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Governor cancels remaining fare-hike hearings
By adamg on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 3:02pm
There's no point to feigning interest in the opinions of T riders until after a special commission takes its "top-to-bottom" measure of MBTA finances, the governor says. This statement just in from Transportation Secretary James Aloisi:
At the Governor's direction I have asked Interim General Manager Bill Mitchell to suspend all future public workshops on any potential fare increase or service cuts. The Governor has been very clear that we will not allow a fare increase of any kind to come before the Board until an extensive top to bottom review is completed of the T finances and operations, and we can be confident that each and every cost saving and efficiency has been exhausted – we do not think that is yet the case. Our priority is to focus on the real issues facing the MBTA and its riders – safety, customer service and affordability.
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Comments
You'd a thunk
that they would have done this already what with the budget crunch and the armageddon scenarios they've been tossing around. Didn't it occur to anyone to pull out an income statement, cash flow statement and a balance sheet before firing the guy running the show (and paying him $330k to sit on the couch at home and watch Red Sox games).
Don't blame me - I voted for Muffy.
Where is Muffy, now that we
Where is Muffy, now that we need her?
Sipping cocktails
At her manse - telling the rest of us to just eat cake.
Our priority is to focus on
Not even an honorable mention for "reliability"? Nice.
Board
Considering none of the board makes time in their "busy" schedules to even show up at a hearing they seemed to be pretty worthless.
Was this statement written
Was this statement written last week an sent out automatically, or does he assume that nobody reads the Globe? Its like they keep digging themselves into a deeper hole of disbeleif
Also, they keep touting this "top to bottom" review, run by an ex-CEO....id like to see a top to bottom review of how much doing that will cost!
I wish everyone would stop referring to the
T's "feel-good workshops" as "hearings", as this is very inaccurate. There has been only ONE FORMAL PUBLIC HEARING scheduled to discuss the fare increases (it was to be held on August 27th at the Transportation Building). AFAIK, nothing said in the other "workshops" was to be formally put into the official public record for this issue.
As I've noted in other posts, this is the basic flaw in the T's approach to public comments on this matter. The Legislature, the media, and the public should demand that every "workshop" be a formal public hearing(court stenographer etc.) and that any and all comments be officially recorded and put into the public record.
Worst of both worlds
They were billed as "workshops," which implies people sitting around a table actually having a discussion.
What they had yesterday looked and felt like a hearing: People went up to a microphone and gave their thoughts/read their statements (the T's COO, running the session, got his only applause when he shut up somebody from the Conservation Law Foundation who just went on and on and on about how the fare hikes would destroy the Greenland ice shelf, or something). Although there was a bit of back and forth, in the sense that the COO, Jonathan Davis, occasionally said things or answered questions, it was not at all workshoppish. But you're right, and as he said at the beginning, this was not a "hearing" in that there was no court reporter taking notes or anything.
The most hilarious statement
The most hilarious statement is Dan G.saying how angry he was when he heard that they were going to do a top to bottom review, since that, he claimed, was his idea.
How many years has this hack been there (several years at least, since he is a Romney appointment), he had plenty of time to do a review.
He may have done a good job running the RMV, but managing RMV people and setting up customer service systems there is a lot different than overseeing MBTA construction projects or making the trains run on time, and in both these instances he was utterly incompetent. Kenmore was years late and millions over budget, there is hardly ever a day when commuter rail trains are all on time (yet he gave the MBCR a new, more lucrative contract). And so many stations leak, even new ones, and in the case of my station, right onto the new fare gates.
Even on customer service issues, the MBTA, under his leadership, was one of the last agencies in the country to allow google transit to add Boston. This contract was another FU from Romney to the residents of MA as he was leaving, he should have to pay the golden parachute money.
How many stories have run in
How many stories have run in the paper this year about commuter rail trains being on time or being late?
NONE.
You dont hear about good news, but this year has had one of the best on time records for commuter rail in recent history.
When something is wrong at the T, you will hear about it, but nothing gets written when stuff happens well, thats why its impossible to have a job like the GM.
The charlie rollout worked as planned, the systemwide PA upgrade is great, and the new blue line cars have had zero problems.
It's 2009, three years after
It's 2009, three years after the Charlie Card rollout. It's still impossible to buy a pass with a debit card on the first and last days of the month. If that's "as planned," then the planners are morons.
On the other hand, I haven't seen any articles on that staggering flaw in the paper this year, so how about we call it square for the lack of Blue Line puff pieces?
If you still have issues
If you still have issues with the machines then you may be the problem
Oh, great. Thank you. I'll
Oh, great. Thank you. I'll be sure to share that helpful tip with every other exasperated commuter trying unsuccessfully to buy a linkpass on August 31. No one had thought to tell the lines of us that on July 31, June 30, May 31, April 30, and so on and so on and so on.
"I was at the Haymarket station last week and every single one of the card machines couldn't read my debit card. I started right (furthest away from the booth with a T employee) to left (a couple feet from the window) and none worked. I made some eye contact with the guy in the booth who promptly looked right back down at his paper." (http://www.yelp.com/topic/boston-the-most-run-down..., 3/24/09)
"On the morning of April 1, I tried to update my Charlie Card for the montly pass, using my WageWorks card (works like a pre-paid credit card, money taken from paycheck). I, as well as many others at kiosks around me, got a "Transaction Cancelled." One of the T employees announced there was a system-wide problem, and let us all on for free."(http://community.livejournal.com/b0st0n/5858732.html, 4/11/08)
"Why bother having this stupid credit card system if the CharlieCard machines can’t read the cards??? "(http://moxilicious.blogspot.com/2007/01/warning-mb..., 1/30/07)
Seriously, shouldn't a T apologist hang around a subway station from time to time?
I've never had that problem,
I've never had that problem, and I pretty consistently use a debit card on the last or first day of the month.
Yawn
I doubt you'll have a problem now that the system accepts online payment and registration of the cards. Let me know when you find a complaint after mid-July 2009. Geez, who cares if some blogger couldn't put their card in the right direction back in January, 2007?
New monthly pass blues averted
I used to have the same problems with my transit card (they take money out of your paycheck pre-tax and load it onto a card to buy the pass with). I registered with MyCharlie when it rolled out last month to automatically add a pass each month. It worked for August with no visit to the dreaded machine.
Yeah ...
... that's 'cause they're not wasting any time collecting fares this year ...
Bull shit
Bull shit
MBTA leadership, empty
http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/leadership/?id=...
MBTA leadership, empty, how fitting
The Boston area has some of
The Boston area has some of the most prestigious schools for engineers, business executives, lawyers, urban planners...
Surely we can scrounge up a few people to fill that empty page.
Make one a by-the-book engineer
The first week on the job, let's say s/he discovers that the regular overcrowding of MBTA vehicles violates some federal safety regulation. We'd see better capacity and scheduling pretty quick, since people would be left behind by technically full vehicles until we did.
At least...
At least it isn't this bad.
I lol'd
n/t
Deval, Aloe-weasel...
Quick, look...your pants are on fire!