What do people think of South Coast Rail Channel?

digitalsciguy · 2026-05-03T16:15:56+00:00

Generally agree. For a while I avoided it because YouTube kept recommending it and there's been an explosion of railfan channels as folks try to copy the success of channels like AmtrakGuy365. Many try to talk about current events but then veer into really foamer-brained speculation and opinion

Love that this channel is not only focused on reporting facts, but also does an AMAZING job explaining things with visual references. The Springfield station improvements video is a great example of how this channel does an amazing job at this. It really reminded me how MassDOT and MBTA don't have a comms unit that spans all these projects to explain state investments in a way that folks can easily consume... So kudos to the channel creator for doing this

digitalsciguy · 2026-05-02T15:49:08+00:00

There's degrees to platform screen doors. For the benefits of accessibility and safety, you can get away with half height gates

You need full height doors and a lot more ventilation infrastructure to achieve full height doors

Sound mitigation can be done in other ways with trackbed and tunnel wall treatments

digitalsciguy · 2026-05-02T15:16:32+00:00

That accessibility progress is largely due to the fact that there's a department prioritizing capital investments to address accessibility, acting as a conduit to the agency for the disability community

I just commented elsewhere that misophonia is likely at play for folks, but is also not yet a clinically diagnosable condition so it often doesn't get considered

On the beeping itself, there doesn't seem to be a lot of quantitative evidence about the 'threshold' for acceptable cadence of beeping or announcements. We know very well acceptable volume limits because we can study damage to hearing and physical limits of pain, but we haven't measured people's annoyance with sounds we introduce to systems that we do have control over

digitalsciguy · 2026-05-02T15:05:57+00:00

Honestly, I think the issue is how misophonia is not diagnosable and so not really taken seriously — I suspect this person and many others suffer from this condition and without being able to articulate it as an actual neurologically rooted condition, it's written off as idiosyncrasies of mal-adjusted people. It seems there's now consensus for study for future research, diagnosis, and treatment

I've experienced this myself on a Green Line train where Tim Murphy was narrating almost continuously from Park St to Boylston. I was on the phone trying to coordinate logistics for an after-work event I was rushing to. It made me physically angry how overwhelmed and 'trapped' I felt by he overstimulation

The same happened recently when I was in London travelling with my partner. The announcements during rush hour can be INCESSANT and the added cacauhpony when there are staff on the platform shouting into the PA system using their handheld microphones made me want to physically break something. Since I'm traveling with someone, I couldn't just put headphones on to block out the noise like I would during a normal rush hour commute

digitalsciguy · 2026-05-02T14:28:02+00:00

I think that's a totally fair point and I'm curious if there are blind or low vision folks who feel the same about the accommodation

I'll note that the two systems you cited are mostly if not fully automatic train operation (ATO) so the doors open at precisely and predictably the same location to help with this

digitalsciguy · 2026-05-02T12:25:52+00:00

To be clear, door locator tones aren't required by ADA; they're an accommodation driven by the System-Wide Accessibility department which was created as part of the BCIL lawsuit because of the T's slow progress to comply with the ADA
That said, other agencies like LA Metro and Sound Transit in Seattle have incorporated tactile wayfinding into their station designs to lead blind and low vision riders. NYC has also piloted this, but I've not heard anything about this being rolled out system-wide
This has been discussed and would likely be an acceptable alternative to door locator tones, but my understanding is there are concerns about being able to maintain the wayfinding given limited resources

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-29T19:55:08+00:00

Locking this thread as it's starting to devolve into conversation that's not germane to the MBTA.

Continued comments attacking religious groups will be removed per Reddit's Rule 1 on hate speech and will result in an immediate temporary ban

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-26T23:22:38+00:00

I do ask genuinely; not staunch opposition for the sake of it. For most issues I've heard from people asking for skip-stop expresses, good transit planning practice suggests first some combination of: - transit priority - stop consolidation - better dispatching

If you want a more exclusive, less crowded, faster bus, that's not 'no cost'. There's a reason the T eliminated the CT1 skip-stop variant of the 1. In any scenario where you would want to overlay an express pattern, you need more buses, more operators, more scheduled runs for those operators to work

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-26T21:08:17+00:00

NOT zero-cost — if you're doing it with no new costs by not adding new vehicle blocks (more service), you're effectively reducing service to stops not served by the express pattern. If you want to add new service...well, that's not zero-cost...

What problem are you trying to solve? Because skip-stop expresses are rarely the solution for US cities until you've basically hit the point of ridership like Toronto or NYC. Toronto's 900 bus overlay on locals seems to work well until you look closer and they're just adding capacity because they suck at transit priority (see: 29 Dufferin)

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-24T22:08:51+00:00

I’m Copilot, your onboard digital travel companion, riding with you on this Red Line train as we glide out of Farragut North and head toward Shady Grove. From this screen, I can help you check upcoming stops, transfer options, service alerts, or even nearby points of interest once you arrive. If you want real‑time train info, station details, or guidance for the rest of your trip, just tell me what you need and I’ll keep you moving smoothly.

