife shuttle bus pulled into the Davis busway, and the MBTA attendant on hand decided to turn it into a 96. Just right then and there.

Yep, this seemed to be happening with any bus that found itself near Porter, as well.

On a side note inspired by your comment, though this is about the "T-fubar," not the buses, I was standing on the Porter inbound platform when an extremely vague announcement was made that there would be shuttle buses (it wasn't really clear if both directions were affected, etc), and after conferring with three people standing near me, we headed back up to street level. That whole way up there, and out on the street, we saw zero MBTA employees. Not one. Nobody stopping the people continuing to stream into the station all the way down to the platforms (I even said, if I hadn't been trying to catch a flight - which I eventually missed because of all this - I would have stood there myself to turn people around), and nobody outside the station to point out which buses were shuttles/where to catch them/etc.

Anyway, I know the incidents like this are nothing new, but in my experience, when they happen at a big station, they're usually swarming with T employees. Varying levels of helpfulness/ineptitude, but they're there. At the very least, the employees who had been working at the station already are there until "reincforcements" arrive. This is the first time in my 10 years of T riding that I've seen LITERALLY NOBODY for at least 20 minutes...

Sorry, had to vent. Still stewing over the missed flight even though I finally made it home anyway.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

The 87 and the 88, which run parallel routes from Lechmere to Clarendon Hill/Arlington, are both chronically off-schedule and, at least in the case of the 87, as a rule they NEVER send alerts unless there is a *planned* schedule change. I believe what you experienced was probably an example of an "unexpected cancellation" wherein a driver fails to show up or a bus breaks down and, because there is absolutely no extra capacity built into anything in the MBTA, a hole appeared in the schedule and a hundred or so people were left standing outside in the freezing cold with no explanation whatsoever.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

georgy is probably spot on, btw. They should definitely be telling people via the alerts system if they're pulling busses in order to provide shuttle service. I recommend you send an email to the Bennett Garage at BennettSuperintendent@mbta.com (mailto:BennettSuperintendent@mbta.com) and let them know that this happened to you. The MBTA doesn't study the impact of its poor planning and mistakes on riders, but they do track complaints, so often this is the ONLY metric they use to decide whether or not they're doing a good job at something.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Oh, we'll definitely be sending email after I confer with my wife to establish exact timelines (since as people have noted, and I'm well aware, ten minutes is nothing.)

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

"are both chronically off-schedule"

I kind of disagree with that statement. I can rely on the 87/88 better than I can on the 77.

[wardv.livejournal.com]

because there is absolutely no extra capacity built into anything in the MBTA

It appears that that is not true. Have a look at the MBTA scorecard at

http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/scorecard/

The last one ends with data from 2009/09. They claim to have extra capacity for all subway lines.

That said, I *do* share your sentiment that it happens far too often that a bus simply doesn't show up. The excuse from the T is usually 'the driver did not show up' or 'the bus broke down'. I understand that it can be logistically difficult to replace a bus quickly as it breaks down in the middle of a route. But a driver not showing up should be much easier to deal with. Why not have 'standby drivers' like they have standby trains (as mentioned quite a few times in the scorecard linked above)?

And to come back to last night - it was a complete mess. I took an 88 from Lechmere, which turned out to be directly followed by another 88. The same happened to my wife, who took an 87 a bit earlier. They were completely off schedule. To the T's credit, there was a nice inspector at Lechmere who explained the situation to travellers, and kept people informed.

I've also been pretty underwhelmed by the reliability of the red line in the past couple months. It seems that almost every day there is some delay because of switching issues, or broken down trains. I wonder what the next Scorecard will look like.

[turil.livejournal.com]

You only waited ten minutes past the "scheduled time"? That's nothing. Being ten minutes late in this part of the world is normal. Being an hour late is even fairly common.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

this. the MBTA offers the 'if you're half an hour late' free ride for a reason; anything less than that half an hour is *actually* on time. In their little world. Even if your boss doesn't agree and you get written up for it.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

True enough, but the girl who was waiting wasn't sure if she missed the 6:36 or it hadn't come at all, and we couldn't afford to wait any longer because our event had a hard start time.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but from a statistical, federal funding, performance assessment perspective, anything more than 5 minutes is considered "late." (and even this is lenient by some international standards: On the Japanese rail system, anything more than 60 seconds behind schedule results in an automatic government inquiry with required service improvement recommendations).

[tamalinn.livejournal.com]

Just because it's common doesn't mean that it's okay.

[justme3170.livejournal.com]

I know that I waited for over 30 minutes for the 77 bus from Harvard Square to Arlington Center. It never came...

On another note, who can I e-mail to complain about the speed of the shuttle buses that were flying up and down my street until 1:00 last night? I also saw that they will be shuttling from January 2nd through January 4th.

[ron_newman]

If the shuttle buses were going fast, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. They certainly were not going fast when I rode my bike past a whole bunch of them around 6:30 last night on Mass. Ave. The city of Cambridge really should turn off every traffic light on Mass. Ave. when this shuttle is happening, to clear the traffic jam. And the T should divert some of the shuttles to less congested parallel streets such as Oxford, Garden, Sherman, and Rindge.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

you live on cameron as well?

they were barreling down the street all night...

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

To me, a bus that's 10 minutes late (or more) isn't much of a surprise. With the 88, I find that the later it gets into the evening, the less reliable the schedule is -- after 8 or 9 pm, I ignore the schedule completely. Luckily, most places I catch the 88 also offer another bus option.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

The 88 does seem particularly bad. It's so bad that sometimes I can count on catching a 90 instead.

Isn't the MBTA supposed...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

To start a service where you can get real-time info regarding bus situation on your PDA? I think I read it somewhere...

Re: Isn't the MBTA supposed...

[bettyw.livejournal.com]

this (http://catchthebusapp.com/) - but so far only for 5 Boston routes.

Communication is the problem...

[sundaisy-summer.livejournal.com]

I think I don't necessarily have a problem with the occasional delay by a few minutes or even very occasional significant delays by several minutes IF I know about it. In this instance, I got off the T just as I heard announcements about the delays/busing so it didn't affect me. In the past though, I have found myself frustrated purely because I didn't know what was going on and/or couldn't find anyone to ask. In the past announcements have been vague or inaccurate. If the T communicates clearly what their plan of action is, customers will be less frustrated.

FWIW-some of the bus delays were mentioned on the website, but even that it seems turned out to be unclear/inaccurate!

Going the complaint route seems to be a good idea. Honestly, the T may be oblivious to the communication problems or not bothering to do anything about it if people don't complain.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, absolutely. I caught a Red Line replacement bus from Harvard to Davis, mistakenly thinking it would all be okay once I got to Davis. I should have just walked home.

I waited outside When Pigs Fly Bread and Kickass Cupcakes thinking they would HAVE TO send an 88 even if they were yanking some of the buses or drivers. And thus an hour went by. Eventually another person and I managed to flag down a cab and headed off.

F'ing unbelievable. THREE buses went by "out of service".

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I saw one bus go by as Out of Service while I was waiting. Ugh.

Lets Unite!

[ward5online.livejournal.com]

I am collecting complaints on behalf of Somerville T Riders. Please check out WWW.Ward5Online.Com for details.

Although the site is Ward 5 based, I am open to all Somerville residents!

Thanks,
Courtney O'Keefe/Ward5Online.Com

Re: Lets Unite!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Lawsuit! :)