"Delivery of T’s new fleet beset by delays" March 27, 2012|Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff
New commuter rail cars designed to replace part of the MBTA’s aging fleet are at least a year and a half late, leaving thousands of suburban riders waiting for modern coaches that state transportation officials had expected to be running by now.
Assembly has yet to begin on the T’s order at a Philadelphia plant run by Hyundai Rotem USA, a South Korean company that won the $190 million contract to build 75 cars despite little experience in the US rail market.
Frustrated MBTA officials blame the delay on the Korean firm’s slow or cursory responses to input from the Massachusetts agency regarding the design of the double-decker cars before production. Under a best-case scenario, the T expects a few of the new coaches to be running by the end of this year....
The T made headlines in 2008 for banking on Hyundai Rotem, even though the company had yet to open an assembly plant in the United States, a requirement under federal law, or negotiate the stricter safety standards that have bedeviled a slew of large corporations trying to enter the US rail market.
But executives from Hyundai Rotem and the T who reviewed the bid four years ago assured the MBTA’s board that Hyundai Rotem could do the job and deliver on time, with the first four Seoul-built coaches arriving in October 2010 and the rest rolling in from Philadelphia between May 2011 and December 2012. At the time, the state’s transportation secretary encouraged the board not to delay voting because of the need to upgrade the T’s 410-coach fleet, plagued by air conditioning failures and other problems with 1980s single-level cars.
Now, Hyundai Rotem says it is a year or more behind schedule on most milestones, while an MBTA timeline obtained by the Globe calls even that unrealistic.
While preparing for assembly of the MBTA’s cars, Hyundai Rotem’s Philadelphia factory is still finishing a 120-coach order for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority delayed partly because of clashes between Korean managers and US workers, who complained of disparaging treatment....
Hyundai Rotem made a bold entrance into the United States nearly a decade ago when it began pursuing contracts with low bids, high-level connections, and attractive promises....
You got TOOK, Massachusetts taxpayers, and now your STUCK!
Jonathan Klein, a global transportation consultant and former executive at rail and transit agencies, said the T should have known better than to accept on faith the promises of a company untested here.
The MBTA “really did sort of a Donald Rumsfeld, everything-will-go-right-because-I-need-everything-to-go-right, like the invasion of Iraq,’’ said Klein, who did not work on the Hyundai Rotem deals.
Once hired, Hyundai Rotem either did not understand or did not take seriously feedback from the MBTA, according to T officials. As the order bogged down over design, the two sides negotiated a 2010 settlement granting Hyundai Rotem an extra 10 months while doubling the possible payments the T could withhold for missed milestones, to $19 million. The T also negotiated a discount on $3 million in extra features.
But the T board was not informed of the production delays or the settlement until recently, when MBTA staff requested money for a related contract with PB Americas - an affiliate of Big Dig contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff - to act on behalf of the MBTA in Korea and Philadelphia and to test coaches on arrival in Massachusetts. With work dragging, PB sought $14 million instead of its original $10 million.
Un-flipping-real!
T Board chairman John R. Jenkins called that a “bitter swallow.’’ Board member Ferdinand Alvaro Jr., a corporate lawyer, rebuked T leaders for being soft in negotiations with Hyundai Rotem and said the Korean firm instead should write the PB check.
“We’re talking about fare increases and service reductions, and to me it looks like we’re giving away money to our contractors,’’ he said. “I have a real problem with that.’’
That's the state government I know and love so much!
Richard A. Davey, who became T general manager in 2010 and state transportation secretary last year, said the agency was limited in how aggressively it could push Hyundai Rotem.
“We have worked … very hard to hold this contractor’s feet to the fire, but the bottom line is they were delayed, and we had two options,’’ Davey said. Those options were to cancel the contract, sue, and try to recover money already spent plus minimal damages - then find a new contractor - or coax Hyundai Rotem to make good.
