Won't take long, readers, because this trip is rapidly coming to an end for many reasons.
"Commuter rail won bonuses as riders fumed; Penalties for running late were slashed by the T, saving the operator millions. Can it surprise that service is so poor?" by Sean P. Murphy and Scott Allen, Globe Staff / May 15, 2011
Time and again, state transportation officials have blamed bad weather and old trains for most of the commuter rail delays that made tens of thousands of people late to work through much of last winter.
But a three-month Globe investigation suggests another contributing cause for the commuter rail system’s chronic tardiness: the well-connected company that runs the railroad collects millions in bonuses for “on-time performance’’ even when the system’s overall service is lousy.
And you wonder why they can't repair or replace anything?
In 2007, the MBTA added contract language that effectively offset the penalties and the T began paying Mass Bay about $2 million a year in bonuses for trains that did arrive on time, even as customers were complaining that an increasing number of trains were arriving late or not at all.
Why aren't Bostonians in the streets about this?
Oh, they are; they are walking!
Yet, as performance declined, the MBTA has been anything but adversarial toward its largest contractor, Mass Bay, founded by former T general manager James O’Leary. The senior T officials who selected his firm in 2002 to run the commuter railroad — after they disqualified the lowest bidder on a technicality — had once worked for him. Today, the T and Mass Bay seem connected by a revolving door: current T General Manager Richard Davey had the general manager’s job at Mass Bay until last year, while two of Mass Bay’s senior executives have come over from the T since 2000.
You are so being ripped off over there.
Mass Bay officials insist that they haven’t received special treatment, but the firm’s service contract has been handled in unusual fashion. At least three contract amendments favorable to the company — ones that cost the T millions of dollars in penalty payments — never came up for a vote of the board of directors despite a rule that anything costing more than $500,000 normally requires board approval....
I will be getting off here, dear readers.
--more--"
Maybe not:
"T leaves them in the depths" May 13, 2011|By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist
If Hell really is an eternity stuck underground in a sweltering place of no escape, then hundreds of passengers on an MBTA Red Line train must have been bracing for Satan himself on Wednesday night.
An outbound train came to an abrupt halt several hundred feet short of the Davis Square Station in Somerville at 6:38 p.m., then sat, and sat, and sat some more. It didn’t move again until two hours and one minute later, when frazzled T workers finally made the decision to pull the disabled cars backward to Porter Square in Cambridge, and passengers climbed the steps to gulp fresh air.
It turned what is normally a 30-minute ride from downtown Boston to points west into an occasionally frightening but more often mind-numbing 2 ½-hour odyssey during which passengers had no ability to communicate with the outside world, no access to restrooms, and virtually no information on their fate....
I don't think I'll be going to Boston anytime soon -- or ever again, for that matter.
F*** your fine city and its promotional mouthpiece.
Sorry, that's just the way I'm feeling this Sunday. Last couple days have left me kinda sour.
--more--"
But managers are getting bonuses?
"State’s raises for 17 follow frugality talk; Transit unit says duties changed" May 13, 2011|By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
Two months after state Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan said the economy was too weak to increase salaries for public sector executives, he began handing out raises to 17 managers in his department.
I don't think there is a worse smell than Massachusetts hypocrisy.
The increases, averaging about 9 percent, were given between January and April, when the Massachusetts Department of Transportation faced significant budget challenges and widespread criticism for its handling of a crisis set off by a light fixture that fell in a Big Dig tunnel.
Related: No Light at the End of This Boston Globe Tunnel
The light went out for me after that, dear readers, for I have spent no more time covering that. Those articles were deposited into the recycling bag.
The increases coincided with Governor Deval Patrick’s call for public employee unions to forgo raises and pay more for health care in shared sacrifice to ease budget pressures.
See: New Rules For Unions in Massachusetts
Didn't you think Democrats in Massachusetts would have treated their union supporters better, not worse, than the Repuglican in Wisconsin?
The $140,000 in raises ranged from $1,462 for a senior department lawyer, Maryellen Lyons, to $17,000 for Mullan’s chief of staff, Susan Quinones, whose salary rose from $93,000 to $110,000, an 18 percent bump....
How much did you make last year, readers -- if you managed to have a job at all?
--more--"
Also see: End of the road
I'm getting there, dear readers.
