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Google Maps Adds Boston Transit Routes

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

It just became a little little easier to figure out if you can get there from here on the MBTA. Google Maps rolled out a new service that allows users to map directions on buses and trains operated by the MBTA.  The visual aspects of the Google service are a little easier to use; the map is easier to see and to manipulate.  On the other hand, there still are some quirks to work out … fares aren’t listed, which is an important consideration for many trips … the system doesn’t seamlessly recognize the names of transit stations the way the MBTA’s system does … and Google is more tolerant of transfers and plodding travel times than is the MBTA.  And some of Google’s selections clearly are not the best routes.  For example, for directions from South Station to Needham Center station (just west of Route 128) departing at 2 pm today, Google’s first choice is an hour-long, two-transfer odyssey; if instead you set the clock to arrive at 3:06pm (the time that leisurely trip is scheduled to arrive), Google’s first choice becomes more sensible 40 minute railroad trip.  Hmmmm…. 40 minutes and no transfers in a reasonably comfortable railcar or 1 hour and two transfers on the subway, trolley, and bus … not a tough choice, at least when the fare is unknown.  On the other hand I guess all of the routes are in the list.  And, of course, it would help if the route data was cleaned up a bit.

Kudos to Luke Bornheimer and the “Put the MBTA on Google Maps” Facebook group for influencing the T and Google to make this happen.

[eds. note:  After this was posted, Google adjusted the way that it selects routes; the original post contained another link that now is outdated]

Posted in Green Line, MBTA, Needham Line, Service information, South Station | Comments Off
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Confused Machine Sells Two Monthly Passes for the Price of One

Monday, July 6th, 2009

The MBTA’s vaunted three-year-old electronic fare system keeps revealing its quirks. Last month I purchased an express bus pass from a vending machine and got a surprise. The machine does not sell a monthly pass into the contactless stored value card, but it will print flexible plastic passes that are electronically encoded and printed on their face with the fare or zone. So I tapped on the computer screen and paid with my credit card and I received a printed monthly express bus pass through the right-handed slot on the machine. And then I told the machine that I wanted a receipt and out of the left slot what popped out?

A second express bus pass, with an identical monthly fare! Two passes for the price of one!

Buy one get one free

Buy one get one free ... oops!

I was confused so I asked the station attendant what the second pass was all about. He said that I must have paid twice, and that the pass was indeed a second monthly ticket to the bus. He recommended that I write the machine number and return the pass to the monthly pass office at a different station, when the office reopened. He figured that I must have paid for the extra pass.

But surprise! Later I confirmed that the second pass was indeed a live monthly ticket and not a receipt — it is accepted by card readers on the express bus — and best of all, my credit card only was charged once — meaning I only paid for one of the two passes! I’ve heard that I’m not the only person who has experienced this “surprise;” I wonder how often the MBTA has done this unannounced two-for-one deal.

I previously had heard of stored value Charlie Cards that erroneously had some special unlimited access for unlimited time, and I’ve had intermittent problems in the past with the fare system. For example, once when the clock struck midnight on the last day of the month my monthly pass for the previous month no longer worked and my monthly pass for the subsequent month was not yet recognized. Stranded at midnight with two monthly passes but no train fare! Imagine.

But a whole free pass — very unexpected. This potentially is an $89 mistake by the T. Mistakes like that add up quickly. The T spent thousands chasing two MIT hackers who had devised some theoretical exploit to ride the T more than they were entitled. And then the T turns around and it prints extra monthly passes for free.

Is there a contractor somewhere that owes the T some money back? I wonder how much money the T has lost through this particular quirk.

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Emergency Stop

Sunday, March 1st, 2009
In Emergency to Stop Car and Open Doors Pull Lever Down and Push Doors Apart

In Emergency to Stop Car and Open Doors Pull Lever Down and Push Doors Apart

Ever seen the red levers on the Green Line trains?  Ever wonder what happens when you pull the lever?  The train stops, right then and there.  No matter what it was doing before; 20mph to zero in a flash.

When is the lever supposed to be used?  “In Emergency.”  The T attracts all kinds of folks, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the word “emergency” can mean different things to different riders.  To a regular commuter, “emergency” might mean “life or death situation.”  But how about to a gaggle of tween girls on a shopping expedition without a chaperone?  What might “emergency” mean to them?  Could it mean “accidentally got on the E train outbound to Brigham Circle when we wanted to go to Kenmore?”  If you believed that no one possibly could think that would qualify as an “emergency” enough to pull that lever … you’d be wrong.

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T: Know thy riders

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
MBTA: Where are you going?

MBTA: Where are you going today?

I boarded a Green Line “D” train a few months ago at Longwood station.  The station was in the midst of yet another renovation, and there were several workers around.  One of them handed me a flyer.  Turns out that the MBTA is running a passenger survey.  They wanted to know my origin, destination, mode of payment, and purpose.

There are two more pages to the survey and I’m still not sure what to make of it.  I have to applaud the effort … but to what purpose?  Doesn’t the MBTA collect most of this information at the farebox?  Well, perhaps not.  The T knows who goes into their system and where … but where the passengers go … that is anyone’s guess.

I feel a little guilty for not completing the questionnaire and mailing it in.  The last few lines even ask for grades for the T service on several criteria: reliability, safety, cleanliness, courtesy, announcements, availability of seats, frequency, parking, station amenities, and fare collection.  Maybe I should just send them a link to this blog.

