"Getting There" - Why Metro-North's Quiet Cars Aren't Quiet

What happens when a good idea goes bad?  Consider Metro-North’s “Quiet Car” initiative.

Sixteen years ago a group of regular commuters on Amtrak’s early morning train to DC had an idea:  why not designate one car on the train as a “Quiet Car”, free from cell phone chatter and loud conversations.  The railroad agreed and the experiment proved a great success.  Now all Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor have a Quiet Car.  They are a major selling point for taking the train… the chance to nap or read in a quiet environment.

But as early as 2006 when I suggested the same idea to Metro-North it was rejected outright.  Then serving on the CT Rail Commuter Council, I persisted and finally, in 2011 the railroad agreed to a trial with one car on each rush hour train dedicated to what it called a “Quiet CALMmute”.

Almost immediately the plan ran into trouble.  Not because it wasn’t wanted but because it wasn’t enforced.

There were no signs designating which were the “quiet” cars and only occasional PA announcements before departure reminding folks who sat there of the quiet, library-like environment that was expected.  Most of all, many conductors refused to enforce the new rules.  But why?

Conductors seem to have no trouble reminding passengers to keep their feet off the seats, put luggage in the overhead racks or refrain from smoking.  But all that the railroad gave conductors to enforce the Quiet Car rules were bilingual “Shhh cards” to give to gabby violators.

It seemed left to passengers to remind fellow riders what a Quiet Car was for and confrontations resulted.

This spring the railroad surprised even me by announcing an expansion of the program:  every weekday train, peak and off-peak, would now have two Quiet Cars!  Two Quiet Cars on a ten car train gives everyone a choice.  That sounds great, but still without signage, education or enforcement, the battles continued.

A commuter recently emailed me about an evening train from Grand Central with a group of rowdy drunks in the Quiet Car.  When commuters asked the offending passengers to chill out or move their seat the tipsy  group told the complainer, “screw you”.  The quiet-seeking commuters then asked the conductor for help but he simply declared the train was too crowded and the Quiet Car was being eliminated on that run. “Have fun” he told the drunks. Really?

On Amtrak trains those violating Quiet Car rules have been thrown off the train and arrested.  Even NJ Governor Chris Christie had to move his seat on an Acela once for yabbering with his staff in the wrong car.

Nobody wants these kinds of altercations on Metro-North.  So why initiate and then expand such a passenger amenity as Quiet CALMmute without proper education and enforcement?  A few signs and friendly reminders from conductors should make passengers aware that “train time may be your own time” (as the railroad’s old marketing slogan used to say), but it’s also shared time. 

Commuters want Quiet Cars.  The railroad gave them to us, but until they can get their staff to enforce the rules, consistently, they might as well not exist.

If you’re in a Quiet Car and the rules are not enforced, report it to Metro-North on their website complaint form.  If we all raise our voices, we can get some peace a quiet.

Reprinted with permission from Hearst CT Media

Boston meetup is go!

EPM in Massachusetts

Another EPM meetup, another success.  Monotonous, isn’t it?

Here’s Mark Rinaldi and Norman Williams kicking off the meetup.  We had almost 20 people attending.  I (and others) think if it hadn’t been 6 Fahrenheit/-6 Celsius we may have had more.  No matter, those who attended had a fantastic time.

Here we are, we happy few:

As promised, if you weren’t there you missed:

1. Lunch (always important)
2. An EPM game.  Yes, really.  And it was awesome.  We’re sad.
3. Presentations

1. Oracle’s Mark Rinaldi:  “EPM Product Roadmap & Strategy”
2. Yr. most hmbl. & obt. svt.’s “Hybrid:  Theoretical promise, real world success”
3. TopDown Consulting’s Ron Moore:  “Delivering Business Transformation with PBCS”
1. Information about What Must Be The Very Best Oracle User Group In The World aka WMBTVBOUGITW aka much more sensibly ODTUG’s Kscope17 early bird specials and deadlines as well as cool ODTUG swag.

