"The arrival of the new technology will end the uncertainty associated with subway riding in Boston since its 19th century inception — the wondering, the fidgeting, the craning over the tracks to peer into the tunnel.... trains don’t run frequently, fares vary, the route does not fit some passengers’ needs, and bus-dependent commuters who had to make do without rapid transit service before are not ready to change their patterns and come on board.... There may be no place like the T, with its churn of humanity and multitude of hands touching surfaces, where a simple sneeze has the power to bring a special kind of dread."
The touching you felt was a molester, and wait until you get the bill:
"Pressure is on to fix transit" by Yvonne Abraham | Globe Columnist, January 17, 2013
The T, saddled with $8.9 billion in debt (much of it from the Big Dig), faces a deficit next year of $140 million. No amount of pension reform can plug that. It’s even worse at the Highway Department, where they borrow $240 million a year to pay salaries and mow medians. Every hundred bucks they borrow costs $176.
Why don’t they just throw the money on the ground and pave over it?
Though the governor proposed a few shiny new projects to make a tax increase easier for voters to swallow, most of the $1 billion a year he asked for this week would go to the boring business of paying for and keeping up things we already have....
Becau$e too much debt intere$t is being paid to banks!
--more--"
Related:
"MBTA officials painted a dark picture Tuesday of the T’s future if no funding increase arrives from the state, outlining cost-saving measures that could dramatically decrease service, increase fares, and fundamentally change the size and scope of the public transit service. Facing a projected deficit of $130 million for fiscal 2014."
They got what they wanted: higher taxes.
"Transit systems falter in the cold" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, January 04, 2013
Single-digit temperatures early Thursday, the coldest day in almost a year, sparked a slew of transportation delays around the region, leaving riders disgruntled at late arrivals and missed appointments.
As bitter cold swept across Eastern Massachusetts during the morning commute, 10 of the MBTA system’s 129 trains experienced mechanical problems, while a broken rail at the Central Square T stop, also caused by extreme cold, interrupted service for almost two hours.
On the region’s commuter rail system, 27.7 percent of trains experienced delays before 2:30 p.m., officials said.
Officials said that the effects of the cold — Boston dropped to 7 degrees just before 6 a.m — could have been much worse and that many of Thursday’s problems were caused by an aging, under funded train system.
In this age of global fart mist, excuse me?
In this age of global fart mist, excuse me?
Thursday’s delays were a marked improvement over a similarly cold day two years ago, when the temperature reached a bone-chilling 2 degrees below zero, sparking delays in 63 percent of the morning commuter rail trains and causing 23 rapid-transit trains and trolleys on the MBTA to stall on the tracks.
Last week, Beverly Scott, new general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, declared that “no matter what Mother Nature has in store for us this season, we’re committed to delivering dependable and convenient services.”
After forecasts predicted stinging temperatures, Scott said Thursday evening that she had anticipated a challenging day and had put staff on guard to quickly respond to potential problems.
Train systems, she said, “can take snow up to 3, 4, or even 5 inches without huge problems, but whenever you get extremely cold conditions,” Scott said, “those are the conditions that are always absolutely an extreme challenge.”
Because of the broken rail line, passengers were herded to shuttle buses to take them between Harvard Square and Kendall Square, a process that some passengers called chaotic, even with automated announce ments. Other trains stalled after their air hoses froze, impeding their propulsion systems.
Some of the cold weather problems, Scott said, are exacerbated by the aging T system. But, she said, no system would be immune to these types of occurrences.
“Even if you had completely new equipment, you could wind up having these issues,” she said.
Scott said that while she was proud of the performance of MBTA staff on Thursday and their efforts to keep trains running, she recognized that the T must still do better.
“I can appreciate the fact that there were literally folks left out in the cold today,” she said.
Days as cold as Thursday come infrequently in Boston. In 2012, there was only one day when the weather reached single digits: Jan. 15, when the temperature plunged to 6 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The year before, there were two days in the single digits: Jan. 23, when the low was 5 degrees, and Jan. 24, when the temperature reached 2 below zero.
Further inland, temperatures Thursday dropped considerably lower than in Boston: Orange reached 10 below zero, according to the National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Foley. Milton’s Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory recorded its coldest temperatures in two years, registering 2 degrees Thursday.
But the arctic freeze will not be around for long: Temperatures in Boston next week will probably rise to the 40s or even the low 50s, Foley said....
--more--"
That reminds me of another issue I will no longer be devoting extensive interest. When the lie$ fly in the face of my senses it's to time to get off at the next stop.
That reminds me of another issue I will no longer be devoting extensive interest. When the lie$ fly in the face of my senses it's to time to get off at the next stop.
Promises, promises, as you freeze on the platform.
