By now, the Green Line crashes have become familiar: May 2008 in Newton, May 2009 near Government Center, last month at Boylston Street Station. One dead, more than 100 injured, thousands delayed, $20 million in damage, lawsuits pending.
All three accidents could have been avoided — if the Green Line were equipped with an automated system to track and control trains to prevent train-to-train collisions and derailments when drivers speed or miss track signals that look like traffic lights.
Comments
It is broken, badly.
You can't fix it, you don't have the money.
So we (the riders) all suffer (multiple indignities) and all the Management does is talk.
5 to 3 they punt it on this one, requiring more studies or cheaper, less efficient alternatives that will still produce poor service, the terrible overcrowding and LACK OF SAFETY.
U R A Joke Boston, Massachusetts.
ps don't say ride a bike, cause that isn't safe around here, either
So why don't you come up with a suggestion about how it can be done? It's easy for you to carp and complain. Why don't you make a positive contribution instead.
Another Boston boondoggle. Fine if you had the money and didn't have one hundred things more important to spend valuable money on.
If the cost of riding the MBTA system continues to rise, many of my co-workers say they will figure out ways to resume commuting by car. The Metro in Boston seems to have better coverage than systems in DC, for example. But, the neglect came in when the city had the money to make improvements, but didn't. Money wasted on corrupt programs like Chelsea's housing authority sucked the life out of the already tired MBTA.
Not that I want to be contentious, but what does the Chelsea Housing Authority have to do with the MBTA?
And what does the city have to do with it?
The MBTA is a state authority with it's own dedicated revenue stream. Much of the debt was caused by agreements the state reached in the courts in response to environment challenges to the Big Dig. The state piled new responsibilities on the MBTA without providing funds to cover them.
Oh, and it's the T, the MBTA, The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, but never The Metro. The coverage is better because it's been under construction under various agencies and private companies for 150 years.
This comment has been removed.
Kudos to Janice Loux - this tech is now on every car in America. The consultants should be thrashed!
Why spend all that money just so the T operators can legally sleep on the job. Why not make them do their job? Wouldn’t it be cheaper? Surely, the Union wouldn’t object. Or would they?
Isn't the idea to keep people from getting hurt when operators illegally sleep on the job ?
Any system that doesn't take into consideration that human beings make mistakes, is destined to suffer the consequences. Why do we have air bags and seat belts in cars? So maybe you won't die, Mr. Bill.
Oh what the hekk... Devoid and Davey know what's important, so just add the $700 mill for the collision avoid system to the Fall River- New Bedford choochoo line that Devoid wants to build as part of his Taxachoosetts departure legacy and the Green Line tracks into Medford that have been on the drawing board since the T was the MTA. It's only money... and Devoid and Davey figger the riders will pay part of it when Boston transit fares pass those in New York of Frisco... What the heck... if the Boston fares aren't the nation's highest, Boston loses its world class status.
The Green line is the worst...totally nauseating ride...why anyone would want to expand it is beyond me...I used to walk and even turned down a job to avoid that awful ride...
I know how much you must hate having to deal with the poor, but other than that, what is "nauseating" about riding the Green Line? I take it almost every day.
You seem to have some sort of problem yourself. Maybe you can find someone to fix it.
Seven hundred million dollars is a huge sum for a relatively small public transit system that already has huge financial problems. How about better personnel management and equipment maintenance in order to make the system safer? Then there might be some hope of avoiding huge fare increases that drive riders from the T to the already crowded highways and streets of metro Boston.
Spend the money putting the Heath Street Line underground to Forest Hills.