Just another Grey Monday while getting back to work:
"Will Smith’s con man caper, ‘‘Focus,’’ overtook ‘‘Fifty Shades of Grey’’ at the box office, but its modest $19.1 million opening still left questions about the drawing power of the once unstoppable star. According to studio estimates Sunday, Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Focus’’ easily led on a weekend with little competition at North American multiplexes. After two weeks on top, ‘‘Fifty Shades of Grey’’ landed in fourth with an estimated $10.9 million for Universal Pictures."
Turns out I was right again: the take is less than half of the previous week, and must be offending audiences (it sunk below Spongebob).
"Details of MBTA service fix scarce; Officials considering commuter refunds" by Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff February 18, 2015
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority on Tuesday provided no specifics about its timeline to restore full service to the embattled transit system, as the public fumes over weeks of canceled trains and system shutdowns that have stranded thousands of commuters across the region.
A day after saying it would take as long as 30 days to get the system back to normal, MBTA general manager Beverly A. Scott would say only that her timeline includes “incremental” restoration of service and that transportation officials are working on a strategy.
“We are very focused on having a concrete plan and to be able to lay that out to you’’ on Wednesday, she told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.
Service levels have dropped so sharply after the record-breaking snowfalls that Scott said the agency is considering refunds to frustrated commuters.
See: Demands for MBTA refunds may pay off
I was told no refunds!
“We more than appreciate that this has not been the service level at all that anyone would have wanted,” she said.
Scott’s remarks came on a day when one major commuter rail line was suspended, and several subway lines were running at reduced capacity and on shortened routes. Pressure from Governor Charlie Baker continued, and riders vented about the lack of solid information about individual trains and longer-term plans to fix the system.
Baker also said he was not satisfied with the commuter rail’s performance and singled out the private contractor that runs that system. “I’ve called the folks at Keolis and told them I want to meet directly with them,” Baker said.
Scott also called the company’s performance “substandard.”
Mac Daniel, a spokesman for Keolis, declined to comment on the remarks by Baker and Scott.
Paul Regan, the executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, an independent group meant to provide public oversight for the agency, said, “They have to make their case, and I don’t think they’ve done it yet. They’ve got to get out there and tell people what they’re going to be doing for the next 30 days.”
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"MBTA offers hope for faster recovery; Baker blasts Keolis" by Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff February 18, 2015
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that nearly all of its rail lines would reopen by Monday — much sooner than anticipated — while Governor Charlie Baker turned his ire to the state’s commuter-rail operator, saying that he is “done with excuses” from the company.
Even with most stations set to reopen Monday, it remained unclear when the T will have enough working trains to restore service to normal levels. Officials on Wednesday warned riders that their commutes would still be hampered by long waits and crowded trains.
On Tuesday, Baker publicly chastised Keolis, the private company that operates the service, leading the company to apologize to its riders. Baker met with Keolis officials Wednesday. Keolis did not make any executives available for interviews, despite repeated requests.
I don't blame Keolis. They were given a $hit hand by the corrupt company that ran it before them, and all the modernized equipment they were supposed to get turned out to be pos.
*****************
The public criticism follows a rocky start for Keolis, which took over the commuter-rail system in July. After fining Keolis several times since the fall, the MBTA levied the contractual maximum penalty — about $868,000 — against the company in January for late trains and other problems, such as station and car cleanliness and the availability of vehicles, according to the state Department of Transportation.
The monthly penalties from October through January totaled about $3.3 million.
What a rotten thing to do to someone just beginning the job.
In the company’s statement, Keolis officials said the governor’s staff and the company worked together Wednesday on an “action plan” to help the system recover; the blueprint includes additional workers to help clear snow and ice from maintenance facilities and various switch points.
More prison labor?
The governor will also help Keolis acquire additional equipment to remove snow from the tracks, and the company has set up a recovery maintenance plan to repair disabled locomotives and passenger cars.
All of the commuter lines are running, but the frequency of trains has been limited by breakdowns in equipment due to the snow and cold....
Global warm.... never mind.
While snow has contributed to sidelining much of the company’s equipment, Keolis has also struggled with mechanical issues: Last month, the Globe reported that 40 new locomotives had issues with their motor traction bearings, and fewer than 10 had been repaired.
State Senator Bruce Tarr, the chamber’s minority leader from Gloucester, announced that the Republican caucus had filed MBTA reform legislation on Wednesday.