"MBTA could have 1 bidder for $1 billion rail contract" by Sean P. Murphy | Globe Staff, April 04, 2013
One of the two companies competing to provide Greater Boston’s commuter rail service is threatening to drop out if the MBTA does not provide key information by Friday, potentially leaving the state with only one bidder for the largest contract in Massachusetts history.
The MBTA had promised to create an even playing field in the competition for the $1 billion-plus commuter rail contract, even though one of the bidders, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail, currently runs the system and has close personal ties to state transportation leadership.
But the only other bidder, Keolis America Inc., said that Mass Bay has not turned over to the MBTA crucial information on the railroad’s huge labor costs, making it impossible for Keolis to complete its bid and undermining the MBTA’s promise of fairness.
More than 70,000 commuters depend on the rail service daily, and MBTA officials had hoped robust competition might force bidders to promise better service and lower costs in order to win the contract.
“We can only conclude that [Mass Bay] is deliberately withholding this information” to hurt Keolis’s chances of taking over the rail service next year, according to a March 27 letter to the MBTA from Astrid Stumpf, Keolis’s commuter rail project manager.
Does it really matter who runs the decrepit subway systems of Boston?
Keolis, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest transportation companies, set a deadline of Friday to decide whether to drop out of the bidding, despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars already in preparing to bid.
Officials from Mass Bay sharply disagreed with their competitor’s characterization, saying “any suggestion that [Mass Bay] is withholding relevant information is false, inflammatory, and quiet frankly nonsense.”
In a statement, released late Wednesday after first receiving a copy of the Keolis letter from the Globe, Mass Bay spokesman Scott Farmelant said the only type of information that Mass Bay has declined to provide concerns the firm’s business practices, which the company statement said are “sensitive, proprietary . . . and outside the scope of similar public contract bids” nationwide.
MBTA officials, who are responsible for collecting information from Mass Bay on behalf of Keolis, said in a statement that they have “satisfied more than 90 percent” of Keolis’s requests....
Twenty-five companies from all over the world initially expressed interest in competing for what is believed to be the most lucrative rail contract in North America, and one of the biggest state contracts of any kind in Massachusetts history.
But in the end only two stepped up to bid....
The dispute centers mainly on labor cost for about 1,800 unionized employees and 200 managers on the rail line.
Also see: Big Pit Still Digging Into Taxpayer Wallets
Not that I'm a lover of the looting transit workers of Boston, but, you know, bank$.
Keolis officials said that labor represents about 70 percent of total costs, but that the firm has received little data on a workforce that will stay on the job no matter who wins the contract. Keolis wants more information on the cost of employee benefits, such as bonuses, health insurance, and pensions, and even the current number of employees.
And when EVERY DOLLAR goes to PAY DEBT, well.... sigh. This train ride $ucks because I HAVE BEEN TYPING THE SAME THINGS OVER and OVER for FIVE YEARS!
Keolis officials also said that they have been furnished no detailed information on management costs, and that some of the information they have received is outdated, including documents from 2002.
Alan Eisner, a Keolis spokesman, said the firm has received what it considers unacceptable responses to 104 of its 133 requests for information. He said some of the information provided to date has been of little use because it is in Spanish or in a computer format that makes it nearly impossible to work with.
“What they have given us is either no information, partial information, or grossly out-of-date information,” he said. “It’s an overall pattern of going out of their way to obstruct our ability to make a rationale bid. We’re hoping something can be worked out in short order. We want to stay in, but without the proper information we can’t do it.”
Eisner said it is up to the MBTA to pressure Mass Bay for the information.
“The T has been trying to get the information, but they need to step it up and lean on the incumbent a little harder,” Eisner said.
Keolis originally entered the bidding for commuter rail service, knowing that Mass Bay appeared to be on the inside track if only due to Mass Bay’s superior knowledge gained from running the system since 2003.
Mass Bay, which has collected more than $1 billion in fees from running the commuter rail, was founded by James O’Leary, a former MBTA general manager with deep local connections, including mentoring Richard A. Davey, the state’s transportation secretary....
Related: Putting this Post on Probation
Good old Massachushitts.
Still, Keolis chief executive Steve Townsend told the Globe last year that he felt the company had a chance to win the contract.
“We would not be investing money into this without having satisfied itself that there’s a level playing field,” he said.
Now Keolis officials are not so sure that the playing field is level after all, calling Mass Bay’s decision to withhold some information “ludicrous.”
--more--"
"Only 2 bidders for Mass. commuter rail pact; Competitors may have felt operator has edge with T" by Sean P. Murphy | Globe Staff, August 06, 2012
Only two companies have committed to bid for the $1 billion-plus contract to operate the state’s sprawling commuter rail system, disappointing MBTA officials and raising concerns that the lack of competition could increase the cost or weaken service for the system’s 70,000 daily commuters.
