The conductor collecting his ticket caught the mistake and put him on an Orange line train back to North Station, where he was able to catch the next train two hours later. So the story ended happily.
Nevertheless, my son’s experience is emblematic of just how bad our public transportation system is.
1. At both North and South stations, track numbers apparently change for every train every day, and are not posted until the train is ready for boarding. This practice is wrong, and is the immediate reason for the failure Saturday morning.
Each train should arrive at the same track each day. This allows frequent riders to know what to expect and minimizes the risk of mistakes such as Saturday’s. The schedules for commuter train arrivals and departures is fixed and has been for months. The task of switching a particular train to a particular track at a particular time, given that the schedules do not change, is surely within the grasp of current software.
2. Whatever announcements are made on the platform are completely unintelligible. I don’t know if the change to the track number of Saturday morning’s 11:30a Newburyport train was announced or not — the only thing audible on the platform is “Bluh blub blub bluh blub no smoking blu blub lublbu blug suspicious packages blub lub lub lub fuf lub sluf.” Somehow train stations in Washington DC, Chicago, New York, Vienna, Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, and London manage to emit announcements — in several languages — that (1) contain useful information and (2) are easily understood.
3. Signs, either hard-copy or electronic, that announce the destination and departure time of each train ready for boarding, should be posted at (a) the doorway leading to the platform, (b) intervals along the platform, (c) the first open doorway of the waiting train, and (d) in the corridor of the waiting train, opposite the open door. If nothing else, at a minimum, a placard inside the car, visible from the open door, should state the ultimate destination of the train.
This is not a modern, revolutionary insight derived from cutting-edge operations research — this practice is as old as passenger trains themselves.
4. A conductor or other T employee should be at every open door when the train is ready to depart. Every one. I don’t know whether the MBTA waived that requirement somewhere along the way, whether supervisors have stopped enforcing it, or whether the crew on Saturday’s train simply had other things on their minds (such as their morning cigarette). What I do know was that at the 1:30p North Station departure of the Newburyport train, there were at least two open doors with no attendant anywhere nearby as the train started rolling. I watched a straggler jump through a doorway into the moving train.
No whistle, no “All Aboard”, no heads sticking out of cars looking for hand-signals. None, for the entire length of the train. This was a tragedy waiting to happen, and I suspect it is repeated every day for every departure.
Families do put strollers, with babies strapped in, onto cars at stations with raised platforms. Parents do put the strollers in first, expecting to then herd the 3-4 young children (often toddlers) afterwards, and finally step in afterwards. This is what families do on trains.
They do not expect the train to start rolling after the baby is on board and before they are. They do not expect to have to choose between leaving the older children on the platform and leaving the stroller unattended on a moving train next to an open door.
An attendant needs to be at each open door when the train departs. Each attendant should signal from each open door that his or her door is clear before the engineer sounds the whistle and then starts the train.
Again, this is basic stuff.
5. On our Green line trip to and from downtown, the driver knocked down passengers while starting twice. Two different trains, two different drivers, two different passengers. One leaving Coolidge Corner, inbound, one leaving Park Street, outbound. One a nearly empty car, one a nearly full car (there was a Yankee’s game on Saturday). I’ve been riding the Green Line for nearly 35 years, sometimes daily, and never before have I seen two knock-downs on the same day like this. These were during starts, not stops. The drivers are either not being trained properly or they are not following their training — each driver jumped the train out of each stop like a jackrabbit.
The MBTA, including the commuter rail, is utterly failing in its most basic mission, which is to safely, affordably, and efficiently move people from one place to another.
While our government does its usual slow-dance on Beacon Hill, gracefully emitting leaks of a gas tax here, slots there, sales tax everywhere — the ship of state continues to sink.
It’s true that my son didn’t die and didn’t lose an arm under the train; he actually rather enjoyed the extra slice of North End pizza, I imagine. But is this really the standard by which we now want to measure public transportation in Massachusetts?
Our transportation system has collapsed and I see nobody doing anything about it.
