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Governor creates commission to figure out what to do about the T
By adamg on Fri, 02/20/2015 - 12:34pm
It's supposed to file a report by the end of March on how to get us "the 21st-century transportation that we all deserve," Baker said at a press conference. "We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result."
Stephanie Pollack, transportation secretary, said the panel will also look at long-term fixes for the "structural problems that have led the T to where it is today."
Baker said that while he'll leave the heavy lifting to the commission, he will be making surprise visits to T stations and other facilities to try to get a handle on what's going on.
From the governor's statement:
The experts include Jane Garvey, a national leader in transportation policy and top pick for Secretary of Transportation in the Obama administration, Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez , the Derek C. Bok Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Harvard University, and Katie Lapp, former Executive Director and CEO for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, North American’s largest transportation network. Paul Barrett will serve as chair.
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Comments
I've got your report findings right here.
It's one word long.
"Funding."
Funding
Is right. And management of expenditures.
The expansion of the T in the 90's was also a bit of a rear view mirror liking expansion. The economy in the 80's and 90's spurred suburban development and expansion, for example- the 495 belt. Thr more recent shift in growth in the city and the near suburbs shifts the focus more towards the T and away from the commuter rail.
The Governor promised Jobs
The Governor promised Jobs for those people who helped him recently to become elected Governor, and 60% of the Jobs are with the mbta 40% with Massport . He might get rid of all the recent Patrick administration hacks and replace them with the blue collar types that helped him get elected to Governor.
Tell you what ...
I'll take one third of the money they plan to spend on this commission and provide a report. One quarter. One sixteenth. Fine ... one percent.
These guys don't get paid for
These guys don't get paid for this. Just so you know, there is no funding behind creating a commission. I worked on one.
Are there any people that
Are there any people that actually take the T everyday on this committee?
No
This was asked at the presser. Charlie turned around and looked at the members and most shook their heads or said "I've taken it before". One of them attempting to sound an affirmative said something like "Occasionally! Usually when I'm already downtown and need to get somewhere else downtown."
That's adorable...
(...with sincere apologies to Elmer for lifting the line...)
One Of Them...
... is the former CEO of MTA in New York City. That alone should give her sterling cred. New York (forgive me; every drop of my Dorchester-born-and-bred Yankee-hating blood is screaming at me right now) does public transit magnificently well.
It's a system of some 660+ passenger service rail miles, with a huge portion of the fleet running primarily outdoors in all kinds of hideous weather (much of it elevated, which exacerbates some problems), achieving headways of far less time-distance than most of the T on a hugely more complex system that includes many trains crossing paths and utilizing switches and also running express trains that sometimes share trackage with locals for much of a line's full length. It's employees are very good at what they do and mostly great at customer service (that last from my experience only, so obviously anecdotal, but I've yet to meet a surly transit worker in NYC, while they abound here) and comparing their on-board announcements to the T's is laughable.
(My wife and I marveled at the speed of announcements made whenever a train was stopped for more than even just a few seconds. Waiting for more thirty seconds, for a train to move again because of some problem ahead, was the exception, not the rule, and was ALWAYS accompanied by an announcement explaining the problem.)
Upkeep and expansion projects seem to me to be handled expeditiously (from my limited interaction with them, I admit) and the public service campaigns - for courtesy among passengers; giving up seats to elderly and disabled; not being a space hog via backpacks and "manspreading", for example) are highly visible, inventive and sometimes actually entertaining.
Just riding that system - let alone digging into its particulars - makes one understand how much is missing at the T. The inclusion of anyone from there, on this panel, is a great first step.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Very limited experience, I can tell
Yeah ... this kinda gave it away. I don't know who is more surly (Don't call me Shirley!) but NYC certainly has more their share of surly transit employees.
Well, if it makes you feel a little better, New York MTA only looks good when compared to other American transit systems (a low bar to clear). And mostly because it's big.
The story of New York City MTA expansion is that of legendary proportions. In terms of cost and length of time from conception to completion, that is. The Second Avenue Subway has been discussed since my grandfather was a young man (he would be 104 now). Upper East Side apartments were sold on the basis of soon-to-be "subway adjacent" during the 1960s. The first phase, out of 4, will be completed sometime within the next few years, for a staggering cost of something like $2 billion per kilometer. It still remains a cost effective project because of the sheer number of riders it will serve. No funding or timeline has been identified for phases 2 through 4.
East Side Access is clocking in at $10 billion over budget and has been planned for something like fifty years. They recently pushed back the timeline by a decade, again. The rail tunnel that it will use to go under the East River was constructed nearly fifty years ago and has lain idle ever since.
Despite this, the MTA is not the worst in NY. That award goes to the Port Authority for their $4 billion Lower Manhattan train station that did not provide for any improved transportation value at all. It was purely an exercise in monument-building for ego's sake.
So while there are lessons we can learn from NY, in many cases I would say that those are warning lessons.
So be proud of the MBTA. Sure, the trains may not all be running, and the hairnets may not be keeping the motors from getting gunked up with snow. But at least the entire system doesn't smell of piss.
Second Avenue Subway
I'll certainly give you that one. It is the outstanding fly in the ointment.
However, I unflinchingly stand by the other assertions I've made concerning service overall and customer service in particular. Even a cursory examination of MTA's website shows how much better they are at that than the T. And anyone who has ridden both systems extensively - which I have and I assume you have, also - can't fail to notice how ubiquitous is the signage in NYC stations when service changes will happen, including exhaustive alternate route suggestions, and how miserly is the same in the T.
Every delay is explained. Every explanation comes with an apology for the delay. My experience interacting with MTA employees has been exemplary. You may have had some bad experiences, but I haven't. Of course, I make no bone about my being a tourist, not a resident, so obviously more exposure to anything will yield more negative results. Still, I have had none.
The overall point, of course, is that Ms. Lapp seems to be a fine choice as someone to look at our system and perhaps point out what should be done.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Governor Baker needs to fire
Governor Baker needs to fire Stephanie Pollack ASAP. He's realizing just a few weeks in why token secretaries are problematic and lead to bigger disasters. She has zero transportation and public-sector experience. Fire her now
Explain
Maybe what they should do is
Maybe what they should do is to go back in time and decouple the T from the Big Dig debt, and then fund it enough to buy trains that were made after the Beatles broke up.
Want to sum up this report in
Want to sum up this report in two words? Money & Accountability
Do I actually believe there will be action from this commission and report? Nope.
Calendars
If they release their report "at the end of March", doesn't that mean the Globe headline hits on April Fool's Day?
The people on this commission
The people on this commission do not fill me with confidence. Pollack was on the LivableStreets board, so she might not be too bad, but I read a lot on transit and transit policy and I do not recall ever reading about Garvey or Gomez-Ibanez and NY's MTA is hardly a model of a 21st century transportation system -- they're just as underfunded and just as deeply in debt as the MBTA, but more corrupt less versatile.
A guy like Jarrett Walker would be a good pick, but an even better idea would be to look at the actual international standards, like Tokyo and Hong Kong.
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