One of the Worst Commutes this Year

What a wake up call! Thought I'd get on the train and go to work like nothing has changed? Thought I'd still be in vacation bliss, all relaxed and happy? Well ... not so much thanks to this morning's commute.

The p508 started off well enough ... until we came to a halt outside of West Natick. Then we were informed that the train in front of us (the p506) broke down and we had the pleasure of pushing them into Boston. So, that would likely result in a delay.

THEN, we had the pleasure of having our lights and AC shut off for 25 minutes while we tried to link up with the train in front of us.

THEN, we got the great news that we would be making all local stops, since, as you know, the p506 was a local whereas we were an express.

FINALLY, we also had to make two stops at Yawkey and Back Bay to let both the front and back train people off.

I don't think my butt has ever been so sore from sitting in one position for about three hours straight.

I think I might go back to driving!

Flooded Tracks and Speed Restrictions

Due to the massive rain storms and floods over the past few days, the Worcester/Framingham line has a 40 MPH speed restriction on the tracks, resulting in delays across the entire line, in addition to the subway.

On the commuter rail, the weather impacted yesterday's morning and evening commutes, as well as this morning's commute. In fact, when I got on the train this morning at 7:09, it was actually the P506, which is the local train. So we made all stops on the way into Boston and finally arrived at 8:45 AM. Not sure how much longer the speed restrictions will be in effect.

On the Lowell line, the Wilmington station was flooded, causing the closure of that station and delays on that line. All other lines were experiencing 15-20 minute delays.

On the T, there was a large sinkhole between the Chestnut Hill and Newton Center stations which shut down the Green Line's D train. Buses replaced the train service on the Green Line, as repairs are expected to take a few days. Flooding was also a concern at Park Street, among other stations.

Late Trains on a Friday Morning

It figures that the one day this week I take the train (two days off, two days driving), that the train is late by almost an hour. I hopped on the train at about 7:20 at Grafton, only to find out it was the p506 (usual departure time is 6:44 AM), so we made all stops into Boston, arriving at 9:00 ...

I wonder what happened to the p508? Did it ever pass the p506? I recall hearing an announcement in Natick that the p508 was behind us, but I don't recall another train passing us, so waiting for the express wouldn't really have helped.

Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend!

Switch Problems Wreak Havoc on the Worcester/Framingham Trains

Another morning, another 45+ minute delay on the Worcester line this morning. I got to the Grafton station at 7:03 and saw groups of fellow riders milling around by the pay boxes. They were all discussing the delays, it seems the p504 (departs Worcester at 6:05) was delayed over an hour and the p506 (departs Worcester at 6:30) was delayed over 45 minutes.

I looked on the MBTA website from my blackberry and it looked like the p502 had been cancelled and suggested that passengers seek alternate arrangements for transportation. The service alert attributed the delays to switch problems in Worcester.

At around 7:20 a train rolled into Grafton. As I went to get on the train, I asked the conductor if it was the p504 and he barked back at me "It's a LOCAL!" Um, thanks for the great customer service!

After Framingham, one of the conductors announced that our train was actually the p506, which is supposed to get to Boston at 8:11 AM. It was a local, making every stop all the way into the city, and we finally arrived at South Station at about 8:55.

One of my co-workers asked me if i thought the new MDOT agency taking over has anything to do with these delays. I can't imagine why that would be the case, but really, out of 5 commutes this week, 3 of them have been delayed by more than 1/2 hour. It's not even winter yet! I shudder to think what will happen if this is just the beginning.

Goodbye Holidays, Hello Delays

The holidays are over. Everyone is returning to reality today. I took a few days off before and after the New Year, so this is my first commute of 2009.

So what was the first Monday commute of 2009 like? For a lot of folks, it wasn't that great. On the Worcester line the P502, P504 and P506 were all running at least 15 to 30 minutes late, according to T Alerts and news reports. The P508 arrived on time to Grafton, but it was slow going most of the way into Boston. We got to South Station at 8:48 a.m., about 25 minutes late.

I've also heard that the outbound trains on the Worcester line were also delayed.

Another thing made this morning's commute not so great. The parking lots were super icy. I saw a handful of people slip and fall in the Grafton lot today. Not good, not good at all.

I'm sort of dreading Wednesday morning. Supposedly we're going to have a snow/ice storm. This should make the commute extra fun.

The MBTA/MBCR wasn't really in the news the last few days of 2008/first few days of 2009.

The Blue Mass Group blog published an interview with Governor Deval Patrick on his selection of James Aloisi as the state's Secretary of Transportation.

Bostonist ran a cute column on being nice while riding on the MBTA. Anything "manners" related always reminds me of Muni Manners.

Yesterday's Boston Sunday Globe "Starts & Stops" column focused on where MBTA buses drop off passengers. The column also noted that the new Secretary of Transportation, James Aloisi, is a few weeks away from officially starting his new role. The Mass Pike is going to run an experiment from January 12th through January 23rd. During this time, eastbound passengers will not be able to use Exit 16 in West Newton to get onto the Pike. Pike engineers believe that people using this exit are causing traffic backups. Exit 16 is one of the free access points onto the Pike.

