Dan Grabauskas must go

It's long past due to get rid of someone who laughs and says he never takes the train to work, when thats the ship he's helming.

This guy needs to go, and the next guy needs preformance clauses written into his contract.

As for the union, they need to make some concessions too. Should a guy pullin a lever, with little more then a HS degree, be makeing 50K a year and be able to retire 15 years early? (and thats without notng the horrible, horrible customer service when called upon)

about this latest set of articles regarding how poor commuter rail service has become is they're all finger-pointing. No-one has said anything along the lines of, "Yes, these delays are our fault, and here's what we're going to do to improve service". I ride the Framingham/Worcester line every day. It's always late, with one or two exceptions the people operating the trains are at best surly and disagreeable, and rapidly becoming far, far too expensive for what semblance of "service" the MBTA/MBCR offers.

As someone who has worked in & out of the MBTA and EOT for the last decade, I have had the opportunity to meet and deal with many senior managers. The challenges facing Massachusetts transportation are huge and the MBTA has, frankly the biggest challenges. The reasons are many and there's hardly a day the agency isn't in a headline. But make no mistake, the agency is modernizing, the GM has brought in a host of talented people and the 5,000+ staff are slowly, sometimes glacially, recognizing that past practices are not sufficient. Is the public going to wake up one day and see things are much better, absolutely not! To turn around a system takes years as does undoing botched procurements like the CharlieCard, the Breda cars & new Blue Line cars. All of these, I might add, were already in design or production prior to the GM coming onboard in 2005...He gets the blame but never had a chance - the train had already left the station

Yes there are some relatively simple and cheap improvements that should be done ASAP: installing electric sliding doors at station entrances (the old doors are torture!); telling people the next Ashmont train is 5 min away, Braintree is 8 minutes and while we're at, let's do it for the Green Line too - just like the rest of the world; instituting pressure washing of station platforms, walls and glass;

As I see it, assuming the State provides some additional operating revenue AND debt relief, the MBTA will in 3-5 yrs be far better than today. But this assumes some major overhauls in the following areas:
Design & Construction: Dept desperately needs a new design manual AND far better construction / contract oversight. The T is continually at the mercy of A&E firms & contractors. The results are maddening delays, costly change orders and infinitely more complex long-term maintenance needs. BTW, does anyone do post-occupancy reviews?

Procurement & Stores: Procurement of systemwide equipment is utterly broken but few want to admit it. The Charlie system and PA/VMS work are great examples of failing to write the RFP correctly, then half-arsed prototyping and forgetting to conduct multiple rounds of user testing. Many of the problems and annoyances should have been anticipated and or caught in prototyping. Further it seems impossible to repair things in a timely fashion or before failure. Honestly, why do broken lights or tiles go months before repair...does anyone manage inventory?

Vehicle design: The current COO, has overseen various vehicle procurements and none have turned out that positively, from either a mechanical reliability or customer standpoint. New buses screech as much as the old ones and have narrowed aisles & spaces that barely fit strollers or small wheelchairs. The new Blue Line cars are essentially the same old cars...2 doors per side which guarantees the continued glacial boarding times downtown. - Did we not learn something from the newer 4 door Red Line cars that are far easier & quicker to board...apparently not! And the new commuter rail coaches still even lack onboard displays of the next stop, let alone display estimated time of arrival.

Real Estate/Transit Realty Associates: In many ways, the mix of in house and external management of real estate has some value but it is increasingly clear that there are vast disconnects between the rest of the MBTA & RE/TRA. Is it fixable without rolling heads, maybe but when one also looks at long-term planning - it looks less likely. These departments have dual and often conflicting roles, maximizing non-fare revenue and ensuring the T protects its assets for generations to come. The sooner this gets some attention, the better.

Yes, the GM is not perfect: his temper is volcanic at times (though it is often warranted!); he is never out riding the system; he does not yet understand the value of real time information for the next 2-4 trains; he still thinks putting up more signs equals wayfinding; and he has kept on or promoted some senior people that frankly are often internal road blocks to change or don't believe in customer service. But even they are getting the message, albeit slower than some of us hoped.

They get it because Dan keeps focusing on the customers...and I'd take Dan any day over any MBTA GM I've known and worked with since the early 90's. When Dan decides he's had enough, we the riders and MA taxpayers will have lost a strong friend. Let's hope whenever that day comes, the politicos will have the brains to hire someone from the outside, who like Dan, can see the need for systemic change and the engagement of all riders.