The proposal would create a board that would be responsible for controlling the MBTA’s finances, for developing a long-range financial plan.
What's this, like the third one?
And if the proposed finance board fails to make reforms, it could be dissolved and a receiver could take over the transit authority.
“The Legislature cannot sit idly by as commuters continue to feel the pain of a failed public transportation system that they depend on, day in and day out, to get to work, home, school, and other appointments and destinations,” Tarr said in a statement.
Yeah, the blowback is causing them public relations problems.
Baker said he had not seen the GOP bill, and he wanted to focus on getting the T on a reliable schedule before starting a conversation on what’s next for the system.
The T has been working to reopen a number of stations. After a complete shutdown of the system during Sunday’s blizzard, many stations remained closed until crews could clear the tracks of snow. The T’s general manager, Beverly Scott, said earlier this week that it could take up to 30 days to restore service to normal levels, but the schedule released Wednesday has the T reopening its closed rail stations in much less time....
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"Baker creates panel to examine MBTA; Recommendations from experts due by end of March" by Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff February 20, 2015
Governor Charlie Baker took ownership of the problems facing the state’s embattled transit system, empaneling a committee of experts to examine the operations of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and present recommendations next month to improve the agency.
“In order to fix the problems at the MBTA, they must first be diagnosed,’’ Baker said at a Friday news conference. “Let me be clear: We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result.”
The announcement of the commission came as the MBTA’s subway system is slowly returning to normal after weeks of shutdowns and limited service amid record amounts of snow, and as the commuter rail continues to limp along, operating without a third of the locomotives necessary for regular service.
But it's almost normal.
Related: "On Monday, Keolis said it would not restore regular service until some point in March."
Well....
Though similar commissions have been convened twice over the last decade — primarily to look into the T’s finances — Baker insists this panel will take a different tack by formulating a list of practical recommendations in a relatively short period of time. He has given the panel a deadline of the end of March.
A spokesman for the T said that the agency would work with the governor “to achieve the shared goal of providing transit riders with services that are reliable, safe, and accessible.”
Some transportation watchers say they are cautiously optimistic that the commission will be able to spur change.
Jim Aloisi, a former transportation secretary who was a member of the 2007 transportation finance commission, said he doesn’t see Baker’s panel as a repeat of the past.
“Thank God the governor didn’t decide to appoint another transportation finance commission, because we’ve been commissioned to death,” he said. “What we need is what he gave us, which is a very quick, agile, and informed approach to getting the solutions that we need.”
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said the panel’s charge is not to examine why the MBTA collapsed under the onslaught of snow.
“This panel has been asked to address the larger problems, not the immediate cause of what happened this winter, but the deeper causes, the root causes,’’ she said.
The seven-member advisory group, made up of local and national leaders in transportation and urban planning, has been tasked with looking closely into the T’s finances, operations, and maintenance from past years, and will suggest ways for the system to move forward.
The advisory group includes well-respected national and local officials, including Jane Garvey, former head of the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Highway Administration leader; Katherine Lapp, former executive director of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who now works at Harvard University; and Paul Barrett, former Boston Redevelopment Authority director, who will serve as chair.
Maybe not (see below).
After Baker introduced him at a news conference, Barrett said he spent two days riding the Red Line talking to employees who want to see system up and running smoothly again.
“Hopefully we’ll bring some answers to them about a brighter future and a more motivated workforce that can help really deliver the 21st-century system that we all want to have and rely on going forward,” he said.
The MBTA has made progress restoring service after another weekend snowstorm buried exposed tracks and rail beds. On Friday, the T reopened sections of the Green and Red lines, and put the highest number of subway cars in service for the first time since Feb 9.
I think I'm getting motion sickness due to all the mixed messages.
T officials have said that the entire Braintree branch of the Red Line and the B branch of the Green Line will reopen by Monday.
Keolis, the commuter rail operator, plans to run only limited service next week, as workers replace motors on trains and thaw frozen switches. For weeks, canceled trains have stranded commuters packing North and South stations, and state officials have expressed concerns about the company’s plans to rebound from the storms.
“We had an honest meeting with the Keolis folks, and we’re waiting for them to hand us their recovery and communications plan,’’ Pollack said.
Keolis spokesman Mac Daniel declined to comment on the governor’s panel, which will also be looking at the commuter rail, but said the company has been working closely with Baker’s staff and the T.
