Rob's Rants

Last October I wrote about the time I was an idiot and left an expensive jacket with my house and car keys in the pocket on a Commuter Rail train and how MBTA Customer Service handled my problem very efficiently and I ultimately got my stuff back in just a couple of days.

Last week something else worked, so I figured I’d let the world know.

Payment Box (photo from http://www.innismir.net/article/159)

I ride the Commuter Rail most every day and parking is a real pain. Such a pain in fact that I think there is an opportunity for a business  that relieves the misery for daily commuters. For those not familiar with the system, you park your car in a numbered space and then walk to a little payment box where you are supposed to stuff your $4 into a tiny little slot so small that only two bills at a time fit if they’ve been folded in half three times. Then, ideally, you shove the money all the way in using a little metal pusher, but the pusher is usually missing since they are constantly ripped off the little attachment cable by kids with nothing better to do. If you fail to pay, the lot attendant puts a little collection envelope under your wiper and you owe $5, which you need to leave in a special fine box.

Anyway, I usually park in the same row every morning, and because most other daily riders follow their own routines pretty closely, I usually get one of about a half-dozen spaces between #48 and #54. Last Friday morning I got #50. On the way to the little payment box, I reached into my pocket and realized that I didn’t have four $1.00 bills. The best I could come up with was a wrinkled old $5.00 bill. So I figured I’d have to pay $5.00 anyway if I skipped the payment and I put the $5.00 bill in slot #50 and happily boarded my train.

When I returned that evening (in the rain), I found a little fine envelope under my wiper. And I was immediately pissed off. I was absolutely certain that I had put $5 in the box and pretty sure that I put it in the correct slot. And there was no way in hell that I was going to pay a $5 fin on top of the $5 I already paid. No Commuter Rail parking space is worth $10 a day! I checked the receipt (which was soaked from being in the rain) and it had space #50 and my license plate on it. Man was I pissed.

There’s a telephone number on the receipt and I called it first thing Monday morning. I navigated the voicemail to the complaint section, where it transferred me to a guy’s mailbox and instructed me to leave my name, license plate number, and a phone number and they would call me back. I left the message.

The next day: nothing. Not a word from them.

On Wednesday I was really angry. At lunch I was contemplating how I was going to escalate this outrageous injustice! I would call again, but I would start using Google Voice to record every call. And I would keep a log of calls on Google Voice too. Maybe write to my State Rep and Senator. This would not stand!

Around 1:30 my phone rang.

Me: “Hello.”

Caller: “Mr. Havasy, this is [name] from Central Parking. I’m calling regarding the non-payment fine you received last Friday. I’ve looked at our system and can tell that you did pay. Our operators sometimes make mistakes. I’m sorry.”

I was thinking to myself … what? No fights? No arguments? And the guy apologized…

Me: “You can tell I paid.”

Caller: “Yes. Because operators sometimes make mistakes, we have them take a digital picture of the back of the collection box door as soon as they open it. The bins are clear so we can see the contents of each. I can see a payment in slot 50, so you’re all set.”

Me: “Wow. Who knew. I remember because I didn’t have dollar bills that morning …”

Caller: “Yes. If I zoom … hold on … I can see a single $5 bill.”

Me: “Thanks. How can I be sure the ticket is cancelled to I don’t get towed or something.”

Caller: “I have the record on the screen in front of me and I have just cancelled it.”

Me: “Thanks.”

Caller: “You’re welcome. Have a nice day.”

And that was it.

See … sometimes the MBTA does something right. That’s twice in two years now. They’re really improving…

Getting to know your fellow commuters ...

What the hell is happening on the Worcester-Framingham commuter line these days? Since the holidays ended, I’d swear they’re running some rush hour trains at least a car shorter than before the holiday. I routinely take the P529, 6:15 Worcester train home (and have for over 15 months now) and for the last two weeks at least the damn train is packed to overflowing nearly every night. It was not like this before the holiday season. I have no empirical evidence — I didn’t routinely count the cars in the train every night, but I swear something has changed. Perhaps lot’s of people have made a New Year’s resolution to take the train more. Or perhaps it’s a symptom of the broken-down MBCR/MBTA and the result of too many cars in the shop.

Whatever the reason, it sure makes for a crappy commute.

Like most commuters, I’m pretty hard on the MBTA. So I figured I should write about an incident resulting from my own stupidity and incompenence, where the MBTA’s systems worked well and saved me a bunch of hassle and money.

Basically, a few weeks ago, on one of the first cold days this fall, I grabbed a jacket as I headed out for work. This was the first day of the year that I needed a jacket… I’d like to think this contributed to my boneheaded move on the way home.

