Conductor 1719 was extremely rude to me this evening. I'd forgotten to switch to my October pass, and so she charged me for the trip, plus the onboard purchase penalty fee. I recognize that she was within her rights to do so, although she certainly knew that I was a regular T pass subscriber; I have been riding in her coaches since long before she began working on #715.It was the equivalent of a victory dance - just a nasty, sneering smirk. Apparently charging me $8.75 was the high point of her day.
What was NOT appropriate, however, was the delight which she displayed in charging me. She smirked and spoke in a very condescending manner. I don't know why she apparently felt that my forgetfulness was her personal victory; I haven't had any personal interaction with her before.
In any case, I found her conduct completely offensive and rude. That sort of arrogant and insulting behavior does nothing to enhance the reputation or image of the MBTA and MBCR.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Rude conductor
It's been a long time since I ran across a rude conductor; I guess I was due. Here's the complaint that I just filed with the MBCR:
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Crumbling stairs
Last December I wrote about the crumbling stairs to the commuter rail platform at Ruggles.
Here's what they look like today, Thursday July 30th. Click on the photos to enlarge them:
As you can see, the stairs are falling apart. And here's a view of the wall on the other side of the stairs; the damage isn't as obvious, but if you take a close look, I think you'll see signs that the wall is starting to bulge outwards...
That can't be good!
Here's what they look like today, Thursday July 30th. Click on the photos to enlarge them:
As you can see, the stairs are falling apart. And here's a view of the wall on the other side of the stairs; the damage isn't as obvious, but if you take a close look, I think you'll see signs that the wall is starting to bulge outwards...
That can't be good!
Overpowering Stench
Coach #709 on the 708 Franklin train this morning (departing Forge Park/495 at 7AM on 7/29/2009) was filled with what I can only describe as an overpowering odor of ripe sewage.
This isn't the first time I've run across this phenomenon. Coach 724 (or it may have been 742) earlier this week had the same smell. And it has happened at other times, too. I don't think they've usually been bathroom coaches, and it's definitely not a passenger having gas; the whole coach was filled with the smell, on both levels. The adjoining coaches were totally free of the smell.
Needless to say, #709 didn't have a lot of people in it. The adjoining coaches were much more crowded than usual!
Update: Coach #720 on the 708 Franklin train also had that incredible stench this morning, 7/31/2009. I checked, and it wasn't a bathroom coach. The smell was horrific. There weren't that many passengers in it, but I have to wonder about the few who were! Can't they smell?
This isn't the first time I've run across this phenomenon. Coach 724 (or it may have been 742) earlier this week had the same smell. And it has happened at other times, too. I don't think they've usually been bathroom coaches, and it's definitely not a passenger having gas; the whole coach was filled with the smell, on both levels. The adjoining coaches were totally free of the smell.
Needless to say, #709 didn't have a lot of people in it. The adjoining coaches were much more crowded than usual!
Update: Coach #720 on the 708 Franklin train also had that incredible stench this morning, 7/31/2009. I checked, and it wasn't a bathroom coach. The smell was horrific. There weren't that many passengers in it, but I have to wonder about the few who were! Can't they smell?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
New Survey
The MBTA has been handing out a survey on the commuter rail this week. You can fill it out online, if you feel like taking it. NOTE: You must have a unique survey number (printed on the upper right-hand corner of the first page) in order to submit the survey. So if you don't have a hard copy, I'm afraid you're out of luck.
Friday, February 20, 2009
A Late Morning
The Franklin line was particularly bad this morning; the #706 inbound train was cancelled, and the #708 train arrived at Ruggles at 8:52, over a full hour late. That's the third time so far this year that I've had the chance to file an On-Time Guarantee claim.
Every time it happens I find people on the train who didn't know about the guarantee, and didn't know that they could cash those tickets in. I should make up cards with instructions and pass them out whenever there's a 30+ minute delay.
Every time it happens I find people on the train who didn't know about the guarantee, and didn't know that they could cash those tickets in. I should make up cards with instructions and pass them out whenever there's a 30+ minute delay.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Trouble With A Capital T
Things haven't changed much on the Franklin commuter line.
There've been some late trains, and I've collected a few free tickets. The stairs at the Ruggles station are still crumbling. In the last couple of months there have been several times on the outbound #717 train (departing South Station at 4:20 PM) when no doors were opened on either side of two adjacent cars; twice I saw passengers who weren't able to get off the train at their stops, and ended up being carried along to the next station unwillingly. I tried to help one of them by opening the door and stairs myself, but by the time I'd noticed her plight and gotten the door open, the train was already in motion. There was, of course, no conductor around.
Today was pretty special, though. The morning #708 train was going very slowly. There were a couple of announcements; the #704 was disabled, and the #706 was joining up with it to push it out of the way. We were supposed to arrive at Ruggles at 7:50 AM, but we got there at 8:25 instead.