Twenty-five companies from all over the world initially expressed interest in competing for what is believed to be the most lucrative rail contract in North America, and one of the biggest state contracts of any kind in Massachusetts history. But only the French company Keolis and the firm that currently runs the rail system filed the necessary paperwork to bid.
Why would only two bid on it? The thing is a hunk of junk because there has been zero maintenance.
The T had hoped for at least half a dozen competitors to help sharpen bids for a multiyear contract that currently pays the operator nearly $300 million a year.
“I’m disappointed there’s only two” companies interested in the contract, said Jonathan R. Davis, the MBTA’s acting general manager. “Where there’s competition, there’s usually a benefit to the MBTA.”
People following the competition closely say that other firms may have been scared off because they believe the current contract holder, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, has the inside track.
Not only has Mass Bay run the system since 2003 — collecting more than $1 billion in fees — but it was founded by James O’Leary, a former MBTA general manager with deep local connections, including mentoring Richard A. Davey, the state’s transportation secretary.
He was the jerk who spent the summer gassing up the greenhouse traveling the state for the transit tax increase.
However, Mass Bay has occasionally infuriated riders with chronic train delays during the winter of 2010-11, air conditioner breakdowns in the summer, and a series of contract amendments negotiated with the T that gave them financial rewards even when service was poor....
Because state officials work for the money addicts.
KSFrom a commuter’s point of view, limited competition could translate one day into higher prices for riders.
How odd, because I'm told consolidation is good in my Globe bu$ine$$ pages.
“Obviously, more bidders equals more competition, and more competition usually means lower prices,” said Henry Savelli, a commuter from Milford, who in the past has complained to the T about service breakdowns. “But one of the two bidders is the current contract holder. So, it doesn’t look advantageous from a purely fiscal point of view.”
Okay, what taxes need to be increased now?
The other company in the hunt is Keolis America Inc., a subsidiary of a French company that ranks among the world’s largest commuter rail companies, with contracts in France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States. The company operates rail service for about 19,000 daily commuters in Washington and northern Virginia....
Officials at Mass Bay, which is majority-owned by Veolia Transportation of France, said they welcome all competitors....
The last time the commuter rail system contract was put out to bid, the competition largely evaporated. Though three firms put in a bid, the one from Boston & Maine Railroad was a long shot that cost twice as much as the others, while the bid from Transit America was disqualified for technical reasons even though the group offered the lowest price.
Davis said the T is incorporating lessons it has learned into the bidding this time.
“Those who ride the T should be encouraged by the process,” he said....
They really think you are a brain-dead zombie, Bostonians. Must be the swaying back-and-forth of the T train when it isn't stalled.
--more--"
Related:
Rail cars 2 years delayed, T chief heads to S. Korea
MBTA presses firm for railcar delivery
“We promise we’re going to deliver,” Beverly Scott, general manager of the MBTA, said in a phone interview. Earlier in the day, Scott visited the Philadelphia plant of Hyundai Rotem, the company building the coaches, and said she was “impressed with the organization.” “I’m really glad we’re turning the corner,” she said."
Let's hope there isn't a stalled car there. Don't they do background checks?
Also see: MBTA receives first of long-delayed rail cars
"MBTA may halt $190m order for commuter rail cars" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, January 11, 2013
Chronic delays and concerns about shoddy workmanship by the company building a fleet of double-decker coaches for the MBTA’s commuter rail line have prompted executives to threaten cancellation of the $190 million contract and possibly seek a new firm for the work.
Just what I want to know before stepping into the car.
In a letter obtained by the Globe, state transit officials express deep frustration with the South Korean company building the 75 rail cars, Hyundai Rotem, declaring that “this seriously troubled procurement is at a point of crisis.”
That letter, dated Dec. 21, details a litany of woes, including faulty chassis and wires damaged by errant drilling on 10 of the first coaches to be built.
It's called incompetence, isn't it? What well-connected concerns helped them get the contract?
“I am writing this letter to you to convey my profound disappointment for Hyundai Rotem’s seemingly lack of commitment to improve its chronically unsatisfactory performance,” Jonathan R. Davis, the T’s chief financial officer, wrote. He cited materials shortages and workmanship at plants in South Korea and Philadelphia that “has degraded at an alarming rate.”
Was Goldman holding on to it for them?
********************************
Jonathan Klein, a global transportation consultant and former executive and chief mechanical officer at multiple large rail and transit agencies who previously likened the T’s contract to Donald Rumsfeld’s wishful thinking on Iraq, said the MBTA now has two choices, neither of which would deliver coaches to riders as quickly or cheaply as originally planned. It can continue to try to coax Hyundai Rotem through cooperation or threat, or it can terminate the deal, seek damages, and begin the process of finding a contractor all over again.
“The T has dug a hole, and it’s going to be very expensive to fill that hole,” he said....
