So the commuter rail was awful today, I actually stood, yes stood, on the train next to some guy who writes about how crappy the commuter rail is sometimes. But at least he doesn't just bitch, he actually gets in touch with people who supposedly could do something but don't because they suck. Man standing next to me pointed out something that I forget sometimes, in the 2 cars we were standing between (yea in the vestibule where no one is supposed to stand) about 70 people were standing in the aisles and 14 people around where we were standing in between the trains so if all of a sudden we crashed or stopped short all of us would have gone flying! And it happens; I think it was 3 weeks ago a commuter rail was hit my a run-away car from a lumber yard. The conductor of that train lost several teeth and broke a few ribs, but if we had crashed today all 14 of us in between the trains would have been thrown out. Have you ever seen a body ejected from a car going a slow speed, it ain't pretty, and that's only a car.
I think I will start e-mailing the MBTA daily to remind them of this crap, I doubt they even take the commuter rail that much if even ever. I wonder what has to happen for there to be a change, like say use the double decker coaches at rush hour, a large group of people dying? How loverly.
Feel free to comment yourself: https://www.mbta.com/customer_support/write_to_top/#Rail
1 comment:
Hi!
The problem is that the MBTA's "brick wall" defense is amazingly impervious. They've emailed, written, and called me in response to me complaints, but the result is always just an apology - never any real change.
I don't think any of us care much about apologies. What we need is for them to address the systemic changes and continuing shortfalls in their service!
But it doesn't seem likely that that's going to happen. And it may not even be management's fault; the real problem is probably that the Mass legislature isn't funding the MBTA adequately. It's awfully hard to hold such a large group of legislators to account.
I suspect that what will finally bring about reform is a good-sized accident in which a number of people are hurt or killed. At which point everyone responsible will claim that they never knew that things were so bad. That's why I started my blog; so that when that day comes, there will be solid evidence that they DID know, they WERE informed.
I don't know if it will help. But it helps ME. The alternative is just shutting up and meekly taking it, and I've never been that good at that - I like to complain too much. :D
My one fear is that management may decide to crack down by really enforcing the "no passengers in the vestibules" rule, in which case conductors may have to turn passengers away at Ruggles. That would really suck!
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