I caught the normal Commuter Rail train to Worcester in the afternoon and sat in my normal place in the vestibule of a double-decker car. I threw my jacket on the overhead rack above my head and rode all the way to Grafton. We were 20 minutes late BTW … Anyway, when we stopped a young man who clearly hadn’t ridden the train before slid open the door to the stairs and then looked back at me in a panic – the stairs leading down led only to the chain link fence in between tracks – we had been switched to a different track than normal and the conductor hadn’t adjusted the stairs in our car. So I pointed to the far end of the car where people were getting off and we walked all the way down and made it off the train. I bet you see where this is going … As the train started ro roll out I realized that my jacket was still on the overhead rack. Great.

As I reached the top of the stairs to the parking lot I also realized that my house and car keys were in the pocket of the jacket. Shit.

I called my wife and she agreed to strap our 4 1/2 year-old into the car seat and come rescue me with a spare key to my car. And I started down an MBTA Customer Support odessy that actually worked. Here’s what happened:

1. I got on my cellphone web browser and searched MBTA Customer Service. I found an 800 number and called. (This was at 7:45 PM BTW). I navigated the voicemail and got to “lost items.” A nice woman answered the phone (at almost 8 PM — a real person) and I explained my situation. Good thing #1: real people answered the phone at night.
2. The woman explained that items left on the train, if turned in or found by a conductor would be taken to Lost and Found at South Station. I didn’t believe this, thinking that they must check the train at Worcester, but it turns out that she was absolutely right. She also gave me the phone number and said that if I called and left them a description they would call me back if it was turned in. Good thing #2: the late night Customer Support person gave me correct information immediately.
3. I called the Lost and Found number the woman gave me and left a message as the recording instructed. But I didn’t believe I’d ever see my keys again.
4. Not believing the woman, I got the new keys from my wife and drove to Union Station to see if it might end up there. The night security guy said, “No — all that stuff goes to South Station. And the train already turned and went back to Boston.” So, basically, if I had just waited on the platform in Grafton, the train on which I left the jacket would have come back and I probably could have boarded and grabbed it — but anyway …
5. I went to Lost and Found the next morning at South Station. A very nice young lady helped me and looked to see if anything was turned in to match my description. It wasn’t. But she checked the “log” and lo and behold, my information from the message the previous night was logged. Good thing #3: the information was correct and the voicemail system worked as I was told. The woman also said that it wasn’t uncommon for something found on late night runs by the crew to be turned in late the following day — they often put the stuff in their lockers since Lost & Found was closed at night and turned it in when starting their shift the following day.
6. I didn’t hear from them all day and figured I’d never see my jacket again. On the way home I checked in person and was told that crews might have a day off and it would very likely turn up.
7. Still not hearing anything the next morning, I went and bought a new jacket. Now you know what’s coming right … the next morning I got a call from Lost and Found at South Station. My jacket and keys were turned in. Good thing #4: the honest people at the MBTA actually followed the system and I got my stuff back.

It turns out that the train had been 20 minutes late due to mechanical problems, so when the train made it back to South Station it was taken out of service. The delay in finding my jacket was because it was a maintenance worker who found my jacket after the repairs were done and who turned it in.

So there you go — something at the MBTA worked well. Everyone I spoke to was kind and courteous and gave me correct information. And the system worked to get me my stuff back. See — it’s not all bad!

Taking Advantage of the MBTA’s Terrible Commuter Rail Parking

Here’s an opportunity for an enterprising young (or old) person to make a little money for what doesn’t seem like much effort. Take the idea and run with it … I certainly don’t have time to implement it.

The Premise

The MBTA currently charges $4 per space at Commuter Rail lots (at least at the suburban ones — some close to Boston are more). The payment system is a terrible pain for most people. They currently use payment boxes and numbered spaces — you insert your money into a little slot corresponding to the space you parked in. Of course the slots were designed for the $0.50 fee charged long ago. Now, you need to feed four dollar bills folded tightly into the slot, or four dollar coins, or some combination of coins and bills to reach $4. And that’s where the business comes in.

You see, many people riding the commuter rail aren’t doing it for cost savings, they’re doing it for convenience. And even if there is a savings over parking in the city, the savings is on the order of $10 to $30 a day, so I think people would be willing to give up a little in exchange for some convenience. That’s where the idea comes in.

More Convenient Parking

As much of a pain as it is to stuff four bills or up to 16 quarters into a little slot in the morning, the bigger pain is getting the bills or coins in the first place. Most people with jobs and families don’t have time to go to the bank and get $80 in bills or coins for each month, so we hope that we have enough one dollar bills or quarters around each night to pay the next day. Or we have to bug our spouse or kids to get some change. This is the real pain of the system. Getting the damn change to pay with. And herein lies the opportunity.