Especially the part about the Mom with kids, I can see how that might play out, having had stroller and children in tow. The safety issues should be addressed immediately, and the train information and destination information should be addressed right away too. Not many people have time to haphazardly try to get to where they are going.
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p>Congrats on sending your son out on his first independent adventure, you must have been having heart palpitations with worry, especially since navigating the system seems
impossibledifficult. Thank goodness all ended well.<
p>I’m not familiar with the area, but have used commuter rail a few times in my life. If you’re not a frequent user of commuter rail, even well run systems take some coordination and focus to navigate. Especially when you are trying to map out your first trip. Lack of proper signs would be extremely frustrating.
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p>Thanks for posting. Will watch for the safety issues the next time I brave the commuter rail service, and will warn my children.
The only ones I can disagree with are:
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p>1. It’s not obvious to me that they can put the same train at the same platform each day. It seems easy enough, but there may be operational reasons why that’s easier said than done. I’m not saying it can’t be done, just suggesting that this may be a place where an expert might take issue.
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p>4. Every door? Nope. The MBTA just can’t have that many employees running around. Too expensive, and not really necessary.
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p>What is necessary is visual confirmation that boarding is complete. That may require one employee per two cars, but it certainly doesn’t require one employee per door.
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p>
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p>Your points stand though, and are really good ones. Signage isn’t good enough. Audio isn’t good enough. They’re not doing a good enough job on starts and stops w.r.t. safety.
I never see more than that.
don’t have to ride the train… they can stay at the station and move from one platform to another as trains are boarding.
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p>How many cars are on each run? About six IIRC. Two conductors and a platform guy should provide pretty good coverage. Of course, the platform guy needs bathroom breaks, needs to help little old ladies and 11 year olds, etc, so may not always be at the platform to help the conductors at the moment of departure…
during Amtrak years, was open the two doors of adjoining coaches, so that one attendant could monitor both doors. The policy then was to open only as many doors as they had coverage.
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p>At most station stops (not North or South Station), the platforms aren’t long enough to accommodate more than 4-6 cars anyway, so it didn’t take more than 2-3 conductors.
… the typical North Station train is a 6 car set… and some 7 car sets.
and wants to pay flagmen $35/hour to wave a red flag… what would it cost for the “hands on deck” personnel?
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p>I actually like stomv’s idea for employing unskilled people like this but I’m sure I would cringe when I heard the unions declare what it would cost to employ them. Much like flagmen, toll collectors and grass cutters, I think these people should all get minimum wage pay for unskilled work.
The expectation that people are suppose to function and thrive earning minimum wage is absurd.
It’s all of those minimum wage jobs that create the need for many of the government services provided to people, including Mass Health and food stamps etc.
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p>There is a happy medium with regard to wages, but minimum wage is unacceptable.
Not everyone on minimum wage is a sole wage earner. Often its someone new to the workforce, or a summer teenager, or a retiree, or someone getting back into the workforce. Or part-time.
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p>It’s not as if a person taking the MBTA “greeters” position is going to retire in that job.
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p>How much should a toll-taker make? $53,000 plus benefits? More than a college-educated administrative assistant in an advertising firm?
Left my ADA job to be a Toll Collector for a pay raise… huh?
I read this the other day and thought that it would be appropriate to share here.
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p>http://www.bostonreb.com/2009/…
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p>Basically, MA minimum wage = $8
MA fair market rent = $1,194 monthly
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p>A minimum wage earner would have to work 115 hours per week, 52 days per year to afford that.
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p>Todd
what this has to do with open and unattended doors of moving commuter trains?
starting with unattended doors on commuter trains—to hiring more workers to attend said doors—to wages for those workers—-to minimum wage—to how minimum wage is absurd, etc.
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p>It wasn’t a blatant attempt to change the subject. If you think about it, watching the flow of conversation happen in written form is quite interesting.
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p>I absolutely appreciate your post. It was very informative
and an important warning for people who rarely use commuter
rail and are not prepared for what could happen. Thank You!
There are already sufficient conductors on the train. They are supposed to do this. As HR’s Kevin observed below, they are supposed to do this.
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p>There should not be any extra cost, they should simply do what they are already paid for.
