By adamg on Tue., 4/7/2015 - 8:41 am
In today's installment of leaks from the impending T study, the Herald reports one complaint is that the authority is mostly siting on large sums of money designated for capital projects.
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Comments
While I'm a strong supporter of both public transit and unions,
By JCK
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 8:54am
The absenteeism and gross mismanagement at the MBTA needs to be addressed.
The MBTA is run by and for the management and the employees, not for the public.
Ya a lot of unionized public
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 9:11am
shops are like that, BPS is probably the most prevalent.
Specifically, this
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 9:35am
Specifically, this absenteeism: "Employees out about 57 days a year, report says":
I'd really like to hear what the "don't reform the T, just give 'em more money" crowd has to say about the above.
Arguing with a strawman
By HenryAlan
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 9:54am
Nobody has argued that reform isn't necessary. The fact that money is also required does not mean that everything is just fine with how the authority is managed and operated.
More Revenue
By Rob O
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:18am
Henry,
I want to invest in a more robust MBTA. And if I had faith that the MBTA management would not only spend the additional revenue on capital projects, but also reduce operating costs (huge management salaries and overly generous union contracts) so more of the existing revenue would be used on capital projects, I'd be with you.
However, I fear there will be no reduction in operating costs unless the MBTA faces a starve-the-beast situation. Reading about the absenteeism problem demonstrates that there is a huge operational problem that management is not willing to tackle.
Race to the bottom
By Lanny Budd
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 12:03pm
Yes, we can starve the T even more - guaranteeing a work force that gives even less of a crap than now.
How would your productivity be if you went to work everyday with technology that was decades out of date and everything that went wrong at your job was blamed on you?
I stand corrected
By Rob O
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 12:31pm
Let's let them retire in their 40s with a full pension, instead of their 50s. That should fix things!
"technology.. out of date and everything...blamed on you?"
By moxie
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 1:19pm
I work in IT. That's the job description.
Starving the beast has literally never worked, ever.
By Eric
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:03am
Maybe if you could find a single example in all of recorded history of "starving the beast" actually causing a government program to clean up its act. In fact I think you'll find it's usually the opposite: Programs that can't afford things like oversight and decent salaries tend to create corruption and waste.
The MBTA does not have shareholders who benefit when it spends money more efficiently. Similarly, no one employee will benefit from a better funded transit system. Reform and revenue are really completely separate problems, and they need to be considered separately.
Family and Medical Leave
By AllstonHipster
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:04am
I am concerned about the absenteeism, but family and medical leave... this has been a brutal winter for illness, at least at my workplace. Also, take into account the impact school closings have on parents. I expect that most business in January and February of this year lost a lot of manpower, due to illness and family emergencies.
That strikes me as strange too
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 1:44pm
that "family and medical leave" was lumped in with absenteeism. Family and Medical Leave is federally protected time off for long-term absences from work for things like caring for elderly parents moving into nursing homes or having a baby. It's 3 months or 90 days long.
Including that in with general absenteeism really skews the data.
How does the T's absentee
By anon
Fri, 04/10/2015 - 1:09pm
How does the T's absentee rate compare with other state employees?
I want reform too
By spin o rama
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:34am
I also want this reform to be based on factual data, not data manipulation.
Yesterday we had numbers comparing the revenue gained from fares at the MBTA compared to other systems, only to find that the numbers were fudged to make it seem like other systems gain more revenue from fares than the T does.
Someone on reddit said it best:
I'd wonder how many people called out of work because they couldn't get to work.
Correct
By cybah
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:25am
I see a local news report from a local tv station that went on and on about this in Twitter last night.
I seem to recall a month or so ago when this report actually came out, several transit people debunked this whole thing and said that it equated out to less than 1% of all trips by the MBTA. Really, 1%?
And like the other report that came out yesterday, comparing the MBTA to another transit agency isn't correct because the variables are very different.
The Globe reports that about
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:58am
The Globe reports that about 6400 bus trips were canceled in Jan/Feb. If that represents 1% then the T had 640,000 bus trips scheduled in those two months. That would give the T bus routes a capacity of about 15 million monthly passengers.
See Mathew's post below for
By bgl
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 3:37pm
See Mathew's post below for the math and data. There are about 300k+ bus trips a month. Most are probably not even near capicity except during peak hours.
Proportion
By Matthew
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:26am
There are 13,109 bus trips scheduled per weekday in the current quarter. Saturday schedule is 7,830 bus trips, and Sunday schedule is 5,362 trips. (see below for source)
The month of February had 19 weekday schedules, 5 Saturday schedules, and 4 Sunday schedules (not counting weather cancellations).
That comes to 309,669 scheduled trips in the month of February.