Another pit?
Another pit?
T management glossed over Hyundai Rotem’s lack of US experience and encouraged the MBTA board to approve the contract quickly, given the needs of the T’s aging fleet, according to meeting minutes and materials prepared for the board.
Some members who approved the deal were livid when they later learned that a former high-ranking Boston and Philadelphia transit executive whose son remained a T manager had been hired to help Hyundai Rotem win the Pennsylvania contract. But the T said the father and son were not involved in the Boston bidding and that the son also informed the state Ethics Commission that he was recusing himself.
Though it soon became clear internally that Hyundai Rotem was falling far behind, MBTA and Department of Transportation management did not tell the board overseeing the T until a year ago — when they asked the board to approve $4 million more on top of $10 million already committed to an engineering firm hired to provide expertise and help the T ride herd on the increasingly complicated order.
For something that is going to be a piece of $hit. Look on the bright $ide, at lea$t $omeone got rich of looting taxpayers and riders.
For something that is going to be a piece of $hit. Look on the bright $ide, at lea$t $omeone got rich of looting taxpayers and riders.
Angry board members summoned Hyundai Rotem’s chief executive, M.H. Lee, to appear before them last June. He apologized for what he deemed a corporate embarrassment and said Hyundai Rotem would redouble its efforts, promising to make up lost time without compromising quality.
Does this ride ever end?
Does this ride ever end?
The T indicated in September and November that things seemed to be improving, but Lee died unexpectedly in mid-November.
Hmmmmm.
The letter from Davis suggests Hyundai Rotem once more put the T on the back burner after that.
Hmmmmm.
The letter from Davis suggests Hyundai Rotem once more put the T on the back burner after that.
Jim LaRusch, chief counsel and a vice president for the American Public Transportation Association, could not comment on the MBTA contract but acknowledged that equipment purchases are expensive, time-consuming, and potentially fraught with pitfalls.
They start with thousand-page technical specifications that incorporate federal standards and guidelines for safety and accessibility, as well as the unique needs of that transit agency, with its array of existing locomotives and coaches and varying types of stations. Bidders must be evaluated on price and ability. “Then the fun starts,” he said, meaning years of back and forth over development, production, and testing.
“It’s a pretty complex process,” LaRusch said. “It’s not like buying a Toyota.”
I'm SICK of EXCUSES from AUTHORITIES in my agenda-pu$hing pos, I don't know about you.
I'm SICK of EXCUSES from AUTHORITIES in my agenda-pu$hing pos, I don't know about you.
"Bidder for Mass. commuter rail job has much to prove; Own record, challenges of MBTA system may weigh on France’s Keolis" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, August 19, 2013
PARIS — It’s one of only two candidates in the bid for the Massachusetts commuter rail contract: heavy-hitter Keolis , a $6.6 billion French transit company that has thrown its hat in the ring as the lone challenger to the state’s current commuter rail operator.
That anything like a lone wolf or lone gunman?
That anything like a lone wolf or lone gunman?
Though the company is a major global brand, and runs the commuter rail in Northern Virginia, its bid comes with concerns about the company’s record of punctuality and customer service in France, and relative lack of US experience.
Here we go again!
Those concerns were magnified last month, when a commuter train operated by Keolis’s parent company derailed outside of Paris, killing six.
See: Spain Train Crash
A record of neglect, too!
Here we go again!
Those concerns were magnified last month, when a commuter train operated by Keolis’s parent company derailed outside of Paris, killing six.
See: Spain Train Crash
A record of neglect, too!
Keolis’s record calls into question whether the company, which just submitted its proposal to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, is capable of taking on the T’s troubled commuter rail system in the largest operating contract in Massachusetts history.
Bernard Tabary, Keolis’s chief executive of international operations, said the company has a strong record of top-notch service.
“We are ensuring that public transport is a choice, and not an obligation, or not a curse,” Tabary said.
The Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company has been operating the T’s 132 commuter rail stations, 14 lines, and 483 daily trains since 2003. Since then, the company has racked up a mixed record: This year, its on-time performance hovers at 96 percent. But at times, punctuality has drawn ire from customers, such as when more than 20 percent of trains were late in the winter of 2011.
Tabary promises that Keolis would do better. He has familiarity with Massachusetts — his daughter graduated from Northeastern University in 2012 — and he said the commuter rail system in the state is ripe for enhanced service.
The company’s strengths, he said during an interview last month at the company’s headquarters, lie in making do with what it has — even if the company is handed old trains and an aging infrastructure that has proven finicky in cold weather.
“Life is full of constraints in general and one has to balance conflicting priorities . . . rather than whine about the insufficient funding of the system,” Tabary said.
Debt interest payments first, then corporate welfare in the form of subsidy checks, then taking care of well-connected concerns, then fund lavish political lifestyles, then see what is left for services to taxpayers.
