Mobility Hubs: Freedom Through Convenience & Choice

Mobility Hubs: Freedom Through Convenience & Choice

#MobilityHubs are essential to transit. They give people freedom through convenience and choice and make transit more accessible. 

Now, what is a mobility hub exactly? Mobility Hubs are places where different modes of transportation (bike, train, bus, etc) come together, extending the reach of the transportation network and allowing for access to and transfers between different modes. Importantly, mobility hubs have legible wayfinding, informational, and accessibility features that allow for anyone and everyone to use the space to figure out where they are and how to get to where they’re going.

Additionally, we’ve seen Covid-19 expose and amplify existing inequities in our transit systems, and mobility hubs can help offset those inequities and provide more comfort and safety to travelers during the pandemic. Mobility hubs can increase modal choice, which allows for people to personalize the transit they take based on their risk profile. With mobility hubs, If the bus is too crowded, you know that you can walk or use bikeshare safely, or know how long the wait is until the next bus and where it goes. The pandemic also forced bureaucratic institutions to take quick, tactical actions to address these inequities. Mobility hubs are well-suited to quick implementation.

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Part of the project included designing and building a tactical parklet at Glendale Square. Glendale has a lot of road space, but narrow sidewalks and no public space. Just narrowing a super-wide travel lane created more room for public space. The park will become permanent when the intersection is reconstructed. In the future, permanent public space can hold seating, a map, bike racks, and a bike repair station.

One great example of mobility hubs bettering the transit experience can be seen in the Reimagine Broadway initiative headed by ITDP Boston, the City of Everett, the Barr Foundation, and the MBTA. Started in July 2020 and launched in October of the same year, this project sought to help people get to and from the Broadway corridor, aka the transit “spine” of Everett, from other destinations. It challenged us to develop mobility hubs in 3-4 months. Mobility hubs were just one part of a larger project, but still vital. We looked at how we could leverage expanded bus lanes and neighborways and how we could serve the needs of our project partners, including La Comunidad, Everett Haitian Community Center, and Everett Community Growers. We settled on adding bike racks all along the corridor, building a parklet to create public space at Glendale Square, and planning, designing, and installing a system of wayfinding signage all along the corridor.

Thank you to our Mobility Hubs team, led by Alex Yamron, Matthew Petersen, and Kirstie Hostetter for the information included.

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Designed and procured signs (left) and a wayfinding map (right) The map serves as central wayfinding point - other signs either face away from the main square and point you to it, or face toward the square and are located at decision points as you walk away.

Media Statement: MassDOT Leadership Transition

BOSTON, January 21, 2021— 

We wish Stephanie Pollack well as she joins the Biden Administration as Deputy FHWA Administrator. As the new Administration puts together its transportation team, we are hopeful that a new federal focus on and commitment to sustainable mobility, multi-modalism, access and equity will guide our path forward, as we seek to build back better.  

As MassDOT transitions to new leadership, the Commonwealth finds itself making almost no progress toward meeting its climate goals or fulfilling the recommendations of the Future of Transportation Commission. Instead, the Administration has doubled down on auto-centric policies including reliance on EVs as proposed in the “2050 Decarbonization Roadmap” and Interim Clean Energy Climate Plan for 2030 reports. The outgoing Transportation Secretary has presided over avoidable cuts to the MBTA and unproductive machinations to shape the Allston I-90 Multimodal project into a highway-first project. Numerous priorities such as the Rail Transformation Process and low-income fares also saw little progress since they were adopted by the FMCB. We hope that we may now enter a new period of collaboration that will support a strong, equitable and sustainable post-COVID economy. 

We welcome Jamey Tesler to the role of Secretary of Transportation. Jamey is a solid, smart and talented public servant who has a strong record of leadership in several leading state transportation sector roles. We hope he will provide the thoughtful leadership that is vital at this crucial time, a time when Massachusetts needs to restore and modernize its public transportation system to support a strong post-COVID economy equitably. This is also an opportunity to repair relationships between the agencies and advocates. We look forward to working with Jamey and his team in an environment of mutual support and respect. 

For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org. 

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TransitMatters Response to MBTA EMU Procurement

TransitMatters Response to MBTA EMU Procurement

Ethan Finlan, Matt Robare, Alon Levy, Jay Flynn, Ted Pyne, & Peter Brassard
August 20, 2020

Note: An abridged version of this analysis appeared in Commonwealth Magazine on 8/20/20.

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority took an important step towards implementing a modern Regional Rail system: it wisely put out a request for information asking the major rolling stock manufacturers for the purpose of procuring electric multiple units, the most advanced trains in operation. EMUs are distinguished by being powered by electricity and by individual cars, rather than by locomotives. EMUs are the standard for subways, high-speed trains, and high-frequency Regional Rail service, because of their reliability, ease of maintenance, and superior acceleration.