The Herald is complaining about what, 7,417 missed trips in the month of February? That's 2.4% of schedule. And they're blaming 5,340 missed trips on absences: that's 1.7% of trips.
Hey, missed trips do suck, but this seems to be blown way out of proportion.
...
Excuse my quick and dirty SQL, operating on the GTFS published schedule,
SELECT count(*) FROM (SELECT route_id, arrival_time FROM trips JOIN stop_times USING (trip_id) WHERE service_id LIKE 'BUS22015%Weekday%' AND stop_sequence = 1 GROUP BY route_id, arrival_time) AS q;
count
-------
13109
SELECT count(*) FROM (SELECT route_id, arrival_time FROM trips JOIN stop_times USING (trip_id) WHERE service_id LIKE 'BUS22015%Saturday%' AND stop_sequence = 1 GROUP BY route_id, arrival_time) AS q;
count
-------
7830
SELECT count(*) FROM (SELECT route_id, arrival_time FROM trips JOIN stop_times USING (trip_id) WHERE service_id LIKE 'BUS22015%Sunday%' AND stop_sequence = 1 GROUP BY route_id, arrival_time) AS q;
count
-------
5362
Most of the dropped trips are
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 1:13pm
Most of the dropped trips are during the peak, when the demand for drivers is at its greatest and when it is most difficult to bring more people in on overtime to cover the runs.
I was appalled
By mg
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:30am
that they used this Jan/Feb as the basis of comparison with other transit systems! I'm willing to believe that absenteeism is a big problem, but let's look at how it is during periods that are relatively normal. Comparing Jan/Feb to systems in cities that weren't whomped by snow is crazy and leads to predetermined conclusions.
According to the Herald
By Hardy Har Har
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:00am
According to the Herald article, the absenteeism rate is from the 2014 fiscal year, which I believe ran 7/1/13 to 6/30/14.
It's too bad the report did that.
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:21am
It would be nice if we could get accurate numbers. Including sick leave, injuries, and family medical leave in the average? So pregnant women out for months get rolled in with everyone else? Someone on long term disability too?
media vs median vs mean
By SharpWave
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 1:21pm
I hate how the media almost never uses the median over the mean. That 57 days number is probably heavily skewed by outliers.
In this case, the mode might be nice too
By Kaz
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 2:53pm
It's entirely possible that something like 225 absences in a month are the result of 20 people with 1 absence, one person with 5 days, and 20 people with 10 days each. The median would be 5, but the modes would be 1 and 10.
57 days?
By Kaz
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 4:12pm
How do MBTA employee hours match up to that? If I'm scheduled for a 12 hour shift, is that 1.5 days or 1 day? What is the usual "time in the seat" for an operator in a given day? If a bus operator misses "1 day" is that 50 scheduled trips or 5? Does that change based on the line? Do #33 bus operators call out more or less or the same as express bus operators? Did they just combine all the hours and divide by 8 to get the days or just talk about scheduled days such that a 2-hr part-time employee who misses a day counts the same as a 12-hour shift worker?
True of Infrastructure Planning As Well
By FencePost
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 11:45pm
JCK,
I echo that support for public transit and unions (albeit not for labor unions in monopoly companies), but your comment about the aim of the agency goals can ALSO very aptly be applied to the actors involved in the process of planning and building transportation infrastructure in the Commonwealth.
In fact, I'm convinced (after much detailed analysis) that if only half of the money wasted in very poorly designed and badly managed construction of both road and rail infrastructure, over the last two decades and currently in the 'pipeline', would instead have been steered to an endowment for the operations of the MBTA, the agency would be in the black with the finest equipment and up-todate technology and superior service.
Bay Staters need to question who is benefiting most from spending on transit infrastructure. I could tell you, but I'd rather have you figure it out.
From the looks of things it
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 9:44am
From the looks of things it appears if the MBTA spent the maintenance money it had in line with the average national costs the backlog/shortfall would be only a quarter or less of what it is now ~1 billion. Just enough so that the convention center bond could be diverted to the MBTA to clear it.
The MBTA's toxic employee and management culture is killing the system with an unprecedented level of dysfunction.
The MBTA maintenance program
By KBHer
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:06am
The MBTA maintenance program is different that of other agencies. Comparing them without context is an easy to end up with false conclusions. The MBTA current fleet is old and even though new procurements are on the way (or in the case of MBCR, in process as we speak) the maintenance costs in question are accrued keeping 40 year old GP40s and F40s on CR in running shape, keeping the 40 year #1 RL series in usable shape, and keeping the 35 yr old OL stock up to snuff. Old equipment requires big maintenance dollars, and old equipment requires compatible parts that are less and less available, which further drives up the price. That needs to be accounted for in any discussion of the MBTA maint budget.