In recent weeks, Baker, a Republican who took office in January, and his staff have made efforts to be more engaged with the transit system.
Baker said his management staff has been working closely with officials from the T and Keolis, including two meetings with Keolis officials on Wednesday.
Previously, Baker said he received most of his information on the MBTA from Pollack. The governor met MBTA General Manager Beverly A. Scott only last week, after he’d publicly criticized the system’s performance, and after her surprise resignation announcement.
Transportation advocates such as Aloisi said this could be an “opportunity moment” for the T, now that the transit system’s shortcomings have been revealed in a way that is impossible to ignore....
That's a red flag for an upcoming agenda pu$h and is cause to hit the brakes.
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"Regular commuter rail service delayed until March" by Nicole Dungca and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff February 23, 2015
The MBTA will not resume regular service on its commuter rail lines until sometime in March, officials said Monday, delivering bad news for the tens of thousands of people in Greater Boston who rely on the trains to get to work in the city.
The forecast appeared less dire for people who ride the city’s subways. By Monday, the T had reopened all the subway lines it had shut after a Valentine’s Day weekend snowstorm, said Beverly A. Scott, the general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, adding that the embattled transit system has made “unbelievable progress” in returning to normal.
Except it hasn't.
So when does the car stop spinning?
But Scott also acknowledged riders would still suffer through more delays and crowded trains. Although the Red and Blue subway lines are running the number of trains needed for regular service, a T spokesman said the Orange and Green lines will not be able to return to a normal schedule before March.
The subway and commuter rail systems have been walloped by the second-snowiest winter on record, which has brought nearly 100 inches of snow to Boston. Because of the poor service, T officials are reconsidering their no-refunds policy.
**************
Mac Daniel, a spokesman for Keolis, the French company that runs the commuter rail, said the date for full recovery for that rail service could be “sometime in March.” When pressed for a more exact date, he declined to provide one.
“We’re keeping things vague until we get a better handle on how fast the repairs are going, and how quickly,” Daniel said.
Keolis executives, including general manager Tom Mulligan and deputy general manager Gerald Francis, were not available to comment because “they are working very hard on a recovery plan,” Daniel wrote in an e-mail. “We will make them available when we have good news and time.”
Daniel said the commuter rail is still operating with 69 percent of the locomotives necessary for regular service.
So far, only 35 percent of commuter rail trains ran on time in February, according to numbers released by the Department of Transportation. Last month, about 82 percent of the trains ran on time.
But normal, blah, blah.
Governor Charlie Baker, who publicly chastised the company last week for its poor service, said during a Monday news conference that he had spoken on the phone with Bernard Tabary, the chief executive officer of Keolis. Baker said he expects that the two will meet in Boston soon.
Tabary “apologized for the performance and said it was not up to company standards,” Baker said.
I don't think they should have to apologize, but if that's part of the blame game....
Baker last week announced he would convene a panel to look into the MBTA’s management and finances. Hoping to have a say before the panel concludes its work, Thomas Murray, president of the local chapter of the Transport Workers Union of America, which represents Keolis employees, sent a letter on Feb. 23 requesting a meeting with Baker.
Murray said a shortage of suitable maintenance facilities and “a lack of leadership between the MBTA and Keolis right now” have contributed to poor performance of the commuter rail.
They just took over! Can't even get their feet wet and are met with the worst winter ever, and yet they are getting flogged.
***************
The company has been challenged by the “sheer acreage” of the maintenance facilities that needed to be cleared of snow, the Keolis spokesman said. “The snow was getting so bad that the trains were unable to reach their morning run destination because they were slow to get out of the maintenance facilities,” Daniel said.
Meanwhile, the MBTA’s subway system on Monday operated the highest number of trains since Feb. 9, but service has still been sporadic: Last week, Scott had said the T might need as many as 30 days to get back to normal. But T officials have said they are working feverishly to restore regular service more quickly.
Do I even need type it?
Scott abruptly announced on Feb. 11 that she will be stepping down in April, and gave little indication of her reasons. Her contract was set to run until December.
On Monday, she said she was resigning for personal reasons.
She said she had promised her granddaughter two years ago that she would share her high school years with her. During Thanksgiving, Scott said, her granddaughter reminded her of that pledge. “At that point,” Scott said, “I knew that I would not conclude” 2015 as head of the MBTA.
