John+Fallon-+Train



John Fallon English 101/Kingsley/Sect 5 Assignment Due Date: November 16, 2009 Train Observations Public Transit here in Boston is referred to as many things; the t, the train, and the MBTA. The T is something that people here in Boston love and hate. It is a system built of four major lines as well as a commuter rail service, which extends itself to towns and cities surrounding Boston. It is also made up of two types of bus services the bus and the silver line which goes to the airport and a couple other popular business areas, such as the world trade center. The bus extends itself out into the suburbs of Boston as well as in the center of this major city. The T started 300 years ago, as a basic transportation system. It has become a giant system that since the end of the 1970’s transports about 300.000 people each day. The T was originally constructed in Boston as trolley system which then transformed into an actual subway system, in 1897 becoming North America’s first subway. At that point in time it was actually quicker to walk to your destination than to actually take the transportation system. The structure of a typical red-line train is pretty simplistic when it comes to its design. There are eleven carts per train, with four doors in each cart, making it accessible from both sides. It would be very difficult if there were any less than four doors on a cart because of the constant congestion and the large amounts of commuters that the MBTA sees on a daily basis. “In terms of daily ridership, the MBTA remains the nation's 5th largest mass transit system. It serves a population of 4,667,555 in 175 cities and towns with an area of 3,244 square miles. To carry out its mission it maintains 183 bus routes, 2 of which are Bus Rapid Transit lines, 3 rapid transit lines, 5 streetcar (Central Subway/Green Line) routes, 4 trackless trolley lines and 13 commuter rail routes. Its roster of equipment consists of 927 diesel and CNG buses, 32 dual mode buses, 28 ETB′s (electric trolley buses), 408 heavy rail vehicles, 200 light rail vehicles, 10 PCC's streetcars, 83 commuter rail locomotives, 410 commuter rail coaches and 298 MBTA-owned specially equipped vans and sedans, and an additional 235 contractor-supplied specially equipped vans and sedans. The average weekday ridership for the entire system is approximately 1.1 million passenger trips”(MBTA). This just goes to show how quickly the times have changed, and how complex our train systems have become since they started with the idea of oxen pulling carts from city to city. Now, we have the fastest carts getting us to multiple destinations in the matter of minutes. When someone walks on the train there are two-single rows of seats on the left and right sides. For the most part, the seats are relatively comfortable, which is good for people who may have a long train-ride ahead of them. Incase the carts are overly crowded, there are handle bars above and beside the seats since most of the time it can be a bumpy ride due to the trains velocity. In between every two-carts there is a place for the conductors, some call it their “office”, where they make their announcements of the up-coming stops, and to make sure that people are entering and exiting the train quickly, and especially in an orderly and safe fashion. The windows give the train-goers something to lookout to pass the time in between stops. Seeing as the T is used by so many people both in and around Boston they are now expanding the size in width and length as well as adding more cars to the train on each line. Starting from Braintree, you can see a few shopping malls, the ones with Borders, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Best Buy, and you quickly come up to Quincy Center. The ride from Quincy Center to JFK/Umass is very boring because there is a lack of scenery, but once you cross the Neponset Bridge into Dorchester a better view is on the horizon. You are now able to see the giant N-Star gas-tank, and Savin Hill park and Malibu Beach (where I grew up) are shown briefly before being cut off by the Savin Hill Ave. Bridge and entering into another tunnel. The stops from Andrew Station to South Station are all underground; this is where an iPod or something to read definitely comes in handy. The nationally known Park Street Station and Downtown Crossing stops are always extremely crowded; however, once you get into the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) stop, the view of Boston is back, and the view of the Esplanade is captivating. I usually never go any further than the MGH stop; however, for this observation project I went further on the red-line. The next stop is Harvard, and from there to Davis Station shows an amazing side of Cambridge and all of the shopping centers and boutiques that is has to offer to it’s residents. The final destination of the train is Alewife, which is very close to many of the northern suburbs such as Carlisle, Billerica, and Chelmsford. It is always very interesting to “people watch” while you’re riding the T. There are so many different nationalities, ethnicities, cultures, and ranges of ages and sizes of all of the commuters. Braintree is a predominantly Caucasian town, but once you enter Quincy Center, there are a substantially noticeable amount of Asian and Middle-Eastern commuters that are seen day to day. This is because Quincy has developed into a very diverse city. Quincy Center is a very busy stop since many office buildings are located in the heart of Quincy and the buses run to many of the surrounding neighborhoods such as Wollaston, Braintree, Ashmont, and Weymouth (only to name a few). During the school/work day you see many students get off at Quincy Center and North Quincy Station since that is where two of Quincy’s largest public high schools are located. It all seems the same up to JFK/Umass, where enormous crowds of both high school kids who attend Boston College High School, and students of all ages that attend UMASS Boston get off. The majority of the older commuters stay on the train from South Station to Park Street, since other lines are accessible to get them further into the city, where perhaps their job’s company is located. Park Street is usually where the majority of the commuters exit the rain. Since parking is extremely over-priced in the city of Boston, I’ve noticed that many nurses and doctors take the train to Mass. General seeing as it’s a two-minute walk from the station. From late in the afternoon to right before the red-line shuts down at 12:30 AM, many nurses are just getting out from work after a long shift and still have a potentially long ride ahead of them. Being one of the regular patrons on the T, I both observe and know first hand the real MBTA experience. The T is a place that caters to many different peoples needs, both for fun and for work. It is a system that will only improve in the future. It has come a long way from its beginning 300 years ago. Most Bostonians complain about the T and the way it functions, however without it we would be in trouble. It is the main form of transportation for many people both in and out of Boston. The T’s many services are set to improve and expand in the future to many other destinations.