Debt interest payments first, then corporate welfare in the form of subsidy checks, then taking care of well-connected concerns, then fund lavish political lifestyles, then see what is left for services to taxpayers.
Mass Bay officials declined to comment on Keolis but said they were “pleased to reach this milestone” in the bidding process.
Augustine Ubaldi, a railroad engineering expert with Robson Forensic, a safety investigation company, said officials assessing the two contracts will not only seek the cheapest price — they will analyze the company’s safety and punctuality records. That is especially important in Massachusetts, where outdated infrastructure, coupled with extreme weather, can prove challenging....
Good thing global fart mist is here.
Good thing global fart mist is here.
SNCF, a French national rail operator, runs the Greater Paris commuter rail in conjunction with another transit operator, RATP....
Cedric Musso, a city councilor in a suburb of Paris, said the experience of passengers throughout the commuter rail system is “a real nightmare.”
Coming to a subway near you.
Coming to a subway near you.
In some places, he said, delayed trains are so common that employers have refused to hire people who live on commuter rail lines, knowing they will regularly arrive to work late.
For a time, conductors distributed notices to passengers they could give to bosses as a kind of late pass, Musso said. The practice was abandoned when it became a daily occurrence.
“What is absolutely unbelievable is the manner that you are treated — I say we are like animals, because it is so crowded,” Musso said. “And we don’t have any information about the situation.”
Last month, at a crowded Gare du Nord, Paris’s largest train station, passengers were more accepting....
Keolis is looking to advance its brand in North America. Winning the Massachusetts commuter rail contract would spotlight the company within the US transit industry....
Now herd 'em into those cars and get 'em to the work camp!
Now herd 'em into those cars and get 'em to the work camp!
The prospect of dealing with the T’s myriad unions and labor organizations may also prove daunting. The company’s record with unions in the United States is spotty: In Long Beach, Calif., where Keolis operates a paratransit service for disabled people, the company was criticized by Teamster officials, who asserted that the company needed to pay better wages and benefits.
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
But whether Keolis will have the chance to negotiate with Massachusetts union officials is not yet an issue, as the company prepares to battle against an incumbent with strong ties to the MBTA community....
The contract is expected to be awarded early next year.
It will be hard for a foreign company with few large contracts in the United States to compete.
Ubaldi, the railroad engineering expert, says the ramifications of being a fresh face in the transit operation game can cut both ways.
“People have been known to be xenophobic,” Ubaldi said. “There might be an attitude of, ‘I can’t possibly believe that somebody in Europe can do something better than our home-grown Yankees.’ ”
But, he said, the new act in town can also have appeal.
“Some people might think that the old guy’s gotten a little fat and lazy because they’re the only game in town,” Ubaldi said. “They’re not constrained by, ‘Well, this is the way it’s always been done.’ They can come in and try something very innovative.”
--more--"
Did I mention this is all costing more?
"Use of The Ride plummets since fare increase" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, February 02, 2013
The Ride, the T’s door-to-door service for seniors and people with disabilities....
Wilhelmina Melrose’s plight is exactly what many feared: Seven months after MBTA fare increases kicked in, travel on The Ride has declined more drastically than the 10.3 percent drop-off T officials predicted last March....
And here comes Keolis -- maybe.
Seniors and disabled individuals say the jump in one-way fares from $2 to $4 has forced them to cut back on outings, spend more time at home, and in some instances, scrimp on life-sustaining trips such as grocery shopping and doctor visits....
The Ride, a service mandated by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, has historically been financially draining for the T....
How sad, huh? Boston can't take care of it's elderly and disabled because they are in so much debt and these people are now a BURDEN! Whatta city! Boston, luv it!
And though the buses and trains have posted modest increases in ridership since the fare increase, bucking T predictions, trips on The Ride have steadily declined.
T officials suggest that many of these riders have been able to take other forms of public transportation, but advocates for senior citizens and people with disabilities are skeptical.
Yeah, government cares about you.
“That’s certainly the exception, rather than the rule,” said Carolyn Villers, executive director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council. “The majority of people who have reduced their use of The Ride are not accessing the community as much as they used to.”
The number of Ride Charlie trips — trips taken on bus or train by individuals eligible for The Ride — have increased by 32.7 percent, suggesting that some disabled riders are indeed switching to fixed-route modes of transit. But that increase represents only 40,049 rides, still leaving 140,000 fewer trips overall by Ride users.
Beverly A. Scott, general manager of the MBTA, said T officials anticipated a drop-off in ridership, but are working to find out whether that decline has occurred mostly among those who have been able to find alternate modes of transportation....
I gue$$ being a liar is required to work in government.
With information from that study, Scott said, the T can find alternate approaches to accommodate those without mobility. She wants the MBTA to collaborate with community organizations to provide alternate means of transportation.