Could it be better allocated, hell yeah. But it's also worth noting that fixing a system that is close to collapsing in on itself is more expensive than preemptive fixes. The MBTA doesn't have the luxury of devoting its maint budget solely to these preemptive fixes - we're reaping the seeds of the forward funding reform today. Management needs to be better, yes, but just solving that doesn't solve the MBTA's issues and definitely does nothing to insure the system can expand or improve in the future to smooth out the many, many inefficiencies that exist today.
NTCTA still runs R32s from
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 1:22pm
NTCTA still runs R32s from 1964, R42s from 1969, and a huge fleet of 700+ R46s from 1975-77 in their subway fleet.
Metra in Chicago has a diesel locomotive fleet with many from the late 1970s/early 1980s that have only been fully rebuilt in recent years. They also still have coaches in service from the 1950s and 1960s and a large percentage of their fleet dates to 1974-1980..
SEPTA's Broad St. subway line is made up 100% of cars built in 1982, about the same age as the MBTA's Orange Line fleet. The SEPTA Kawasaki light rail fleet dates to 1981, newer than then MBTA's Type 7s.
The MBTA is not as unique as some people think in having rail equipment older than 25 years old in service.
And according to the 2013 NTD
By KBHer
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 3:31pm
And according to the 2013 NTD profiles, the MBTA's operating expenses are not at all out of line with Metra. The average MBCR accrues about $473 in operating expenses per rev hour compared to $470 for Metra, the expense per unliked pax trip is a dollar $10 to $9. The about $100 less per revenue hour operating costs for the SEPTA RR would be an indication that EMUs are cheaper to maintain, provide better service - after all SEPTA attracts more riders than both Metra and MBCR per mile.
I'm not making the argument that the MBTA is some sterling agency without reproach, it's got, let's just call them issues. But tossing around the claim that MBTA maint costs or operating costs are wildly out of line with other systems isn't correct, it's leading not informing.
I realize that this factoid was selectively leaked
By moxie
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 9:53am
Given the back trail (Joe Sullivan-->Boston Herald) this clearly was an effort to position the report in a certain way, and get information out that would color future discussions.
That being said, if it is even partially true, it kind of vindicates CB's approach of reform before revenue. does it not?
If they all showed up
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 7:15pm
Would trains magically not have rust holes in them because, well, magic?
The problem is the equipment is worn out. Period.
57 days?!?
By RozzieKid
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 9:56am
T employees are out of work for an average of 57 days per year?!? That would be like me going into work today and saying "See you later, I'll be back June 30th." Further, 30 percent of MBTA employees have received approval to use family leave provisions?? Is the T some kind of baby farm? No entity could sustain such absenteeism. Public unions at their best.
Doesn't this report essentially shift a lot of the blame for this winter's transportation disaster onto individual T employees as opposed to "historical winter conditions," "lack of investment," "old equipment," etc. It wasn't so much that the trains couldn't run, but the employees didn't show up. Not even the Olympics could fix that.
Doesn't this report
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:07am
Yup. Check out the comment above I posted with the bolded sentence.
It wasn't so much that the
By Scratchie
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:22am
Did you just wake up from a three-month nap? It was reported repeatedly that the trains couldn't run under the weather conditions. The fact that there's also a problem with absenteeism doesn't cancel that out.
And honestly
By Michael
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:28am
If the train can't get out of the yard, what difference does it make if the driver who can't drive a broken train sits at home rather than twiddles his thumb in a train barn somewhere?
Well, maybe they could've
By Patricia
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:23am
Well, maybe they could've saved paying people $30/hr to shovel when they had employees sitting around twidling their thumbs?
Mismanagement for years is finally taking it's toll.
Gaming the system is the culture at the T. I don't understand how anyone can deny that this has no bearing on the miserable performance. Everyone knows someone from the T. I've heard all the ways they game the sick and overtime hours from my neighbor that retired in his late 50's with benefits.
This past winter a family member was one in a crowd waiting for a train that never came. While they stood in the cold she spotted a T employee sitting in a nice warm car texting on her phone. She went up to the car, banged on the window and offered to take the T employee's picture. She also suggested the employee find out what was going on with their train and if she could see if it was coming, at all. The employee obliged. Why did it take a customer to make this suggestion? The employee couldn't figure out all those increasingly angry commuters needed information?
Got that employee out of the car pretty quick.
