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Winter happens, the T said; Red Line delays just spread
By adamg on Tue, 01/05/2016 - 12:32pm
The T advises there are "moderate" delays on the Red Line towards Alewife due to an unspecified track issue at Central.
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Comments
Raise Fares?
Still think jamming a fare increase down our throats when we have daily service issues is the right thing to do, Gov Baker?
bwahahahahahahaahahahahaha
Good Luck With that.
(Sorry I love this Lucille Bluthe gif, fits my mood exactly about this whole situation)
I used to love that gif, too
Until this board killed it
Didn't Baker say that he
Didn't Baker say that he wouldn't raise any taxes because "people pay enough"? Apparently that only applied to the suburban folk. Demanding people pay more while cutting service is punishing the victim, something conservatives love doing.
Doesn't the CR serve the suburbs?
And aren't the proposed hikes on the CR of the greatest per ride amount?
[Update: It has come to my attention that there are differing proposals - apparently some of which might not raise CR fares. My larger point remains, however: this city v. suburbs stuff has to stop because there is no way the T can get better unless everyone in the service area can see something in it for them.]
Not percentage-wise
Haven't looked at all zones, but mine has proposed hikes of something like 3.5%/7.5% as opposed to 6.3%/9.4% for subway rides. But of course on an absolute bases they're higher.
CR in Suburbs
Why yes! $18.50 round trip per day plus $4.00 to park, and its going up!
$0.25 extra to go from BC to Wonderland? How do you people live?
Not
Not by going from BC to Wonderland. Who does that?
When I ride the Fitchburg
When I ride the Fitchburg Line late at night, most passengers appear to be poor people with no alternative. (Wouldn't you drive if you could, if the train cost 50 cents per mile plus subway fare, and ran every 2 hours?)
Not gonna stop anytime soon.
Not gonna stop anytime soon. City-vs.-suburbs stuff has been going on since at least 1786.
Actually
Senator Stan said that yesterday.. right before the fare increase..
CORRECTION: It was DeLeo, not Stan.
Recall elections?
Are those even possible in MA?
I want my $50 million back, Stan. You people should pay your own way when there are disasters. No subsidizing your driving lifestyles!
Swirly vs. Stan - the Cage Match of the Century!!!
There's the Swirly we all know and love! I had been missing your hating on Stan-of-Route-2-Reconstruction since he became Senate President!
On a more serious note, I'm fine with paying a (reasonable) subsidy for driving lifestyles in an area where there is little alternative (and the PVTA is not a very good alternative, but it is something) and where the subsidy is less money (b/c of lower construction costs, etc.).
I am less fine with subsidizing said driving lifestyle in an area where there is an (or should be a very good) alternative.
If only....
There were elections for the General Court this year.
When are those darned elections, anyway?
I just wish
Someone would post the entire ballot here in the comments section along with whom I could contact to receive a sample ballot in the mail.
*side eye*
*gives BostonDog side eye*
(I hope you're kidding...)
We can dream
Maybe Karma will bust a standpipe in the State House garage and there won't be any money to clean up the mess.
Bonus points if Baker's car gets entombed and destroyed.
I should give up this argument, but...
If the T is wildly underfunded because of reasons that are largely* out of its control, it can do one of three things. It can raise rates, it look for subsidies from the state (which is currently governed by someone openly hostile to the MBTA), or it can reduce services. When people clamor for them to do none of the above, we get option D, which is "suffer service delays pretty much every day because the infrastructure budget is going to operating costs."
* I can't even fight another organized-labor-is-the-devil argument today, so let's just assume that operating costs + salaries + benefits aren't line items that can be slashed on short notice.
It's not just the right thing to do, it's the only thing to do
The proposed fare increases aren't because they're deserved due to great service, or because it's worth it, or even to fix existing problems. The MBTA is broken from top to bottom, and in a tremendous financial mess. These are desperate times.
Until the gas tax or something similar gets sorted, as well as multiple other revenue streams, the MBTA will continue to sink, even with what's proposed. The fare increases are a bailing bucket when what's needed is an entire new hull, but if a bailing bucket is all you've got, you use it.
The bashing on Baker thing is tiresome. He has absolutely nothing to gain from the MBTA failing. You can blame him for past budgetary guidance, but in his current position there's no reason why he wouldn't want a well-oiled public transit system.
He has nothing to lose
Yeah, and he has little to gain from it's success. The T is a thorn in the side of Baker and Legislature. Sadly the T is almost never discussed in campaigning -- at least not in any detail. The top brass in the Statehouse have been pretty open about how they feel it's a non-priority.
Baker won due to support from outside of the Boston area. He's not going to do something to piss these people off (gas tax, etc) just to improve the MBTA which mostly serves people who wouldn't vote for him regardless.
I like the fact Baker is talking about the T but he's not doing anything to seriously improve the system. All things being equal he won't win or lose another election due to the T and if he decides to run for higher office the success or failure of the MBTA won't resinate nationally.
I agree that Baker is not at
I agree that Baker is not at fault; he's not at issue here. This is the same predictable T hijinks we experience every few years, regardless of whether or not the Governor is a Republican or a Democrat. Service gets worse, threaten to raise fairs or cut service more, raise fairs. A few years later, it's still worse, and they need more money. Again.
I guarantee you not one dime of the fair increase will go toward the state-of-good-repair issues. It won't go to cover outstanding debt either. The fair increase is to cover their operating budget, which by their own admission is growing faster than revenues due to employee healthcare and pension costs. Nothing that benefits riders or improves service here.
Your fair increase will pay for more of the same from the T. And next year we'll see more stories about even more T execs making $100K+ salaries too, I'll bet.