“It’s about working in partnership,” Scott said. “One cannot simply look at public transit agencies when we are dealing with something as critical as the ‘silver tsunami,’ and then say the only one that has the responsibility for trying to address this is public transportation, which is absolutely cash-strapped.”
How many hundreds of thousands is she being paid?
****************************
Some programs have already begun to help fill the gap.
Then I'm not going to worry about it then.
ITNGreaterBoston, founded one year ago, provides car services to senior citizens and people with disabilities, using volunteer drivers and subsidies provided by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation and the MetroWest Health Foundation.
The trips cost users a lot more than The Ride; one-way, on average, costs $14. So far, use has been modest....
Sigh.
It is possible that house-bound seniors and people with disabilities will begin to experience health problems as a result of less frequent use of The Ride, said Karen Schneiderman, a senior advocacy specialist at the Boston Center for Independent Living.
“Staying trapped in your home — yes, it’s diminishing quality of life, but it’s actually shortening the lifespan of people,” Schneiderman said. “If you just sit in your house all the time and you can’t get out, you can’t see people, and you can’t do anything you enjoy, your life feels less valuable.”
Maybe that is the objective.
Joanne Repoza, 77, of Malden was never one to take The Ride for bingo outings — weekly doctors visits and food runs is all she used it for.
But now, she says, she can barely afford those essential trips. Occasionally, she cancels medical appointments. Asking her daughter to take a day off work and drive her to the doctor is out of the question.
Occasionally, she tries to take the T on the way to an appointment. By the time she arrives at Massachusetts General Hospital, she says, she’s so winded and flustered that passersby ask if she needs help.
“Now I’m home-bound,” Repoza said. “I walk from my kitchen table into my bathroom and I’m huffing and puffing like I ran a mile.”
In October, the T began charging $5 one-way Ride fares for “premium” destinations — locations that are more than three-quarters of a mile from a bus or train route.
Determining what locations fall inside the premium zone can often prove complex, especially because the fare may change after a nearby bus line ceases to operate for the evening.
Some, like John Winske, board member of the Disability Policy Consortium, said they wish the MBTA had established a payment system that would peg fares to a person’s income, or whether they are residents at a nursing home.
“They went for the quick rather than a long-term strategy that required some thinking,” Winske said.
“Our only hope right now is the new general manager,” Winske said. “She’s shown herself to be someone who listens to the community. . . . We can only hope she intercedes.”
Yup, we can only hope that our leaders save us.
--more--"
Oh, never mind, Globe tells me you are happy about it.
"T reports progress in fight against fare-dodgers" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, January 09, 2013
Undercover and uniformed officers are expected to watch for fare evasion while patrolling the transit system, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has periodically supplemented its efforts in recent years with plainclothes teams sent out specifically to catch free-riders....
Thank God there are not daily shootings, stabbings, rapes, murders, or thefts in Boston.
People who think they are slipping through unnoticed are “very surprised when the person that is standing on the other side of the fare gates, who’s reading a newspaper, asks them to stop and identifies themselves as a police officer,” said Superintendent in Chief Joseph O’Connor.
Wow.
The superintendent said customers have thanked the department for the crackdown in person and via social media, though some have questioned if it is a wise use of police resources.
Whatever increases their budget. Every call is responded to with a SWAT team now, so what are you complaining about?
O’Connor said fighting fare evasion is part of a “point of entry policing strategy” to catch small offenses as a way to deter more serious crime throughout the T.
Like all the drivers and workers being assaulted?
Full statistics for 2012 crimes occurring on MBTA vehicles and property will not be released until later this month, but they will indicate that strategy is working, he said.
In stopping fare evaders to issue civil citations, the Transit Police have found several people with active arrest warrants, including a 43-year-old Salem woman whose apparent decision to sneak through the Chinatown Station gates Monday led to her arrest on an outstanding warrant from Salem District Court for violating an abuse order.
Security-camera footage from the station shows the woman waiting for a paying customer, slipping in behind her, and disappearing from view, only to be escorted out several minutes later by police.
Transit Police data analysts were not immediately able to say how many of the people stopped for fare evasion had outstanding warrants. They also could not say how many paid citations promptly.
Most citations have gone unpaid in recent years, partly because the T’s sole method for compelling payment is blocking driver’s license renewal through the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Many of those who are cited have no licenses, are students with out-of-state licenses, or are not scheduled for renewal for several years.
Lawmakers stopped short last year of adding new ways to compel payment but raised the fine for a first offense from $15 to $50 and asked evaders to pay fines within 30 days instead of one year.
This money-grubbing government.
It is difficult to estimate the dollar value of unpaid fares in all their forms, but past estimates from transit planners have pegged it at roughly 3 percent to 5 percent, meaning it probably costs the T several million dollars annually....