Dine well

The food was pretty good.  If I were in charge of things we’d be eating The Elvis.  Good thing I’m not in charge.

Let the games begin

The room was split into groups of three.  We were given a single sheet of requirements – just about on par for real world requirements documents (I kid, I kid), given 15 minutes to come up with a single page design so just about on par with most design documents (I’m not totally sure I’m kidding), and then had to present our design.

Here’s one of the teams figuring out their plan for world domination a fantastic solution.

Then a lucky chap got to present his team’s solution.  One thing I can say about EPM geeks is that we’re not afraid of speaking in front of others.

Even when we’re mostly wrong.

With the icebreaker out of the way, the true knowledge sharing began.

All present and correct

Here’s Mark Rinaldi explaining Oracle’s EPM roadmap.  It’s exciting stuff, particularly for on-premises customers who have been waiting, waiting, waiting for good news.  It is almost upon us.

What does work?  Not me.

Here’s a picture of Steve Liebermensch graciously not correcting me on my Hybrid Essbase presentation.  Could I have been that boring or that wrong?  Could be.

And finally Ron Moore telling us about a functional (gasp) view of PBCS. It was a refreshing change of pace.  I’ve known Ron for literally decades (just two or so) and as always he delivers excellent work.  Seriously, you need to hear Ron present on this – visionary is the way I view it.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

One of the many joys of business travel is the ever-present risk of flights being cancelled.  Shall I mention the airline that left me stranded at Logan?  Why yes, here they are.  Bastards.

Instead I got to sample All Aboard With Amtrak’s service from Providence to (almost) home.  Would you believe that the train doesn’t leave till 10 pm?  And yet arrive at o’dark thirty?  Not that I was awake for it, but apparently there’s a two hour layover in Penn Station.

Rhode Island is Famous for You

Steve was nice enough to drive me to the Providence, RI Amtrak train station.  Thus another state is crossed off my bucket list of visiting every one of the lower 48.  I can’t tell you much about the state other than its train station is pretty small.  

At the same time, OMG taking the train is nicer than a plane.  I think next time, I’ll take the train.

And then I was in beautiful Trenton, New Jersey, my home state.  To be fair, there are some fantastic places in NJ, e.g. Baldpate Mountain.  However, I was not there but pondering how something could be “anytime” and yet be closed at 4:30 am.  A mere $40 cab fare home (Who at 4:30 am is going to complain about cost?  Not me.) and I was home.  

And so to bed for 40 winks before my 9 am development touch point meeting.

So what do we have?

Beyond my whining?  What we have is yet again a fantastic manifestation of the passion for learning and sharing that defines ODTUG.  It’s just a fantastic group of enthusiasts about all things Oracle.  

Your EPM community…

ODTUG is here to help you get that meetup off the ground.  Why wait?

Be seeing you.

"Getting There" - Winter Prep for Transportation

With the arrival of winter, now is the time to be sure you’re ready to stay mobile, whatever Mother Nature may throw at us.  Here are a few tips…

FOR YOUR CAR

1)     Get your car’s battery checked.  If it is weak or the terminals are corroded you won’t be able to start your car, especially in cold conditions.  New batteries are worth the investment, if only for the peace of mind.

2)    Check your tires.  Colder weather means the pressure in your tires will go down so check your car’s manual and re-inflate if necessary.

3)    Got antifreeze?  It should be replaced every two years to a 50-50 mixture with water.

4)    Oil change:  as with your tires, lower temperatures will affect your engine’s “blood”, thickening it as it gets colder.  Your mechanic or oil-change shop will know what’s right for your car.  And forget that old myth of oil changes every 3000 miles:  5000 to 7500 miles between changes is now OK according to experts.

5)    Windshield wipers should be replaced annually, an easy do-it-yourself project at any auto store.  And don’t forget to fill the wiper fluid reservoir with something freeze resistant.