The Opportunity

You will sell the service of Commuter Rail Valet. With the proper setup, you will allow people to buy a parking subscription, ideally via Pay Pal to cut down your overhead. Each month my account with you gets topped up, and every morning that I park, I identify my space to you somehow and you take care of putting the fee in the slot. You simply charge a small transaction fee for the service, like $0.50 per day. With a little creativity, the service can be set up so that I don’t even need to deal with parking payments at all each morning — you’ll identify the customers parking in the lot and deposit the payment without need for a check-in or anything. I simply drive to the station and get on the train knowing that you’ve taken care of it.

The Details

To make it lucrative, you’ll only work the three busiest morning times, so you’ll put in no more than three or four hours a day. The current system allows a user not to pay and the fine is essentially $1 – you need to put $5 into the “fine” envelope in the evening. Getting the correct change is such a pain that I watch three or four people a day simply walk past the parking boxes knowing they will pay $5 later. That’s an indication that there is demand for a convenient system.

So, here are some points on how I think this could work:

• Users sign up and agree to a PayPal subscription for monthly parking fees.
• A convenience or service charge is applied to each monthly subscription (I think 25 to 50 cents a day would work).
• Each user is given a sticker for their car.
• Each day after the last busy train but before the parking fee collectors arrive, you will walk the lot and note the customers parked via their stickers.
• You deposit money in the corresponding slot.
• You can offer a fall-back plan as well — let’s say the car with the sticker is in the shop. If a member text messages you before a pre-determined time you can still take care of it.
• Potential Value-Add Service: On a day when it snows, for $5 you can clean their car prior to the evening train! Make it opt-in and print a snowflake or something on their sticker as a reminder.

Customer Benefits (The Sales Pitch)

1. Convenience! No more digging for change or going to the bank. You handle it all.
2. Peace of Mind — late for the train? Hear the wistle blow while you’re still in the lot? No problem — run to the train knowing that parking is all taken care of.
3. Comprehensive Accounting: Provide a year-end receipt of all parking fees paid.
4. Winter Ease — now, when it’s snowing in the morning, people have to either dig to find their space numbers or hope the parking people declare a snow emergency and let them put $4 in the envelope. You can offer to find the number for them!

I think you’d need to offer some kind of money back guarantee — that’s where PayPal comes in. No one (well almost no one) is going to trust you with $120 a month until you’re really established. PayPal gives people some control and guarantee. This way you don’t have to extend credit and they have a dispute resolution mechanism.

My guess is that you could find between 20 and 50 people at a given train station who would sign up for this. With 20 people at $0.50 per day, you should end up with $50 per week in gross profit. Not bad for maybe five hours work during the week and another couple hours on the weekend.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

I found this in my inbox today:

****** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE ******

NOTICE:

This e-mail message and all attachments transmitted with it may contain legally

privileged and confidential information intended solely for the use of the addressee.

If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified

that any reading, dissemination, distribution, copying, or other use of this message or

its attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error,

please notify the sender immediately and delete this message from your system.

Thank you.

First, I want to say that it’s nice to see some progress being made. I applaud CSX & MBCR working together to get this project going only 2 months after the major problem.

But, what’s up with that silly disclaimer? I think the MBCR needs to re-think it’s ridiculous blanket e-mail disclaimer policy because I’m clearly in violation by re-posting this, but I think they would actually WANT people to know about this before it happens. Again – I don’t think there is anything beyond normal incompetence going on here. The person who sent this probably had no idea that stupid disclaimer gets slapped on the bottom of every outgoing message. But they could at least tell people to ignore it if they can’t remove it.

Have we all just resigned ourselves to accepting poor MBTA/MBCR ontime service?

Back in December 2007 a service called CleverCommute was launched in Boston (see this and this). The service is essentially a peer-to-peer announcement list where commuters of a given line can send messages to all subscribers alerting them about delays. etc. The idea is that people actually experiencing the problems will probably be a better source of information than the MBTA itself.

I’ve been a subscriber since January of this year to the Worcester line service and I’ve received exactly 0 e-mails. I’ve sent 4 (the start and end of two incidents). Why has this service not caught on?

Is it lack of awareness?

Have we all just resigned ourselves to poor service, so we don’t care why or if something is late?

Or are there just a bunch of lurkers waiting for messages, but no one contributing?

I, for one, would like any information I can get about how things are going. Hell, even if I’m on the affected train, some conductors are more forthcoming with information than others, so getting a message from someone in a different car might actually give me more information.

So if you’re reading this and are an MBTA commuter — sign up and tell others what’s happening.

I’ve been riding the Commuter Rail every day for about 10 months now and I have noticed several improvements that the MBCR/MBTA could make for little or no additional cost, which would improve the entire experience, at least for me. Besides the usual gripes about on-time performance, etc., these are some little things that would make a big difference.

