2014 Discussion for Commuter Rail Delays

MassDOT says no T closure planned for Thursday night, will reassess later for tomorrow but no shutdown planned as of now. This is from the noon press conference.

Good news is that plows will be able to work throughout the night and tomorrow morning. School is canceled in walpole tomorrow so I got my snowday . Stay safe driving and give the plows room. Last estimate map i saw had a metro Boston in a band of 14" once it's all said and done.

Yes, weather causes delays can be a real pain. However, more often than not we (on the worcester line) get delays simply because MBCR/MBTA can't round up enough conductors to open the doors. When you have a train packed to the gills and only two conductors it takes forever to offload people. I have heard from old-timers that you used to be able to open the doors yourself. Now, we have to wait for some-one to press a lever to open the door. frustrating...

P517 and P522 both ran into 20-25min delays due to snow and p583 was cancelled this evening.

It'll be interesting to see if the T enacts its winter storm schedule. IIRC on the Worcester line the only changes were that P508 and P523 were turned into all stop locals.

Providence looks to be a mess tonight. Mix of busing, hour-long-delays, and various other issues.

I'm pretty impressed that there aren't more issues, particularly on the northside, considering here in Essex County we've already got around 18 inches of snow.

deathtopumpkins wrote:Providence looks to be a mess tonight. Mix of busing, hour-long-delays, and various other issues.

I'm pretty impressed that there aren't more issues, particularly on the northside, considering here in Essex County we've already got around 18 inches of snow.

Amtrak having serious switch failures/problems tonight. started around 5:55p 1/2. POST was named as a failure, and I'm going on a limb to name DAVISVILLE, seeing as this has been a trouble spot several times in the past

octr202 wrote:On a related note, did the MBTA & MBCR do away with the reduced "winter storm" schedules for Commuter Rail? I went to check them to see what trains I should avoid, but didn't find any reference to them on mbta.com or the MBCR website. Maybe since they never used them they decided to ditch them?

Does seem that way, also with the improved alerts it's a better setup to knock out a single train if needed. Personally, I would rather get a cancelled train and be told to take the next one vs the snow schedule where they hope they are on time and end up stacking at choke points when things slip.

Good morning - the blizzard continues. The first two trains out of Wickford, 800 and 802, are showing 20-25 minute delays due to signal problems. Given the closures today, I wonder if there are any passengers on these trains?

On the Worcester line, P501 and P504 have similar delay/issues.

Also, 156 out of Rockport showing 30-minute delay due to mechanical issues.

The Mansfield short-turn 841/842 is cancelled. As I recall, this is usually 800's equipment.

P508 is unofficially delayed 20 min by my watch, the dispatcher didn't let it out of the Yard until around 7:10. I'd imagine P512 is going to get hit by a residual delay as well.

Train 408 died between north Leominster and Shirley. 410 is tying on and pushing, whole set sill be on410's schedule plus at least 20 minutes. Not CR, but those poor souls on the 408 destined for porter are going to have a bad day since red redline has been resorted as severe -> minor -> moderate -> severe for line wide signal failure

Does this thread include winter-related subway delays?

Red Line's Braintree branch being bustituted due to severe winter weather-related delays.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014. 8:30-ish AM.

By 8:00 AM there are now numerous cancellations on the North side, not just short turns to Reading, Beverly and Anderson, but also 205/214 to/from Haverhill. There are some very large gaps opening up on the Western Route with some of these cancellations. Not a good day to be trying to go anywhere.

harshaw wrote:Yes, weather causes delays can be a real pain. However, more often than not we (on the worcester line) get delays simply because MBCR/MBTA can't round up enough conductors to open the doors. When you have a train packed to the gills and only two conductors it takes forever to offload people. I have heard from old-timers that you used to be able to open the doors yourself. Now, we have to wait for some-one to press a lever to open the door. frustrating...

Doors and traps are easy enough to open if you know how, but in our lawsuit culture I'd be amazed if they still let passengers open their own doors. Doors are heavy and the traps are sprung but you still have to lift it from a 45 degree angle to vertical. Then add in the sway of a moving train, any braking force, a wet vestibule floor, and it's far too easy for some idiot on a phone to fall out of a moving train.

Once upon a time, trains were allowed to operated with doors open. Now EVERY door is required to be closed or manned to move. So if passengers opens a door, the crews has to go and close that door before it departs(this slows everything down significantly). Plus the passenger can get hurt operating the doors and traps, not everything operates as intended... And if everything isn't secured right, a trap could fall on a following passenger trying to exit. The best thing you can do is submit a concern for your under staffed train(http://www.commuterrailcs.net/ics/suppo ... eptID=2200" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Believe it or not, this helps them know what trains they need to focus on working on increasing staffing levels. There are 20 new hire Conductors in training currently.

Based on the alerts, all the short turns (Woburn, Reading, Beverly) are cancelled tonight. Buses replacing the two inbound trips from Reading. Can't image there would be many riders for them if they ran.

Ironically they seem to be running the "reduced winter schedule" even though that's no longer advertised!