Not long ago I was reading a monthly publication released by some sort of train-system watchdog in Japan. Being that I am in love with the idea of quick and non-shitty rail transit, it was pretty interesting to me, despite being dry.
One particular section that caught my eye was a timeline of events regarding the production of shinkansen (bullet) trains in Japan. On this timeline, I read the following: in 1972, all new Series 1 (I think it was 1, but it doesn't really matter) trains were outfitted with scrolling displays on the outside. These displays are the LCD kind of thing that show basic information like route number, destination, name, etc.
What struck me is that a great number of the trains on the MBTA subway system in Boston still have paper/static displays on their side...and half of the time they show the wrong destination. So to recap: Japanese trains got digital displays in 1972. Almost 40 years later, the MBTA has yet to catch up.
In other news, I noticed in the news paper this morning that the MBCR (the commuter rail division of the MBTA) has given up on its bid to buy new trains from the Toronto transit system. Of note is the fact that those trains are 20 years old. So wait, if those 20-year-old trains are considered "new," how the hell old are the old trains?!
With our public transit system in such a state, it's a wonder anyone uses it at all. Way to go!
Comments
so true, so true!
Posted by: dad | April 29, 2009 4:47 PM
The sign thing is worse in Vancouver. We only have two train lines, but they go along the same track for most of the way. Unfortunately, they say the name of the track in announcements (it's not written anywhere) but not what stations it goes to. So it's very meaningless to visitors or new transit users.
They also have buses with esoteric place names but the drivers don't have to answer questions, so if you just want to catch a bus, you're out of luck. They also don't have route maps on the buses, unlike other countries. Even a crazy chaotic place like Taiwan has route maps. But stupid civilized Canada? I've seen little old Chinese women dropped off on highways in the woods, dozens of km of course, by callous drivers who couldn't be bothered to tell them the real route they should be using.
Oh, BC Transit makes me so mad. I used to be a strict transit user because I am an environmentalist. I spent years commuting on 5-hour roundtrips because I tried to be dedicated. The last straw was when a driver rushing to complete his rounds left me in the pouring rain with four grocery bags.
Anyhow, I thought Boston was one of the better transit cities. That's disappointing.
Posted by: Maktaaq | April 30, 2009 11:52 AM
It's obvious that our country has not made mass transit a high priority. Hopefully that will start to change and yes, there's a lot of catching up to do to other countries. At least there are good examples out there for us to "catch up to". It's about time we got more diverse and didn't concentrate solely on the car.
Posted by: ma | May 1, 2009 2:34 AM