6)    Be a Boy Scout and check your trunk for an inflated spare tire and all the emergency gear you might need:  flares, jumper cables, first aid kit, thermal blanket, etc.

FOR THE TRAIN

Except in the worst blizzard conditions, the train will usually keep running (though sometimes at a reduced frequency). Though dependable, riding Metro-North and Amtrak in the winter is not without its challenges

1)    Never assume it’s “business as usual” and that trains will be running on time in bad weather.  Listen to the radio and consult apps like the MTA’s “TrainTime” and my favorite, “Clever Commute” for updates on service.

2)    Give yourself extra time to get to the station and watch those icy platforms! 

3)    Dress for the bad weather.  If your station’s waiting room isn’t open, call town hall or the police dept.  In sub-zero weather that’s not just an inconvenience, it could be a safety hazard.

4)    If you find a railcar that’s lacking heat, ask the conductor to write it up.  Or use the www.MTA.info website to file a report yourself.

5)    Most of all, give yourself extra travel time.  Don’t stress about delays.  At least you’re not driving on an icy parkway!

IF YOU’RE FLYING

1)    When booking your flight consider your options.  If you can’t find a non-stop, avoid connections in weather-plagued hubs like Chicago or Denver.  Charlotte or Dallas have less chance of being snowed in.

2)    Watch the weather and anticipate delays.  If the airlines know a storm is coming they often waive re-booking fees if you want to fly before the weather hits or have to delay until after the airport re-opens and schedules get back to normal.

3)    If the highways are a mess, try taking the train to the airport.  LaGuardia and Newark are accessible by Metro-North and Amtrak, respectively, but Kennedy airport is a challenge.

Whatever your mode of travel, a little prep time now will help you get through winter unscathed.

Reprinted with permission of Hearst CT Media

"Getting There" - More Railcars, More Passengers

Riders on Metro-North just got an early holiday gift from the railroad and CDOT:  a bright, shiny new train set… not toy, but real!   We’ve been promised 94 more M8 rail cars!  And just in time…(though they won’t start arriving until 2019).

We’ve been enjoying the new M8 cars since their introduction in 2011 and they have proven highly reliable.  Unlike the old M2 cars, many of which were older than the passengers who rode in them and were prone to breakdowns each winter, the new M8 cars are champions.  They go over 460,000 miles between mechanical breakdowns which is 53% better than the railroad’s own goals for the Kawasaki designed and built cars.

Work on the M8’s started in 2006 with an initial order of 300 cars.  Another 80 cars were optioned in 2011 and 25 more single, unpowered cars were then added to the fleet, bringing us to the 405 cars we have today. (When the newest cars start arriving in three years the last of the old M2 cars will finally be scrapped).

Because of their unique design, operating on three different power systems, the M8 cars were not cheap. The first cars cost $2.326 million but Kawasaki is now commanding $3.83 million for the 60 now on order and $3.71 million for another 34 cars on option.  Part of the price hike is attributed to improved design and addition of the long-awaited PTC (Positive Train Control) and CCTV (closed circuit TV) safety equipment.

The costs will be born 65% / 35% by Connecticut and MTA, respectively.  Our share will probably be paid for through bonding. Ten planned “Café Cars”, to be fabricated from older, original M8 cars, will be 100% paid for by Connecticut.

Why is the railroad going to all of this expense?  Because they became victims of their own success:  ridership has been soaring in recent years.

When the first M8 cars were ordered, Metro-North thought they’d have enough cars to handle ridership until 2020. But we blew through those numbers years early.  That meant more passengers than seats and crowded, often times SRO (standing room only) conditions at rush hour.

Why the surge in ridership?  A stronger economy, which means more jobs in NYC.  Worsening traffic on I95, which means the train is an attractive alternative.  Reliability, even in the winter.  And yes, people really like the new cars with their power plugs at every row, redundant HVAC and pleasing design.

All of those attractions have seemed stronger than the negatives to train-taking:  lower gas prices, higher rail fares and insufficient station parking.   