According to the Globe, street entertainers are having a tougher time earning a living. Many of these entertainers are posted throughout the MBTA's subway system.

Yesterday's Globe also ran an article about Massport. Mass Pike critics are not thrilled with the prospect of Massport taking over the Pike in downtown Boston.

On the Pike front, the Stop the Pike Hike group currently has more than 8,300 members. They are about 1,700 members away from their goal of signing up 10,000 concerned commuters. The final public hearing about the Pike's toll hike is this Wednesday, January 7th in Worcester. If you're interested in attending, the meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at Worcester City Hall, which is located at 455 Main Street in downtown Worcester. The Stop the Pike Hike group believes that the final toll vote will take place on either January 15th or January 22nd.

Finally, I have heard that state employees who had a state vehicle that they could take home needed to turn in this vehicle on January 1, 2009. I believe the only exceptions to the rule are those in law enforcement. I would love to know if the 60-odd MBTA employees who have MBTA vehicles were included in this rule. Again, there is no reason why Dan Grabauskas and senior managers of the MBTA need to have a MBTA car 24/7. Does anyone know if this rule is being applied to the MBTA?

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.

Super, Super Late P508 Train

Happy November 5th! I'm still on an election high from last night. I know not everyone is as happy as I am - I overheard some comments this morning about people upset with the outcome of our national election. I do hope that our country comes together and works together now that the campaigns are over. Two years of campaigning is exhausting.

So I got to work at 9:30 a.m. this morning. The P508 was an hour late getting to South Station. We arrived at 9:21 a.m.

It was a quadruple whammy of a commute:

1. A cancelled train (the p506 - due to mechanical issues I think), resulting in a 25-30 minute initial delay for the p508.
2. No passes were collected.
   
3. Oh and we became a local, so we made all stops into Boston.
   
4. Oh yeah . . . and there were no announcements about it at all. Awesome. NOT.

Well, at least I was able to sleep on the train to make up for staying up to watch President-elect Obama's victory speech.

In addition to some comments I heard from people, there was a conversation happening on the train. Someone said "Commute number one under Obama, not going very well," with someone else retorting "Well, look at all of the stellar commutes we had under Bush." Political fun for trapped commuter rail passengers.

While there wasn't any train news today, there was some news about MBTA buses. Specifically, the MBTA's Board of Directors is scheduled to vote tomorrow on overhauling 30% of its bus fleet. According to The Boston Globe, if approved, the T would spend $27.5 million to refurbish 123 compressed natural gas buses purchased between 2003 and 2004. Another 176 buses bought during the same period would also be overhauled. The project is estimated to take three years to complete. MBTA buses transport 400,000 people each weekday.

Sitting Outside South Station

What do you know? I was able to take the P508 train. My commute was fine this morning. We arrived outside of South Station at 8:33 a.m. and then we did our customary sitting until we pulled into a track at 8:28 a.m. Does anyone know why we have been sitting outside of South Station lately? It is situations like this that make me miss getting off at Back Bay and taking the Orange Line. At least that manueveur made me on time.

Being on time is especially important in this current economic client. I don't think a day goes by where you don't hear of a layoff or a pending layoff. So commuters are definitely more on edge and timeliness becomes an even more important factor. I hope the MBTA/MBCR understands this and tries to ensure that all trains arrive as close to on-time as possible.

In the news today, both the Telegram & Gazette and the MetroWest Daily News published stories about the "new" Worcester-Framingham line schedules. If you were wondering if the Lt. Governor's appearance on yesterday's P506 caused it to run late, guess again. The tardiness of this train was attributed to "mechanical problems."

The T&G's article focused on why local and state dignitaries think the newly added trips will be a boon for Worcester. Too bad they didn't speak with actual Worcester commuters - who would really like to see more express trips. The MetroWest Daily News article touched upon how the town of Ashland and city of Framingham might become buzz kills for more trains.

Finally, WHDH-TV's "Hank Investigates" series ran a report on legal claims made against the MBTA. Reporter Hank Phillipi Ryan obtained the legal claims made against the T over the past two years. These claims, which were in the hundreds, amounted to $17 million. Perhaps the T should try to avoid getting sued instead of raising the fees for station lots that they barely maintain. You know, this is just a suggestion.

The T pays large damages, whereas other state agencies have a cap on damages. Just a thought - why doesn't the T try to cap their damages? If they did, they would have saved $2 million in 2007 alone.

Train Rider Didn't Miss the P508

Train Rider is in a car heading home, maybe still in downtown Boston, maybe on the Mass Pike. In any event, Train Rider is driving home, wishing the commute home was on the MBCR Commuter Rail line, not on the Mass Pike.

BUT maybe Train Rider will be happy that today's commute was a forced drive on the Mass Pike. Since the "Manic Monday" post was first added today around 1:26 p.m. EDT, six comments have come in. All with updates about what really happened this morning.

