Stay Off the Subway in Boston
Take A Seat on the T
What exactly did your fares pay for, Bostonian?
"Inquiry faults T on safety measures; Calls Green Line crash of 2008 avoidable; US agency urges system to catch sleep problems" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | July 15, 2009
Federal safety officials denounced the MBTA’s “lack of a safety culture’’ yesterday, concluding that a fatal Green Line crash in Newton last year could have been avoided if the agency had invested in safety technology routinely used by other transit systems, and the T’s three other subway lines.
We were too busy making debt payments to banks and passing out tax loot.
Also see: Public Loot For Private Projects
“If technology exists - and it exists on the other lines - why would the Green Line not have everything possible that is going to prevent the accidents from happening?’’ Mark V. Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a hearing in Washington, D.C., to discuss the 2008 crash near Waban station.
“I don’t understand that, as an operator,’’ Rosenker said. “I just don’t.’’
I do: bank payments.
MBTA drivers on the problem-plagued transit line, the country’s oldest, have long called for such an automated system, which could prevent trolleys from coming too close to one another and stop them if necessary. MBTA general manager Daniel A. Grabauskas and state Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr., chairman of the T board, declined requests for interviews yesterday. Other officials at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority defended the system’s safety record.
See: What Your T Ticket Pays For
The NTSB put forward yesterday’s recommendation about the need for an automatic operating system despite an ongoing investigation into a deadly crash in Washington, D.C., in June that appears to have stemmed from a failure in that transit agency’s computerized system.
Though the T in Massachusetts has taken preliminary steps toward building an automated train control system for the Green Line in recent months, the agency has been slow to embrace the technology and remains uncommitted about retrofitting the trains, despite another major Green Line accident this May that raised similar questions about the line’s lack of fail-safe technology.
Managers of the financially strained authority have cited the cost and concerns that the automated system, which relies upon keeping trolleys a certain distance apart, would prevent the Green Line from running efficiently through downtown stations.....
Yeah, and they are doing a great job now!
After the more recent crash renewed focus on the line’s technology, Grabauskas called the issue a distraction from what he characterized as the central cause of the crash, a trolley operator distracted by a cellphone. But NTSB board members said yesterday that an automated system would provide an added layer of protection against operator errors.
Yeah, blame someone, anyone, but themselves.
“I scratch my head at the fact that they didn’t have’’ an automated system on the Green Line, Rosenker said. “If, in fact, [it]had been implemented, I don’t believe we’d be in here discussing this today.’’
Investigators say they could not fully explain why, on May 28, 2008, Ter’rese Edmonds, 24, the operator of the Green Line train, blew through a red light at 38 miles per hour, failing to engage the brakes during the seven seconds in which the train in front of her would have been visible.
The NTSB concluded yesterday Edmonds may have experienced a “microsleep,’’ based on investigators’ belief that she was at high risk of undiagnosed sleep apnea. She was overweight, and a toxicology report showed the presence of an over-the-counter sleep aid in her urine. Investigators do not believe the sleep aid would have impaired her ability to run the train, because it was not in her blood stream at the time of the crash.
But if you got pot in your urine, laaaawwwwd help ya!
There was some debate among board members about how definitively they could pinpoint fatigue as a problem, given that Edmonds had a predictable schedule with moderate hours and plenty of time for sleep between shifts. Board members were quick to point out that, regardless of that finding, Edmonds was a highly praised employee known for a conscientious attitude.
But the fat, drug-addled slob fell asleep at the swtich.
Work schedule was not cited as an issue in Edmonds’s case, but the T nonetheless changed one of its policies last month....
That's as much an admission as anything.
Edmonds’ father, Terry Jones, said he doubted his daughter had a sleep problem.
“She didn’t have a hard time sleeping at all, not at all,’’ Jones said. “I’ve seen her every day that she worked, dropped her off at work sometimes. She wasn’t tired at all. . . . She just missed. That’s the only thing I can say.’’
In recent weeks, the T has begun the process of finding an engineering consultant to examine an automated train control system on the Green Line....
How come it takes you Bostonians forever to do shit?
The Globe reported in May that the T had fallen months behind its internal schedule in hiring a consultant, partly because of its ongoing debt and deficit problems.
Estimates for building a first-class train control system top $300 million, though it remains possible the T could retrofit the Green Line with something cheaper and less sophisticated and take advantage of federal funds often available for large-scale safety upgrades.
But even systems advertised as fail-safe offer no guarantees, as appears to be the case in Washington....
Why is the Globe making excuses for them?
--more--"Related: The Hero of the DC Metro Crash
"South Station lease gives T scant profit" by Casey Ross, Globe Staff | July 16, 2009
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority leases South Station to Equity Office Properties, and the two parties are supposed to split the annual profits. But State Auditor Joseph DeNucci said an initial inquiry found that Equity Office claimed such high expenses that the T got little or no money in the profit-sharing arrangement.
In fact, DeNucci said, the MBTA owes Equity Office more than $337,000 because its portion of the profits aren’t enough to cover expenses the company says it must pay.
Speaking a week after T officials proposed a nearly 20 percent fare increase because the agency’s finances are in dire shape, DeNucci said his initial findings warrant a deeper investigation of the arrangement, which has been in place since 1988....
--more--"No wonder you guys don't have any money for repairs or upgrades.
"Green Line extension funding in question; Planners stalling many projects" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | July 21, 2009
The Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford is getting more expensive and potentially shorter. Work on a $1.5 billion bus tunnel underneath Boston Common has been put on hold indefinitely. Seventeen highway projects valued at $870 million are probably being canceled.
New financial realities are forcing state transportation planners to reevaluate scores of projects, large and small, and substantially reduce their ambitions. Even as federal stimulus money has provided a boost in some targeted spots, and the state borrows billions to repair bridges over the next few years, money for many long-term expansion projects is in much shorter supply....
Sigh. Stimulus was stolen, locals are looted, where does it end?
Federal officials have warned the state to limit the projects on its list to those that have an identifiable source of funding, a change from the past when many plans were included to appease political groups, even though they had scant chance of getting built. This time, the panel in charge of the list is expected to add “illustrative projects’’ that have no means of funding, but may come back to life when the economy improves.
When or IF, Globe?
“We need to get more - for lack of a better word - real,’’ said David Mohler, the deputy transportation secretary who oversees planning. The Green Line expansion, estimated to cost $600 million in recent years, is now listed by the Patrick administration at $934 million, with hopes that the federal government will pay half the costs....
Anybody tell them they are broke down their, too?
--more--"