Officials will conduct a search for a permanent replacement, but Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack has said that the Transportation Department board of directors hopes to have an interim general manager in place before Scott leaves.
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Another shake-up:
"MBTA, Keolis shake up leadership; Struggling commuter rail operator names veteran to oversee operations; T taps interim successor for general manager" by Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff February 25, 2015
Under fire for weeks of poor performance, the French company that runs the MBTA’s commuter rail system has replaced the general manager of its Boston operation — the second major management change this month atop the region’s snowbound public transportation network.
Thomas M. Mulligan has been replaced by his deputy, Gerald Francis, as head of Keolis Commuter Services, two people with direct knowledge of the decision said Wednesday.
The move comes just eight months after the company took over the operation of a system that provides 129,000 rides every weekday to passengers in the Boston area.
The change also follows nearly a month of public outrage after one of the snowiest winters on record crippled the commuter rail system and the MBTA’s subway system, prompting Governor Charlie Baker to declare that he was “done with excuses” from Keolis.
Keolis must be the designated whipping boy.
Francis takes over the top spot at Keolis with experience in controversy. He was deputy general manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C., in 2009 when a crash killed nine people.
According to minutes of a Senate committee hearing following the fatal accident, US Senator Barbara Mikulski blasted the agency’s leaders for “a pattern of laxity, passivity, and lip service.”
In other words, they were behaving just like government.
Francis was one of five senior executives who stepped down or were reassigned at the time, according to the Washington Post. A subsequent report by the National Transportation Safety Board on the fatal crash described a “lack of safety culture” at the authority.
Francis later served as the Herzog Transit Services general manager of California’s Caltrain system, after which he came to Boston.
On Wednesday, a Keolis spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on the change in leadership.
Mulligan’s departure is the second major administrative shake-up this month in the public transportation system. On Feb. 11, MBTA general manager Beverly A. Scott announced her resignation.
On Wednesday, officials announced that Frank DePaola will serve as MBTA interim general manager until Scott’s permanent replacement is chosen.
DePaola is the former acting transportation secretary, and has served as highway administrator and the chief operating officer of the state Transportation Department.
The MBTA oversees the Boston-area subway system, and contracts operation of the sprawling commuter rail system to Keolis.
Keolis, which also runs commuter rail lines in Northern Virginia, won an eight-year, $2.68 billion contract to take over the Boston area’s commuter rail service in July from the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company, which had operated the system since 2003.
The French company established Keolis Commuter Services, and shortly after it took control of the MBTA commuter rail system it named Mulligan, who had previously worked for Union Pacific and Amtrak, general manager.
Even before a record-breaking onslaught of snow hit the state, the company had faced tough questions about its on-time performance rates.
At a meeting for the Department of Transportation’s board of directors, Mulligan blamed some of the unreliable service on the commuter rail’s decades-old equipment.
The snowiest winter in two decades further hobbled the service’s performance, prompting the rebuke from Baker. The governor has since become more involved with the operations of the MBTA and Keolis, sending senior staffers to work with the transit systems for much of last week.
On Friday, Baker announced a seven-person advisory panel charged with looking into the finances, governance and maintenance from the MBTA and its commuter rail system.
The group, made up of renowned transportation and infrastructure specialists, has been ordered to present the governor with recommendations to improve the system by the end of the March.
Tim Buckley, a Baker spokesman, said that the governor would be meeting again with Keolis officials on Thursday.
In recent days, the commuter rail has operated with fewer last-minute delays and cancellations.
But that has been only after the service switched to a limited schedule that reduces service by dozens of trains, and has riders still fuming.
Martha Cesarz, a Swampscott rider who uses the Newburyport/Rockport line daily, predicted dire consequences if the service is not fixed soon.
“It’s going to destroy the economy of Boston because people are going to get fed up,” she said.
Don't let it grate on you.
Similar complaints have plagued the T, where DePaola, the new interim general manager, will start next Wednesday.
DePaola has a master’s degree in civil engineering from Northeastern University, and has worked as an MBTA assistant general manager for design and construction.
In a statement, DePaola said he was hoping to implement a strategy to restore the system to “full strength,” and restore customers’ faith in the service.
The chairman of the Transportation Department’s board of directors has said it plans to conduct a nationwide search for a permanent general manager.
