Unreliable T
Posted on Friday, June 10th, 2005 at 11:39.
The T will get you anywhere in Boston. How and when are not important details to this subsidized, underperforming, and hazardously maintained
transit system.
I was late to class yesterday because of switching problems on the inbound red line. I allotted twice the usual transit time so that I could finish studying for my mid-term. Instead, I was 5 minutes late to class. After class, I was late to work at Harvard because a “disabled train” blocked all outbound trains in the opposite direction of my apartment.
Additionally, I am curious about the noise levels while riding the T. The T is loud. Anyone who has tried to listen to an iPod while riding the T knows that you need at least 80% of the max volume to hear a song adequately. To listen to music in a quiet setting at the volume necessary to hear music adequately while riding the T would be painful to most people. Even worse is the screeching green line turning the corner at Boylston that is audible above ground.
J,
I guess your T is about as equivalent to my GLTC bus line in L’Burg.
J,
I guess your T is about equivalent to my VIA bus line in San Antonio.
When I was in Boston for a weekend a few years ago, I remember riding the green line from way out in yuppieville (someplace beyond Fenway, don’t really remember that had really, really big houses. kind of a long walk home from BC….). The scheduling to me seemed incomprehensible. The red line seemed a bit better when I rode it out to Harvard.
I’m not sure why the green line would be so screechy. I’ll trust you that it is, but most trains with aerial power sources manage to turn corners pretty smoothly. It’s the ones with the third rail–like the Red, or BART out here in SF–that have that awful metal-on-metal scraping that gets really awful going around sharp turns (you’ll especially notice this on BART between Civic Center and 16th & Mission, or approaching 12th St in Oakland coming from the south).
But I digress. They’ve all got their eccentricities and will screw you at the worst possible time. Don’t know about Boston, but in California it’s always been the Republicans who’ve refused to ante to make anything get better; how they ever got built in the first place is beyond me. Not saying to argue, of course–just saying.
I’m in the second most liberal city (SF is first) in the most liberal state in the US. And it’s this bad. Democrats have no one but themselves to blame here because there isn’t anyone else to blame.
That’s probably true. Out here, we had a lot of great projects slated, which our illustrious governor is systematically “terminating.” (ugh. not proud of that one.) In fairness to Boston, though, you guys have had your system in place a LOT longer than anything around here (BART began running in the late-mid-70s, and our streetcars didn’t go underneath Market until sometime during the 80s). You’re obviously in a much older town with a lot more historical concerns with undergoing a huge transit retrofit of any kind, too. Considering that, the T’s probably not nearly as bad as it could be….. it hasn’t, say, left you floating after an emergency landing in the harbor! :)
From what I’ve heard, the T is one of the worse transit companies in the country. Luckily, CTA service in Chicago is pretty decent most of the time and it’s almost free to most college students (nominal charge deducted from tuition each term).