Despite customer disapproval, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority does not have any major plans to improve or change the Green Line and B Train service over the summer, officials said.
The MBTA will continue to run three-car trains 32 times per weekday on the B, D and E branches, but does not plan to raise this number, said Lydia Rivera, spokeswoman for the MBTA, in an email.
Four-car trains will run during Boston Red Sox games throughout the summer and into the fall, but four-car train service on the Green Line will stop at the end of the season, she said.
However, many Boston University students have complained about capacity issues on the B Line compared to other Green Line trains.
“Every time I’ve taken the T, I’ve been crowded into the stairwells to stand or in the middle where I have nowhere to balance,” said Wallie Wachter, a junior in the College of Communication. “And I feel my worse experiences have been on the Green Line, so I hope they improve Green Line service this summer.”
“The Green Line is sometimes very inconsistent, and compared to the C and the D, there are less B Line [trains],” said Joshua Liu, a freshman in the School of Management.
“MBTA continues to work on capacity issues,” Rivera said, but she added that no additional changes over the summer in regards to B Line service could be foreseen because the T has worked to improve service recently.
“A positive note – Green Line trains’ reliability has improved with the number of failures at its lowest in years,” she said.
There have been 5,000 miles between failures for the first time in a very long time, according to Rivera.
The MBTA also plans to release an application where other types of complaints can be directed.
T officials launched a competition for developers to create a Commuter Connect application, allowing commuters to take pictures to report problems to the MBTA, and the winner and app will be announced late May, said MBTA General Manager Richard Davey to Fox 25 News on April 19.
“So you see a pothole in one of our bus ways, you see a light out, or a door handle broken, you can take a picture,” Davey said to Fox 25 News. “It will connect right to our customer information forum, it goes right into our customer data base, and we can send out a work crew to get the job done.”
The MBTA also plans to close Green Line trains between North Station and Lechmere for a project this summer that will be taking place called the “Science Park/West End Improvement Project.” The MBTA will be widening platforms, constructing two elevators, upgrading lighting systems and reconstructing station stairways, according to the MBTA website.
A shuttle bus will replace Green Line trains between North Station and Lechmere Station from April 30 until November 2011.
Students, however, remained more concerned with capacity and frequency issues on the Green Line branches.
“I feel like sometimes, [trains are] still not as regular as they should be,” said Mensimah Bentsi-Enchill, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. “I have to wait out there 20, 30 minutes sometimes for the next B train to come.”
“I feel like they need either more B lines or need little signs that tell you when it’s about to come, and when it’s about to depart,” Liu said.
Real-time tracking for the Green Line is about five years away, though, Rivera said.
Other students recognized the MBTA’s proactive steps this year.
“I think you just have to be patient… I mean, the service can’t be perfect, but I know they’re trying,” said CAS freshman Ann Jacob. “I think that’s what counts.”
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I’m so tired of the MBTA doing everything they can about cosmetic problems and ignoring the real problem: service. I sent many emails to the Route 57 Key Bus Route Improvement Plan only to get an email saying that the $10-million program is only intended to fix things like benches and trash cans. They can’t do anything about service (the MBTA’s Service Planning Unit is supposed to be involved with service complaints, but they seem to be MIA).
I don’t care about trash cans, benches, shopkeepers cleaning their sidewalks near T-stops, etc. I don’t care about apps that let you report potholes or cracked lights. I just want to have a 57 pick me up. I just want to stop seeing two, three and sometimes even four overcrowded buses pass me by. I want to stop waiting at a T-stop for over an hour to finally get on a bus. It shouldn’t take 90 minutes to go from Boston University to Brighton Center.
To be honest, I’m nervous about their efforts to reduce bus bunching because at least it meant that there was the possibility of an empty bus right behind a full one.