These people ought, at a minimum, have some or all of the following skills:
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p> * speak multiple languages
* have first aid (or more) training
* have thorough training on flagging for trains
* have enforcement training and ability
* have sufficient physical ability to act in the case of assorted different kinds of emergencies, both for individuals at risk (fall below tracks, heart attack, etc) or for group risk (terrorist, train wreck, fire, etc)
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p>I’m not arguing that these are folks who are showing up to work fresh off of a masters degree or a seven year apprenticeship, but I would expect more than “unskilled”.
These people need none of these things. Have you seen the T’s budget deficit? We already have too many people trained in things they will never use. This is what happens in the “flag men” argument from the cops, the flag men should know how to hold a flag and wave it. They don’t need to carry a gun, speak 6 languages (flag waving is universally understood), carry a college degree…
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p>KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid (not you stomv… it’s just a saying).
every train is on straight track. That means a conductor standing on the platform or leaning out of a door can see all of one side of the train. They would not fail to see it if a family was still boarding. I do think there’s a safety issue with having a door open with the train moving.
The conductors are supposed to be looking out the doors and preventing people from trying to jump the train, and for the most part that is what they do. Whoever was working this train was sloppy.
I wasn’t standing by the car for the 11:30a departure (I was at the front of the train, in the sun), so I can’t say what happened then. I was definitely standing directly opposite the rear-most open door on the 1:30p departure, and there was nobody within sight. I looked up and down the length of the train, and saw no heads.
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p>Significantly, I also did not hear the signal bell that the conductors used to press to signal each other that all was clear. In 1998, on the Wellesley/South Station line, the train never moved until those sounded.
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p>In this case, the only sound was the locomotive bell — not even the two-blast whistle that is still (I thought!) standard practice before starting any train (freight or passenger).
… regarding the announcing of trains is that they have to wait for personnel before announcing because the doors lock and unlock manually. My understanding is that in NY they can announce the trains earlier because they can keep people off the train until they are ready to receive them because they have automatic locks. Fixing this issue would be a matter of upgrading or replacing rolling stock, which gets pretty expensive.
But no doubt there’s a service problem. I remember the same affliction with the airlines. People complained, some carriers lost customers, others worked hard and retained or expanded their base of loyal customers. Frequent flier miles was one perk which helped.
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p>I see the problem as (1) the curse of a natural monopoly, and (2) typical union labor disregard. I recognize one or two of the drives on the Boston College line who don’t give a sh*t about the quality of their starts and stops. I mentioned it politely as I got off at Park last fall … he stared blankly at me. Had anyone — EVER — mentioned this to him? Guess not.
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p>I always thought they should run a contest on the Green Line with some sort of recording accelerometer … which driver can start and stop the smoothest? Let’s ask the Carmen’s Union. They’ll say yes for sure!
I’ve lived in places (London, Budapest) and visited others (Berlin, Prague, New York, DC) where the system was far better run. We can’t even seem to get basic information posted.
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p>Budapest. for example, has information like time to next train and time since last train, everywhere. Plus electronic destination signs. Very impressive.
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p>Berlin even has information on connecting trains. Imagine getting off the Green Line at Park and seeing signs saying “next Red Line outbound in 3 minutes.” Berlin has that along with signs directing you to the train. Why don’t we?
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p>
I do think they intend to introduce such electronic signage eventually. They did just put electronic signs at each platform in South Station replace the old mechanical arrival/departure board with an electronic version, and it has been a huge improvement.
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p>One reason they probably do not have physical signs on the actual trains is that they often swap trains around on a moments notice. If they had electronic signs on the cars it would be more feasible. Maybe someday…
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p>I have to say that a lot of these problems could be greatly reduced if the conductors, engineers, dispatchers and station staff did a better job of making announcements about what is going on. Technology is nice, but for most people just having the conductor yell out what train it is should be more than sufficient, and that shouldn’t cost anything.
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p>
You know, the ones recently unveiled with great fanfare and at enormous (federal) expense.
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p>The ones that say “for information about schedules, please visit http://www.mbta.com“, alternating with “no smoking” announcements.