Today was the first day of the "new" Worcester-Framingham line commuter rail schedule. There was a ton of press coverage. The Lt. Governor supposedly even took the train into Boston. Yet, the train was delayed. The P508 that Train Rider "missed" wasn't even the P508 running 5 minutes late. It was the P506 running about 20 minutes behind!! Good grief. I guess it certainly was a Manic Monday commute.

Thanks to everyone who shared an update with us.

Muggy Monday Morning Commute

Here's to the first Heat Wave of 2008. It is another scorcha here in Boston. I can't believe it is only the 9th day of June and we're already in the hot, hot, hot weather. At least it hasn't been too hazy or too humid yet.

I had to mix things up this morning. Due to an early morning meeting at work, I took the P506 from Grafton today. We arrived to South Station at 8:13 a.m., about 8 minutes behind schedule (or 10 minutes ahead of the P508, depending on how you look at it).

Commute-a-holic told me that the SmartRoutes reports on WCVB-TV Channel 5 this morning reported that the Franklin Line was running 15-minutes behind. Yikes! I hope those commuter rail cars had working AC.

Here's an article about train passengers from Boston.com.

Since it is so hot outside, I'm actually glad to be in the office today.

TGIT for Me

TGIT!! Yes, I know it is normally TGIF, but I'm taking tomorrow off. So it is TGIT. Doesn't that look like a dirty word?

This morning's inbound commute on the P508 was fine. Geesh - I don't even know what time we arrived to Back Bay Station as I neglected to look at my watch. I took the Orange Line to my office.

Last night I received some MBTA text alerts that all the Worcester-Framingham trains were running 15-20 minutes late because of switch problems. But my train was right on time. Weird.

However, not all the trains are running smoothly on the Worcester-Framingham line. AJ was kind enough to add a comment to yesterday's blog post.

Also, things do not sound like they are running well on the Franklin Line. Charlie on the Commuter Rail had two posts from yesterday about incredibly hot cars and unprecedented issues on the Franklin #715 train. Yikes!

In other T-related news, Boston.com published a report today about how the MBTA Transit Police are practicing if the Homeland Security threat level rises from Yellow (where it currently remains) to Orange.

Have a good Thursday (and a good Friday too). Isn't this weather amazing?

My Super-Early Super-Long Delayed Commute This Morning

This has been a busy week at work. I needed to get into Boston early this morning.

I got up early (which is something Train Rider loathes to do) to get ready so I could take the P506 train in. The P506 train departs Grafton at 6:39 a.m. Much to my surprise, the P506 was canceled. When the next train, the P508, showed up it was two cars short. The P508 departs Grafton a 1/2 hour after the P506 at 7:09 a.m.. So after waiting more than a 1/2 hour, I had to ride on a train that was two cars short that needed to accommodate the riders from two trains.

Once I boarded the train, I noticed that passes were not checked and tickets were not created. Around Ashland, the conductors made an announcement that they spoke to dispatch (CSX I presume?) and obtained permission to have the train go express from the Framingahm station. So, even though the train was packed, it worked out well from a time perspective because we didn't have to stop at West Natick and Natick and deal with even more passengers.

We arrived to Back Bay Station at the P508's scheduled time of 8:17 a.m. I jumped off the train to take the Orange Line to work.

It is really sad when you've already had a long day and it isn't even 8:30 a.m. At least it is nice outside. The question is - will I be able to step out from my endless meetings to enjoy today's taste of spring?

Inbound P508 Train Late Due to Mechanical Issues on the P506 Train

As I was pulling into the Grafton parking lot at 7:02 a.m. this morning (for the P508 7:09 a.m. train), the whistle was already sounding and the train arrived right after that. People were at a dead run to the platform, even bypassing the parking lot fee slots. The train pulled out at 7:05 a.m. I didn't even attempt to run to the train.

This turned out to be the p506, which looked to be about 25-30 minutes behind schedule. I checked my Blackberry for service alerts on the MBTA website, and sure enough, both the p506 and p508 were delayed. The announcement for the p508 said to expect a 20-25 minute delay.

The p508 arrived at 7:29 a.m., just about 20 minutes after the scheduled departure time. The train was about 3 cars short, which would mean we could expect a packed train. Some of my fellow passengers were joking that it would probably be made a local as well (it wasn't, thank goodness!). I sat in the first car and didn't have my pass checked. Around Ashland, the first announcement was made about the delay, due to mechanical problems on the p506 (the train right before mine), so because they were delayed, we were as well.

We arrived at Back Bay at around 8:25 a.m. I got off and took the Orange Line to work. So, today's delay was not enough for reimbursement. But in the "olden" days before the schedule change, we definitely would have been at least 1/2 hour late and I would be submitting for a reimbursement. Now it seems that delays have been built in to the schedule, so we weren't really too too late.

Since it looks like a number of other lines, including the Franklin line, have been experiencing delays, the MBTA/MBCR announced last week that new schedules for five South Side commuter rail lines would be going into effect this coming Monday, April 7th. The schedules have finally been posted on the MBTA's website.

Commute-a-holic and I will both continue watching for the March 2008 on-time performance stats.