It’s Been a Rough Day for MBTA Riders
So how long did you spend on the train this morning?
The MBTA asked riders to avoid taking the Red Line Tuesday morning due to train delays caused by winter weather. As the morning progressed, commuters watched helplessly as alerts were posted about every line.
Riders were told to seek alternate routes, but for many, there’s no other way to get to work. When your city’s most popular train line is experiencing the worst issues, expected to continue for four or five more days, what other travel options do you have?
The Red line travels almost 8 miles between Alewife and JFK/UMass alone. That walk would take just under 3 hours by foot, but would probably take way longer through all the non-shoveled sidewalks.
You could try Uber, but expect to pay extra. Nate Boroyan at BostInno shared a screenshot of the app at 8 a.m. Tuesday telling him a trip would be four times the normal fare.
Uber would also be more costly because of how much longer you’d be sitting in the car—remember, they charge for idle time. With streets blocked by snow and traffic, the roads were slow-going.
Delays are expected to last at least until the end of the week, though by then Boston will likely have more snow on the ground.
Gov. Charlie Baker told The Boston Globe that he will meet with Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack to search for ways to improve MBTA service.
“I’m planning to spend a fair amount of time with Secretary Pollack over the course of the next few weeks to make sure that we make the kinds of decisions with respect to managing and administrating the T, so that people don’t have to deal with this,’’ Baker said.
It’s not just about the wait times at T stations. The MBTA contract to replace out-of-date train cars is currently in litigation, according to WBUR, after a Chinese rail car manufacturer won the bid to supply 284 new Red and Orange line cars in October. The process of finding bidders for that contract has been in the works since at least December 2013.
So expect to be stuck in traffic, but at least you can laugh at all the snark your fellow trapped Bostonians have been giving the MBTA.
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