The state’s transportation secretary, Stephanie Pollack, has said the board wanted an interim leader to ease the transition, and praised DePaola in a statement.
“With the depth and breadth of Frank’s experience as an engineer, a manager, and a problem-solver, I have full confidence that he has the skill sets and capabilities to serve as Interim General Manager,” she said.
Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the T, said Scott will stay on until April to assist with the transition.
The governor’s office also released a statement on the appointment, thanking Scott and DePaola for their work during the transition period.
“As the governor’s MBTA review panel continues its work, Mr. DePaola and Dr. Scott’s input will be invaluable to improving public transit services for the residents of the Commonwealth,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, the Transportation Department also announced Thomas Tinlin, the state’s chief of highway operations and maintenance who has served as Boston’s transportation chief, will serve as acting highway administrator.
You like the shuffling of deck chairs while waiting for the trains?
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"Keolis chief apologizes for failings, but no solutions offered" by Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff February 26, 2015
A top official at Keolis, the French company that operates the commuter rail system for the MBTA, apologized to riders Thursday but offered no clear reasons for the system’s recent failures. Keolis also announced that full service will not be restored for another month.
In an interview with the Globe, Bernard Tabary, the company’s international chief executive officer, said that passengers are owed an explanation for why commuters suffered through widespread delays and cancellations after the recent snowstorms. But he said he would provide one only after regular, reliable service is restored. The estimated date is now March 30, Keolis said.
“I think that the passengers would be far happier to know that we are working on the recovery, rather than playing Monday morning quarterback for hours . . . while their service isn’t running properly,” Tabary said.
Keolis can't walk and chew gum at the same time?
Tabary spoke with the Globe a day after the public learned that Keolis, under fire over poor service that has plagued the system for weeks, had replaced the general manager of its Boston operation, Thomas M. Mulligan, with his deputy, Gerald Francis.
Mulligan had been appointed when Keolis took over the commuter rail service in July after winning an eight-year $2.68 billion contract.
Francis, a former deputy general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, was one of several executives who stepped down amid criticism from the US Senate following a 2009 crash that killed nine people.
A subsequent National Transportation Safety Board report described a lack of safety culture at the Washington agency at the time of the fatal crash.
Francis, who joined Tabary at the interview Thursday, said he was not asked to step down from the Washington Metro authority. And Tabary did not comment on Francis’s past.
“We are comfortable in appointing Gerald in this role and have trust in his ability to lead this company on the path that we have presented this morning to the governor and the MBTA,” he said.
Francis said he is confident that the company will regain the trust of commuters.
“It’s my responsibility, and I will be responsible and accountable for making sure that we are going to progress on with the recovery plan,” he said.
But the two briefly differed after Francis said the company’s preparations for snowy weather had worked. Asked whether riders would agree, Tabary jumped in.
“With us saying the snow emergency plan worked, what we mean there, is we did have a snow emergency, and indeed, it was obviously, looking at the outcome, not strong enough to weather the circumstances, which were exceptional,” he said.
Tabary acknowledged that riders deserved better service. But he would not offer an opinion on whether customers should get refunds for unreliable service, saying only that the decision is up to the MBTA.
“This commuter rail system certainly hasn’t lived up to the expectations of the population, and that, of course, justifies our apologies to the riders for the major inconvenience that they have been suffering from for several weeks,” he said.
Tabary deflected questions about specific problems with management or infrastructure that may have hobbled the commuter rail system, which gives 129,000 rides to people across the region every weekday
“Hindsight is 20/20,” he said. “We are certainly not claiming perfection, and we have to draw lessons from that, but as eager as people are to understand the ‘whys,’ etc, our energy at the moment is totally focused on, ‘Let us make sure we put as much capacity online.’ ”
But he did hint that there were flaws to the company that he had inherited.
“What we’re saying is we are part of the problem,” he said. “We are certainly not the problem that has occurred, just by ourselves.”
One legacy Tabary and Francis addressed is the aging infrastructure provided by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The MBTA purchased 40 new locomotives, but many were sidelined because of mechanical problems. Tabary said that he is keen to get them up and running and improve service, but that rolling out such equipment “is always a bit of a challenge.”
Tabary declined to criticize Mulligan, the man Francis replaced. “I came over here not to assign blame but to mobilize energy positively,” Tabary said.