Yeah, never mind the hundreds of millions in debt service paid to banks EVERY MONTH!
--more--"
Related: MBTA says citations for fare evaders on decline
Next stop:
Did I mention this is all costing more?
"Use of The Ride plummets since fare increase" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, February 02, 2013
The Ride, the T’s door-to-door service for seniors and people with disabilities....
Wilhelmina Melrose’s plight is exactly what many feared: Seven months after MBTA fare increases kicked in, travel on The Ride has declined more drastically than the 10.3 percent drop-off T officials predicted last March....
And here comes Keolis -- maybe.
Seniors and disabled individuals say the jump in one-way fares from $2 to $4 has forced them to cut back on outings, spend more time at home, and in some instances, scrimp on life-sustaining trips such as grocery shopping and doctor visits....
The Ride, a service mandated by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, has historically been financially draining for the T....
How sad, huh? Boston can't take care of it's elderly and disabled because they are in so much debt and these people are now a BURDEN! Whatta city! Boston, luv it!
And though the buses and trains have posted modest increases in ridership since the fare increase, bucking T predictions, trips on The Ride have steadily declined.
T officials suggest that many of these riders have been able to take other forms of public transportation, but advocates for senior citizens and people with disabilities are skeptical.
Yeah, government cares about you.
“That’s certainly the exception, rather than the rule,” said Carolyn Villers, executive director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council. “The majority of people who have reduced their use of The Ride are not accessing the community as much as they used to.”
The number of Ride Charlie trips — trips taken on bus or train by individuals eligible for The Ride — have increased by 32.7 percent, suggesting that some disabled riders are indeed switching to fixed-route modes of transit. But that increase represents only 40,049 rides, still leaving 140,000 fewer trips overall by Ride users.
Beverly A. Scott, general manager of the MBTA, said T officials anticipated a drop-off in ridership, but are working to find out whether that decline has occurred mostly among those who have been able to find alternate modes of transportation....
I gue$$ being a liar is required to work in government.
With information from that study, Scott said, the T can find alternate approaches to accommodate those without mobility. She wants the MBTA to collaborate with community organizations to provide alternate means of transportation.
“It’s about working in partnership,” Scott said. “One cannot simply look at public transit agencies when we are dealing with something as critical as the ‘silver tsunami,’ and then say the only one that has the responsibility for trying to address this is public transportation, which is absolutely cash-strapped.”
How many hundreds of thousands is she being paid?
****************************
Some programs have already begun to help fill the gap.
Then I'm not going to worry about it then.
ITNGreaterBoston, founded one year ago, provides car services to senior citizens and people with disabilities, using volunteer drivers and subsidies provided by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation and the MetroWest Health Foundation.
The trips cost users a lot more than The Ride; one-way, on average, costs $14. So far, use has been modest....
Sigh.
It is possible that house-bound seniors and people with disabilities will begin to experience health problems as a result of less frequent use of The Ride, said Karen Schneiderman, a senior advocacy specialist at the Boston Center for Independent Living.
“Staying trapped in your home — yes, it’s diminishing quality of life, but it’s actually shortening the lifespan of people,” Schneiderman said. “If you just sit in your house all the time and you can’t get out, you can’t see people, and you can’t do anything you enjoy, your life feels less valuable.”
Maybe that is the objective.
Joanne Repoza, 77, of Malden was never one to take The Ride for bingo outings — weekly doctors visits and food runs is all she used it for.
But now, she says, she can barely afford those essential trips. Occasionally, she cancels medical appointments. Asking her daughter to take a day off work and drive her to the doctor is out of the question.
Occasionally, she tries to take the T on the way to an appointment. By the time she arrives at Massachusetts General Hospital, she says, she’s so winded and flustered that passersby ask if she needs help.
“Now I’m home-bound,” Repoza said. “I walk from my kitchen table into my bathroom and I’m huffing and puffing like I ran a mile.”
In October, the T began charging $5 one-way Ride fares for “premium” destinations — locations that are more than three-quarters of a mile from a bus or train route.
Determining what locations fall inside the premium zone can often prove complex, especially because the fare may change after a nearby bus line ceases to operate for the evening.
Some, like John Winske, board member of the Disability Policy Consortium, said they wish the MBTA had established a payment system that would peg fares to a person’s income, or whether they are residents at a nursing home.
“They went for the quick rather than a long-term strategy that required some thinking,” Winske said.
“Our only hope right now is the new general manager,” Winske said. “She’s shown herself to be someone who listens to the community. . . . We can only hope she intercedes.”
Yup, we can only hope that our leaders save us.
--more--"
Oh, never mind, Globe tells me you are happy about it.
