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Boston's "T" set all time single day record on day of Bruins NHL title parade


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Boston's "T" aka MBTA mass transit network yesterday 6/18/11 set an all time record for ridership in a single day. A big reason of course was due to fact, most of those riders were going to Downtown Boston's "Hub" area for the Bruins Stanley Cup Title parade.

It was similar to Halloween 2008 in Phildelphia when SEPTA could not handle their record ridership when the Phillies won the 2008 World Series.

 

Here link of story from Boston's ABC station.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/28283396/detail.html

 

Also the same story from Boston Globe paper.

 

Bruins fans feel stranded by rail lines

 

By Christopher J. Girard

Boston Globe Correspondent

June 19, 2011

 

Since Thursday’s exuberant announcement of the parade celebrating the Bruins’ championship win, officials repeatedly urged fans to take the MBTA into downtown Boston. But yesterday morning some of the record-setting number of commuter rail riders reported difficulty getting to the city — and others never made it.

 

An unprecedented 120,000 people rode the commuter rail inbound yesterday, almost double the 67,000 riders that ride in on a typical weekday, T spokesman Joe Pesaturo wrote in an e-mail. The commuter rail ran “super-sized’’ trains to increase capacity, he said, and ran 21 extra trains.

 

 

Pesaturo said the MBTA was “absolutely’’ prepared, employing every train that was not undergoing maintenance and every train crew.

 

 

“If we hadn’t have been prepared, we would not have been able to carry 120,000 people,’’ Pesaturo said. “When we got reports of people still on platforms, we sent trains out to get them. In some cases, people didn’t wait for the trains.’’

 

 

But some disappointed fans said the commuter rail was overwhelmed and unprepared.

 

 

Michael Chefitz, his son, and his son’s friend, both 12, tried to take the commuter rail from Salem to North Station, but the 9:20 a.m. train they wanted to get on “barely picked up anyone.’’

 

 

“The electronic sign [on the platform] of course provided no info,’’ Chefitz, of Salem, wrote in an e-mail. “People were furious.’’

 

 

At one inbound stop, the Swampscott station, a large crowd, including families with small children, was stranded after the 9:25 and 9:50 trains did not stop, presumably because they were full, Will Bachner wrote in an e-mail.

 

 

At the Mansfield commuter rail station, Charles Woods of Mansfield abandoned his hopes to attend the rally after he was unable to board two full trains.

 

 

“There was no information to be had. We were not alone,’’ Woods, 30, wrote in an e-mail. “About 50 or so other people of different age groups were walking away with us.’’

 

 

Karen Angelo arrived at the Wilmington commuter rail station 45 minutes before the 9:15 a.m. train rolled past, she wrote in an e-mail. Within the next half hour, two more trains came through without stopping, and Angelo went home, she wrote.

 

 

“Seems like they could have hired a few more people, put on a few more trains, and still made some money,’’ Angelo wrote.

 

 

At about 2:30 p.m., Ashland resident Evan Shapiro said, T employees directed those who wanted to ride the commuter rail outbound from Back Bay Station to wait in a “very enclosed area’’ and provided no information on how long they would wait.

 

 

“It almost got to the point where someone could have been trampled,’’ said Shapiro, 45. “It was really, really dangerous.’’

 

 

Eventually, officials moved the crowd to a larger area, Shapiro said. At 2:30 p.m., the crowd was still waiting for the 1:10 p.m. train to Providence, he said.

 

 

Pesaturo said he had no reports of “significant problems’’ on the subway."

 

 

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/articles/2011/06/19/bruins_fans_feel_stranded_by_rail_lines/?p1=News_links

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Maybe if more people used the commuter rail MBTA would have to be forced to buy more equipment and be more prepared.

 

Like other cities/regions in the Boston area, people love to drive and thus will likely will park and ride on the city's outskirts such as in Quincy for the Red Line to Downtown Boston for Cape COD and Southern Shore area

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So basically the ppl brought this crap on theirselves

 

What you mean QJ? Are you a sports fan and aware of what this article is about? From what i read the "T" on their version of the LIRR/Metro North did not have enough trains/manpower to bring riders to Dowtown Boston for the parade.

 

And please none of your left field proposals again if you never been to Boston?

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What you mean QJ? Are you a sports fan and aware of what this article is about? From what i read the "T" on their version of the LIRR/Metro North did not have enough trains/manpower to bring riders to Dowtown Boston for the parade.

The T used every train they had for this event. Every single piece of equipment that was not in the shop for repairs or inspections was used. Even then, the crowds were still overwhelming. The ridership on the day of the parade was more than double the ridership of a typical weekday. The primary problem was not that the T didn't send out enough trains, but that they simply did not own enough trains.