When we got there, people lined up to get out. But the lines didn't move in my coach. The doors were shut, and the passengers who were trying to open the doors...couldn't. They said they were stuck. I was far back in the line myself, or I would have given it a try. Needless to say, there was no conductor in sight.
We all turned around and started rushing down the coach to the next set of doors. But we hadn't reached them before we all realized that the train was moving, picking up speed. There was a univeral groan.
Fortunately someone reached a conductor, and the train finally stopped. We were well down the long Ruggles platform by then; all but two coaches were past the barrier that blocks off the crumbling, unused half of the platform (I'll get a photo of that soon, if I can - update: got it). We stepped out onto a continuous sheet of thick ice. Since it was an off-limits area, it had never been salted or sanded. We had to squeeze carefully around the wooden barrier, with no more than a few feet of clearance between the barrier and the train. It was a tight fit for some! And it may have been worse for the people on the other side, since if they slipped they wouldn't have the train as a backstop - they'd have ended up falling straight down onto the tracks. Luckily, no one slipped.
P.S. - I've been told a great story that I hope to be able to post soon. The T apparently mailed out some duplicate letters and tickets for their On-Time Guarantee, and they're handling the issue remarkably poorly - even for the T. One suggestion: check your O-TG letters for duplicate numbers. If you find some, don't try to cash in duplicates at the same time. More on this later, I hope!
There've been some late trains, and I've collected a few free tickets. The stairs at the Ruggles station are still crumbling. In the last couple of months there have been several times on the outbound #717 train (departing South Station at 4:20 PM) when no doors were opened on either side of two adjacent cars; twice I saw passengers who weren't able to get off the train at their stops, and ended up being carried along to the next station unwillingly. I tried to help one of them by opening the door and stairs myself, but by the time I'd noticed her plight and gotten the door open, the train was already in motion. There was, of course, no conductor around.
Today was pretty special, though. The morning #708 train was going very slowly. There were a couple of announcements; the #704 was disabled, and the #706 was joining up with it to push it out of the way. We were supposed to arrive at Ruggles at 7:50 AM, but we got there at 8:25 instead.
When we got there, people lined up to get out. But the lines didn't move in my coach. The doors were shut, and the passengers who were trying to open the doors...couldn't. They said they were stuck. I was far back in the line myself, or I would have given it a try. Needless to say, there was no conductor in sight.
We all turned around and started rushing down the coach to the next set of doors. But we hadn't reached them before we all realized that the train was moving, picking up speed. There was a univeral groan.
Fortunately someone reached a conductor, and the train finally stopped. We were well down the long Ruggles platform by then; all but two coaches were past the barrier that blocks off the crumbling, unused half of the platform (I'll get a photo of that soon, if I can - update: got it). We stepped out onto a continuous sheet of thick ice. Since it was an off-limits area, it had never been salted or sanded. We had to squeeze carefully around the wooden barrier, with no more than a few feet of clearance between the barrier and the train. It was a tight fit for some! And it may have been worse for the people on the other side, since if they slipped they wouldn't have the train as a backstop - they'd have ended up falling straight down onto the tracks. Luckily, no one slipped.
Here's a shot that I took of the closed platform that afternoon. It had been a relatively warm day, and the sun had melted some of the ice since that morning. But even so, there was a lot left! By the way, that half of the platform has been closed for as long as I can remember - years, at least. It's crumbling badly.It could have been worse, of course - we could have been forced to get off at Back Bay instead, and been even more late. As it was, I got into work 40 minutes late. I later heard that people on the #704 train had had a two-hour delay!
P.S. - I've been told a great story that I hope to be able to post soon. The T apparently mailed out some duplicate letters and tickets for their On-Time Guarantee, and they're handling the issue remarkably poorly - even for the T. One suggestion: check your O-TG letters for duplicate numbers. If you find some, don't try to cash in duplicates at the same time. More on this later, I hope!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The stairs, they are a-crumblin'
There have been the usual problems on the Franklin line in past months, including quite a few 30+ minute delays. These have become so routine that they're hardly worth an entry here.
But there's a much more interesting problem that has come to light at Ruggles recently.
The commuter rail station at Ruggles has two long stairways. One is entirely covered by the Ruggles roof, although water leaks copiously through that roof in many places and the stairs are often soaked on rainy days (even inside the main area of the station itself, it's often like a rain storm indoors on wet days).
The bottom of the other stairway extends out under the open sky. Here's a current photo from the top of the stairs:
That would be quite a fall, wouldn't it?
Now, that stairway was closed for two or three years straight because it was unsafe. Finally in August 2007 it was repaired and reopened. But in the sixteen or so months since it reopened, it has already decayed badly and it again seems very unsafe - an accident waiting to happen.
