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MBTA GM: Some T workers need to remember they're moving people, not trains
By adamg on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 3:58pm
Richard Davey tells Jon Keller people are willing to accept the T's running antiquated trains if the T does a good enough job informing them about the reasons for delays; says some T workers seem to forget they're ultimately dealing with people, not steel containers on wheels.
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Hey, Keller
Instead of asking Davey how well his day has been, why don't you do something useful for the public and ask state officials why they haven't done anything in response to the April 2009 report, "Born Broke", that the MBTA Advisory Board put out?
In it, they explain why the system is broken beyond belief due to the inept decision to use a proportional amount of the sales tax income as a revenue source for the MBTA while at the same time crippling its budget with Big Dig overrun costs just to get them off the state's books (along with the MBTA's budget costs).
THAT is the sole proximate cause for why the MBTA is broken beyond repair at this point.
Sure, sure, the employees are all uncaring assholes who think about the bus more than the passengers...riiiight. THAT completely explains why EVERY SUBWAY, RAIL, AND BUS LINE goes down frequently throughout the winter...and summer...and fall and spring too. Why didn't we think of this before? Way to throw the employees under the proverbial bus.
Let me repeat:
The debt and funding situation is the sole proximate cause for why the MBTA is broken beyond repair at this point.
Even if the T had all the
Even if the T had all the money it wanted, the T would still suck, due to all the local corruption and incompetence. Don't think people wouldn't find a way to break the T. Look around, and has anything well-funded been done well in this place lately?
they have to privatize the t
they have to privatize the t or it will go the way of the post office a dumping ground for junk mail and sending out bills. the private sector took over years ago. this is 2011 even the goverment uses e mail and stop using the post office to mail welfare checks when you hire welfare people to run a multi millon dollar operation not based on merit or education what do you exspect. you pay people that were on welfare one minute and pay them more than an airline pilot to drive a bus you have no money left to buy equipment modernize ect. and you want to complain about people that have no social graces all men are not created the same thats why you pay big bucks to watch tom brady throw a football or the big ticket dunk a ball. the t is nothing but a cesspool like any org. or club you have a few qualified hard workers keeping the system running. and a bunch of liberals that think if you throw enough money at some project people that things will work out.
Learn to ...
I was going to say "learn to read history" but I think you might have to start with "learn to read" first.
I'm confused
You expect Jon Keller to do actual journalism?
Expect?
No more than I expect a pig to barbecue itself.
However, that doesn't keep me from requesting that the pig jump in the smoker.
You never know...one of these days we might witness a miracle.
A miracle you say....
....and by miracle are you still referring to the pig?
Suckled Keller
You could always throw Keller into a smoker.
I double dog dare ya!
Born Broke: here's the link
Excellent post Kaz.
Here's a link to the report, Born Broke.
I've never understood why so
I've never understood why so many T employees seem so surly. They seem to make good money.
MBTA GM
I really like this guy Rich Davey.
agreed
Yeah, he seems like a really sharp GM - he's maintained service levels as best as possible while balancing the budget last year. Plus he's brought in some good ideas: opening up T data for Next Bus, real-time train tracking displays, customer service training for employees, etc.
But seriously, what really needs to happen is that this state funds the T for real and takes over the $3b of debt it dumped on the MBTA.
Yep - phone apps, web site,
led signs, and all the other "necessary" initiatives that do absolutely nothing to improve the frequency, reliablity, and/or speed of the actual trains and buses.
Customer service 101 - Customer service starts with actually providing the customers the service you promise. In the T's case, the service they should be providing is reliable transportation, and not these Johnny Science high tech smoke and mirrors games.
What if that's impossible?
Let's say there's no way to run the T reliably AND frequently at the same time due to a total lack of funding. So, you have to choose one or the other. You can run it frequently, but know that it won't be reliable and will break down leaving you problems on some parts, while the rest runs well enough and often enough for riders. OR you can run it reliably, but that means scrapping frequency because you're going to have to take a load off the system as a whole and scavenge maintenance time from some trains in order to make the remaining trains run at 100% reliability. You'll never have an issue where any one part of the system goes down, but you'll never be able to get everyone quickly where they need to go when the system hits capacity.
I'd say they've probably tried to split the difference with a nudge towards frequency over reliability...because on any given day at least most of the people won't notice the fact that the whole system is slowly degrading.
Now, where the "Johnny Science high tech" solutions come in is that they give the riders a way to not be so surprised when things break. If riders are informed about when there's a problem (even if it's every day), then they can make better decisions *for themselves* as to how they want to get through the city. The end result is happier customers, because they only choose to be a customer of the part they know is working...or simply don't choose to be a customer on the days nothing is working.
C'mon Kaz!
Stop talkin sanity!! Don't you know it's all about former welfare queens getting six figure salaries with GInormous benefits to sit in buses and smoke crack and be incompetent. The ONLY solution is to fire the lot of them and privatize it, because there are no assholes in the private sector and everything they touch magically produces results while costing the tax-payer nothing! AND they poop hot little cinnamon rolls!
Roadman, how many times does
Roadman, how many times does it take to get it through your skull. Do you really, really think that the small amount of time to release data so app developers can make mobile apps and hiring a guy to upgrade the site really make a difference? Tell me how would you imagine the GM go use that time to fix the T? Not every second that can be put to saving the T will result in a step closer to a more reliable service.
It is not like the GM would just keep pressing a button and if he keeps pressing it, the better service it will become.
Or how about a different analogy, something more common. Let's say you have homework that you need to do (or if you done with school, think back). Perhaps you were always been a person who focus on everything, one thing at a time, but does 8 hours of focusing on one homework always equals 8 hours of progress? For me, being a CS major, staring code for 8 hours doesn't always equals getting 8 hours done. Perhaps 5 hours on one homework and shifting the other 3 hours on another project instead. Now I would come out with 5 hours of homework done with an additional 3 hours of another project to show, whereas sticking to one thing would yield investing 8 hours with only 5 hours of progress.
Basically more time != more progress. Do you really thing that Richard Davey not doing what he did would but take all that time for the reliable service we want have a difference? Would magically produce more money somehow to do more maintenance (or are you imagining he would go out and fix the trains by himself)? Would he have more success in getting the Union to give more concession (Perhaps he can talk to that brick wall more)?
Maybe Mr. Davey is doing something really smart here.
It occurred to me that Davey might be doing something really smart here.
As a recent refugee from employment in state government (yeah, that's right, refugee - it is not nearly as good as the Herald and other would have you believe when you are a professional), I can tell you that things have become very metrics-driven there in the last few years (you know, as they are in the private sector, all of you privateers). That drive has often been at the expense of common sense and the better judgment of a talented few, but that is another matter.
In any case, by releasing all of this data to the public, and particularly the technically saavy, Davey is creating a situation where data can be (and likely is being) compiled by people outside of state government in such a manner as was heretofore not possible. This data can then be laid at the feet of the Governor and legislators (or perhaps even more interestingly, at the courthouse door in the same way that data on education was in the landmark '93 suit that led to an education overhaul) with the message that "you have allowed the public transportation system to fall in to a dangerously decrepit state, and here is your own data that shows that. And oh, by the way, this is costing the Commonwealth $x hundred million dollars a year in lost productivity. How would you like to run on that platform next time? Either you fix it, or we're going to fix you."
Of course, maybe this is not what is actually happening, and it was just some simple "hey everyone else is going online, we should too" mentality. If that is the case, Mr. Davey, feel free to adopt my carefully articulated plan above and call it your own. I don't care so long as it makes the trains run (I'm not so carried away with myself that I think they might actually run on time).