Quietly announced this week, after the $100M “accelerated” track replacement work that lasted over two years, it’s time for, you guessed it, more shutdowns and more track work on the D line. The entire branch.
Green Line D Branch: Shuttle buses replace service between Riverside and Kenmore from Sat, Sep 24, through Sun, Oct 2, for track and infrastructure upgrades. Additional work is scheduled for Oct 8 – 16 and Oct 22 – 30. https://t.co/CejsVnf9mB pic.twitter.com/LMI7C4TpHV
— MBTA (@MBTA) September 12, 2022
It was announced a few months ago. But yeah, it’s annoying.
As someone who takes the D line regularly, let me say the system is an embarrassment. Trains are continually being delayed. During rush hour, you’ll have long stretches without trains, and then 2-3 show up back to back. Poor or non existent communication. Etc. Etc.
I wish our state politicians would spend more time on these issues instead of the many other random topics that take up most of their newsletters that I receive. Then again, most of these folks don’t face credible political challengers, so where’s the incentive to be responsive to constituent needs?
This year, taking the T has required a ladder, flashlight, a mining helmet, scuba diving equipment, and an oxygen tank in addition to our Covid masks. To say nothing of the usual delays and still occurring derailments signal failures. The D branch is always slow, but I don’t anything like this has happened in Newton.
While in a way I’m glad this is happening, one wonders how things would have gone had there not been an intervention from the federal government.
Imagine if “Transit Oriented Development” took hold 10 years ago, and there was no Covid? How much more of a cluster would this be? Hopefully this fix puts the horse before the cart and THEN we can realistically look at TOD.
I take the D Line to and from Fenway 4-5 days per week. It works fine 80% of the time. 19.5% of the time, a delay costs me 5-15 extra minutes per trip. A few times each year, my 35-minute door-to-door commute turns into an hour-plus nightmare.
As frustrating as it can be, I still prefer the T to driving. My rules for sanity:
1. Use a GPS app to track the trains and try to take a train that follows on the heels of another. I use Proximi-T. This turns the problem of clustered trains into something of an advantage.
2. Invest in earbuds and find some podcasts that you like.
3. Don’t cut it too close. I allow 50 minutes door-to-door, which is plenty of time in over 99% of trips. The others I consider acts of God. The same would be true (on different days) if I drove.
4. Take a Lyft or Uber when the system fails and they resort to shuttles. For me, that costs $100-200 each year.
5. Enjoy the advantages! Because I take the T, we are a one-car family and save many thousands each year. I reduce my carbon emissions fairly painlessly. I build in 30 minutes of walking each day. I don’t have to deal with traffic or Boston drivers, except as a pedestrian.
The next month will be pretty bad. The T could be much better than it is. (Are you reading this, Maura Healey?) And the D Line would be too much for me if I worked downtown. But it’s far from the biggest frustration in my life.
If only politicians took the train daily instead of driving. So many people rely on the T. So many people who can’t be 20 minutes late to work. Students who depend on the train to get to school. Patients that need to get to doctors on time. It seems that the public takes the train, but not the politicians. I hope after this shut down we don’t see a shuttle bus on the D line for quite some time.
We have had plenty of weekend shuttles for the last three plus years
We’ve had how many weekend shuttles for the last 5 years, it feels like the MBTA wasted a lot of time that they could have been working on this. Shambolic management.
I took the T yesterday for the first time since March 2020, figuring all the repairs were done. No problem except only one in 6 or 7 passengers wore a mask, despite the announcement reminder at every station.
@Isabelle, the MBTA’s mask requirement was dropped in April. The reason the announcement continues to play is because of Beacon Hill’s disinvestment in public transit and the MBTA’s consequent inability to complete the most basic of tasks.
https://www.mbta.com/news/2022-04-19/face-coverings-no-longer-required-mbta-airport-travelers
The US seems to be an outlier in dropping the public transit mask requirement, though – this past week I’ve been stopped while obliviously entering the Singapore MRT and Munich S-Bahn without a mask, and told to put one on.