Keolis Commuter Services, the Boston branch of the company, is still looking for a chief mechanical officer after the last one stepped down in August. But Tabary declined to say whether the lack of leadership is affecting the company’s performance.
“We haven’t yet been able to change this company and its mode of operation, and I guess the current crisis we’re going through will spur and be an accelerator of the change process,” he said.
Though Tabary avoided discussing past problems, he brought up the “upward trend” he said the company was on before the snow derailed it.
He said improved customer service and a better company attitude were starting to pay dividends. The company was on track to running 92 percent of trains on time in January, he said — before the first big storm hit.
Tabary, who lives in Paris, said he arrived in Boston on Monday, after he had spoken with Governor Charlie Baker on the phone. On Thursday morning, Tabary and Eric Asselin, the executive vice president and general manager of Keolis’s North American division, met with Baker to discuss the system’s recovery plan after the commuter rail company’s poor service stranded thousands of commuters this month.
According to the plan, Keolis officials said they will add more staff to key stations and routes to help passengers, double the number of employees to answer customer calls, and make sure their T-Alerts are accurate and timely.
Baker slammed the commuter rail service’s performance last week, but Thursday he said that he was encouraged by Tabary’s plan.
“Let’s face it, the riding public will ultimately determine whether or not we’ve turned a corner here,” Baker said. “But I felt it was a good meeting.”
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Except there are still glitches:
"MBTA glitch sends false commuter rail delay alerts" by Aneri Pattani, Globe Correspondent February 25, 2015
It sounded plausible in this winter of commuter discontent, but it wasn’t true.
Like so much in my paper.
The MBTA’s service alert system mistakenly warned riders of widespread delays on the struggling commuter rail system until the end of the week, transportation officials said Wednesday.
At 5:39 a.m. Wednesday, the system, which sends out messages by text and e-mail, published a false morning commute forecast, said Mac Daniel, a spokesman for Keolis Commuter Services, which operates the commuter rail for the MBTA. The information was quickly corrected, Daniel said.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo assured commuters the alert system was still reliable. He said the false alarm was issued only for the commuter rail, not the subway, bus, or commuter boat lines.
“The T-Alerts system was not hacked,” he said. Ironically, the false alarm came on a morning when the commuter rail had no cancellations and few delays as of 8 a.m.
“This is one of the better mornings we’ve had in quite some time,” Daniel said.
The commuter rail continues to function on a reduced schedule, running about 62 percent of normal weekday service, Daniel said.
Almost normal.
Daniel said there was minimal impact from Tuesday night’s snow. Some trains and platforms were crowded, but....
Just laugh it off.
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It wasn't for the Orange Line, was it?
Related: Riding the rails with new MBTA point man
Not for much longer:
"MBTA panel chief tangled with neighborhood activist" by Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff February 27, 2015
Governor Charlie Baker’s hand-picked chairman of a special panel to diagnose the MBTA’s woes was forced from his role as a public liaison on a controversial West End development late last year after trying to silence a longtime neighborhood activist.
Equity Residential, a Chicago-based developer, pulled Paul Barrett from the public process behind the redevelopment of the Garden Garage, an eyesore slated to be replaced with a 46-story apartment tower that has provoked heavy community opposition in the West End. Barrett, the Equity Residential vice president, is still involved behind the scenes.
Barrett, who was also a campaign adviser to Mayor Martin J. Walsh, had complained to the employer of a longtime West End resident after she responded critically to a Boston Globe columnist’s endorsement of the redevelopment project — a message the woman perceived as a threat....
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"Baker’s choice to review T quits amid money woes; Paul Barrett owes nearly $200,000 in federal taxes" by Michael Rezendes and Frank Phillips, Globe Staff February 28, 2015
Paul L. Barrett, who was Governor Charlie Baker’s point man to lead a high-profile review of the beleaguered MBTA, abruptly resigned Friday after the Globe raised questions about the adviser’s personal financial troubles, including unpaid federal income taxes of nearly $200,000.
Baker only a week ago named Barrett, a former director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, to chair the panel of experts charged with examining the operations of the T, including precarious finances that have hindered efforts to modernize the transit agency.
But Barrett has had financial woes of his own for at least the last decade, according to public records examined by the Globe. They include multiple state and federal tax liens, several foreclosure notices on his Cohasset home, and a $1 million legal judgment stemming from a Cape Cod real estate development deal that went sour.