The penalties the T can impose are greater than those negotiated in Philadelphia. But that transit agency - which says it is satisfied with the quality of its coaches, if not the production delays - held Hyundai Rotem more tightly to the design schedule. It sent staff members to work in Korea, as well as consultants; the T has only sent consultants.
“It wasn’t easy,’’ said Luther Diggs, assistant general manager for operations in Philadelphia. “You’ve got to manage them from the first day, and you’ve got to manage them every day, because if you don’t, they will get away from you.’’
The T board reluctantly agreed this month to use MBTA funds to pay $4 million more to the consultants overseeing the T’s coach order.
“I’m going to support this because I know we need to move forward,’’ board member Janice Loux told T administrators. “[But] I want you to go to Philadelphia, I want you to go to Korea, wherever you have to go, and I want you to find the people in charge and bring them before this board… . They need to be ready for the hard questions, and maybe they should bring their flak jackets.’’
I guess it is okay for some people to threaten violence.
Related: The Boston Globe's Looky Loux
Lucky Loux.
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Now you know why fares are going up.
"Cash-strapped T proposes 23 percent fare increase" March 29, 2012|Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff
A trip on the subway would cost many riders an extra 30 cents, bus fares would climb 25 cents, and some commuter rail tickets could exceed $10 for the first time, under a budget-balancing plan announced Wednesday by the MBTA.
Widespread service cuts were largely avoided, but weekend service would vanish on three commuter rail lines - two on the South Shore - and four bus routes would be eliminated.
That news frustrated many riders, but brought relief for others who had braced for the steeper increases and harsh service cuts floated by transportation officials in recent months. Those more drastic measures were vociferously criticized at hearings across Greater Boston.
The new plan, which could be approved by the T board next week, would take effect July 1 and avoid most of the threatened service cuts. But it is just a one-year fix, made possible in large part by raiding a little-known reserve not intended for transit. Even that rescue is not a sure thing: Legislators must approve taking money from the account.
These guys always seem to have "little" piles of money stashed somewhere, don't they?
State officials cautioned that riders should expect more pain next year, barring a new tax to alleviate the MBTA debt. The state must also contend with a highway program operating in the red and threadbare regional bus systems.
Un-frikkin'-real!
“We have a broken transportation system,’’ Governor Deval Patrick told reporters gathered outside his State House office Wednesday, describing the “patches and plugs’’ that would help the T at least rattle through the 2013 budget year....
Related: Massachusetts Lets Hollywood Roll Credits
Secretary of Transportation Richard A. Davey said MBTA management tried to balance the needs of riders against the stark fiscal realities of the transit agency....
In other words, DEBT PAYMENTS to BANKS must be the priority.
Financial pressure on the T has been mounting since 2000, when lawmakers made the agency balance its own books instead of sending a bill to Beacon Hill each year. To help, lawmakers gave the T one cent out of every five collected from the sales tax, but bundled it with billions in debt to pay off politically popular expansion projects, some of them required under federal law to offset the environmental impacts of the Big Dig.
Related: Massachusetts Sales Tax Swindle
Last Trip on the T
It's going to be because I'm going to be cutting way back on my coverage of the Boston Globe.
That plan made the T more efficient; in the past 12 years, it has squeezed more money from advertising and expanded service while reducing staffing. But revenue from the sales tax has lagged because of the recession and online shopping, while many of the T’s costs - debt payments, electricity, fuel, The Ride, employee health insurance - have soared.
If revenue has lagged there has been no recovery.
Also see: Late T Station Story
Record ridership because things have been so great?
Just to maintain the status quo for the coming year, the T would need an extra $185 million. By January, officials had whittled the projected deficit to $160 million before proposing substantial service cuts coupled with price increases of 35 percent or more.
Transit advocates, environmentalists, business groups, and riders railed against those plans, which officials softened by finding $61 million in one-time sources, the very last “rabbits out of the hat,’’ Davey said.
That includes $5 million remaining for snow removal after a mild winter, $5 million from a better-than-expected deal to lease the North Station parking garage, and $51 million from a fund paid by motor-vehicle inspection fees. That fund has a surplus remaining after paying to modernize inspections....
