Evaluating Service Mitigation Proposals for the MBTA Green Line Extension Construction Delay Using Simplified Planning Methods PDF Download
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Author: Jamie Cara Rosen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172
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Book Description
This thesis reviews a select group of transit environmental mitigation proposals through the application of ridership estimation methodologies. In recent years, rider demands and environmental concerns have led many transit agencies to explore options for increasing service even within constrained budgets. Anticipated state and metropolitan area climate change mitigation strategies are likely to result in the need for further transportation system changes in many cities. In response to environmental concerns raised during the construction of the Central Artery/Tunnel, Massachusetts committed to extending the Green Line light rail from its Cambridge terminal at Lechmere into Somerville and Medford. The Massachusetts State Implementation Plan requires that the Green Line be extended in two branches by the end of 2014. Massachusetts has delayed construction on the extension, and it must therefore undertake mitigation for the delay. Facing both financial constraints and pressure to increase service, transit agencies such as the MBTA need new ways to improve transportation systems with limited financial input and means by which to evaluate the impact of proposals. Several mitigation proposals focusing on transit services in the Lechmere Station area are presented in this thesis. Increasing service on the Green Line to Lechmere is found to be a good first step towards improving service in Somerville. Proposals for increasing bus feeder service to and from Lechmere and the surrounding areas include both increasing service on existing routes and introducing new routes. Partnerships with existing private providers could also help decrease the costs to the MBTA of introducing a new route. In order to analyze the mitigation proposals, several methodologies are explored including area wide transportation planning models, direct demand (regression) models and comparison equations. A rail elasticity of demand with respect to service is calculated based on a prior MBTA system experience, while elasticities from literature are used for buses. In addition, a direct demand model is estimated for the MBTA bus network, and the results are compared to elasticity analysis. Regional planning models are found to be important for predicting system-wide responses but often are too detailed and expensive to use to evaluate every proposal. Instead, direct demand models can help with initial rankings of proposals, and service elasticities can help further examine expected ridership changes due to service improvements.
Author: Jamie Cara Rosen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172
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Book Description
This thesis reviews a select group of transit environmental mitigation proposals through the application of ridership estimation methodologies. In recent years, rider demands and environmental concerns have led many transit agencies to explore options for increasing service even within constrained budgets. Anticipated state and metropolitan area climate change mitigation strategies are likely to result in the need for further transportation system changes in many cities. In response to environmental concerns raised during the construction of the Central Artery/Tunnel, Massachusetts committed to extending the Green Line light rail from its Cambridge terminal at Lechmere into Somerville and Medford. The Massachusetts State Implementation Plan requires that the Green Line be extended in two branches by the end of 2014. Massachusetts has delayed construction on the extension, and it must therefore undertake mitigation for the delay. Facing both financial constraints and pressure to increase service, transit agencies such as the MBTA need new ways to improve transportation systems with limited financial input and means by which to evaluate the impact of proposals. Several mitigation proposals focusing on transit services in the Lechmere Station area are presented in this thesis. Increasing service on the Green Line to Lechmere is found to be a good first step towards improving service in Somerville. Proposals for increasing bus feeder service to and from Lechmere and the surrounding areas include both increasing service on existing routes and introducing new routes. Partnerships with existing private providers could also help decrease the costs to the MBTA of introducing a new route. In order to analyze the mitigation proposals, several methodologies are explored including area wide transportation planning models, direct demand (regression) models and comparison equations. A rail elasticity of demand with respect to service is calculated based on a prior MBTA system experience, while elasticities from literature are used for buses. In addition, a direct demand model is estimated for the MBTA bus network, and the results are compared to elasticity analysis. Regional planning models are found to be important for predicting system-wide responses but often are too detailed and expensive to use to evaluate every proposal. Instead, direct demand models can help with initial rankings of proposals, and service elasticities can help further examine expected ridership changes due to service improvements.
Author: David A. Sindel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
The MBTA Green Line in the Boston metropolitan area is the busiest light rail system in the United States. Aging infrastructure and vehicles, a soon-to-be-constructed line extension, and the potential for 40% ridership growth by mid-century will tax already inconsistent service. But in this challenge lies opportunity: a potential full-fleet replacement and accompanying infrastructure upgrades would remove constraints which have long affected operations and vehicle selection. Service evaluation and operations planning including frequency assignment, scheduled setting, and vehicle allocation are relatively well-understood problems for simple public transit lines. However, complex systems like the Green Line - those with multiple overlapping service patterns or branches sharing a trunkline - often present a transit planner with multiple tradeoffs and difficult decisions. Similarly, selection of appropriate rolling stock to help meet increasing capacity requirements is more difficult on a legacy system with physical constraints. Detailed analysis of various automated data collection sources can be used to assist medium-term and long-term planning decisions for these complex systems. This thesis offers a sequential approach to improving the Green Line in that context. Analysis before and after schedule changes in spring 2016 (including the removal of three-car trains) shows that overall capacity increased and passenger waiting times decreased. However, this is largely the partial reversal of service deterioration since 2010, rather than significant longterm improvement. The development of a linear optimization model for determining service frequency and vehicle allocation provides a method to incorporate observational data into evaluation of alternate service scenarios. Analysis of potential rolling stock models based on capacity and physical characteristics indicates that current light rail product lines from four manufacturers can be viable for future Green Line use, although some modifications and infrastructure upgrades will be necessary to meet long-term capacity needs. Although the specific details of this case study are particular to the Green Line, the process should be broadly applicable to other complex branched transit systems.