“I regret that my personal financial issues have become a distraction and have voluntarily offered my resignation to the governor,” Barrett said in a statement released by Baker’s office. “Like other individuals dealing through periods of economic recession I have encountered financial difficulty, which I am now working in good faith to resolve.”
Barrett’s resignation marked the second time a high-level volunteer adviser to Baker has had to resign after failing to disclose personal financial difficulties.
On Friday, Baker’s office said that “the governor is disappointed that these issues were not disclosed” in Barrett’s case.
Baker immediately named two current members of the panel to cochair what is now a six-member group: Brian McMorrow, the chief financial officer for the aviation division of the Massachusetts Port Authority, and Katherine Lapp, the former chief executive officer of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and now a top administrator at Harvard University.
Baker’s office said the governor “now looks forward to the MBTA panel continuing their important charge under new leadership.” The group is supposed to deliver recommendations to Baker in late March.
Barrett’s financial troubles date to his purchase of a home on Cohasset’s Jerusalem Road for $1.8 million in 2004 and continued over the following decade.
In December 2004, court records show that he wrote an apologetic e-mail to his partner in the Cape Cod real estate development deal in which he said he was “really pressed for cash.”
As recently as a year ago, he avoided foreclosure by JPMorgan Chase Bank after pleading “financial hardship” and renegotiating his loan, agreeing to pay off $1.5 million of debt in monthly installments of more than $5,000, according to real estate records.
During an interview Friday evening, Barrett said he was under financial strain at the time because he was balancing his mortgage payments with monthly payments to the IRS of nearly $6,500. He said he made repayment of his back taxes a priority.
He also said he is now “current” on mortgage payments, discounting an online announcement on the Massachusetts Auctioneers Association website that creditors are scheduled to auction his home in March. He also said he has resolved his $1 million debt to his former development partners in the failed Cape Cod real estate deal through a confidential settlement.
“Almost all of these matters were settled a while ago,” Barrett said.
Nevertheless, Barrett said he regrets failing to disclose his financial difficulties to the governor. “I should have told him about it or declined the appointment,” he said.
Publicly available records show Barrett failed to pay either state or federal income taxes on time for five years, from 2006 through 2011. In four of those years, he failed to make timely state income tax payments ranging from about $6,000 to more than $30,000, according to real estate records.
By 2012, real estate records show, Barrett paid off all his state income taxes.
But Barrett acknowledged in an interview that he still owes about $200,000 in federal income taxes from four different years and said he is making regular monthly payments.
The Globe’s discovery of the problems in Barrett’s financial life comes three months after the resignation of another adviser from a key post in Baker’s volunteer transition team. The adviser stepped down after the Globe revealed unpaid federal and state taxes of more than $500,000 and separate business judgments approaching that amount.
No name?
At the time, an aide to Baker said the transition team was assembled quickly and the administration had “no process for vetting the all-volunteer transition advisory committees” that were set up to help Baker take the reins of state government.
Barrett’s appointment also happened swiftly, as Baker struggled to come to grips with a creaking mass transit system that had failed to deliver reliable service following the recent snowstorms that have battered the region. Baker at one point called the T’s performance “unacceptable.”
Despite Baker’s sense of urgency, Barrett went on a long-planned trip to Jamaica right after he was named to lead the review.
On Friday, Barrett said he had promised the trip to his three young children and had spent much of the last few days on panel business.
“I have the obligation to my kids,” he said. “If the same thing happened tomorrow, I’d do the same thing.”
The elite and political cla$$ really do live by different rules.
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Related: Baker should remake transportation board
After she was along for the ride!
Fixing the MBTA will take cash, and a deadline
Baker’s MBTA panel needs to provide fresh thinking, concrete steps
Poll says T woes not Baker’s fault, but fixes are up to him
On new taxes for T, Baker sticks with ‘no’
That's the hard fact?
On the T, one size doesn’t fit all
Morning Expresso
There is no quick fix, either:
"Fast fix to MBTA woes is unlikely; Lawmakers weigh long-term ideas" by Joshua Miller, Globe Staff February 18, 2015
With the MBTA frozen in the winter of its discontent, waylaid by weather and aging infrastructure, many lawmakers on Beacon Hill bemoaned the agency’s service failures, and top officials have defended the Legislature’s efforts to fund the agency over the years.
But what legislators are going to do about the T’s woes is uncertain.
