Podcast 16 - Former MassDOT Secretary James Aloisi on the state of transit in Boston

Former MassDOT Secretary James Aloisi joins us to share his thoughts on the MBTA fiscal and management control board - how focusing on the bottom line distracts from improving and expanding our transit network - and how we can achieve a robust, efficient and egalitarian transportation system in an era of public sector austerity.

What reform could the T make to improve service? What does revenue mean and how do we get there? What can cities do? Can the private sector or “innovation” help us use real-time data more effectively to create a better regional transportation network? We review lessons from past political struggles, including the “four constituencies” of any project and challenges of trying to do things differently within structures designed to preserve the status quo. 

James Aloisi remains a leading voice in local transportation politics. Follow him @JimAloisi and read his articles in CommonWealth Magazine to stay informed.

The Transit Matters Podcast is your source for transportation news, analysis, interviews with transit advocates and more. By offering new perspectives, uniting transit advocates and promoting a level of critical analysis normally absent from other media, we can achieve a useful and effective transportation network.

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Podcast 07b - Transit News

Part two of a marathon episode: featuring a roundup of the latest Boston transit news and analysis. There's no shortage of controversial happenings:

• Mattapan High Speed Line crash - operator failure to secure trolley; it rolled backwards (DotNews)
• Green Line D Branch flooded, portal closed during heavy rain (Boston Magazine)
• Will there be regular commuter rail service to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro? State buys freight rail lines that would make it possible. (BostInno)
• The fight for reliable Amtrak service: Amtrak being sued by big railroad companies over on-time metrics (EE News) (WaPo).
• Commuter rail operator Keolis hit with $804K penalties in second month as operator. (WBUR) Is this model working?
• Does the latest South Boston Waterfront Plan make progress in solving some of the area's transportation and land use challenges? Are the recommendations useful and realistic? Visit A Better City for the latest and follow this show for regular updates.
• Bridge closures: What function could a rebuilt Northern Ave Bridge serve? What is the future of services for at-risk adults following the sudden closure of the Long Island Bridge? (update)
• Former Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi offers three "visionary" proposals that may not really be all that visionary. But they're not new and we're not impressed. We think there are more useful, realistic and equitable transit investments we could be making.
• Paris prohibits "unnecessary traffic" from city center, with service vehicles and residents' cars excepted (Grist)

Did we miss something or get it wrong? Send us your questions, comments and ideas for topics or guests >> contact us.  Or share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Transit Matters Podcast is your source for transportation news, analysis, interviews and more. We focus on sustainable transportation planning, operations and policies in Boston and beyond. Transit Matters is a joint project of local transit enthusiasts Marc Ebuña, Jeremy Mendelson and Josh Fairchild.

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On the T with MBTA GM Rich Davey

I don't often travel on the T after 8 for various reasons, all unrelated to the number of notices I get via the T-Alerts emails about delays. Last Thursday evening it was an unavoidable affair, but it was certainly  fruitful. MBTA General Manager Rich Davey, another person, and I were all heading home after the joint MBTA-MassDOT Developers event, Where's The Bus? 2.0 and we got stuck on a southbound Red Line train at Charles-MGH due to a broken down train at Park Street. Our idle chatting turned into an impromptu interview with the new GM nearly 11 weeks into his appointment.

The Red Line

A spillover discussion with another person from the meeting about the audible noise of square wheels on our train as it pulled into the station led to the first topic of the night: the mid-life overhaul of the 30 to 40 year old cars currently operating on the Red Line. It wasn't clear if this was something he intends to do or if this was a cost-cutting measure in place of ordering new rollingstock for the Red and Orange Lines.

One of the bigger questions asked was whether there had been follow-up metrics gathering and action regarding the introduction nearly a year and a half ago of the seatless cars to the Red Line, dubbed Big Red. It turns out that not much has been done about them, beyond introduction to the system. I shared my observation of the cars being run too early to really be effective at adding capacity. GM Rich Davey will be looking into the subject and I look forward to mention of it sometime soon.

The Green Line

Recent tweets I've seen by passengers waiting for trains after Red Sox games prompted me to ask Mr. Davey about three car train operation on the Green Line. It turns out that when he was first appointed, he had inquired himself and was told the reason three car train operation wasn't possible was because the MBTA had made some sort of semi-permanent commitment to some entity to run two car trains. I have been unable to find such supporting evidence, but am willing to believe such a crazy policy exists. The GM expressed similar sentiments.

In light of this, he has put forth a commitment to increase throughput on the Green Line and push forward with three car train operation with the installation of a dedicated light rail line supervisor to the Green Line, removed from the burdens of dealing with the organization’s three heavy rail lines. Further, the MBTA has plans to implement positive train control (PTC) to add capacity while increasing safety. PTC would give operators at the MBTA operations centre and the drivers themselves with exact positions of each train on the line, which in turn would allow trains to run much closer to each other while maintaining a generous margin of safety with fail-safe computer systems that would halt a train if it were to come too close to another.

Mr. Davey then mused about the MBTA's options as far as traffic mitigation along the central corridor between Kenmore and Boylston, where the Green Line sees 4 lines consolidated to one inbound and one outbound track. He played with the idea of having a second level built under the main tracks to accommodate E trains, which split from the main line west of Copley, and eliminate the grade-level crossing west of Copley, the site of many derailments and a major choke point for the Green Line. Unfortunately, any lower level for the Green Line was destined for the Silver Line, which is now an underserved Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line, would not be able to coexist with the Green Line unless it were properly converted to light rail; something we both sighed at.

Signage

Toward the end of our conversation, I brought up how he had found out about the new signage I had put up in the system (Chris Dempsey, former member of the MassDOT Developers team, mentioned he had seen them himself on the subway). From that, he expressed intent to unify signage across the system and alluded to the meeting I will be having with another former member of the MassDOT Developers team, Josh Robin. This led me to further suggest unification of signage not just on platforms but also within the trains. We'll see where that goes.

MBCR

The last thing we discussed before our train finally pulled out of Charles/MGH was the recent acquisition of motive power for the commuter rail, possible electrification of the lines, and more immediately, the acquisition of Diesel Multiple Units for more frequent and reliable operation. Electrification is still a ways off and would cost billions to implement, but it would provide real change that would certainly trump investments in the massive Big Dig project. Also not clear on this, but DMUs may be being purchased for testing on the commuter rail.

Another thing Mr. Davey noted about DMUs was the additional motive power that would be added to the system if DMUs were acquired - this would increase the amount of heavy maintenance that would be needed to support such a fleet, in contrast to the few diesel engines that pull the fleet today. There are several benefits to running DMUs, but proliferation of DMUs is severely hampered in the US by the FRA's backwards and largely unnecessary regulations of rail stock. ('Mister Transportation Secretary LaHood, tear down these laws!')

More immediately, Mr. Davey revealed that the MBTA/MBCR was close to sealing a deal with CSX, the massive freight rail operator who owns much of the track in the US east of the Mississippi River and has repeatedly stood in the way of improved regional and commuter rail in the northeast. The deal is to hand over to the MBCR/Commonwealth certain stretches of track to improve operational flexibility and reliability.

We eventually pulled into Park Street and Mr. Davey alighted from the train. I would've certainly appreciated more time to talk railway operations, but from what time I had, I gleaned a good deal of information about the GM's projects and a real sense of commitment from Mr. Davey to improving the system. I look forward to seeing the same energy from him and his team a year out from his appointment.

General Manager Rich Davey is now on Twitter @MBTAGM and will be regularly tweeting behind-the-scenes info about the MBTA.