     

So the question now is, are we ordering enough new cars to keep up with demand?  Given the three year lag-time between ordering and delivery, will a 499-car fleet be enough if ridership keeps growing as fast, if not faster?

As new cars start arriving in 2019 they’ll first be used to add capacity to existing trains to deal with rush-hour crowding.  As more cars arrive, 24 of our M8’s will be shifted over to Shore Line East service between New London and New Haven.  And maybe, if we’re lucky, by 2020 we’ll have enough cars to actually increase service, adding more trains to the timetable.

If we don’t want to waste billions of dollars on Governor Malloy’s idea to “widen I-95”, let’s instead invest in our railroad and order more cars now.

Reprinted with permission of Hearst CT Media

"Getting There" - Slow Down In Town

You’ve seen the signs in many neighborhoods… “Drive like your kids lived here” or “Slow down in town”.  They’re probably as effective as bumper stickers that say “Drive now, Text later”, i.e., not very.

In our own neighborhoods we want everyone to chill behind the wheel.  But when we are driving in someone else’s area, it’s pedal to the metal, the kids be damned.  When the major roads are jammed, quicker short-cuts through the back roads seem attractive, often at higher speeds than may be safe.

First of all, why is it that kids are playing in the streets anyway when they have perfectly good lawns and nearby parks?  Do they think they’re living on the Lower East Side, playing stickball?  C’mon parents!  Get your kids off of the streets!

Recognizing that persuasion doesn’t seem to help, traffic engineers are finding newer ways to get folks to stay safe using what’s called “traffic calming”, forcing them to drive slower.  And believe it or not, one of the first US cities to develop a master plan for traffic calming was Hartford.  Stamford isn’t far behind.

You’ve probably seen these calming devices, but cursed their presence that physically forces you to slow down or risk damage to your car’s suspension.

SPEED BUMPS:     You can’t drive around them, so you better slow down driving over them.

SPEED TABLES:    Like speed bumps on steroids, these have a six foot long ramp up onto a ten foot flat table and down another six foot ramp.

ROUNDABOUTS:   The guys at Mythbusters have proven that these traffic circles can move more cars through an intersection than a four-way stop, but they’re confusing enough that you’re going to slow down and keep wondering “Who has the right of way?  (Answer:  the car in the traffic circle).  If it’s me, does that other guy know it?  Will he slow down and let me in?” 

CHICANES:            Usually seen only on private streets in ritzy neighborhoods, these stubby looking sections of gates placed alternately on the right and left hand sides of the street make drivers slow down to zigzag down the street.  Really annoying, but effective.

BULB-OUTS or NECK-DOWNS:  These are when the sidewalk extends into car parking areas at corner crossings.  That way folks who want to cross a street are more visible and already closer to the other side.

CROSSWALKS:      Nothing empowers a pedestrian like stepping up to a crosswalk and stopping all oncoming traffic as they saunter across the road.  This assumes, of course, that the drivers know they must yield and that there is sufficient signage to tell them so.  Otherwise, it’s a messy scene.

But believe it or not, one of the most effective safety devices is also the most common…

SIDEWALKS:          Still, it’s amazing how many suburban towns don’t offer sidewalks, leaving nervous pedestrians walking on the same roadways as cars.  You’d think that would encourage motorists to slow down, but it doesn’t.  Getting the walkers (and joggers) off the road and onto the sidewalks may not stop speeding but it does save lives.

None of these physical solutions to traffic safety is cheap, but they have proven effective in saving us from our own worst instincts to rush to our destination.  So, slow down in town, and in the ‘burbs.  What’s your hurry?

Republished with permission of Hearst CT Media.

Passing 300

It all began one summer

It seems so long ago (2,770 days or 396 weeks or 91 months or 7.6 years – but who’s counting?) that I first put pen to paper – Yes, I did.  Really.  I’ve now moved on to word processors for drafts and am thus so 21st century. – and started this blog.  And why the (re)counting?  Because this little corner of EPM inanity has hit 300 posts.  That’s an average of 39 posts of Stupid Programming Tricks, Compleat Idiot, Stupid Shared Services Tricks, Stupid Planning Tricks, and other sundry bits of EPM frivolity per year.  I pity you for reading this dreck.  Come to think of it, I pity myself for writing it at such a pace but on balance I think I feel worse for you.  