On Tuesday, members of both parties and outside analysts urged action, offering familiar ideas ranging from giving the troubled transportation organization more money to more robust oversight.
Frozen fart mist.
A number of lawmakers said they supported a deliberative process that prioritizes getting any new Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority reforms right, rather just getting something done right now.
And there were strong indications that any legislative move to fix the agency, if there is one, would come slowly, as members seek to address a problem decades in the making.
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, who hold outsized influence over the movement and passage of all bills, did not promise any legislative action on a T fix speaking to reporters Tuesday evening, instead saying they looked forward to learning more and continuing discussions with their colleagues and Governor Charlie Baker.
DeLeo said the powerful trio has spoken about the idea of a commission to examine problems at the T, but nothing has been finalized. He said T oversight hearings in the Legislature were on the table but did not know whether they would be necessary.
Same old wheel-$pinning we have seen before.
The speaker said the leaders will work together to try to prevent the T’s struggles this winter from happening again.
“That is our ultimate goal here. The question is how do we get there?” DeLeo said.
Some outside analysts have said the T’s winter woes are related, in part, to long-term underfunding by Beacon Hill. But DeLeo has strongly defended the Legislature’s actions.
Read fee or tax increase.
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James Aloisi, a former Patrick administration transportation chief and self-described “progressive Democrat,” said the T needed both streamlining — particularly in maintenance — and an infusion of money.
A significant portion of what the agency spends this fiscal year, which runs through June, will go to debt service, and Aloisi proposed the state taking over a substantial amount of the T’s debt, as a way to free up some cash for the agency without raising taxes, fees, or fares.
The way Big Dig debt he helped arrange was loaded onto the MBTA, causing this problem!
That, along with an audit of its maintenance spending, he argued, might give the T some breathing room to get its infrastructure in better order.
A debt shift is among the ideas for fixing the MBTA floated by the conservative-leaning Pioneer Institute, which has proposed many other reforms.
But some Beacon Hill insiders expressed concern about any debt shift, worrying about potential ripple effects.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Rosenberg, the Senate president, took a long view. “People don’t want to pay higher fares, people don’t want to pay higher taxes. People want more trains to run more frequently, faster, and more reliably,” he said. “That is an equation which any scientist will tell you adds up to a big problem.”
Can't challenge that debt.
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Maybe it's time to take the train out of here:
"Amtrak running at half capacity on Northeast Corridor
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor ran at half its normal capacity Friday, the fourth day in a row that winter weather has disrupted service. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the frequency of the Acela Express and the Northeast Regional lines was reduced by about half on Thursday and Friday because of below-freezing temperatures. The lines also were running at half-capacity Tuesday and Wednesday following a winter storm. The company’s Northeast Corridor stretches from Washington, D.C., to Boston and is the busiest railroad in North America, with more than 2,200 trains operating daily."
Looks like Amtrak is no better than the MBTA.
NDU:
"Keolis asks MBTA to waive fines for late trains; Company cites clause that allows exceptions for severe weather" by Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff March 02, 2015
Keolis Commuter Services, the operator of the MBTA’s commuter rail, is trying to avoid more than $430,000 in fines for late or canceled trains, citing a clause in its contract that would excuse the company for subpar service caused by “severe weather,” a company spokesman said Monday.
Only about 35 percent of commuter rail trains ran on time in February, according to preliminary MBTA data released Monday, a performance that left thousands of commuters stranded and frazzled the nerves of tens of thousands more. Keolis, which is fined for each late or canceled train, was assessed a $434,425 penalty, an MBTA spokesman said.
But Keolis has asked the T to waive the penalties in letters it has sent to the MBTA after each of four major snowstorms that slammed the state, starting with the Jan. 27 blizzard. The company argues that the “severity of the issues that we were facing” should get it off the hook for the fines, said Leslie Aun, a spokeswoman for Keolis.
The company’s effort to escape the fines drew immediate disapproval from the State House, where Tim Buckley, a spokesman for Governor Charlie Baker, said the governor expects Keolis to “focus its energy on restoring full service to the commuter rail as soon as possible.”
That's where the turn-in was, and I stopped reading -- if you want to call it that -- today's Globe. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the basketball, maybe it's the bullsh**, but while stories have been duly noted I stopped reading -- if you want to call it that -- after page A5.
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Related: Woman struck by freight train near commuter station
