Caged Fury

Caged Fury, originally uploaded by Night Owl City.

I feel like one of those pictures in the opening to Cheers.

Dream Deferred

Dream Deferred, originally uploaded by Night Owl City.

No 355?: Deadhead Trips for the 352

I thought I knew everything about Deadhead Trips, I was wrong.

I was looking at the most MBTA Service Plan because I'm calculating subsidy
{Subsidy = [cost - revenue]) as far as i understand it}

I came across a bus with ridiculously low ridership, the 355 which goes from Mishawum Commuter Rail Station to downtown. I'm still a little unclear why there needs to be a bus that does what the commuter rail does, but apparently 15 people (probably 7-8 people going round trip) who ride this bus everyday do.

It serves Cummings Industrial Park. Biotech. Au Bon Pain. And other crap.

355 Mishawum St. (Woburn) - Express to Downtown Boston:

This is a bus that serves 15 passengers a day.
Costs $434 a day to run with an average fare collected of $2.85. (before the fare increase, I assume)
resulting in a cost of $26.09 per passenger

so just for weekday travel, the bus costs (minus revenue) $101,751 a year.

Of course, for me, the point is not that money should be taken away from public transportation, but that people should use it. This is a commuter bus, it operates maybe twice a day for the purpose of bringing people to work. Highly infrequently. Stupid suburbs.

From the MBTA 2006 Service Plan Appendix:

"Due to the limited service provided by the Route 355, it fails the span, frequency and net cost/passenger standards. However, because three of the four Route 355 trips would be deadhead trips on Route 352 if the Route 355 were not operating, it is recommended that Route 355 not be changed. Route 355 also fails the schedule adherence standard. Because this route now operates using some GPS-equipped buses, as subsequent data become available, analysis of the run times will be conducted and additional changes introduced if warranted."

I assume a "Deadhead Trip" is a return trip to a bus depot without being in service.

well, the point of this post is lost on me. enjoy.

stupid suburbs.

Silver Line gets Friday off

J.Airport and I are about to take a trip out west. Just need to get to the airport, involving a simple Red Line to Silver Line connection and we're there. We just need to know what time we should leave.

Thankfully the MBTA's website has their handy trip planner on the front page. Simple. Convenient.

Except that it seems to forget that certain lines exist on Fridays. The Orange Line has not existed on some Fridays.

This time, its a F**k You (Silver Line) Friday. It has been disappeared. On J.Airport's first attempt to plan our trip, you needed to get old skool and take the Red to the Blue Line to Airport Station. Not for me, thanks.

So I try and I learn of a bus that hits up South Station AND the Airport. On its way to Salem.

• Take Red Line - Braintree Sta To South Station view route
  Approx. 3:44 PM Depart from Central Sq - Inbound
  Approx. 3:55 PM Arrive at South Station - Outbound
• 459 Salem Depot Via Logan Airport & Central Sq view route
  4:07 PM Depart from Summer St & South Station- Red Line entr
  4:23 PM Arrive at Terminal C - Departures Level

Well, damn. Why did the T build a Silver Line anyway? The magic number is 459. Forget that Silvery thing above the Red Line. It doesn't exist.

J.Airport points out that on Thursdays the Silver Line exists, but moves in mysterious ways:

• Take Red Line - Braintree Sta To South Station view route
  Approx. 3:31 PM Depart from Central Sq - Inbound
  Approx. 3:42 PM Arrive at South Station - Outbound
• Sl1 Logan Airport view route
  3:50 PM Depart from So Station Silver Line (outbound)
  4:05 PM Arrive at Terminal A
• Sl1 Silver Line South Station view route
  4:05 PM Depart from Terminal A
  4:16 PM Arrive at Terminal E
• Walk For 11 Mins. To Terminal C, Logan Airport
  Walk approx. 2 blocks W on Terminal E.
  Turn right on Ramp.
  Walk approx. 1 block NW on Ramp.
  Walk straight on Terminal E.
  Walk a short distance NW on Terminal E.

Ride the Bus to Terminal A.

J.Airport: Get out of the bus. Get back on the bus. Ride past Terminal C. Get off the Bus at Terminal E. Walk on the Highway ramps back to Terminal C.

My Feel Trip

From Villa Ria arrives this horrible depiction of African American Vernacular English from some sort of linguistics text that was obviously written at least 150 miles away from the nearest person who would actually speak it.

Help the Police

Its NWA Day! With an important message for children:
Help the Police, Help the Police, Help em



I'm just surprised to see a Brit who can seamlessly work with any NWA track, really.

"having lots of fun cause I'm a teenager, with little bit of gold and
pager. Searching my car looking for the biscuits. Thinking every chap
is selling bits of chocolate"

[thanks to Airport for the tip]

Tavares, draft 1