Winter in New England and the Train Blame Game

I am so happy that common sense dictated that I not stand around in the freezing cold waiting for today's P508 train. Which was delayed. Yes - that's right - for the third Monday morning in a row, the Worcester-Framingham commuter rail line was an absolute mess. Check out the comments made by Train Stopping readers.

• Framingham Rider said that the P500 (which departs Worcester at 4:45 a.m.) was canceled. This caused the P502 to be changed to a local. A pretty smooth commute until they hit Allston.
• Anonymous at 10:34 AM wrote about the P508.
• Richard, who normally takes the P508 out of Worcester at 6:55 a.m., isn't sure if he took the P508 or the P512, since the train he was on left Worcester at 7:35 a.m. At least Worcester riders can wait in Union station - waiting 40-odd minutes in the cold for the train on the concrete platforms is harsh. Richard said this, noting that the morning commutes have been particularly bad:

"As much as I'm angry at the MBTA, their website stated that the delays were due to CSX not clearing the switches. The snow stopped last night. Can't switches be cleared by the morning commute. We live in a snowy climate and these things should be taken care of. It was an upsetting commute and coming on top of all the other bad ones during December, this doesn't bode well for the MBTA."

• Anonymous at 11:15 AM was also on the P508, which was really the P506. Anonymous' comments are very similar to Richard's

"What I found irksome about this morning's commute is that this storm, and the snow and ice, was not a surprise. It wasn't a go to bed with clear skies and wake up to snow and a messy commute. It's been snowing for 3 days. Everyone at the MBTA/MBCR should have known what the track conditions would be like and should have been out there at 3am, not 4:30am, digging out the switches. They knew what the situation was before the last train run last night."

• Anonymous at 12:10 PM was on the P502 and noted "I want to know which part of the weather forecast the T and CSX didn't understand? If the first train is supposed to leave at 4:45 am then parking lots should be plowed and trains should be ready to move. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out. The T and CSX need to learn to work together and stop putting riders in the middle of their tug of war."

The mess this morning on the Worcester-Framingham line even impacted outbound commuters. AlisonD Tweeted about this morning's events, which Universal Hub picked up. If you're using Twitter, there is a whole section dedicated to the MBTA. Use #mbtasux in your Tweets and they'll be tracked on the MBTA Sucks Twitter round-up page. This page is organized by MBTA subway line. Perhaps they'll end up adding a section just for MBTA/MBCR Commuter rail riders.

Posted last Thursday, the T has their Guide to WinterTime Travel On The T press release up. I'm sure Dan and his crack team will either blame CSX or the MBCR for this one. Yes, it is probably CSX's fault - I mean - who the heck doesn't clean the switches after a snow storm? Sure, it snowed this weekend, but it stopped snowing in the Worcester area last night. So there was at least 8 hours to clean the tracks. But shouldn't the MBTA be providing some oversight? They seem to be able to step in and take the credit when ridership is up.

This is absolutely unacceptable. Lt Governor Tim Murray - if you care so much about the Worcester area and about mass transit, you need to step in and fix this. Three delayed Mondays is not acceptable. Multiple delays are not acceptable.

Outside of the Worcester line, Boston.com reported on an incident in Abington this morning. Tales from the Commute (another commuter-related blog we just found), also reported on this.

I guess it could be worse. We could have been stuck on this Amtrak train over the weekend.

Gary Gets an Answer, If You Can Call it That

Gary, who I wrote about in a post late last month, finally got an answer from the MBTA for his complaint email sent in after the P500 train never arrived. Well, he sort of got an answer. What do I mean? Read for yourself.

Dear Gary,

I have read your email and would like to begin by apologizing for the delay in my response. I realize that some time has passed but want to assure you that your concern is of importance.

There is no question that our LED messaging system is somewhat outdated and has flaws; still operating off of a dial-up. Our communications department sends out delay messages and receives a "transmission sent" response following this effort; however, we are not able to see if the relay reaches its final destination.

I am pleased to report that the MBTA is in the process of procuring a new GPS messaging system which will greatly enhance our ability to provide our passengers with delay information in "real-time".

I am unable to speak to the lack of information provided on the MBTA's website but have forwarded this to the appropriate personnel for their review.

I am sorry both for the inconvenience of the delay itself but more importantly for the lack of information provided to you and your fellow passengers waiting at the station.

Sincerely,
Linda Dillon
MBCR Customer Service Manager

Gary sent along a follow-up email that generated this response:

Hi,

Actually the answer to this is simply that we are two different companies. We provide the MBTA with the delay information but we cannot access their website to post delay information; that falls under their purview. When this new system comes into play, this should be a moot point. If I may anticipate your next question, the MBTA has provided no timeframe as yet for the roll out of this upgrade.