In 2018, federal regulations were changed to permit European trains to run on American mainline rail tracks with few modifications. The MBTA looks to be the first American commuter rail operator to buy trains under the new rules.[1] TransitMatters applauds this step towards international best practice which guarantees a faster, more frequent, more reliable, economical, and environmentally friendly rail system.

TransitMatters believes that this initiative is critically important to achieving Regional Rail, and we write this in order to help inform all stakeholders on a matter we believe is of utmost importance as Massachusetts advances the transition toward a modern, more reliable and responsive intercity rail service model.

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Background on the European Rolling Stock Market

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Alstom EMUs as displayed in the MBTA’s RFI presentation
Image Credit: Alstom

A large majority of trains on European regional rail systems are EMUs with a top speed of about 100 miles per hour. Diesel multiple units also exist, but are less common, and are used less and less often in Europe: the highest-traffic lines are gradually electrified, and low-traffic lines often experiment with less polluting but more expensive alternatives such as battery-hybrids and hydrogen-hybrids.

European EMU motors descend from electric locomotive technology. They differ in a key way from American EMU motors such as those on the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North: there are fewer of them, but they are larger. LIRR and Metro-North EMUs motorize every single axle at 200 kW, whereas a European EMU would have one motor in the 1-2 MW range controlling multiple axles on a single car. Because European train technology has bigger motors, not every car is motorized, to save weight - only every second or third car is motorized, and the trailers often carry supplemental traction equipment such as transformers to be used by adjacent motors. This is the context for the proposals of Bombardier and Alstom for a mixture of powered and unpowered cars: the unpowered cars are nothing like unpowered coaches on locomotive-hauled trainsets.

The more a train’s weight is supported on powered axles, the higher the acceleration rate is; if half the cars are motorized, then around 60% of the train’s weight is on powered axles, and this is enough for an initial acceleration rate of about 1.2 m/s^2. Higher initial acceleration rates are physically possible if all axles are powered, but are not comfortable for standing passengers. There are sometimes other reasons to motorize every axle, as is done on the Shinkansen in Japan, but the European way of building EMUs is good and these trainsets are the best technology when the required speed is 80-125 miles per hour.

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Single- and Double-Deck Trains

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Mockup of a Stadler bilevel EMU.
Image Credit: Stadler

Trains can be single- or double-deck (or “bilevel”). Different modern railroad cultures have different preferences - Switzerland and France prefer double-deckers, Germany and Japan prefer single-deckers. Single-deckers are better-suited for urban lines with many busy stops, because they minimize passenger boarding and alighting time; they also work better than double-deckers if there are high platforms, which is the case in the US and Japan but not in Continental Europe. In our Proof of Concept report, released last year, we stated that an all single-level procurement for the MBTA would be ideal. We acknowledge, however, that there are some circumstances on the T’s network where bilevel EMUs may be desirable.

The reasons for our preference for single-level EMUs are speed and operational flexibility and simplicity. Bilevels require traversing stairs to board, which means boarding takes longer. In particular, lines with high ridership, high frequency, and a close distance between station stops are poor uses of bilevel trains, whether locomotive hauled or as EMUs. This is the case with most lines in the MBTA system already, and with Regional Rail frequencies and faster EMU speeds, there are many situations where additional stops can be justified. This includes the Fairmount Line and inner Newburyport/Rockport Line to Beverly, two out of the three lines to be electrified in phase 1. Even when there are so many riders as to take up all seats, the trip time to Boston is short enough and capacity is high enough that standing is not unreasonable. For this reason, single-level EMUs are essential on these and most other lines. This informs our other argument for single-level EMUs: purchasing bilevels as well as single-levels increase fleet complexity and constrain flexibility somewhat.        

Nonetheless, there are advantages to using bilevel  EMUs on a few of the MBTA’s lines, specifically the Providence/Stoughton, Framingham/Worcester, and Lowell lines. These lines also have high ridership. The difference is that the distances between stops on the Providence/Stoughton and Lowell lines is wide; Worcester express trains have relatively close stop spacing between Worcester and Framingham, but of course skip most stops between there and Boston. Moreover, peak loads on these lines begin far from Boston, making standing uncomfortable. In these cases, the added dwell time of bi-levels is less of a problem, and more seats are available to these high peak ridership lines. For narrow circumstances such as these, it may be worthwhile to purchase double-deck EMUs in a Phase 1 order for the Providence/Stoughton Line, and in future orders once the Worcester and Lowell lines are electrified. With an all single-level fleet, the answer would be to simply run longer trains on these lines, but this may require extending platforms and would necessitate buying more total vehicles, or compromise availability on other lines.

While the T can order both single- and double-deck trains, we insist that under no circumstances should a single train be a mix of single- and double-deck cars. Some of the vendors proposed this as an option for the MBTA in their response to the T’s EMU RFI, possibly at the T’s request. This would be a bad outcome, because a mixed train has the worst of both worlds: it has single-level cars so the seated capacity is less than that of a pure bilevel, but it has bilevel cars so peak dwell times are much longer than those of a pure single-level train. Choices must be made and appropriate choices can be made to improve capacity and dwell time. Mixing single and bilevel trains is never a good choice.

