Red Line Trouble \ Construction?

And it's not like the T is crowded with ads. They have the space for these announcements (what are those huge white pannels doing?).

Those white panels with perforations in them are meant to be sound absorbers, so no ads can go over them.

I ride the Red Line from Davis to Kendall and back every day, and never saw a single sign, nor any other information about it.

Me neither, that was until I saw a poster thrown and crumpled on the floor of a Red Line car, and I uncrumpled it and saw that the red Line was gonna close down for Memorial Day weekend.

I posted some views of the steel now erected at the site of the new station:

Clicky

The inbound platform got a nice new set of windows this week. A nice improvement from the boarded-up windows that were there before. Although it's a little odd that they installed them now so early in the rebuild project. The window frames are still rotting away as before.

savebowdoin wrote:Dusting off this old thread for an update:

"Charles Street Diversion
Friday, June 9 at 9:00PM until Sunday, June 11, 2006

Train service will run between Alewife and Kendall, and between Ashmont/Braintree and Park Street. Shuttle bus service will run between Kendall and Park Street.

We apologize for the inconvenience."

Anyone know what work at Charles/MGH is requiring this diversion? Possibly resurfacing the platforms? It's a busy weekend in town for them to be doing such a major diversion.

Mike

Note to self: Do not take the Red Line from Friday, June 9 at 9:00PM until Sunday, June 11, 2006. Its always a nightmare.

savebowdoin wrote:Dusting off this old thread for an update:

"Charles Street Diversion
Friday, June 9 at 9:00PM until Sunday, June 11, 2006

Train service will run between Alewife and Kendall, and between Ashmont/Braintree and Park Street. Shuttle bus service will run between Kendall and Park Street.

We apologize for the inconvenience."

Anyone know what work at Charles/MGH is requiring this diversion? Possibly resurfacing the platforms? It's a busy weekend in town for them to be doing such a major diversion.

Mike

They are doing some heavy construction on the charles station. The contractor building the new station needs access for I would guess steel work.

JS

Harvard Commencement is Thursday, June 8. MIT Commencement is Friday, June 9. A lot of folks will remain in Boston and Cambridge for the weekend, so I don't think the T picked the best time to close this part of the Red Line.

In addition, Saturday, June 10 is the annual Gay Pride Parade and Festival on Boston Common -- a huge public event.

Ron Newman wrote:Harvard Commencement is Thursday, June 8. MIT Commencement is Friday, June 9. A lot of folks will remain in Boston and Cambridge for the weekend, so I don't think the T picked the best time to close this part of the Red Line.

In addition, Saturday, June 10 is the annual Gay Pride Parade and Fesitval on Boston Common -- a huge public event.

Construction projects don't usually stop just for an event that's going on. It's already a multi year project that doesn't need any more delays.

That being said, since this is a scheduled and fairly simple diversion hopefully things will go smoothly.

JS

sabourinj wrote:

Ron Newman wrote:Harvard Commencement is Thursday, June 8. MIT Commencement is Friday, June 9. A lot of folks will remain in Boston and Cambridge for the weekend, so I don't think the T picked the best time to close this part of the Red Line.

In addition, Saturday, June 10 is the annual Gay Pride Parade and Fesitval on Boston Common -- a huge public event.

Construction projects don't usually stop just for an event that's going on. It's already a multi year project that doesn't need any more delays.

That being said, since this is a scheduled and fairly simple diversion hopefully things will go smoothly.

JS

Well thats not entirely true. Think about the Orange Line north diversions. If there is an event at the FleetCenter they hold off on shutting the line down until afterwards. This is just incredibly poor planning on the T's part. Never mind the delays, the confusion and bad will this will bring against the T is incredible.

And as for it running smooth, it hasn't in the past, not a bit. When taking the buses from Park to Kendall its always and incredible disaster. The routing is as follows. From Park St Station down Tremont, right on Boylston, then right on (whatever the street is between the Commons and the Garden), then over Beacon Hill to Charles/MGH. It can easily take 25 minutes just to go from Park to Charles, never mind getting to Kendall.

Can anyone please explain to me why they don't just have the buses take a right up Park St. (the actual street)?!?! Is it too narrow? They run regular local buses down that street, why not run the shuttles up it?

They should temporarily reverse the direction of Charles Street north of Beacon (or make it two-way) on the days the diversion is happening. Then the buses could just go Tremont -> Boylston -> Charles -> Longfellow Bridge.

This requires nothing more than a few temporary signs and orange cones.

I don't see how the Gay Pride Parade (from Copley to Boston Common!) and the bus diversion can possibly co-exist....

Ron Newman wrote:They should temporarily reverse the direction of Charles Street north of Beacon (or make it two-way) on the days the diversion is happening. Then the buses could just go Tremont -> Boylston -> Charles -> Longfellow Bridge.

That's a great idea. Sadly, I don't see the T ever pushing for something like this, and even if they did, I'm sure the City would take an "over our dead bodies" attitude towards closing off streets for transit use.

I'm personally still shocked that the leading proposal for the Longfellow reconstruction diversion is to build temporary Red Line tracks on some of the lanes on the bridge. Not often transit users get to trump drivers, even in this town.

No, not closing off any streets, just changing their direction for a day or two.

As of today, the T has cancelled this closure, due to the traffic expected for the Pride Parade. A friend of mine is an organizer for one of the groups marching in the parade, and following is an email he received from the Red Line operations chief after he and a lot of other people brought this issue to their attention:

Dear ----,

Thank you for your email regarding the proposed weekend diversion on
the Red Line.

Regular Red Line service will operate this weekend.
When the final request had been sent up to put the diversion in place,
it was reviewed and overruled given the expected high volumes of riders
this weekend.
Operations will work in conjunction with our Construction Department to
schedule the diversion for another weekend.

Seat drops were done over the last weekend and we are now in the
process of removing signage that was placed in stations. Our website
will also be updated.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding Red Line service,
please contact me at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Maureen Shirkus
Chief, Red Line Operations