At least eight stairs are loose, partially detached from the underlying cement. Here's a video of one of them:
If you look closely, you'll see the surface of the stair pop upwards as it's stepped on by the passing commuter, and then fall back down again. You can hear it click as it moves.
It seems that T personnel may not have actually repaired the stairs; I may be wrong, but it looks as if instead they just covered them with new non-skid surfaces. That might be a perfectly adequate replacement (I don't know, I'm not a safety expert) except for one small problem: the nails (or possibly screws) that they used to attach those new surfaces to the underlying, possibly crumbling cement steps are melting. Whatever they're made of, they're fast rusting away to featureless spikes - some are completely gone. And many of the stairs are half-loose from the underlying surface as a result.
Perhaps that rusting process will suddenly stop. But I don't think so. You can't help but wonder about the competence of an organization that would use fasteners liable to rust on an outdoor repair job! Suddenly, the many problems of the Big Dig seem less surprising.
I suspect that the stairway is going to be closed again for repairs, soon. How many years might that process take this time? In 2005-2007, the economy was relatively healthy and the T's budget situation might not have been quite as bad as it is now. So how long will commuters at Ruggles have to put up with either dangerous stairs, or only a single usable stairway?
Apart from the loose stair surfaces, there are a number of steps that have a curious bounce to them when stepped on. It almost feels as if the rubbery surfaces are unsupported; as if the concrete which is supposed to underlie them simply isn't there. The mortar-like substance that was used on the sides of the steps has broken and crumbled away in many cases. But at the very bottom stair, the cement of the underlying step can be seen - and it's not a pretty picture.
Or video, in this case:
What the heck; here's a picture, too.
Notice the rust, and the badly decayed condition of the step. How do the other steps look, I wonder, under their non-skid covering?
And how much could the MBTA and the state be sued for, if (when?) one of those steps gives way, and one or more people are catapulted down that long flight of stairs? How much of the upcoming rate increase would a multi-million dollar settlement eat up?
Lastly, what would it take to get a professional repair job done? I can't imagine it would be more expensive than the liability that the T seems to be courting with their incredibly poorly-maintained facility at Ruggles.
But there's a much more interesting problem that has come to light at Ruggles recently.
The commuter rail station at Ruggles has two long stairways. One is entirely covered by the Ruggles roof, although water leaks copiously through that roof in many places and the stairs are often soaked on rainy days (even inside the main area of the station itself, it's often like a rain storm indoors on wet days).
The bottom of the other stairway extends out under the open sky. Here's a current photo from the top of the stairs:
That would be quite a fall, wouldn't it?
Now, that stairway was closed for two or three years straight because it was unsafe. Finally in August 2007 it was repaired and reopened. But in the sixteen or so months since it reopened, it has already decayed badly and it again seems very unsafe - an accident waiting to happen.
At least eight stairs are loose, partially detached from the underlying cement. Here's a video of one of them:
If you look closely, you'll see the surface of the stair pop upwards as it's stepped on by the passing commuter, and then fall back down again. You can hear it click as it moves.
It seems that T personnel may not have actually repaired the stairs; I may be wrong, but it looks as if instead they just covered them with new non-skid surfaces. That might be a perfectly adequate replacement (I don't know, I'm not a safety expert) except for one small problem: the nails (or possibly screws) that they used to attach those new surfaces to the underlying, possibly crumbling cement steps are melting. Whatever they're made of, they're fast rusting away to featureless spikes - some are completely gone. And many of the stairs are half-loose from the underlying surface as a result.
Perhaps that rusting process will suddenly stop. But I don't think so. You can't help but wonder about the competence of an organization that would use fasteners liable to rust on an outdoor repair job! Suddenly, the many problems of the Big Dig seem less surprising.
I suspect that the stairway is going to be closed again for repairs, soon. How many years might that process take this time? In 2005-2007, the economy was relatively healthy and the T's budget situation might not have been quite as bad as it is now. So how long will commuters at Ruggles have to put up with either dangerous stairs, or only a single usable stairway?
Apart from the loose stair surfaces, there are a number of steps that have a curious bounce to them when stepped on. It almost feels as if the rubbery surfaces are unsupported; as if the concrete which is supposed to underlie them simply isn't there. The mortar-like substance that was used on the sides of the steps has broken and crumbled away in many cases. But at the very bottom stair, the cement of the underlying step can be seen - and it's not a pretty picture.
Or video, in this case:
What the heck; here's a picture, too.
Notice the rust, and the badly decayed condition of the step. How do the other steps look, I wonder, under their non-skid covering?
And how much could the MBTA and the state be sued for, if (when?) one of those steps gives way, and one or more people are catapulted down that long flight of stairs? How much of the upcoming rate increase would a multi-million dollar settlement eat up?
Lastly, what would it take to get a professional repair job done? I can't imagine it would be more expensive than the liability that the T seems to be courting with their incredibly poorly-maintained facility at Ruggles.
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