The Fight Over Yawkey Stop Continues...

I interrupt my impressions on Moscow (more to come soon) to bring you another disappointing letter with have received last week from Mr. Daniel Grabauskas, the General Manager of the MBTA. The following is letter retyped here word for word:

Thank you for your follow up letter of May 1, 2008 regarding the elimination of the Yawkey stop for train P528.

Observations of utilization of Yawkey Station by passengers on P528 were performed randomly over a period of three weeks prior to the overhaul of the entire Framingham/Worcester Line schedule. In addition, the crews of P528 were interviewed about the observations they made relative to P528. The crews confirmed that three or four passengers got off of train P528 on a daily basis.

The revised Framingham/Worcester Line schedules, implemented on Monday, February 18, 2008, are the culmination of a lengthy period of analysis aimed at achieving improved, predictable On Time Performance (OTP). Since the introduction of the new schedules, the desired goal has been achieved.

The OTP for train P528 has improved dramatically. Between January 1, 2008 and February 15, 2008, P528 was on time 21 out of 33 days for an OTP of 67%. Between February 19 and May 12, P528 has been on time 59 out of 60 days for an OTP of 98%. The overall performance of the Framingham/Worcester Line for the same period has increased from 71% to 92%. We are pleased that the adjustments that were made to the schedules have resulted in the improvement we sought to achieve.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

Why is this letter disappointing? It fails to provide any real data from the survey allegedly conducted by the MBTA on Yawkey Station use. The letter also gives all credit for the drastic improvement in the On Time Performance of the P528 train to the elimination of the stop. It disregards the significant changes made to the train schedules on the Framingham/Worcester line that took effect on the same day as the elimination of the Yawkey stop.

Again, we plan to reply to this letter. We are also considering providing some real data to Mr. Grabauskas that shows a lot more people using the Yawkey Stop on the P528 train before it was eliminated.