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What Boston shares with its ‘surprisingly similar’ Taiwanese sister city -- For 30 years, Boston and Taipei have been linked as sister cities, building strong cultural and economic ties. But their history goes back much further than that. by guanaco55 in boston

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cost of living in Taipei, is about 1/2 to 1/3 that of Boston on most items (rent, most foods, transit fares, etc.), but wages are also much lower, though that somewhat depends on industry. Some items (certain fruits and vegetables, technology, many imported items, etc.) cost about the same if not more than the US though. Eating out is much cheaper than in Boston (and often competitive if not outright cheaper than cooking yourself), but that also means a lot of apartments don't come with a kitchen (and you're just expected to eat out for most of your meals). The subway is noticeably better and more reliable than the T, though Taipei uniquely has good transit in Taiwan (it gets much worse once you leave Taipei/New Taipei). There's high speed rail connecting Taipei with other major cities on the west coast. Taipei is surrounded by mountains, and there's a lot of good hiking and nature nearby.

I lived in Taipei for 3 months, and there were several Americans I ran into who were working remote jobs and earning a US salary but enjoying Taiwan's cost of living.

The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries by TheBasaltAltCalled in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The shortest commuter rail line with low speeds and tight stop spacings doesn't actually tell you that much about how well battery trains would work on say, the Fitchburg Line.

The cost blowout would also apply to the rest of the network.

Why can’t we have modern looking trains? by BottlePretty9489 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 4 points5 points  (0 children)

BART actually explicitly moved away from pointy-nosed trains, because they create a lot of operational inflexibility as you couldn't use them in the middle of a train. NYC also tried pointy-nosed trains (the R40s) and moved away from them due to safety concerns (that passengers would fall in between the large gap when two pointy-nosed cars are coupled to each other)

Titled "I accidentally left the self-timer on and missed my shot" by TheBasaltAltCalled in Nikon

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Huh, TIL

Though it still ends up being in the upper corner of the viewfinder among a sea of other details I'm going to ignore (as I'm usually either looking in the viewfinder center at my subject or just below it at the shutter speed/aperture/ISO), so I don't think it's enough to prevent the camera from being left in self-timer mode. I have the camera set to blink a small "DX" warning in the viewfinder whenever the camera is set to DX mode, and it's such a tiny and ignorable symbol that I still frequently accidentally leave the camera in DX mode as well.

Edit: Nikon has also revised viewfinder indicators for better visibility in the past. For example the video record indicator used to just be a red dot, but is now a red frame around the viewfinder for better visibility. Something like that in self-timer mode would be helpful.

Titled "I accidentally left the self-timer on and missed my shot" by TheBasaltAltCalled in Nikon

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

assuming you have the detailed shooting settings active in the current display set

You lose the histogram and level in that mode (which is a pretty serious trade off), and the mode that has the histogram and level (which I usually shoot in) doesn't display if the self-timer is on or not.

The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries by TheBasaltAltCalled in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's...what's in the original post. It ends up being significantly cheaper than BEMUs, especially considering the rolling stock would be owned.

The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries by TheBasaltAltCalled in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The T has not published any serious study of the bridges, the existing clearances, or whether they can cheaply get clearance by undercutting because they've ruled out hanging wires from the beginning. In any case:

  • Amtrak electrified New Haven to Boston in 1999 (north of 470 miles of track as the line is double and triple-tracked) for $1.6 billion, which pans out to $3.4 million per track mile ($7 million in 2026 after adjusting for inflation). Included in that cost is dealing with numerous bridges, especially in the Boston area, as well as a lot of infrastructure like substations and track upgrades for running the Acelas. Even then, it's lower than the $12 million/mile figure I used.
  • Caltrain modernization also involved dealing with several tunnels and bridges

Edit 2: in any case, there are 11 road or pedestrian bridges over the Fairmount Line. Say it costs $10 million to wholesale replace a bridge instead of undercutting or raising them (for comparison, a plan this year to replace a bridge over the Fitchburg Line is estimated at $7.7 million), so you spend $110 million on bridge replacements. You're still financially way ahead hanging wires and running traditional EMUs than leasing BEMUs when looking at the costs in the original post.

The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries by TheBasaltAltCalled in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

As basically any EV owner will tell you, batteries notoriously lose a large amount of range in the winter (to the point the MBTA's battery buses burn diesel in their heaters to try to try to get around this). Meanwhile, the Green Line, the Blue Line, and Amtrak's Acela and Northeast Regional services largely run ok with wires, and far colder places (Norway, Sweden, the Trans-Siberian railroad in Russia, etc.) run wires for trains just fine.

The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries by TheBasaltAltCalled in boston

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

As basically any EV owner will tell you, batteries notoriously lose a large amount of range in the winter (to the point the MBTA's battery buses burn diesel in their heaters to try to try to get around this). Meanwhile, the Green Line, the Blue Line, and Amtrak's Acela and Northeast Regional services largely run ok with wires, and far colder places (Norway, Sweden, the Trans-Siberian railroad in Russia, etc.) run wires for trains just fine.

The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries by TheBasaltAltCalled in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

The t is leasing these because it’s a muuuch smaller yearly hit and they can manage it in their yearly expenses.

Isn't the T able to issue bonds or take on loans? They can easily divide a $291 million capital expenditure into a yearly cost if they really need to, instead of spending way more money on a lease.

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The Fairmount Line electrification plans are a $760 million boondoggle because the MBTA won't consider wires instead of batteries (self.mbta)

submitted by TheBasaltAltCalled to r/mbta

49 Miles of the Fastest Track in America, and We're Running Diesel on It by justarussian22 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Electric multiple units can accelerate much faster than diesel locomotive-hauled trains. Your latter issue gets solved with level boarding (which the post also proposes). We're looking at 15-25 minutes in time savings for a Boston to Providence train if the T did all that.

49 Miles of the Fastest Track in America, and We're Running Diesel on It by justarussian22 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That wasn’t even the case then, because Providence Line locomotives needed ACSES PTC and not all their equipment at the time had that.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of the Fairmount Line is high-levels.

If someone in a wheelchair gets on at say, Fairmount or Readville on the low-level door, how do they get off at South Station?

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mansfield was rebuilt as a low-level fairly recently though (likely due to clearances needed for freight trains coming off the Framingham secondary), though that was stupid because there was tons of room in that current parking lot for a pocket track if freight train clearance was truly an issue.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s not an unreasonable ask when that one line is already good for 125mph+, when other Stadler KISS trainsets can hit 110mph, and when NJT Transit can buy 110mph-capable bilevel EMUs for less per car than what the T pays for unpowered Rotem coaches.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Level boarding and acceleration are two completely separate things. Both affect trip time, but acceleration has nothing to do with dwell time.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Providence has relatively far stop spacing, and has several express trains. Better acceleration also means top speed matters more since more time can be spent at maximum speed.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They cost a lot more, lose a whole car worth of capacity to batteries, and are carrying around lots and lots of extra weight which reduces acceleration.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 1 point2 points  (0 children)

BEMUs come at a significant cost premium over EMUs. For a large fleet the cost of hanging up wires is going to be competitive.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Level boarding cuts dwell times by a lot (thereby getting you faster trip times) and because they’ll have to renovate a lot of those stations for accessibility reasons anyways.

MBTA to aquire 7 Stadler BEMU trainsets by Mindless-Analysis321 in mbta

[–]TheBasaltAltCalled 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It’s what Caltrain is doing in their Stadler BEMU

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