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What time is it?

Saturday, September 6th, 2008
Back Bay TV Screen (Time is 5:58)

5:58

I love the new digital displays in the commuter rail stations at Back Bay and South Station.  The old, fuzzy, monochrome television displays were due for retirement.  For now the systems display side-by-side. But that creates an unexpected dilemma.  With two displays apparently feeding from two separate computer systems, riders are left with the very basic question of …. what time is it?

Back Bay New Display (Time is 5:54)

5:54

The pictures on the left and right are from two displays side-by-side in Back Bay station.  One reads 5:54 and the other reads 5:58.  Which clock is correct?  I really don’t know!  I know what you’re going to say: maybe it is better not to know the time when you are dealing with the MBTA.  Perhaps, but these trains in particular run with big headways of 30 minutes to 2 hours.  There is a long wait between trains.  If you miss one, you’re in trouble.  It is important to know the time.

And as an aside, the new boards (on the left) have another bizarre feature.  When the time comes for the train to arrive in the station, whether the train is there yet or not the listing falls from the display.  What if the 5:59 train arrives at 6:01?  Tough luck; hope you saw the track number before it fell off the screen.

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Bicycle UNfriendly

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
Bicycles prohibited on the Green Line

Green Line at Chestnut Hill station

I recently bought a bicycle.  I decided on Sunday to ride it from Providence to Boston.  Awesome.  After a series of misadventures preparing for the ride — including a 40-minute late MBCR train to my starting destination — I was a little short of daylight, but still optimistic.

So at about 8 p.m., here’s the situation: I’m crossing Route 128 on the Westwood/Dedham border and I know I’ve got only about 15-minutes of daylight left to get where I need to go … but my destination (on the T system) still is about 45 minutes away.  Ideally, I’d go to the nearest MBTA station stop, right?  So which stop to I choose?  West Roxbury Station on the Needham line?  Forest Hills station on the Orange Line?  Chestnut Hill station on the Green Line?  Readville Station on the Franklin Line?  Find a bus?

I go for the familiar, frequent Green Line service, right?  The Needham line doesn’t run on Sunday, parts of the neighborhood around Forest Hills can be tough after dark, and who knows when a bus or a Readville train will come bounding down the tracks.  Right?  Bicycles, carriages, bulky luggage — all the same, right?  Equally welcome.

Wrong! Sunday night isn’t exactly a busy time on at Chestnut Hill station.  The parking lot is empty, and so are the inbound trains.  But don’t take the ample space on the trolleys and lack of posted guidance as indications that you and your bicycle are welcome.  We weren’t.  It doesn’t matter if it’s dark and you have no lights on your bike; if you’re stranded; if you have money burning a hole in your pocket; if the train is completely empty.  All irrelevant.  The only thing that matters is that at some point in the gauzy past some MBTA administrator convinced all of the Green Line drivers that they would be fired if they allowed anyone onto the the trolley with anything resembling a bike.  Ever.

This may be the stupidest MBTA policy yet.  I completely understand that my bicycle takes up space.  On the foolishly slow MBCR train I rode to the start of my bike ride, my bicycle and I occupied four seats (the three bikes on the train occupied six seats total).  Would I object to paying for some of those seats?  Not really; I’d pay, probably a premium, and particularly if it guaranteed me the ability to transport the bike onto the train (apparently you can be denied boarding if more than six bikes are on the train!).  Would I have done the same on the Green line?  Certainly.  I was tired enough I practically would have handed the MBTA my entire wallet.

But they didn’t want my money.  They wanted to run their empty train into Boston instead.

Posted in Bicycles, Franklin Line, Green Line, Needham Line, Providence Line, Service information | Comments Off
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Do you speak MBTA-ese?

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Have you ever wondered how to communicate with an organization as unwieldy as the MBTA? I have. I’ve tried a few approaches; I’ve emailed. You need to be patient with that approach. Three months is roughly the average response time. I’ve spoken with station agents. Many are friendly and eager to help; others aren’t and still others are difficult to find. Results are uneven and often dissatisfying. I’ve organized and written well-reasoned letters. It’s a lot of work, and sometimes it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.

Well, I think I’ve found a far more efficient way to communicate with the MBTA. It’s simple. Here’s what you do: stand in front of whatever happens to be the problem, and take a picture. This morning I took two pictures. Well, in fairness I took about ten, but they were only of two things.

Warning sign on disabled escalator

An escalator on the Red Line, unit No. 504, was condemned by an inspector a few weeks ago and it has been out of service ever since. It’s been about three weeks. So I stood at the top of the escalator and I took a picture. And elsewhere on the Red Line, beneath South Station, a message board that ought to be announcing trains has instead been spewing mystifying garbled nothings. As if the MBTA is trying to speak to passengers in some unknown alien language. I took a picture.

Train arrival message board under South Station

Gibberish on a message board at the South Station subway

Apparently nothing focuses the MBTA’s collective mind like the prospect of jpeg-based public humiliation, no matter how mild. Twelve hours later, the message board, although not fixed, was not displaying gibberish. And the escalator was running. That has to be the fastest response time ever! So, in the course of trying to snap a picture of what I assumed was the the MBTA’s language– the gibberish– I inadvertently began communicating well enough to be understood! Did I accidentally speak MBTA-ese?

Posted in Escalators, Red Line, Service information, South Station, TransitBoston | 1 Response »
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