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Electric over Bimode or Hydrogen

Hydrogen or dual-mode trainsets do not fulfill the T’s needs and should not be pursued further. It was reasonable to ask about them for the sake of due diligence, but the answer is decisive: the T must get regular EMUs. The T has no sections of lines that cannot be electrified, and following last year’s FMCB directive, will roll out Regional Rail in locations where electrification is installed, starting with the Providence Line and then electrifying the Fairmount Line.

Dual-mode multiple units may be useful for the Newburyport/Rockport Line, if there is only capital budget for electrification to Beverly, but they are expensive: they cost around $5 million per US-length car, twice as much as EMUs, since they are essentially EMUs with a diesel generating module tacked on, duplicating the propulsion equipment. Electrifying both branches of the Newburyport/Rockport Line would cost an additional $200 million (but with good project management, possibly as low as $75-150 million) based on recent examples. Funding decisions will need to take into account the cost of dual-mode vehicles relative to that of full electrification. In the final analysis, it may make sense to invest in full electrification here in the short term, in order to achieve a more optimal, cost-effective solution over time.

As for hydrogen-powered trains, while the technology has made some progress, they are not a viable option at the current time. European railroads are experimenting with hydrogen multiple units, but the technology is not yet mature, and initial orders cost twice as much as conventional EMUs, just like bimodes. Thus far, multiple unit trains running on alternate power sources have been limited to short, moderate-ridership lines; they’re designed around the performance of a DMU and not that of an EMU. Electrification, by contrast, is a proven technology, capable of high performance. It is crucial to remain focused on acquiring EMUs, which are an investment in a frequent, clean, and reliable rail system, and not delay for the sake of speculative technology.

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The Next Step

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A Bombardier Aventra EMU.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

After the RFI, the next step is to begin the process of ordering the trains, starting with the request for proposals - the RFP. Here, it’s important that the T reduce red tape and avoid overspecifying the design. A recent SEPTA order for Philadelphia Regional Rail trains had an RFP running up to 745 pages,[2] defining what a train is and what its exact performance must be; in Spain, a recent order for additional regional trainsets was 7 pages long[3], saying how much equipment is needed and what the technical scoring criteria for bids are.

The reason short, streamlined RFPs work best is that EMUs are a highly standardized product. The major vendors have experience in selling in a large number of countries, mostly but not just in Europe, and have learned to adapt to national differences in clearances, track gauge, electrification system, and platform height. Under the new FRA regulations adopted in 2018, the American standards are within the normal range of variation for Europe. This deserves repeating: Under the new FRA regulations adopted in 2018, the American standards are within the normal range of variation for Europe. Thus, a lengthy and overly specified RFP will be counterproductive, causing unnecessary delay and increased costs.

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Conclusion

The bottom line: standardized vehicles used for regional rail abroad will work here as well. These include trainsets like Bombardier’s Aventra and Talent 3, Alstom’s Coradia platform, Siemens’ Mireo, Hitachi’s A-Train, and Stadler’s FLIRT and KISS. The T should make sure to have a small number of in-house engineers on staff to monitor the bids and score them on technical merit, just as it has a design review team for such capital construction projects as high platforms. But we cannot repeat often enough: it should not overspecify the bid.

With limited resources and personnel, the MBTA cannot afford to be profligate. These personnel and funding resources must be employed in a way that produces the best result; this is no time to experiment with huge leaps in the dark on unproven technology, or timid half-steps with intermediate technology. Electrification works. Boston has known that since the Tremont Street Subway opened in 1897. Now, more than ever, we need to cut harmful emissions and build a transportation system that doesn’t leave our neighbors breathing toxic fumes or our commuters frustrated by a service delivery model that fails to provide them the access they need. It is time for electrified, frequent, and reliable regional rail.

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Endnotes

[1] Caltrain ordered bilevel EMUs in the mid 2010s that are compliant with the new regulations under a waiver, but the MBTA will be the first agency to buy these newly compliant vehicles without an exception.

[2] The SEPTA RFP can be found at the following link: https://septa.org/business/bid/100k/detail/Multi%20Level%20Cab%20and%20Coach%20Rail%20Cars%20-%20RFP%20No%2015-00063%20-%20AJAC%20-%20Initial%20Release%20-%20File%203%20of%203%20-Technical%20Specifications.pdf

[3] This link contains the Spanish RFP: https://contrataciondelestado.es/wps/wcm/connect/fb52796a-8738-40ec-9521-ebf1982f16b2/DOC20190430134318Documento+complementario+al+anuncio+2019-00364+20190430.pdf?MOD=AJPERES - this is a shorter RFP, called licitación; longer versions with more detail exist, but run up to 50 pages, not 700.