MBTA doesn't know yet when train service will start again

... a couple of ago, this describes my feelings on MARTA then. Nothing I've read makes me think it has changed much since our residency there.

How many press conferences has she given before today? I'm not saying she has to be on tv every day like Mayor Marty but seeing once in a while just to show that she is actually working would have been great.

No one expected 3 back-to-back storms bringing 70+ inches. Technically, the MBTA probably still have enough to hold together(-ish) after one big storm. Yes, there would be tons of breakdown as it did happen, but after a bit of time, it will kinda recover enough to cool off the anger.

But instead we have 3 storms and it has taken out the T. If the MBTA were in a better position with adequate funding and use of the funding, then it would the trains, switches, and electrical system to fair better. So funding does matter unless. At the very least the lacking of funding played a role in why we order new RL/OL trains so late. That alone shows funding played a role even if you don't think the other causes are linked to funds.

I would imagine in this alternate reality, the funded MBTA would have still succumb to all these storms, but without the 3 previous weeks of breakdowns, delays, and cancellations with this 3rd storm leaving the MBTA operating like the aftermath of the 1st storm rather than the total shutdown we are seeing now.

Why wasn't she saying in October that if we had some major storms it might shut everything down?

It's, unfortunately, a borderline unreadable book but if you are actually curious Nicholas Taleb did some important work here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Swan_%28200...

explaining why we think unusual events are more predictable than they actually are. He then went on to make a bazillion dollars running a hedge fund based on the concept.

Much rolling stock was never provided the mid-life overhaul that is needed. Trains that should be retired continue to run. Your question is answered by the proportion of decay to improvement that has developed over the past couple of decades.. To not expect that this would happen is to live without any concept of the deterioration of the T. Perhaps that is why the T is dying. Most folks (in spite of daily first hand experience) truly do not believe that the T is dying or they believe that it can not be rebuilt. Therefore why bother making changes?

Everyone - from voters to legislators - have ducked the elephant in the middle of the Commonwealth's living room: the T is treated as a unwanted stepchild that can't bet out for adoption. Not that this is new in the U.S. Public transportation seems to be tainted as a necessary evil in this country.

The T has not gone without any improvements. The Blue Line if far better than it was in 1998. At least there are more cars on each trains. Stations that verged on shuttering have been rebuilt (with varying degress of success).

But the laws of thermodynamics are more powerful that laws of The General Court. In other words, unless enough energy (i.e., political support and money) is entered into the system to keep entropy at bay then entropy wins. This week entropy won.

The T's funding was set up to fail. When the Commonwealth decided to fund the T based in part on the sales tax (which was just before 2008 if I remember?) they sealed a fate already set. A terrible recession, massive state budgets cuts, decreased sales tax revenue, etc. all contributed to the T not having enough money.

Add any debt added to the T which shouldn't be there.

These are some Images that to me represent how much public transportation is actually valued:

Stalactites hanging from Shawmut Station. These don't grow overnight. (Granted they are now gone. But for them to have grown at all shows that this station was basically forgotten and ignored.

Orange Line cars so rusty that a more accurate name would be the Rust Line.

After millions spent on Copley (and nearly destroying a beautiful landmark) the station itself still looks like crap.

Other Orange Line stations such as Chinatown and Haymarket are disgusting.

The Blue Line was rotting away (though it was pulled from death's mouth).

There have been many improvements. So an argument at the T spends nothing on improving the system would be false. But the vastness of the degradation is still there, plain to every set of voting and legislating eyes. Unless the debt is reduced and funding is increased we will continue to have a dying public transportation system.

These past few weeks caused the system to faint. Unless we as voters force the legislature to act eventually the system will start falling to pieces with cutbacks, shuttered stations and a system that is crippled (which will cripple the local economy).

Will that mean more taxes? Yes. Unless the Crotch Brothers are willing to spend their next round of election money on the improvements that create wealth (such as infrastructure) instead of trying to buy the elections for people whose choices belie a willingness to let the nation's infrastructure disintegrate, then we need to pony up the cash. There is no governmental Prince Charming to save this stepchild from being shut out. It's up to legislators. Given their lack of courage (evidenced by the new Speaker for Life) they need a fire put under their elected butts that make them do more than sit in a big room and generate hot air under the Sacred Cod.

He could be more flexible about new sources of revenue?

I think he's not serious because he hasn't talked to the head of the MBTA in 3 weeks and because he calls for $14 million in cuts to the MBTA and then tries to claim its not going to affect service. I guess if your baseline of "service" is today he's right, there isn't any service to affect.

So yeah, his lack of honesty out of the gate and lack of willingness to discuss the problem with MBTA leadership has me thinking he's not serious about governing. Happy to be wrong.

"Jumpier than a virgin at a prison rodeo" ?

Link

How is the MBTA chief selected? The State board of whateverthefrig votes and gives her a contract? Is there legislature involvement anywhere?

The idea that the MBTA GM had mental health "therapy" at her prior job in Georgia is rubbish. She and her team got executive coaching and leadership consulting, which anyone who actually works in the corporate world knows is commonplace.

At my job we provide coaching as well as leadership training. We have, for example, a Fortune 25 company as a client. They're as big as Apple. Half of you have probably been in one of their retail locations in the last week or two. We did a lot of training for Fidelity in the past. These companies pay us millions of dollars to do coaching and leadership training. They are not mentally ill and it's not "therapy." It's an investment in their organizations.

I remember her saying that it would be a tough time and to expect delays because the equipment sucks.

That's very far away from saying that the entire rail system will be shut down, and in any event, is way to vague to allow for anyone to plan appropriately.

Did it rain on his wedding day or something?