T fares could go up next year

I didn't realize that pulling away from the station on me every time, or driving on a rail and not crashing was all that challenging. Please, the MBTA hardly requires much in terms of skills and is very much a "get this job and the unions keep it secure and cushy till you retire at 55 as one of the few workers who still get lavish pensions"

Whatever the contractors get away with, it doesn't make MBTA compensation any less absurd. It wasn't contractors demanding multiple conductors per train in a world where other systems go way faster and deal with only one, among other deals above market rate that unions are able to negotiate.

If the MBTA had competent lawyers,planner, architects, and construction project managers worth their salaries on the payroll the Green Line extension wouldn't be ONE FREAKING BILLION DOLLARS over budget.

And Coakley would have done what differently?

Yes the governor with one year on the job is responsible for more than decade of disinvestment by a Democratic dominated legislature which can find freight trains full of money for pet projects, pay raises, pensions, and subsidies but not a penny for non-highway infrastructure maintenance.

What to blame someone?

Start with the contempt filled clowns on the hill with travel expense reimbursement, state town cars, reserved parking spaces, and uncontested 'elections'. There's a reason why they exempt themselves from most laws meant for the good little people they tax farm.

Democrats are soooo honest. Lets be real here, all politicians lie. This is unique to one party or the other. Playing devils advocate: perhaps when Bake took office, discovered what a mess the T was, realized he had NO choice but to raise fares since the Union has run amok and MBTA employees are fleecing tax payers.

Herald Reports: "The top T earner so far this year, a maintenance foreman whose annual pay rate is less than $85,000, has pulled in more than $315,000, with more than half of those earnings coming from 2,648 hours of overtime, T records show."

It's kind of a waste, though, isn't it? The administrative costs way outweigh the lost 3 dollars and it's one of those crimes where people take their chances regardless, so you can't even claim it'll cut down on farejumping in general.

I'd rather the T Police go after phone/purse snatchers and assault, personally.

If it wasn't for Boston, western mass would be like fucking New Hampshire. Except New Hampshire would be even more of an immense pit without all those people coming down our highways (and not paying for it!) and working in Boston. So maybe more like upstate New York? Good luck with that.

But hey here's a deal: North Adams and the rest of them can have back from the state exactly what they pay in, and everyone in the metro area will keep all our taxes, as well as all the taxes paid by businesses in the area.

If you look at actual distributions of money by the state, which is publicly available, it looks like North Adams received.... $7,742,275.38, while paying $910,975.00 in assessments. So they pay around 12% of what they're getting. Meanwhile Boston got... $224,221,435.54 but paid $66,133,962.00, which is 30%. As much as they like to bitch and moan, the boonies are HARDLY supporting the metro area.

But yeah let's just choke the economic engine of the state until the entire commonwealth looks like Springfield, what a fantastic idea.

I pay for the roads in Western MA and the burbs to be plowed, sanded, salted and kept up. I don't drive. Is that fair? IT BENEFITS EVERYONE.

I also pay way more than I should for my commuter rail pass considering I am in the city of Boston. I pay 5.75 to go 4 stops. End of linter pay 6.25 (I believe - it could be 6.50). Is that fair?

Sounds good! And hey there's even other systems in the world that do it, so we can look at Copenhagen and Barcelona and not invent the wheel completely. Let's see, so all we need to do is.... totally replace all the signaling system, fix it so all the car doors open and close reliably, install a whole new dispatch and central computer system, rebuild the entirety of the green line so there's fare gates and street signal priority (and maybe gates? can a computer system detect when some idiot BU freshman is idling on the tracks?), install emergency stops so when drunks fall on the tracks somebody can tell the train, hmm, what else....

Seriously, though, it's a good idea but if the discussion is "the MBTA costs too much money" proposing what's essentially a new system is kind of a red herring, right?

Both are 'suburbs', are located in mistly suburban counties, yet are physically closer and have greater options and access to downtown Boston, back bay, even Cambridge, than many Boston neighbirhoods. And Newton has express buses, the D line (no multi zone pass needed), and commuter rail. If you live. Inside Boston, in a zone 1 or greater area for commuter rail, yiu pay min. $170. Plus instead of $80. for a bus-subway pass. Your options are a local bus to a subway or streetcar connection.