@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

wollman

@wollman@mastodon.social

I fix networks and other stuff with computers inside for MIT CSAIL. Bi cyclist, cis male. More frequency = better mobility. Also @garrett_wollman on Twitter, trying to cut back.

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wollman, to random
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Finally bought my airfare for . It was a big chunk of money, but thankfully I don't actually have to pay until July. Of course I did have to spend half an hour listing to BofA's insipid hold music to talk to someone to manually authorize the transaction because Visa sucks.

wollman, to random
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At 42 degrees north, not expecting to see anything interesting in the sky even if the light pollution miraculously cut out for a while.

wollman, to random
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OK, who is the Eurovision co-host with the pronounced American accent?

wollman,
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Finally got around to looking her up (thankfully that's the sort of thing one can reasonably depend on Wikipedia for, unlike with athletes).

capntransit, to random
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"the Hamptons Streamliner, starting at $195, will take passengers to eastern Long Island aboard … a bus.

"Like Blade’s helicopters, its buses are marketed as a luxurious option for Hamptons-goers. Seats can recline up to 45 degrees and passengers will be offered free refreshments like espresso martinis, PopUp Bagels and Sweetgreen salads as they make their way from Manhattan to stops in Southampton, Bridgehampton and East Hampton via the Long Island Expressway."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/28/style/blade-hamptons-bus.html

wollman,
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@Ofsevit @capntransit But then you'd have to rub shoulders with people who can't afford a $200 bus ride.

wollman, to random
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On Thursday, the released for public comment their SFY25-29 Capital Investment Plan, or CIP. (It's important to specify state fiscal years, because the Boston Region MPO, which is responsible for allocating federal transportation funds, uses the federal fiscal year, and the last three months of FFY24 are in SFY25 just to confuse everyone who's trying to cross-index programs and budgets.) The full plan is here: https://www.mbta.com/financials/the-proposed-capital-investment-plan-cip

wollman,
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There are two public meetings coming up in the next two weeks, and they're really crashing the schedule because this all has to be approved by the board and then integrated into the MassDOT CIP, and the federal dollars have to be approved by the MPO board in the next TIP (which is also open for comment now). I'm going to thread below a list of projects which I think are worth some comment, and perhaps if you don't work for the T you could comment on them too.

wollman,
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The actual CIP project list document is grouped by a two-dimensional program type rather than ordered by project number, which I think is helpful for browsing the list but it isn't always clear how projects relate to one another. An improvement in recent years is that the project clearly shows what phase a given project is in, so at least it's clearer when projects are listed that you thought were complete already. OK, my call-outs follow.

wollman,
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Some general comments about the whole process:

  • Since Angel Pena left, all regular public status reports about capital projects ceased, except for South Coast Rail which is being run through MassDOT's public information system. We cannot tell whether projects are making adequate progress unless the actually tells us. This is particularly important for the very expensive AFC2.0 and Green Line Train Protection System projects, which have both been subject to numerous and costly delays.
wollman,
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  • In various places, they use the word "decarbonized" as a weasel word to avoid committing to the only proven technology for powering passenger vehicles without using fossil fuels, which is overhead electrification. They need to be pushed much harder to say whether they actually mean electrification or some snake oil like inefficient hydrogen fuel cells that they could implement without reforming their Old Tyme Railroad practices.

Now on to the individual projects...

wollman,
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P1310 Red Line Hi-Rail Access Tunnel is a new project this year and a valuable one; as we've seen through this year's track work on the Red Line, the extant provisions for work truck access to the Red Line tunnel in Cambridge are inadequate, requiring much longer shutdowns than would be required if trucks could enter the tunnel from the Alewife end. Support this project.

wollman,
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P0018 North Station Draw 1 Bridge Replacement: A worthwhile project considering that MassDOT sandbagged North-South Rail Link several years ago. If the had instead committed to NSRL (which of course would also mean electrification) then this $1.2bn project could be significantly downsized -- NSRL would have been completed for only 10x the cost and would be coming on line at approximately the same time.

wollman,
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P1005a Columbus Ave. bus lane phase 2 & P1005b Blue Hill Ave bus lane: Strong support for both of these. It's a bit unfortunate that for Blue Hill Ave., a high-transit-density corridor through an EJ community, the best fixed infrastructure the can manage is bus lanes, when it had a streetcar and then trolleybuses previously. As I recall, BHA redesign has already received a discretionary grant from USDOT.

wollman,
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P1113 Bus Priority Project Construction: this seems to just be a placeholder; I assume the has a list but want to see munis come to the table before committing to any one specific location.