But it is a landmark of sorts and an opportunity to reflect on why this blog continues when so many contemporaneously launched blogs are moribund or nearly so.

So yes, 300 posts and yet some of you are still here.  Why?

Don’t know much about Essbase/PBCS/Planning/FDMEE/etc.

I seem to be forever chasing Oracle’s EPM seemingly ever-expanding products – how do I do X, how did someone else do Y (and how can I “borrow” their approach), why doesn’t that !@#$ing Z work?  Some of my fellow EPM practitioners seem to glide from tool to tool and solution to solution with nary a show of effort (Glenn, Celvin, TimG, TimT, Dino, and Pete I’m looking at each and every one of you.  With envy.).  I assure you that yr. most hmbl. & obt. svt never, ever, ever gets from A to B without a fair amount of pain.  Solving the problem is always fun, staring at it (best of course when in front of other people, the more senior the better) in complete incomprehension not so much.

So are you this?

Or this?

Everything I've Got Belongs To You

There are the greats in this industry – any industry really – and then there are the rest of us.  Is that so bad?  We’re not the smartest guys in the room but at least we get to be in the room.  Yes, I think I just insulted every one of you, Gentle Readers, but my point being that this blog’s primary purpose to help you and me get from A to B.  Maybe the fact that you read work-related blogs (obv. not just this one), read EPM books, follow EPM geeks on Twitter, and read and post on messageboards means that in fact you’re amongst the smart set.  Surely the smart ones use resources to solve their problems; surely the dumb ones don’t.  See?  I just rescued myself from having exactly zero readers.  Hopefully.

All kidding aside, this blog as it exists today would be pointless without you.  Thank you for putting up with what has been described as an idiosyncratic (read:  long winded with detours into obscurity) approach.  I hope you take the time to click on all of my laboriously-gathered links.  Goal one of this blog:  make you better EPM geeks.  Goal two of this blog:  make you all wish it was 1967 aka peak American popular culture as it’s a giant wasteland after that.  Let’s turn the clock back.  At least you’ll appreciate what your parents or grandparents (or in some cases great-grandparents) grooved to.

I’ve got your number

Google (Blogger and Google Analytics) is funny and by funny I mean inconsistent.

Here’s Blogger’s numbers:

Huzzah!  I’m closing in on a million page hits.

And then there’s Google Analytics:

Not-huzzah because it’s telling me that I’m closing in on half a million page views.  

It’s a riddle

A couple of interesting notes about the above:

1. People don’t read this blog around Christmas.  Not a huge surprise there.
2. My readership is going – slowly – down.  Why?

For the first, it’s nice to know that people have lives.

As for the decline (and it is real, alas) is I think based on two things:  number of posts per year (I hit my high in 2014 of 52 posts and readers vs. 40 the year after – less new content = less readers) and competition from other posts as well as Twitter and other social media.  I haven’t tried to count the number of EPM-related blogs extant today but it surely has to be about 50.  When I started it out the number was more like 10 although as noted most of those are dead, dead, dead.  YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are yet more avenues for those who want to learn.

Or this blog sucks and is getting worse all the time.  You decide.

Why shouldn’t I

I like to think that actually the blog is getting better.  I’ve purposely hit on a combination of series posts such as the Compleat Idiot series on Planning in the cloud, Programming Stupid Tricks for unrelated Essbase, Planning, whatever-they-are tips and tricks, and community outreach posts such as live (sort of) blogging of Kscope, OpenWorld, and now meetups.  

