It's true! Also, things aren't going quite as swimmingly at the MBTA as he might like.

And Globe photo caption writers need to bone up on Boston geography (see comments below).

Patrick jawbones Grabauskas.

Train Rider muses:

I must say - the media loves MBTA GM Dan Grabauskas. I just don't get the love affair? Why are they so hard on other elected officials and public leaders, but they just give Dan softballs everytime?

As a recovering reporter, I think the answer's actually fairly simple: Grabauskas gives reporters and editors what they crave: Access - or, at least, the appearance of access. Imagine how the current "We're going to die!" fare-increase story would have played out if, oh, a Globe reporter had ferreted out the possibility of massive increases in some obscure document related to the Green Line expansion project (maybe in some appendix on financing the work). There'd be outrage, outrage! Instead, Grabauskas simply arranged a series of interviews with local media types and got in front of the story. It's good media management.

Do as Dan Grabauskas says, not as he does. Sure, you can't expect the general manager of a farflung system like the MBTA to rely on his own system to get to emergencies, but, honestly, an SUV (granted, a hybrid SUV)? Really, Dan: Unless you're personally jumping out of your SUV in a bog to rescue people, a Prius will get you to trolley collisions just as fast. Also, gotta love this:

The message of Dump the Pump, he added, is to encourage people with less demanding schedules to take the T.

When can we expect the PSAs on the T?

Hi, this is T General Manager Dan Grabauskas, and if I had a less demanding schedule, I'd be right there on the platform with you, so take the T and dump the pump!

The Outraged Liberal explains why, if you're going to get upset about raises at the T in times like these, you should direct your ire toward Dan Grabauskas and his incompetent managers, because they knew the union would likely be awarded a raise in arbitration and yet did nothing to try to budget for it:

... Yakking on about the concessions he has obtained as part of those talks can't hide the act that Grabauskas and his team failed basic accounting.

Did they really think the arbitrator would not award salary increases and make them retroactive to the start of negotiations?

And we're not talking about excessive compensation. We are talking about roughly 3 percent annually, which I would venture is probably par for the course in just about every business. ...

One person's love for the T general manager.

Suddenly, Dan Grabauskas is everywhere - and not just on PA systems 'neath the streets of Boston. Today, the daring T general manager vows to go after subway fare evaders. Sure, it's roughly two years after legitimate riders first started complaining about how easy the new fare system made evasion, but better late than never. Maybe next year, he'll even figure out that people evade fares on the trolleys, too.

It's become a most unpleasant part of my daily commute: the smell of commuter train brakes. When I get off the train, I flinch at the odor, which puts me in the mind of week-old diapers on fire.

I don't think it was this bad a year ago, and I notice I'm not the only one who's asking why. To a Wilmington commuter, The T's Dan Grabauskas suggested:

Aaron Read is not one to blame Dan Grabauskas for everything that is wrong with the T - things were going wrong there long before Grabauskas moved over from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. But having said that, he blames Grabauskas for not using Schedulegate to push for better MBTA funding:

... Now he's got the worst of both worlds: the scandal is out and everyone above and below wants his head on a platter. The MBTA comes off looking even worse than usual (that's no mean feat, itself). And worst of all, there's no groundwork laid to leverage this scandal into embarrassing public officials into providing more funding that the T desperately needs...instead there will be just be demands that the T end the practice regardless of the impact on already-overtaxed resources.

You can't make this stuff up. The Herald reports:

Top MBTA officials acknowledge that for years the agency has been secretly cutting thousands of bus and train trips from published schedules to lower costs - a practice that has left legions of customers waiting for rides that arrived late or not at all.

Dan Grabauskas says he started trying to change the practice when he became general manager two years ago. Yes, that's right: They've been doing this for years. Oh, yeah, and when asked about service cuts, T officials would lie, Grabauskas added.

Jay Fitzgerald marvels at this authority omerta, which extended from top to bottom:

... How do you begin to reform such an agency? Who do you discipline first? How deep do you go? They were all in it together. Us versus them. The permanent bureaucracy versus the public. Did they all prick their fingers and take blood oathes over pension brochures that they'd never betray the organization?

The Outraged Liberal shakes his head in amazement:

... Our public transit system is a certifiable basket case. It has been leaderless and clueless vile comments by angry riders don't change the fact that the man who has been in the forefront of the fiasco needs to be held accountable.

Smilin' Dan has GOT to go -- and soon.

Earlier:
How the T is getting Worcester Line trains to run on time.