There was an interesting piece in Sunday’s Boston Globe Magazine arguing against expansion of the commuter rail system. I don’t know if I fully buy the argument, but the article laid out some interesting reasons. This, however, was not one of them:
You’d think that the officials who want to expand the system would have a […]
Via Universal Hub, I see in the Herald that new Dan Grabauskas is dismissing T complainers:
MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas is unimpressed by the high-tech kvetching.
“If you simply wish to vent or rant, use a blog. But if you have service delivery issues that may require corrective action, then you should contact the MBTA […]
Buried in a worthy Herald story on the impact of fuel costs on transit agencies is this tidbit:
The T’s next fare hike isn’t due until sometime late next year, and service cuts are even less palatable for Grabauskas — although he can’t rule them out if fuel prices don’t drop. He hopes to absorb some […]
Well, the news is official: T ridership is down, from over 650,000 boardings/day in 2000 to shy of 600,000 boardings/day in 2005 (Subway) or 1.2M to 1.12M (total). Since we have only the numbers to work backward to the cause, we can only speculate likely culprits but many of them seem to point to the […]
Safe Trains or Star Wars? Fred Kaplan asks.
Madrid, and now London: wake-up calls, as some call them, that mass transit is far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than airplanes are. So, when will we wake up?
Last year, Congress approved $150 million in grants for security upgrades to local transit agencies. This year, the Senate Appropriations […]
One commenter writes in a plea:
HELPPPP!!!!
I’m a West Medfordian looking to organize support for the Green line extension here. This is a disturbing meme with legs, this "West Medford doesn’t want it" crap. The people who have expressed opposition are mostly elderly cranks, outnumbered by the number of residents who DO want the Greenline. But […]
With all the (deserved) negativity about the MBTA’s Silver Line, it’s nice to have some encouraging developments. I haven’t been to the new Courthouse Station in the South Boston waterfront district, but Robert Campbell’s review in the Globe is mostly positive, calling it "one of the remarkable new spaces in Boston." (I do also like […]
Funny that I should mention London’s congestion tax yesterday, because today I read that the city council is considering a similar idea for Boston:
Saying the half-million commuters who drive into Boston each day are major contributors to traffic and parking congestion, Councilor Paul J. Scapicchio wants the city to look into requiring passes costing […]
MBTA head Michael Mulhern presented his plan to the legislature and, perhaps in a surprise only to me, says the authority plans to use the new fare cards to charge variable fares, higher for rush hour and lower for off-peak transit. From the Globe
‘’I’d like to think our next fare increase isn’t an across-the-board fare […]
I didn’t realize my comments on MBTA reform would have such prescient timing. Today, news comes that the authority is cutting 30 jobs as part of a stop-loss effort to plug holes in the operating budget. What’s frustrating is not the layoffs per se (though of course I say that since I’m not the one […]
Well, this week has demonstrated that Boston just doesn’t function well after a blizzard. There’s been confusion from various authorities, but the biggest problem is that the city can’t handle the number of cars and transit commuters it needs to in order to function even at 2/3 speed. As a T rider, I like many […]
Kevin Drum points out a Washington Post story revealing that DC Metro board members have barely ridden the Metro themselves. He opines, “What kind of nitwit agrees to sit on a board but then figures that it doesn’t matter if they have any personal experience with their own product? An idiot, that’s who.”
Now, I’ve […]
Listening to an MBTA employee yesterday on an inbound D line, I’m gathering that the T’s “Show and Go” program is not much longer for this world. For those unfamiliar, it’s an honor system of sorts in which the inbound trolley lines open all doors instead of just the first one. Those with monthly passes […]
The Globe has an article today on the public announcements on the MBTA, specifically the ones never heard:
In an enduring problem for the one million people who daily use the MBTA, the transit system is still struggling to communicate with its customers. State transportation officials say the situation will improve in about a year, when […]
Well, Romney has signed the bill that effectively allows the MBTA to raise fares. The agency promises public hearings and increased efficiency before hiking fares, but it looks like a done deal. It’s clear that both the legislature and the governor want the MBTA to take the heat rather than entertain a debate over how […]