T Rider Oversight Committee At Harvard Today

Woman In Front of Everything?

One of the minor irritations with the Charlie Card is that so far, an Express Bus Pass cannot be loaded on a Charlie Card. With the incredible crowding on the buses, the load times are so much longer, because of the time it takes to process a Charlie Ticket at the fare box.

It is probably not a major deal to program the Charlie Card to incorporate an Express Bus Pass. After all, other Passes can be on the Card.

Any T excuses relating to Charlie Cards being programmed for the Commuter Trains have nothing to do with the placing one more Pass on the Charlie Card.

Thanks!

-Announce meetings in advance, and hold them at hours those of us who are gainfully employed can actually attend. I loved how the 39 bus "community" meetings were held in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. In fact, put a message board up in every platform, and make sure announcements are posted, either by having someone whose sole job it is to post them, or to distribute them to the station attendants.

-Run the trains and busses on time and when you cannot, announce them as quickly as possible to passengers so they can make alternate plans. If you have to, get the fat-assed booth-warmers to walk down to the platform and yell out "YO, DAH RED LINE IS RUNNIN LATE CAUS SOME MOR-AHN IS ON DAH TRACKS. GUNNA BE ABHOUT TWENTY MINUTES, SORRY 'BOUT DAT, FOLKS." Consider it good practice if there is ever a major emergency.

-Require every T employee to wear their identification card at chest level, fully visible (perhaps put an ID pocket on all T-issued garments) with their name clearly printed on it. Make up some bullshit about it preventing terrorism if you need money to pay for it.

-Staff a dedicated customer SUPPORT line during ALL hours of T operation. Make every phone-box capable of calling it, since cell phones don't work in many stations. Post the number on every platform and near every fare entrance. Give the people staffing it the power to keep going up the food chain until they get action on a particular issue.

-Be open about problems and hold employees and managers responsible for failures. Equipment breakdowns are not accidents- they happen because of lack of maintenance or poor equipment purchasing decisions.

-Ditch the asinine "safety is our priority" announcements, the spanish announcements telling people not to smoke, etc. Post a few signs if you have to, but can the bullshit announcements. And for god sakes, we only need ONE announcement that a train is coming. Leave us be.

-Do repairs and maintenance. First priority: quiet down the trains via proper rail and wheel maintenance. Some of the orange line trains are so effin' loud, you can hear them from JAMAICA POND. Then fix the busses that scream/whistle/etc. Then fix the red line announcement systems, because they've all fallen down and can't get up, it seems. Then fix doors that don't cycle. Then get all the lights in and around stations fixed. Then make sure all the stairs, walkways, and platform floors are in proper condition. By the way, the rest of the world has started using LED lighting technlogy in traffic lights. Maybe you can too, so that signal crews don't waste time changing light bulbs.

-Clean up the place. First priority: Clean EVERY STATION once daily at a MINIMUM. Maybe the fat-ass booth-sitters can do it for some exercise and to cure the utter boredom they suffer from. Maybe buy those nice scrubber machine thingamabobs to actually CLEAN the floors. Maybe two per line, and two warm bodies to drive them. If you're smart, make them small enough to be wheeled onto the subway car to the next station. Got some spare time? Think about how to get rid of that god-aweful smell that permeates the tunnels.

-Get your cops out of their cars and onto the system. That means walk the platforms, ride the subway, trains, and busses.