So my inspection fee went to pay for T debt?
The T fare increase would be the first since 2007.
Yeah, it was time, right?
Related: Sunday Globe Commute
That should give you something to ponder as you ride the rails home tonight.
Compared to many states, Massachusetts has an extensive transit and highway system, but one it struggles to operate and maintain, having approved decades worth of construction without dedicated funding sources. Though the T’s woes have received more recent attention, the highway system is little better off. Reluctance to raise tolls and gas taxes means basic upkeep such as mowing and striping is paid with borrowed funds.
See: Massachusetts Democrats Keep Making the Same Mistakes
Patrick said a new tax for transportation would “have to be at the top of our agenda next year’’ but declined to offer specifics, noting lawmakers rejected his attempt to raise the gas tax in 2009. “They’re going to have to be receptive to something,’’ he said....
They don't call it TAXACHUSETTS for NOTHING!
Related: High gas prices put brake on expansion of US exurbs
Obama Steps on the Gas For Israel
How many times can I say it? Your government, be it state or federal, doesn't give a shit about you, Americans. Now bend over so they can hang up that gas pump.
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"Anger, sense of betrayal on Bus 48" March 29, 2012|By Patrick D. Rosso
For the dozen or so afternoon passengers, it was no ordinary trip Wednesday afternoon. In addition to their grocery bags, portable push carts, and canes, the mostly older group carried a sense of betrayal: Bus 48 is on the chopping block.
The route is among four the MTBA plans to eliminate as it seeks to close a $160 million deficit for the upcoming budget year.
For regular passengers, the route is more than just a number; it’s a lifeline.
“They had all of those meetings, and we told them we can’t get to work, school or get our shopping done, and they still aren’t listening,’’ Jenny Ebanks, a 65-year-old Jamaica Plain resident who works part time for Boston public schools, said as the bus clattered along. “I really do need the service. I have no other alternatives.’’
*********************************
To be sure, Bus 48 serves comparatively few riders. It ranks 175th in ridership, with an average of only 85 weekday boarders, according to a 2010 Blue Book Study by the T
But on Wednesday the riders were not buying the T’s logic. Eliminating the bus route, they said, punishes those who most depend on public transportation.
“If they wanted to raise prices, how can they do that and eliminate buses?’’ said Grenda Grayson, 53, a Jamaica Plain resident who uses the 48 weekly to get to shops on Centre Street. “I would have to get a ride or walk, but others don’t have that option. It’s just unfair.’’
Although Ebanks said she does not know how to address the T’s budget deficit or how to boost ridership on the route, she said something has to be done to protect those who use it.
“It’s a big burden, and we didn’t cause it,’’ Ebanks said....
That is VERY PERCEPTIVE, and POSITIVELY CORRECT! I think the American people are STARTING TO CATCH ON to the CON!
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"40% in survey support a state bailout for MBTA" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, April 02, 2012
A state bailout of the cash-strapped MBTA won the backing of 40 percent of Massachusetts voters surveyed in a new Boston Globe poll, outstripping those who said they would categorically oppose an infusion of aid.
Nothing like a nice, self-serving, rigged pos poll to push the agenda!
Support was most robust among those living inside Route 128, the T’s core service area.
The statewide results, which showed 34 percent of respondents opposed using state dollars to plug the T’s budget gap and 26 percent were undecided or did not know, came as a surprise to analysts, who expected wider opposition to state intervention.
That is darn near confirmation it is a pos poll!
Sorry, readers, but I NO LONGER BELIEVE MADE-UP, AGENDA-PUSHING POLLS from the MOUTHPIECE MEDIA! I truly believe they MAKE UP the NUMBERS!
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"MBTA board OK’s fare hikes, service cuts in stormy session" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, April 04, 2012
Related: T to Dump Disabled at Next Stop
Everybody off!
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Also see: Is driving a better deal for commuters?
Costumed activists take over MBTA meeting
I guess the Globe thinks protesting is a joke.