Author: Matthew A. Ciborowski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 119
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Book Description
Research was conducted on the proposed Green Line Extension, a light rail corridor from Cambridge through Somerville and Medford, Massachusetts. The project is being undertaken by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Due to legal commitments and agreements, the line must be in revenue service by December 31, 2014, or the state faces penalties. Interviews, literature review and personal experience come together to explore the process behind completing such a large, complex infrastructure project. It is theorized, and confirmed, that a strong articulated and utilized policy statement will help the state complete this project with greater speed and efficiency. In order to confirm this hypothesis, each problem facing the project process is broken down and examined for the ability to improve the project process. Findings include the need for greater accountability, organizational reform and regulation overhaul. The research is applicable not only to the current work on the Green Line Extension, but to similar infrastructure projects state- and nation-wide. Finally, the thesis proposes that trust in planners has failed in a variety of ways. This lack of trust manifests itself in poor projects and a poor process. Generating a greater level of trust in planners and the planning process will create significant improvements to future endeavors.
Author: Mihir Ravindra Bhosale
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172
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Legacy urban rail transit systems in North America increasingly face challenges in maintaining their infrastructure to provide reliable, effective, and safe service and absorb future growth in cities, which makes scheduled service disruptions to implement State of Good Repair (SGR) projects imminent. Mitigating the impacts of these disruptions on passengers is important in order to maintain transit ridership in the face of competing transportation network company services. Transit agencies have access to large amounts of passenger and vehicle location data, which provide valuable information regarding passenger travel patterns and service levels. This thesis presents a framework for incorporating passenger effects and their mitigation in planning for SGR project shutdowns using the data sources available to transit agencies, with relevant criteria for informing decisions proposed at each stage of the framework. The thesis focuses on passenger impact mitigation in two aspects: selection of work plan, and identification and planning of existing alternative services within the system. From passenger travel patterns, the effects of a shutdown can be gaged, and the impact can be quantified in terms of additional passenger hours. This measure would vary by time of day, day of week, and season, and can be used to determine a shutdown work plan which is less disruptive to passengers. For a particular shutdown plan, connectivity within the transit system implies that some passengers could benefit by using alternative services on existing routes instead of station-to-station bus shuttles. The proposed framework presents criteria for identifying such alternatives and passenger segments which could potentially benefit from them, assessing efficacy of the alternative service with respect to traditional bus shuttles, estimating operational requirements, and evaluating the mitigation benefit of an alternative. The implementation of the framework has been demonstrated for three case studies of recent shutdowns in the MBTA, using data sources available at the agency. Post-implementation evaluation of potential alternatives to shuttle service in two of these case studies shows substantial potential magnitudes of passenger benefit and proportion of passenger impact being mitigated.
Author: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric railroads
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Alexandra A. Malikova
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 149
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Book Description
Transit agencies face a variety of challenges, from increasing ridership to changes in infrastructure, to system expansions, all of which require significant preparation to accommodate the changes without affecting passengers or the agency negatively. The MBTA Green Line, a Boston light rail system serving nearly 230,000 average weekday passengers, will be undergoing major changes in the next two decades, including nearly doubling of ridership and system expansion. In order to prepare for these changes, measures need to be taken to increase capacity and plan for operations on the new segment. Starting in Fall 2010, the MBTA added to a 2-car train operation, and subsequently increased, a number of 3-car trains on three of the four Green Line branches, in order to begin to address the capacity issue. This thesis analyzes service performance before and after implementation of 3-car trains to find that although scheduled capacity increased slightly, the actual capacity of the system remained constant during the morning peak period and decreased during the evening peak period. Furthermore, there were some negative impacts with respect to passenger waiting time and running times, thus worsening the overall passenger experience. However, since 3-car trains will be required for increasing capacity on the Green Line, it is recommended that trials of 3-car trains continue, with the restriction that only 2- or 3-car trains operate on a branch. Furthermore, field observations at terminal stations on two of the branches show differences in operations management practices, which help explain some variability in service along the route, and point to strategies to improve service reliability.
Author:
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Transportation Research Board
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309088879
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 60
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Book Description
Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a 7.8 mile system of bridges and underground highways and ramps, is the most expensive public works project ever undertaken in the United States. The original cost estimate of $2.6 billion has already been exceeded by $12 billion, and the project will not be completed until 2005, seven years late. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), the public steward of the project, requested that the National Research Council carry out an independent assessment of the project's management and contract administration practices, with a focus on the present situation and measures that should be taken to bring the project to a successful conclusion. This report presents the committee's findings and recommendations pertaining to cost, scheduling, and transitioning from the current organization dominated by consultants to an operations organization composed largely of full-time MTA staff. The report recommends that MTA establish an external, independent, peer-review program to address technical and management issues until the transition to operations and maintenance is complete; begin a media campaign now to teach drivers how to use the new system safely; and develop, immediately implement, and maintain a comprehensive security program.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 116
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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56
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Book Description
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