Linda Dillon

Thanks for sharing, Gary.

Boy, am I happy I do not have Linda Dillons' job. It is a tough one.

This Morning's P500 Never Showed Up

Thanks to Gary for sharing the following! The P500 originates in Framingham and normally departs each weekday morning at 5:40 a.m.

Below please find the email sent MBTA/MBCR Commuter Rail Customer Comment forum.

This morning's P500 train out of Framingham never showed up. I understand that delays and breakdowns happen, what I fail to grasp is why the MBTA continues to struggle with letting passengers know what is going on.

I arrived at the Framingham station just after 5:30 this morning and immediately knew something was up when the train wasn't sitting there waiting for us, however, the lovely scrolling red signs was promising "all trains on or near schedule" as usual - unfortunately, it applied to yesterday's trains.

I waited a few minutes and then used my Blackberry to check the MBTA website for any service alerts or advisories. Framingham was listed with nothing. No alerts, no advisories. As it was now just a few minutes past our scheduled departure, it didn't bother me too much... yet.

To cut to the end of the ordeal - as you know, the 5:40am P500 train never showed up. We were never given any indication of the problem either by the signs at the station or by the MBTA website. In fact, the first (and only) notice we were given of the problem was when we boarded the next train into Boston (the P502) at around 6:30. The funny part is, the announcement that was given was not even intended for those of us that had been sitting at the Framingham station for an hour - it was instead directed at the regular passengers of the usually express P502 explaining to them why we needed now to make all the local stops on our way into Boston. Apparently the P500 had broken down - who knew?

Again - I understand that mechanical failures happen from time to time and I can accept that. What I cannot accept is the repeated failure of the MBTA to make even rudimentary attempts at notifying its passengers of delays and cancellations. I have written in the past about these frustrations and the inability of the MBTA to not only update, but coordinate the information available on the signs at the stations and on the website only the receive back responses that boil down to "well CSX controls this and we control that, etc. etc. etc" but seriously - I cannot believe that in the hour that we were standing at that station that not even one of the outlets available to us as passengers could have been updated to fill us in.

My Monday Commute Was Fine

Wow - it is nice to see the sun again. What miserable weather we had this past weekend, huh? I mean - I guess April Showers bring May Flowers, but it would be nice if the temperatures could exceed 35 degrees.

My inbound commute was fine this morning. Although not every Worcester-Framingham line commuter could say that. I heard the P500 that leaves Framingham at 5:40 a.m. had some performance issues.

I took the P508 from Grafton. We were at Back Bay Station at 8:17 a.m. and at South Station for 8:23 a.m. So yet another commute that was right on time.

I still haven't noticed any published On Time Performance Results for March 2008. I did read an interesting article in yesterday's Starts & Stops column in the West version of The Sunday Globe but I can't seem to find it online. I did find this article from yesterday's Globe about the proposed extension of the Blue Line to Lynn. I guess this is something that has been debated since 1947!!! In 2008 dollars, an extension would cost $600 million and probably only provide marginal benefits to the greater Lynn-metro area. Lynn is served with transportation to Boston via both commuter rail (the Newburyport-Rockport line) and bus lines.

I don't live on the North Shore, so I can't speak as a citizen who could be impacted by the Blue Line extension. However, it seems like a lot of money to spend within a transit system that is running out of money. Plus, a lot of Massachusetts cities need an economic boost. This could be interesting.

Today's Worcester-Framingham Line's P512 Commuter Rail Virtually On Time, But the P500 Was Not

I'm back in the office today and back on the train.

I took the P512 train into Boston this morning. My train was fairly on time today. We got to Boston at 9 a.m. (the train is supposed to pull into South Station at 8:59 a.m., so we were close enough).

But I guess the early trains on the Worcester-Framingham line were not so punctual. I noticed a comment posted to the UniversalHub's blog about the P500 train. This train is a local train that just goes from Framingham to Boston. Check out this:

"Commuter Rail Framingham/Worcester #500 (6:05am inbound) experiencing over 60-70 minute delay. #502 (6:06a inbound from Worcester) will tack on to #500 and push to Boston, resulting in 40-45 minute delay for #500. All other inbound trains will be delayed 35-45 minutes 1/10/2008 8:13 AM"

Well I guess whatever situation that caused the early trains to be delayed was rectified by the time I boarded the P512 in Grafton. I can't believe I lucked out so much and didn't get stuck on a delayed train.