You may have noticed that I’ve switched to a longer and more in depth approach in my Compleat Idiot cloud series.  There’s an awful lot to learn about Oracle’s cloud products.  Lots of innovation, yes, but also lots of work learning the tools and then keeping up with them.  I can’t think of how to do this except through this detailed way as so much innovation is coming out of the movement to the cloud.  Love the cloud or loathe it, money is being poured into the products in a way that simply hasn’t existed before.  That means the products change and expand constantly and that likely means the Compleat Idiot series won’t either.  That also means my life won’t get a lot better because some of these posts are over 50 pages when written in Word.  Ouch for both you in the reading and me in the writing.

While solutions to problems are what we’re all after, there is more to life and a career than code.  I’ve used this blog as a soapbox to encourage you in the strongest terms to get involved with our little community.  As an example, my involvement with ODTUG has utterly transformed my professional and personal life.  If it happened to me, it can happen to you.  Grasp the ring.  Reach.  Blow your horn.

Where I can, I’ve tried to also impart what little wisdom I’ve picked up in 20+ years of consulting in a 25+ year EPM so-called career.  Sometimes I shake my head at the folly of others when it comes to solutions (hubristically complex), code (ugly, hardcoded, slow, wrong – sometimes all four at once), and even social interactions (Is there anyone more awkward than a geek?  Thought not.) and then realize that I almost certainly did the same thing at one point or another.  Smart people learn from others’ mistakes.  Think of this as a plea to be smart and occasionally listen to me as I’ve made every mistake there is.  

The other bit of advice I’d give you is don’t be afraid to be a contrarian.  That of course doesn’t mean you’re always right, but reflect on why people say what they say.  Is a technical recommendation for the good of customer or is for the benefit of the speaker?  Is product X the solution that everyone follows because a vendor is pushing it or would some other simpler and cheaper approach work just as well?  

In a word:

 

Try to See It My Way

Have I fulfilled this blog’s mission?  Here’s what I wrote on 10 May 2009:

What about the “hacking” in the name of this blog? Hacking can mean all sorts of bad things and that’s what villains do. Good hackers are more interested in taking an ordinary tool (but so cool) and doing out of the ordinary things in a geek chic way.

To that end, I’m going to try to share with you some of the dumb things I’ve done and how you don’t have to do them, how to make Essbase do things it “can’t” do, and generally make Essbase dance.

Lastly and most importantly, I’ll also share code/techniques/approaches. I welcome your comments (constructive please, I have an average ego and it is bruised when pummeled) and most of all your suggestions for improvements. I’ve never written a piece of code that hasn’t been improved through examination by a fresh set of eyes and as a consultant if I can’t fix where I wrote it, I’ll make it better next time.

And, despite the title of this web site, I won’t limit the scope of my postings to Essbase. I’ll include anything else that touches Essbase, from Planning to Dodeca, to who knows what.

That, for good or ill, is pretty much what this blog is all about.  Through the passage of time I’ve forgotten about “geek chic” and shall henceforth casually drop it into conversation.

All kidding aside, I’ve tried very hard to live up to my vision of education and outreach and I think on balance I’ve managed to do it.

Watch what happens

So where does this blog go from here?  Will there be another 300?  Will I lose my ever-lovin’ mind and actually do this again?  Maybe.

So long as I’m involved in this little industry, I feel I have no choice but to keep learning.  Whether that’s through this blog, speaking at conferences, writing books, or in some other completely-monetarily-uncompensated form, I’ll keep on learning and sharing.  One day, hopefully not too (actually, yes, hopefully given what that entails) long from now, I’ll retire and this blog will come to an end.  I’m not dead yet and I’ve got a lot of livin’ to do so expect more of Cameron in one form or another.

Because of you

So yes, this blog exists because I use it as a mechanism to teach myself but making it public with a readership that rounds down to zero would be pointless.  Thank you for your support, your comments and corrections, and your continued readership.

Call me

Want to see a topic?  Have a question (hopefully) answered?  You can reach me care of this blog or via Twitter or via LinkedIn or reach out to me in person at meetups, Kscope, and Open World.

Be seeing you.