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michael_scarn_21 t1_j2bnhjj wrote

Peak MBTA news that will surprise nobody at this point.

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ImNotAtAllCreative81 t1_j2d64ge wrote

It's not even the defects that are frustrating me. I'm glad they caught them when they did before an accident happened.

What pisses me off is that they knew about this for DAYS and ONLY made an announcement when the Globe called them out on it. There were 20-30 minute headways on Thursday and they never said a damn thing until Friday.

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fuzzy_viscount t1_j2dnkcu wrote

Shouldn’t it piss you off more that it was a last minute political stunt to add final assembly in-state to the contract? Why get cars from the factory setup to make them when you can build your own and have all the teething problems associated with first time production?

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fakecrimesleep t1_j2e0lcx wrote

I have a train tracker for the T and have noticed on many occasions that the blue line has more cars in service than the orange

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therealcmj t1_j2bosls wrote

It’s 9 cars. Not all of them.

Not great but it’s is good that it was caught during routine maintenance inspections.

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Yeti_of_the_Flow t1_j2cu5tp wrote

Exactly. This is how it's supposed to work when there is a safety issue. Sometimes defects will happen. Comments in other threads here about this issue and other MBTA topics have me convinced there are paid shills / car obsessed maniacs that can't help but spread nonsense about mass transit. The MBTA is overall really good (For the US). There are issues, just as there are issues everywhere. They caught this, and are fixing it. We should be glad.

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Ruleseventysix t1_j2dfyc0 wrote

The take away is really that they weren't upfront about why they took them out of service. Actually it's even worse, they didn't even want to say that they were taking them out of service, much less the why.

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DildoBreath t1_j2bq1g2 wrote

The seats need better grip I’m always sliding out of them

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jWalkerFTW t1_j2e0dk6 wrote

Yeah. I really, really like this new rolling stock in general (beside the reliability issues ofc), but the seats are definitely a big weak point.

Also, I’m torn on the frequency and detail of the announcements. On one hand, it’s much better for people who require audible information for one reason or another. On the other hand, it seems like the train literally does not stop talking throughout the entire trip.

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CommenceTheWentz t1_j2d0bpm wrote

Yea what is up with that? How did that make it past any kind of testing?

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dpm25 t1_j2bs30v wrote

CRRC trains the legislatures gift that will keep giving for the next 40 years.

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BostonFoliage t1_j2e6xzt wrote

Why are we buying infrastructure from Chinese government anyways? For the amount of money and trouble it created, we could have built them in house.

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ppomeroy t1_j2eicsw wrote

Multiple reasons. First the "Buy America Act" requires that a percentage of assembly be done in the USA to preserve jobs here. Massachusetts added to that making it a part of the contract that the assembly needed to be done in this state. This meant that the rail company needed to build a manufacturing facility for rail cars, which would be rather large, within the state.

The second reason is that the state, by law, is required to accept the lowest bid for any contractor that checks all of the boxes in the contract proposal. In this case, CRRC came in well-below any other rail manufacturer and also promised to build a facility here to get a foothold on rail manufacturing in the USA.

Some of these laws are there to protect the state's funding and assure it is spent well, and also to preserve jobs. On paper this looks great but has not always worked.

For example the current "new" fleet of MBTA locomotives was bid by a well-established European company as well as Motive Power in the mid-west. The MBTA preferred the European company but it was a little more than what MP bid. MP sued under the "Buy America Act" and as the low bidder so the MBTA was forced to buy from them. Those new locomotives are now being cycled out of service for work at a regular rate to fix something broken or worn. As a result of that the MBTA had to pull a handful of older locomotives that had been mothballed, get them rebuilt, and pressed into service.

So it is not always the MBTA's choice. The various labor laws and laws that control cost and bidding often tie their hands.

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TheTr7nity t1_j2fbay8 wrote

Like the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for”.

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snoogins355 t1_j2ec1lx wrote

Because we don't make trains in America anymore, we make war machines. And those cost billions and billions. I wish we did make trains, fast, efficient, and reliable ones! But we fucked up and you have roads that get destroyed every year and bridges hit by idiot truck drivers

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dpm25 t1_j2e7o03 wrote

Because they were the only company willing to build here in Massachusetts.

