Letter to Governer Patrick:

[bobquasit]

Sir,

For the past 3-4 weeks the Franklin #715 train (departing South Station at 4:10pm) has been desperately overcrowded. Not only is every aisle full of standees, but passengers are being forced to ride in the vestibules between the coaches as well. By my estimate there were at least 190 standees yesterday on the five-coach #715.

This is now TYPICAL of the ridership on that train.

It is, of course, forbidden for passengers to ride in the vestibules due to safety concerns - but there is simply no other option.

Conductors are unable to collect fares. Two days ago I stood for half an hour next to a woman who was six-months pregnant; she couldn't get a seat, and had to physically squeeze past standees along half the aisle to get off at her stop.

Given that standees have a much greater likelihood of being injured during an accident, the current state of overcrowding presents a daily hazard to a large and increasing number of riders. This matter is urgent, and needs to be addressed immediately.

MBCR and MBTA management have repeatedly refused to address this issue. Please do not simply forward me to MBTA/MBCR management; they will not take any action. Large numbers of MBTA passengers are being placed in danger on a daily basis, and there is no sign that ridership is going to decrease. Please take meaningful action.

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I've also contacted the Boston Globe and Boston Herald - I'll let you know if either follows up with me.

Comments

[nakedfaery.livejournal.com]

Whilst I've never had anything like these issues with trains, I want to say congratulations! Good on you for getting pissed about this, and staying pissed. Good on you for keeping up with the writing letters and contacting officials. Good on you for managing to write firmly worded strong minded letters without sounding like a pompous rude jackass. Good on you for not letting yourself get fobbed off by refusals to address this issues. Good on you for knowing the law and knowing what you're talking about!

Don't let yourself get discouraged! It's really easy to give up when no one seems to be listening. I just wish more citizens, both American and English, were clued up on their rights, their knowledge and fought this type of bureaucratic bullshit.

[oldwolf.livejournal.com]

I'd send this along to the local news authorities. Things'll would change butt quick when it makes the 5 o'clock news.

[oldwolf.livejournal.com]

oops. I didn't see that last sentence.

[tzunder.livejournal.com]

In the UK this is sadly very common, we have very low capacity on our trains relative to demand, despite very high and rising prices. We are a very crowded island.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Send it to the Metro and the Weekly Dig too, they regularly have columns about the problems on the T (so did the the Now before it died).

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Generally the T ignores the Globe and Herald these days as having no teeth....

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

Why? Why do they have no teeth?

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

No Staff, really. They've gotten rid of most of their journalists, only a few hacks (like Howie Carr at the Herald) are hanging on to the corpses as they slowly decay away to nothing.

Their circulations are heading to rock bottom, they have no budget (the Herald doesn't even own it's building any more and will be hitting the bricks for new digs if it survives at all in about a year).

The Globe is a ghost of it's former self... and generally not taken seriously these days. Drop by a cafe, see what folks are reading, it's not the Globe and Herald for the most part. They read the weeklies and the New York Papers. Oh, and the Metro, which is no more than a collection of AP news stories pretending to be a paper.

You want people to see a commuter problem, go for the Dig, the Phoenix and the Metro. Their circulations in the area are actually larger.

Solution

[(Anonymous)]

What solution do you propose?

Re: Solution

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

Do I need to have a solution in order to point out a serious problem? I hope not. Still...

I have a very hard time believing that the current allocation of coaches between lines and trains is an optimal one. For example, the Needham train that goes through Ruggles shortly before the #715 always has an astonishing number of empty seats; most coaches are more than 50% empty, every day. T management told me those empty coaches were needed for other, high-passenger runs later. But unless those other runs are as overcrowded as the #715, putting one or two of those coaches on the #715 seems to be an obvious first step.

I don't know how the T allocates their resources, but I suspect that their system could use a complete rethinking and overhaul.

In the longer term, of course, the real solution is to get adequate funding from the Legislature. But if I know how to influence them, I wouldn't just be bitching about the T online - I'd be riding around in a chauffeured limo!