Gaming the system is the
By KBHer
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:34am
Bearing? Yes. Will wholly revamping the MBTA's management structure solve the issue, abso-effing-lutely not. Not even close. The system itself needs investment, that is an unavoidable fact, no amount of savings on management is going to make the RL any less congested. No amount of management saving is going to obviate the need for signal upgrades on the RL, GL, OL, and maybe even the BL. No amount of management savings is going to free up enough money for the MBTA to acquire more space for its busses, nor will it be enough to finally complete Red-Blue, nor will it be enough to run and operate DMUs on the Fairmount and W/F. Those aren't wistful projects either, those are just the things the MBTA must do eventually to bring it's current infrastructure anywhere close to full potential. That doesn't even take into account some of the revolutionary projects life Blue-Lynn or electrification on the W/F, Fairmount, or Lowell, or the real heavy-hitters: North-South link, a Green Line connection to the transitway, or a an actual urban ring. Absenteeism is a laughably small problem (though certainly one with political clout) in comparison to very real infrastructural issues at stake here.
Throwing more money at the T
By Patricia
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 12:24pm
Throwing more money at the T with it's current structure in place is just more of the same.
Are you taking a pay cut soon?
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 7:17pm
No?
This is yet another "cause a crisis - attack middle class union jobs" game from the Koch Brothers, Inc. playbook.
Follow the money on the Pioneer Institute, which is one of their favorites and Charlie's too.
I don't even understand what that means.
By Eric
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 12:13am
I'm trying to figure out how this argument even works. Are you saying that if we fully funded the T that we would not actually benefit from things like newer trains and modern signaling systems? What does "more of the same" even mean?
I don't even understand what that means.
By Eric
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 10:58am
I'm trying to figure out how this argument even works. Are you saying that if we fully funded the T that we would not actually benefit from things like newer trains and modern signaling systems? What does "more of the same" even mean?
New FMLA law the problem
By Markk02474
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:00am
"A Herald analysis of new data provided by the T yesterday also found FMLA absences drained more than $3.7 million from the T’s overtime budget last fiscal year — the largest overtime expense outside of police details, which are mainly paid through construction contracts and not the MBTA’s budget. FMLA absences already account for nearly $2.9 million in overtime expenses for the first nine months of the current fiscal year."
Essentially, workers who have run out of sick days can take off Mondays and Fridays for long weekends using FMLA. They can cash out vacation days anyway. In really hot or cold unpleasant days, FMLA is handy for avoiding work too.
FMLA absences and leave must
By Dot net
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:41am
FMLA absences and leave must be evaluated by a physician, HR, and the supervising manager. It's not a sick day, and it's not a joke. It gives the chronically sick or those taking care of chronically ill family members unpaid time as requested and evaluated by multiple parties. FMLA can only be used once paid leave is exhausted.
If the FMLA your manager has says you can take up to 4 weeks on top of your paid leave to take care of your mother, and you take 4 weeks and 1 day...you better believe that manager is going to fire you, unless you are the star of your team.
Better learn your employment law. It's one of the few important protections/benefits non-union folks are allowed.
Absenses Sound unaudited
By Markk02474
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:06am
from the report - that some checking of them are needed due to the excessive rate in the MBTA. Also sounds like MBTA workers have far more sick relatives than anybody else. Any idea why?
Is the physician sign off
By anon
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 5:43pm
Is the physician sign off required each time its used or only the first time?
Areas in which Markkk has
By erik g
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:30am
Areas in which Markkk has publicly demonstrated his ignorance (a by-no-means comprehensive list) :
☑ Transportation systems
☑ Pedestrian safety protocols
☑ Race relations
☑ Gender, sexual orientation, and economic equality
☑ Public education
☑ The criminal justice system
And now, introducing:
☑ The Family Medical Leave Act
Anything else you want to add to the list while we're here, bro?
Public persecution and bigotry
By Markk02474
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:34am
I don't try to discredit people simply for disagreeing with them or that that they question the dominant paradigm. Discredit their incorrect fantasies, sure. Silly usernames after being attacked for much the same, sure, I'm human too. But, here I am responding to a comment meant to distract from the actual issue, failures of the MBTA due to its own ineptness.
King of deflections complaining about deflections
By spin o rama
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:38am
Seriously, the Bruins need to hire you as a powerplay consultant. Bs need work on those deflection goals.
Discredit their incorrect
By Scratchie
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:27am
That's what Erik is doing.
"Make public" lol
By eddiil
Tue, 04/07/2015 - 10:03am
[quote]The Baker administration is slated to release a complete report of the panel’s work later this week, but it has started to make public some of the commission’s findings, including one portion that called out the T for having “limited cost control, low labor productivity and high maintenance costs.â€[/quote]
If by "make public" they mean "selectively leak talking points to newspapers," maybe. But so far the public has about as much detail about T as they do about the Olympics.
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