P0261 Worcester Line Triple Track: this is a big and important project (which probably won't even start construction until SFY30, this is just design funding) but why are they pushing ahead with this when the second busiest station on the line, Back Bay, still doesn't have proper high-level platforms?

wollman,
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P0214 Franklin Double Track and Signal: This has allegedly been under construction for several years but there hasn't been a public status report on it since, ummm, 2021 I think? An example of comms failure. They should be explicitly budgeting for at least monthly status reports on mbta.com/projects for every project big enough to require board approval.

wollman,
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P1257 Commuter Rail Infrastructure Improvements: Another project that is allegedly under construction but has never, ever, had any sort of public information posted, nor has it ever been discussed in an open board or committee meeting. It sounds like a worthwhile project! But all we have to go on is literally the two sentences of "project description" in the CIP book.

wollman,
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P0752 Blandin Ave Grade Crossing: the description has been wrong in the CIP for years and I've complained about it before. The Framingham/Worcester Line does not cross Blandin Ave. What crosses Blandin Ave. is the Framingham Secondary, a state-owned freight line to Mansfield that sees a couple trains a day. Why is it even in the capital budget and not MassDOT Rail & Transit?

wollman,
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P1104 Traction Power Substation Replacement: OK, this is listed as "Planning", so we know it isn't the Orange Line Haymarket-North substations, which are already being replaced to increase capacity (although we don't know where that project is at because the updates stopped a month after Angel Pena left the ). But which substations are being referred to here? Is it just completely unknown?

wollman,
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P0143 Traction Power Substation Phase 3 & 4: even more unspecified substations, and even though it's just in "Planning", it's clearly a much older project because 143 is much less than 1104 and AFAIK the assigns these project numbers sequentially.

P0609 Billerica MOW Repair Facility: this makes sense iff they're planning on selling the land where BET sits (or maybe don't even own it) but what's the connection to GLX?

wollman,
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P0605a Alewife Site and Garage Deconstruction Planning: yes please! Tear down that monstrosity and build an apartment tower with an equal number of units in its place.

P0129: Newton Highlands Accessibility: this is mind-bogglingly expensive and should be sent back for value engineering because there's no way constructing three covered ramps on the surface costs 2/3 as much as four elevators at a subway station.

wollman,
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P1245 North Wilmington Station Platform Safety Improvements: Just close it and permanently reroute the tail of the Haverhill Line over the Wildcat, doubling service frequency on the inner Lowell Line.

P1176 South Salem Station Study: Build this, it's in the right place for a station considering that the single-track bottleneck through the Salem tunnel isn't going to be fixed any time soon. There seems to be substantial local support for it.

wollman,
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P1252 Rapid Transit and Commuter Rail Station Accessibility Improvements: Back Bay tracks 5 & 7, pretty please?

P0175 Ruggles Station Upgrade: How many years ago did this open? What construction is still ongoing? Why isn't this in close-out?

P0673c Orange Line Rail Vehicle Component Upgrades: this could only possibly apply to the old cars, which have been scrapped. Why is it listed as "construction"? Why is there still $2.3m programmed?

wollman,
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P1152 Procurement of Hyundai Rotem Bi-Level Coaches & P0652 Procurement of 100 Bi-Level Commuter Rail Coaches: Olde Tyme Railroaders still want to double down on this obsolete equipment to the tune of $200m.

P0918 Future Rolling Stock: There's that weasel word "decarbonized" again. $50m just for planning! It shouldn't cost that much to just go ask Stadler, Siemens, Alstom, and CAF to propose something modern like they sell in every other country (and even to other operators here).

wollman,
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-30-

wollman,
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Don't know if you have any comments you haven't already made before, @Alon.

wollman,
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@Alon Well, it's probably more than just writing the RFP, there might also be money for designing a bespoke maintenance facility.

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