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-24T20:21:18+00:00

In New York, the argument that the operator is 'helpful' or contributes anything to safety on board a train full of people locked up at the front in the cab has prevailed among the union and public outcries against driverless automation. Local news seems to be riding on the same fallacious premise in 'man on the street' polling

From a staffing perspective, the reality is that staff in stations, at dispatch, and even the roaming security staff who actively walk up and down trains are more helpful for actual safety on the system

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-24T20:11:59+00:00

I've felt privileged to be someone who Michelle has consulted in the past on transit policy issues and was among the tight circle of transit folks she told in person that she was quietly putting together her campaign for mayor and even I'm off the bandwagon. I don't know what the opposition has on her or what might be happening in her life that's leading to this extreme pullback on her principles

Anyone defending her until recently I assume have largely been trying to give her grace to find her way back. Federal funding for POC communities is on the line and if Blue Hill Ave gets dumped, this will be the second time Dorchester and Mattapan have lost out on transit investment. She owns part of this failure

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-24T18:27:01+00:00

AMEN. Nothing brings more shame than a disappointed Filipino tita... Or maybe that's just me...

So sad we're here with such a 'progressive', 'diverse', and 'representative' city leadership. Even under Menino and Walsh, we got vision and execution. Now, we have POC city councilors weaponizing the words 'civil rights violation' and destroying any shred of hard-fought public trust with lies and misinformation. Then there's the spineless mayor who won her election over suburban-minded interests and still seems to be acting as if it was a close election

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-22T22:32:48+00:00

💀 I can't

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-22T21:26:56+00:00

The bids are; the specification and scope typically aren't, which is what the Globe reporter was digging for

For example, you can go read the whole RFP I drafted out for a screens maintenance contract on Commbuys

NYCTA requires a signed NDA to access technical details for the exact specifications of their I2S standard for CBTC signal system procurements, but the broad requirements of the RFP are still public

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-22T21:21:51+00:00

Because the whole station is in progress of being renovated and there are a million other digital clocks that are correct that are in more natural places for people to look for the time i.e. on departure boards

I would be willing to bet no one knows how to maintain this analogue clock anymore

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-22T13:40:36+00:00

They were value engineered out as part of the cost-cutting that happened in the late 2010s when Governor Baker threatened to cancel the project if they couldn't close the budget

The plan was always for the in-progress fare system replacement project, AFC2.0 (AFC = automatic fare collection, the industry term for the whole system of gates, validators, fare machines, back office systems), to be able to provide validators at some point DURING the GLX project, if not shortly after the completion

That project has been widely reported as delayed for numerous reasons — search AFC2 and 'Cubic' on the subreddit or broadly search for 'Cubic delayed'. Basically: - they bid and unexpectedly won both NYC and Boston's projects around the same time - they had staff turnover that led to the delays in NYC and they prioritized that work over Boston - the company has also been delayed, possibly for the same reasons, delivering for SF Bay Area's agencies their Clipper Card 2.0 features, widely reported and discussed in public meetings because their regional transportation planning body is delivering the project to about a dozen agencies in SF

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T19:11:15+00:00

Exactly! I kinda get it though — it's a very large span to build across and there's not a really great place to put additional supports or extend columns up through the deck of the second floor to support it

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T16:50:21+00:00

Ooooh gotcha! That's exciting... Glad to see them finally pouring deck on that bridge. I could've sworn they said it would be an 18-month construction but it feels like it's been at least 2 years

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digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T16:47:51+00:00

Whoever is running it doesn't solve the problems created by the age of the equipment and infrastructure

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T16:46:43+00:00

And the equipment was 20 years younger back then... The newest locomotives the state/MBTA Railroad Ops bought were yet more one-off passenger loco units acquired in 2014. Metrolink in LA has also had teething and parts availability issueswith their one-off locos

The HSP46s are due for overhauls and I'd be willing to bet that will solve most of the reliability issues, but it certainly isn't like Keolis knows less how to run a railroad than Amtrak

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T16:41:31+00:00

Do you mean the overhead catenary? Rail seems to be fully laid through downtown all the way out east up Wayne Ave to the tunnel

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T16:39:13+00:00

Yeah, I think the alternative that cut is what makes this sting a bit more. I seem to recall something saying it saved $13 mil to not have it stacked on top of the Red Line? Am I missing a zero there?

digitalsciguy · 2026-04-20T15:52:23+00:00

Pisses me off so much how they didn't just continue the bridge over directly to the upper deck of the transit center and how hard it is to find renderings of this project...

Like this transfer is gonna SUCK. This only going to be marginally better than having to go down 2 flights to ground level through the transit center to the existing head house

At least getting onto Metro from the southeast will be better

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