Tracking Transportation

Keeping track of transportation

T notes: Bus driver hit, killed at Charlestown garage

Pollack sees progress on at-grade throat option

By Bruce Mohl MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 21, 2020

AN MBTA DRIVER walking to his vehicle early Monday morning at the Charlestown garage was struck by a bus and killed, according to T and union officials. Bernadin Etienne, an 18-year employee of the T, was hit at around 6 a.m. Monday morning. Few details were available on exactly what happened, but T officials said(...)

Bold thinking required at I-90 Allston interchange

Once again, we must move on from what’s easy

By Lawrence S. DiCara MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 19, 2020

SOMETIME IN THE mid-1950s, my mother packed the three of us into our black ’52 Plymouth and drove us onto the then-brand-new Southeast Expressway. She probably took us up the ramp at Neponset Circle, got off in South Boston, and drove us to L Street beach. I remember her telling us that this was the(...)

Poftak pushes feds for $32b for transit agencies

Report recommends T scrap host of popular capital projects

By Bruce Mohl COVID-19, MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 15, 2020

WITH FINANCIAL CHALLENGES mounting at the MBTA, General Manager Steve Poftak joined transportation officials from across the country on Tuesday to press Congress to pass a stimulus package containing $32 billion of financial aid for the nation’s transit authorities. The amount is more than the $25 billion the agencies received under the earlier CARES Act(...)

T notes: Battery buses not ready for primetime yet

Safety officer reports 4 derailments so far this year

By Bruce Mohl MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 14, 2020

MBTA OFFICIALS said on Monday that battery-powered buses are a promising technology that is still several years away from being ready for prime time, largely because a test of five vehicles indicated they take too long to charge and don’t live up to their mileage specifications, particularly during the winter. The MBTA purchased five battery-power,(...)

No worries with ‘crowded’ Red Line train

By CommonWealth Staff MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 14, 2020

I took a Red Line train last week that was crowded according to the MBTA’s COVID-19 crowding standards, but the consensus on this week’s Codcast was that I didn’t need to worry. My train car last Tuesday had about 65 people on it, one shy of the level the T says qualifies as crowded on(...)

No worries with ‘crowded’ Red Line train

Aloisi calls the T a ‘fairly low-risk environment’

By Bruce Mohl COVID-19, MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 14, 2020

Doubling down on the past

MassDOT, Boston stick with auto-centric approach

By James Aloisi Transportation 0 Comments Sep 12, 2020

THIS IS A TALE of two transportation issues – a window on how we may be losing the opportunity moment provided by a generationally disruptive pattern break. The pattern break, of course, is the COVID-19 pandemic. Every pattern break in history changes the ways we do things going forward. The example I give most often(...)

SJC case questions enforceability of Uber rider agreement

How far should companies go to gain a consumer’s assent?

By Shira Schoenberg Economy, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 9, 2020

HAVE YOU EVER scrolled past the terms and conditions when downloading a new app, then mindlessly clicked “done” without reading the fine print? Most of us have done that more times than we can remember. A case against Uber that the Supreme Judicial Court will hear Thursday will be a test of how conspicuous an(...)

Red Line train gets a bit close for comfort

Riders on afternoon train near T’s crowding standard

By Bruce Mohl COVID-19, MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Sep 8, 2020

I rode in a Red Line car on Tuesday afternoon that was very near the MBTA’s crowding standard, and it felt like passengers were close together. I knew something was different when I walked out on the platform at Park Street Station at about 3:20 p.m. In contrast with similar trips over the last five(...)

MBTA: Truck driver had no ‘malicious intent’

Caused damage after driving into restricted Silver Line tunnel to South Station

By Bruce Mohl MBTA 0 Comments Sep 7, 2020

THE TRUCK OPERATOR who drove into the restricted access Silver Line tunnel on Friday morning had “no malicious intent,” according to an MBTA spokesman. Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the T, said the truck driver, who was not identified, “unwittingly tailed” a Silver Line vehicle onto the ramp and into the tunnel. Pesaturo said an(...)