Watertown 73/71 route

Hello, Time to educate me. I know that the Watertown "trackless trolley" normally is replaced by buses on weekends and during this sad situation they appear to be on a weekend schedule all week which is understandable. My simple question is does running diesel buses save cost leaving the pollution aside? As I drive this route every couple of weeks I am always unhappy to not see the TT's. Please educate me as I'm old!

Well, by running bus service, a wire crew is not required.

By running diesels buses during light demand periods the T also saves money by not having to open the North Cambridge garage and layover yard where the tracklesses live.

Thanks Ed and Tom, Now I'm smarter, until I forget! Ron

Trackless trolleys are quieter, more energy-efficient, less polluting, and longer-lasting than The Vehicles That Shall Not Be Named (buses). MBTA should figure out a way to efficiently operate North Cambridge Yard, regardless of what day of the week it is. What sort of prep besides the ignition key is required to start a trackless trolley?

What ignition key? There is no ignition involved - it's electric!

Anyway, assigning weekend 71/73 work to Charlestown Garage (Somerville/Bennett district) means North Cambridge is a 5 day a week operation, not 7 - I suppose that equates to some acceptable amount of savings. Weekend service frequencies through the Harvard Tunnel are apparently not enough to cause concern over running those... other things... through the tunnel. It's not a new development either. Tracklesses have not run on weekends for very many years.

Taking the liberty to stretch this a bit (although this is RAILROAD.net, the mods of this forum have been understandably and thankfully tolerant of a small amount of ETB/Trackless Trolley discussion over the years), enjoy the North Cambridge operation under wire while you can. Battery technology is progressing to the point that while the history of the Harvard Tunnel is sure to include electric vehicles for a long time to come, the presence of dual wires is not a sure bet...

What is the minimum cost of operating a facility such as the North Cambridge Garage, plus the energy loss in the catenary (i.e. the idle current draw with all Trackless Trolleys turned off + one or more personnel at the terminal)? If they have been operating this way for years, someone must have crunched some numbers on the "fixed costs" . Same sort of analysis applies to any depot or station or mode.

Don't forget also that a diesel bus running the 71/73 can be used on any other bus route, while the ETBs can only be run on the 71/73. Bus drivers often do not drive the same route their entire shift and their schedule likely has them running multiple routes. The level of service on the weekend likely doesn't require the North Cambridge garage being open and they save money on manpower by having the Charlestown garage run the route and using the same equipment to run other routes as well.

71/73 have been running trackless on Saturdays for the last several years (pre-COVID), following the restoration of tracklesses on the 73 after the Trapelo/Belmont reconstruction. The main interruption has been due to other construction projects along the route which sometimes dieselize either midday or Saturday ops. But more often that not trackless did run on Saturday up until the reduction in services in March.

Right now, it doesn't make sense to have North Cambridge open for so few vehicles overall, but I believe the T may have also gotten then Harvard trackless and vehicle which shall not be mentioned tunnel rehab started early this spring (they weren't able to complete the lower level last year), and have just consolidated all routes onto the upper level (Sunday operating plan).

Longer term, the T has announced that they want to convert North Cambridge to a prototype battery bus garage. There is much irony that they're taking the only existing electric garage to do so. There's some considerable activity in the advocacy community to see this changed to ensure that the first battery buses replace diesels or CNG, not tracklesses.

What would make it so it was worth running North Cambridge seven days a week? Maybe buying extended-range charge-in-motion trackless trolleys (in use elsewhere in the world) which could allow some other Harvard routes to be converted without needing much or any additional overhead. The 74, 75, 77, 78, and 96 could potentially benefit from this.