We should not have built them domestically, to appease western ma, we should have purchased them from Europe.

The sad part is it's not like the factory is going to remain open after the mbta gets there trains. There is hardly any demand for these trains in the US.

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hotaspee t1_j2eb9fy wrote

look I’m the biggest critic of this contract you’ll ever find, but LA Metro and (if memory serves) SEPTA both have orders with CRRC. Richie Neal even got them some sort of special dispensation so that they’d qualify for “buy american” status during the trump admin. they’re probably not going to shut down anytime soon.

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Doctrina_Stabilitas t1_j2ej3cx wrote

that's because all the labor is American and basically everything except the shell is American

door issues? American. Brake issues? American. Axel issues? American. Has a frame broken? well the one Chinese part is fine I guess

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hotaspee t1_j2enm48 wrote

I hate this country too. Down with the capitalist pigdogs!

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kevalry t1_j2dsevx wrote

From the Democratic Patrick’s Administration too.

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hotaspee t1_j2ebs6i wrote

oh no did a democrat invest in infrastructure?? do your fee fees hurt?

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cantaloupesteve t1_j2ck7dr wrote

They weren't beeping enough when the doors were open

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SaintGalentine t1_j2ctznp wrote

How many times have new cars been pulled?

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LukeWarmCheesecake t1_j2bneid wrote

11 axles over a total of 9 cars doesn't seem that bad, no?

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felineprincess93 t1_j2buwk6 wrote

Sure, only what 19% percent of the whole fleet??

Why do we keep downplaying this gross incompetence?

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LukeWarmCheesecake t1_j2dnugw wrote

Let's pretend there aren't recalls day after day on automobiles that literally injure and kill a bunch of people before the recall gets announced, but the MBTA finding and fixing an arcing problem on 10% of cars is "gross incompetence." Whenever the government isn't absolutely perfect, we have you Republicans come out in full force saying this is "gross incompetence" and the next thing you know everything is being privatized with worse product and higher costs to the tax payer and consumer. The double standard with you guys would be funny if it wasn't so damaging to society. You're all shameful.

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felineprincess93 t1_j2e4sw1 wrote

Apparently anyone who is capable of critiquing a government is a Republican, damn I should tell the rest of my leftist friends about this metric. I should also let them know that valuing public transportation means that we should never ever try to force our government to do better, because that would be JUST like Republicans. Also if you look at the state of the MBTA system and go, yeah the only problem with this is that it's not *absolutely* perfect, you're the shameful one.

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LukeWarmCheesecake t1_j2efj1m wrote

Look where you made your comment, on a post about new trains having new train issues. You want perfection where perfection cannot exist. This has nothing to do with holding government accountable. If anything, you should be saying "wow, it's good the MBTA caught this and took them out of service and are fixing them right away as new things always have issues like this." You made zero indication you understood or care about the nuance of this subject. So, if you're not a fan of privatization, which you conveniently didn't say you're not a fan of, all you seem to be doing is circle jerking for internet points.

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felineprincess93 t1_j2el8nf wrote

I am not a fan of privatization, and don't understand why you think you get to interrogate me or my beliefs, nor why I need to lay out my entire political viewpoint for you.

I am also not the only one commenting that the MBTA has made numerous missteps in the procurement of new cars and yet you're only attacking me. Weird.

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Justtryme90 t1_j2dq7q8 wrote

Would it not be worse to leave the problem cars rolling until something bad happens? This was bad when I thought it was all of the new trains cars. However it's only 9, which is not a big deal.

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and_dont_blink t1_j2csjky wrote

They don't feel they can affect change, and it's hard to place blame without running into real political, policy and optics issues (which currently lead to your being called names and screamed at) so it somehow becomes the fault of people a thousand miles away.

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snorkeling_moose t1_j2e4101 wrote

Catching an error isn't gross incompetence, it's recognizing a mistake and addressing it. No?

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felineprincess93 t1_j2eb7j1 wrote

This isn't the first time the new OL trains have been taken out of service due to a potential issue, which makes me question the longevity of this fleet.

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