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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.)

[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.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but ten minutes is only considered "nothing" because the MBTA has made so many other egregious screw-ups. But it is the tip of a very large iceberg so it's worth bringing attention to it anyway.

[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).

[turil.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's an unfortunate symptom of the obsessive-compulsive culture that we're in over here in the "modern" world that's been stuck clinging to the clock since the Christians invented it to make people more rigid and obedient to religion.

[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.

[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.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Obsessions with timeliness aside, as long as the commuter rail trains don't wait for late Green Line trains, I think there will be a demand for to-the-minute timeliness on the subway.

Additionally, 10 minutes standing outside in the freezing rain is a lot more unpleasant than 1 minute. But most people have to wait 10 because they can't rely on the busses to run that close to their scheduled times.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I should add the detail that they are usually right on time as long as it is NOT rush hour (which, of course, is useless).

[justme3170.livejournal.com]

I actually walked from Harvard to Porter Square and it took me less time then many of the cars/buses/trucks that were stuck on Mass Ave. last night.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine recently moved to Zurich, where if there's a three-minute difference between when bus #1 arrives and bus #2 leaves, you can plan on making that connection.

Yup, we are not Switzerland. But maybe ten minutes shouldn't be nothing. The bar can be higher.

[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.

It's a nice walk...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Actually. I do it man times a week, even with the cold...

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I agree with m00n -- just because we're accustomed to busses that are over 10 minutes late doesn't mean it's ok. thanks for the complaint line; I will def use it in the future.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

oh, it's always a crapshoot during rush hour, but that's anywhere. :)

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...

Turil, then move to Mexico...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

If you like a more relaxed society where the train may or may not come because employees may suddenly decide to take some time off... No?

[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.