1. Collect the fares. Nothing frustrates the core ridership paying up to $250 a month (and are looking at a fare increase) than watching people who don’t have to pay. A couple of people slipping by here and there is one thing, but I have ridden into South Station in the morning and not had the conductor collect a single fare in my car. Rediculous.
2. Announce the destination and the stops. And when boarding at South Station, announce the destination at least three times before the train leaves.
3. Here’s a really good one — if the equipment is sitting on the tracks, don’t wait until 10 minutes before departure to allow boarding. Let the early-birds get the good seats instead of unleashing the herd when the signboard lights up. The crew of the 6:10 PM Providence train from South Station are masters at this — they call the train the old fashioned way (by shouting “Providence”) 15 or sometimes 20 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Brilliant! How freakin’ hard would this really be? Is MBTA routing so f’d up that they don’t know where a train is going until exactly 10 minutes prior to departure? No way. My guess is that they have now conformed their process around the expensive announcement system that they bought rather than around passenger satisfaction. So I’ll bet that the system is programmed to display the train at exactly 10 minutes before departure and no one (other than the Providence crew) takes the initiative to overcome this limitation by telling people on the platform that the train is ready.
4. Clean up South Station. I mean, would it really be so hard to take a pressure washer to the platform and wash the freakin’ chewing gum off?
5. Change the lightbulbs. This is less noticable in the summer when it’s still light for the evening commute, but in the winter South Station looks derrelict. At least 1/3 to 1/2 of the light bulbs don’t work at any given time. There’s really no excuse for this. If it’s a money-saving scheme (and that would be just silly) then remove the unused fixtures. There’s no reason to let the place look like it’s half abandoned.
6. Give the train engineers a uniform or at least a hat. Half of them look like the homeless guys waiting on the steps of the “smoking” area at South Station. Not exactly professional looking or confidence inspiring for a transit system that has had two kids crash trains and kill people in the last year.

There you have it. 6 things the MBTA/MBCR could do for short money to at least make a show that they care.

[Update: additional speedtest reslts, 7/1/2009]

Riding the Information Super Highway from Worcester to Boston

Back in 2008, the MBTA announced that it would be installing Wi-Fi connectivity on the Commuter Rail lines, starting with a pilot on the Worcester-Framingham line that I ride. Awesome — I just started commuting in September of 2008 and the pilot was already in place; full deployment to the rest of the line was scheduled to begin January 2009 and be complete by summer. Visions of a productive commute danced in my head.

Now for the reality. I’ve been riding the Worcester-Framingham line faithfully for 9 months now. Nearly from end to end. I have tried to work online in the morning and in the evening, and even at odd times during the day when I had off-peak commutes. And I can only reach one conclusion…

The W-Fi service sucks. Totally. Worse than the Compuserve dial-up access I had over a Hayes 1200 baud modem in my old Apple II in 1984.

For proof I offer the speed test I conducted today on my way home (performed between Back Bay station and West Natick):

6/19/09 Speed Test

0.12 Mb/sec (120 Kb/sec)?! That’s barely 2x 56K dial-up. And a latency of 206 ms means they must have carrier pigeons they release to make the connection.

What’s wrong with it? Well…

• Only 2 coaches (max) per train have signal. And the “signs” (stickers) are already falling off so it’s anyone’s guess whether or not a given coach has Wi-Fi.
• Even if you win the coach lottery, it seems like the antennas are mounted in terrible locations. So regardless of where I sit I am only able to capture a signal one or two commutes per week.
• What bandwidth there is is shared among all users in range so it’s often horribly oversubscribed.
• The signal drops completely at least twice per ride.

As always, your mileage may vary. Others have reported different results (on different lines), though none seem to be anything to get excited about. See The Silver Onion blog, and the At First Light blog for examples.

What’s a commuter to do? Well I purchased a Verizon Wireless broadband plan today and I’ll be testing the USB modem on Monday. Hopefully that will let me actually get online and get something done. More to come.

Update 6/24/2009

In fairness to the MBTA I decided to test the connection when I had a chance to test a late night train (the 10:20 PM Worcester local) that was barely full. That speed test yielded the following (between Back Bay & Yawkey):

Woo hoo! An entire 1.75x faster than 56K dial-up. When no one is using it. Any system where the upload speed is 2X the download speed has something wrong. Good luck. I’ll stick with Verizon.

Update

To show that I’m not intentionally trying to bias the results, I am including a couple of tests I ran on a morning train when I actually had a full wi-fi signal on the train. These were run on the morning of 7/1/09, somewhere between Westborough and Framingham:

7/1/09 Morning Test

As you can see, they’re slightly better, but nothing to write home about. To add some perspective to this, with a Verizon mobile broadband USB stick, I routinely get speeds of .61 to .72 Mbps, or three times faster. And with much less latency it just feels much better.

7/1/09 2nd Test