...all the trackside doors and windows have been boarded over and then *painted* to look like they're still usable. Insane.pic.twitter.com/e4wVfNzoAY
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Waverly Station located in a *very* wealthy suburb of Boston, and this is the best they can managepic.twitter.com/odp3qSZbDf
How hard is it to build a roof over your platforms anyway?
Belmont Station The building, used now by the Lions Club, is inaccessible to passengers--they just wait at a low platform behind itpic.twitter.com/QjZhst3PE5
At the next stop--Porter Square--there is a connection available to the Red Line subwaypic.twitter.com/b6VhNIx0OK
In the second pic you can see MBTA's capacity to react to snow: it has none, and had to cancel servicepic.twitter.com/KXmIaRLV2a
...and after Porter, we reach the terminal, North Station. So: why am I bumming you out with these dismal stations?
Mainly to demonstrate how much low-hanging fruit there is. The Fitchburg Line--and others like it--are *barely there* in the first place!
Build roofs. Install high platforms. Install fare gates. Replace loco-hauled fleet with DMUs. Sell concessions. We can do it!
partly accurate (there are other reasons); easy to address w enforced fare gates & ability to kick out disruptive passengers
main reason is that trains *as they exist now* in the US are not a useful way to accomplish most trips people want to take
few routes, infrequent service, are huge barriers. Badly maintained and outdated tech make the problem even worse
if you're trying to go somewhere odds are the car isn't just the BEST way, but the ONLY way to get there. Can you blame em?
the problem of state ownership and charity mentality hurts too--to take transit is almost as bad as taking welfare...
...but even if there were no image problem, it creates a very bad operating mentality: tailoring services to "the poor"...
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