Hi Isabelle. Michael is correct: masks are not required, but the announcements are months out of date. (Pathetic, isn’t it?) Perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but I ride 40 min. per day, with a good mask on, and haven’t gotten infected. Thanks to the lovely folks at Union Pharmacy, I’ve gotten the new “bivalent” vaccine, but I’ll remain masked up on the T for the foreseeable future.
Well, the realities of three decades of neglect and mismanagement and inept administrators have arrived.
Let’s look at the “lay of the land” as my great and wise friend Jason Rosenberg would remind folks whining over minor inconveniences. Jason got bit by Polio at age nine. Yet he trudged up the six concrete steps — holding strongly to his wood crutches — into his City Hall office as City Counsel for seven years. WITHOUT railings to lean on or grab hold if a crutch fell! Those steps are still intact without railings — 53 years after Jason began his first job fresh out of BU Law School. Go look at the East facing entry of City Hall (overlooking Walnut Street).
a). D Branch work will ensue in nice weather. September 24 to October 30.
b). Comfy shuttle buses will be available.
c). What’s a few minutes late for work and supper on return home? We all managed nicely through the worst international health crisis in 100 years the past 30 months.
d). Hybrid working is an option.
e). We ain’t LIVING IN UKRAINE! Nor Afghanistan! Not even in Iran! Definitely NOT in Beijing! Nor Russia! Not Pakistan, where 33 million people are being impacted by biblical flooding!
Say a little prayer, if you’re inclined, for the millions of folks living in those troubled countries. Then give THANKS APLENTY we are living in the United States of America.
Any questions or still more whining?
In December, 2021, I read an article with the headline,”MBTA concludes Green Line D Branch overall.” The project was started in June, 2018 and involved replacing track and signals. As part of the project, around 10.46 km of signals have been replaced.
I don’t understand why they will be replacing signals and track only 9 months after having concluded the project.
Overtime and kickbacks…
I wish we could post pics. I would show you my green line train from Riverside to Govenrment Center. I arrived at station at 8:35 am and it was packed…a sure sign that it had been a while since the last train. When the train arrived it was just one car and packed. Fewer people wearing masks than not. I know that it isn’t required and I can deal with that if I can distance. But that wasn’t an option. If the posted schedule had shown the next train coming with in maybe 5 minutes, I would have waited. But it would be 18 minutes.
Comments about people being to work remotely sound out of touch. Many people taking the D train from Newton work in the Longwood Medical Center area and remote work is not an option
In direct response to Adam Peller’s hackneyed opening: “Quietly announced this week.” I initially learned of more repairs on the D Branch from Riverside Station to Reservoir, from my contacts/friends at Systemwide Office at the MBTA. And I receive monthly the GLT e-mail announcing updates on all upgrades/updates across the vast masstransit system. The MBTA point person — Angel Pena — sends the e-mails. I’ve received the Green Line Team e-mails for five years. And my 21 years using/advocating of the Green Line affords me opportunities to be ‘in the know.’ The Media outlets also covered the impending D Branch work the past three weeks.
So, if you’re not involved, you’re not informed. Carry on!
This isn’t our first rodeo, as MBTA Riverside line weekend shutdowns have happened at times in recent years (pre COVID). An interesting thought that no one has brought up yet: The Riverside line goes to Fenway, and this shutdown was announced before the Red Sox were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention (even if they had been treading water for awhile, and the writing was very much on the wall).
What would have happened if the Sox had went on a highly improbably 15-2 stretch to start September that put the team right back in the of it, with October Playoff baseball at Fenway a very real possibility? Would the MBTA have waited until the postseason played out, or scheduled the track replacement work anyway (during a period of peak demand rivaling/surpassing April)?
Phil R. —
Thankfully, we do not have to know what exactly MBTA bigs would do. Carry on.