My wife and traveled, without a car, for two weeks last October in all those places and had the same experience as huh. Every bus and train stop has an LED sign that announces the arrival time, departure time, and destination of each bus. Every coach on every train has a sign by the door and on the wall announcing the destination.
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p>Not only does every train arrive on the same track every time, but it is even spotted so that the same doors open at the same place on the platform, which is also posted, so that connecting riders can know exactly where to go to board their connection. I’m not asking for that.
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p>I like the recording accelerometer concept. At no time during any of many trips in Austria and Germany were we jostled the way we experienced on Saturday. It is surely no more difficult to smoothly start and stop a bus or streetcar in Boston than in downtown Vienna.
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p>I do suspect that the operators in Austria and Germany are better paid, better trained, and better managed — but I only surmise that. Some data would be fascinating.
where an instructor was training new bus drivers:
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p>”Remember – accelerator, brake; accelerator, brake. Pretty soon, you’ll have them spinning all the way to the front of the bus.”
The “RULES” say:
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p>That’s what I intended, sorry if I perhaps overshot a little.
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p>I must say, though, I really was shocked and dismayed. These things shouldn’t happen.
Same silent switch-a-roo almost happened to me a couple of years ago from North Station. So now I find an MBTA employee near or on the train, and verify.
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p>Usually there are one or two people hanging around the control cab in the first inbound side car.
The information should be posted. Period.
So I ask.
That happened to me once, where they switched which platform the commuter rail train was leaving from. By the time I realized it and got off the train (it hadn’t yet left South Station), I had missed the train I needed. And OF COURSE, the following train wasn’t coming for almost 2 more hours.
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p>This was maybe a year and a half ago. I cried in South Station for a bit while trying to figure out what to do. I live in Newton, a mile away from Woodland, but it was very snowy and that one mile walk can be pretty lousy when the sidewalks aren’t clear. (Plus, from South Station to Woodland is over an hour — so it might not have actually saved me more than a half hour…and the green line causes me nothing but grief because I get motion sick)
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p>I live less than 10 miles from Boston…why is it so hard to take public transportation? In December I waited for a bus that never came. Now I guiltily do the un-eco-friendly thing and drive (or try to carpool)
In my first shot at living car free, I took a bus from Alewife to Burlington every day. The bus departure would vary from 30 minutes late (irritating, but dealable) to 30 minutes EARLY. You could always tell since the bus was hourly and the same people took the same bus everyday. On a couple of occasions we shamed the T into running another bus, but several times we were all an hour or more late for work.
That is the craziest #$%# I’ve ever heard. Just when you think you’ve heard the nuttiest T [lack-of-] customer service story … there’s one that trumps ’em all.
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p>I mean, when something like that happens, heads should roll, people should get fired … that’s why we need an actual accountable public servant to be in charge of the whole thing — and therefore to blame when stuff goes all kaplooey.
Got a “we’re sorry for your inconvenience” form letter back. I now work in Cambridge so can’t say if anything changed.
of the ghost runs that the T was doing fairly recently. If they got behind, they’d just eliminate one of the runs. So, if the bus was supposed to be every hour on the hour starting at 8am, and instead it ran at 8:10, 9:35, 10:50, 12:00, 1:10. Notice that they simply eliminated one of the runs, and it looks like the 11:00 am bus was 10 minutes early, when instead it was the 10am ubs that was 50 minutes late and the 11am bus one hour late.
It theoretically runs every 20 minutes during peak. There’s a 10-15 minute variance…
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p>Which reminds me — my original post should read “up to 30 minutes” both ways. Running exactly half an hour early or late would imply a degree of precision the T can only aspire to.
How can you tell the difference between a bus that is 30 minutes late and one that is 30 minutes early when they come every hour? I am sure it was 30 minutes late.
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p>
it may be a distinction without a difference
but three years ago there were 4 busses in the am and 4 busses back at night.
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p>7:10, 8:10, 9:10, 10:10, then 3:40, 4:40, 5:40, 6:40
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p>The morning busses would sit and wait in the bay at Alewife…