 

Why didnt they just drive down to Boston anyway.

Partly due to the exorbitantly high parking fees in Downtown Boston and partly due to the I-93 Fast 14 Project. The I-93 Fast 14 Project is a rapid bridge replacement project north of Boston. Its goal is to completely replace at least one bridge on I-93 each weekend during the summer. Each weekend, from 8:00PM Friday to 5:00AM Monday, I-93 is reduced to 2 lanes while at least one bridge is demolished and replaced. 14 bridges are to be replaced in just 10 weeks. The extremely tight schedule of this project makes almost no room for delays. I suspect that many of the Bruins fans north of the city chose to ride the train to avoid being stuck in the weekend traffic jams that have become ubiquitous since the start of this project.

 

There were indeed hundreds, possibly thousands of Bruins fans that couldn't make it to the parade because of the trains were full. It is understandable that they are angry and even furious. But some of the accusations of poor service by the T are baseless and frivolous. The T's primary objective is to transport commuters to and from work. The T owns just barely more than enough equipment to move commuters day-in and day-out. The system physically cannot handle the amount of people that were heading to the parade, especially for a parade that occurs maybe once in a lifetime.

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Even a few days after the Bruins parade in Boston, the "T" management is still under heat for not being able to accomdate thousands of riders who could not board their commuter and even couple of subway/trolley cars into Downtown Boston.Here was tonight newscast (6/21/11)from the Local ABC-TV Boston station.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXEd3d_Pxfw

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Nexis i think the "T" officals meant the entire network set a record ie. subway/trolley and light rail, bus and regional rail combined for a single day due to the parade.

 

What you mean QJ? Are you a sports fan and aware of what this article is about? From what i read the "T" on their version of the LIRR/Metro North did not have enough trains/manpower to bring riders to Dowtown Boston for the parade.

 

And please none of your left field proposals again if you never been to Boston?

 

FYI I have been to boston and no I have no boston proposals at all. The only ones I can think of are a light rail along I-495 corridor which are already planned by others and attelboro bus rte mergers into regional lines to improve connectivity that's it. Mass has a excellent intercity bus network and their regional rail is very extensive. Plus Massachusetts is far too spread out for many of my plans to work as intercity buses are that extensive. The only way is improve frequency of the existing network of rail and intercity bus. No extreme extensions or any of that not there too spread out despite of being a small state. The only real changes they can make is on the county level combine the 2 agencies within worcester county into one countywide entity. Nothing but on the organizational level and a few mergers but nothing for boston.

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How does MBTA prepare for this? do they order cars they wont need aside from the days like these, which WONT happen frequently? Thats a waste, a huge waste.

 

Its not MBTA's fault. If you dont use it dont complain when its not there when you need it.

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That's about 1/3 of the (E) train's daily ridership. The number isn't that high.

 

 

True. As i said earlier most people in SE Mass, Providence, RI and even Southern NH don't use the MBTA commuter rails. Most of them instead will drive to the City limits of Boston such as Quincy 'park and ride' and then take the "T" subway or light rail to get to/from Downtown Boston. Better to wait for a subway/trolley every 10 minutes than wait for a regional rail every hour or two.

 

It's same thing in the Washington area with the DC Metro where most of those riders park in the Maryland or Va. stations and ride back to Downtown DC on the Metro subway.

 

That one of main the reasons IMO regional rails in most of America's bigger cities other than NY don't have higher ridership.

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wow boston can't handle that thats sad

Thank you for your post. It was extremely helpful and contributed tremendously to this conversation. Your critical thinking skills are exemplary and are envied throughout academia. Once again, thank you for your contributions this conversation.

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True. As i said earlier most people in SE Mass, Providence, RI and even Southern NH don't use the MBTA commuter rails. Most of them instead will drive to the City limits of Boston such as Quincy 'park and ride' and then take the "T" subway or light rail to get to/from Downtown Boston. Better to wait for a subway/trolley every 10 minutes than wait for a regional rail every hour or two.

 

It's same thing in the Washington area with the DC Metro where most of those riders park in the Maryland or Va. stations and ride back to Downtown DC on the Metro subway.

 

That one of main the reasons IMO regional rails in most of America's bigger cities other than NY don't have higher ridership.

 

Providence? It would be better to park and ride MBTA commuter trains from Providence. It would take about hour and a half to get to Boston during morning rush hour.

 

BTW commuter train riderships are for the most part always lower than the ridership of urban rapid transit system.

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:cool:

Providence? It would be better to park and ride MBTA commuter trains from Providence. It would take about hour and a half to get to Boston during morning rush hour.

 

BTW commuter train riderships are for the most part always lower than the ridership of urban rapid transit system.

 

OIC thats why they werent prepared

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