"T reports progress in fight against fare-dodgers" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, January 09, 2013
Undercover and uniformed officers are expected to watch for fare evasion while patrolling the transit system, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has periodically supplemented its efforts in recent years with plainclothes teams sent out specifically to catch free-riders....
Thank God there are not daily shootings, stabbings, rapes, murders, or thefts in Boston.
People who think they are slipping through unnoticed are “very surprised when the person that is standing on the other side of the fare gates, who’s reading a newspaper, asks them to stop and identifies themselves as a police officer,” said Superintendent in Chief Joseph O’Connor.
Wow.
The superintendent said customers have thanked the department for the crackdown in person and via social media, though some have questioned if it is a wise use of police resources.
Whatever increases their budget. Every call is responded to with a SWAT team now, so what are you complaining about?
O’Connor said fighting fare evasion is part of a “point of entry policing strategy” to catch small offenses as a way to deter more serious crime throughout the T.
Like all the drivers and workers being assaulted?
Full statistics for 2012 crimes occurring on MBTA vehicles and property will not be released until later this month, but they will indicate that strategy is working, he said.
In stopping fare evaders to issue civil citations, the Transit Police have found several people with active arrest warrants, including a 43-year-old Salem woman whose apparent decision to sneak through the Chinatown Station gates Monday led to her arrest on an outstanding warrant from Salem District Court for violating an abuse order.
Security-camera footage from the station shows the woman waiting for a paying customer, slipping in behind her, and disappearing from view, only to be escorted out several minutes later by police.
Transit Police data analysts were not immediately able to say how many of the people stopped for fare evasion had outstanding warrants. They also could not say how many paid citations promptly.
Most citations have gone unpaid in recent years, partly because the T’s sole method for compelling payment is blocking driver’s license renewal through the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Many of those who are cited have no licenses, are students with out-of-state licenses, or are not scheduled for renewal for several years.
Lawmakers stopped short last year of adding new ways to compel payment but raised the fine for a first offense from $15 to $50 and asked evaders to pay fines within 30 days instead of one year.
This money-grubbing government.
It is difficult to estimate the dollar value of unpaid fares in all their forms, but past estimates from transit planners have pegged it at roughly 3 percent to 5 percent, meaning it probably costs the T several million dollars annually....
Yeah, never mind the hundreds of millions in debt service paid to banks EVERY MONTH!
--more--"
Related: MBTA says citations for fare evaders on decline
Next stop:
"Boston transportation manager arrested on child pornography charge" by Alli Knothe | Globe Correspondent, October 13, 2012
James M. Mansfield, a manager who has worked for Boston’s Transportation Department for nearly 30 years, was arrested Friday on a child pornography charge and placed on unpaid leave, officials said.
Great. Perverts at the T!
Boston police arrested Mansfield, 47, of Charlestown, after an Internet investigation found that he was “engaging in graphically sexual chat and exchanging pictures of boys in various stages of undress” on his personal computer, police said in a prepared statement Saturday....
Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Menino, said Mansfield has worked for the Transportation Department since 1984. She said his payroll record identifies him as an executive assistant. But he sometimes served as a spokesman for the department, and in e-mails to a Globe reporter last month he referred to himself as director of community and intergovernmental services.
According to city payroll records, Mansfield made $104,173 in 2011.
Police said they found evidence of child pornography on Mansfield’s personal computer while executing a search warrant at his home.
--more--"
Also see: New virus that may be planting child porn to set up people as pedophiles
I don't put anything past them anymore.
And that crumbling infrastructure, remember that?
"Replacing 1950s overpasses is costly, complex" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, August 23, 2012
SOMERVILLE — The 1950s planners who built the overpass paid little heed to the people who might walk, bike, or reside in its shadow. Urban neighborhoods were meant to be leapfrogged by suburban commuters; road builders fixated on blasting away bottlenecks.
Now that the McCarthy is falling apart, even the state Department of Transportation agrees it is an overbuilt vestige and has promised to take it down. But the contractors who mobilized beneath it recently are not there to dismantle it. Instead, the state is reinforcing the McCarthy, spending $10.9 million to keep it standing for a decade or more.
Transportation officials say that will buy them the time needed to develop replacement plans and secure $70 million for a network of landscaped surface streets and sidewalks, with crosswalks, improved intersections, well-timed traffic lights, and bicycle lanes.
Advocates for removing overpasses call it throwing good money after bad. But the state’s top highway official said it would be a mistake to remove the McCarthy without being ready to follow up with redesigned surface roads....
--more--"
Also see:
Charlie steps out, as the MBTA unveils a mascot
Customer service ranks high on MBTA curriculum
MBTA bus driver attacked by youths in Dorchester
7 teens accused in MBTA attack
Second arrest in MBTA driver attack
MBTA bus driver attacked by youths in Dorchester
7 teens accused in MBTA attack
Second arrest in MBTA driver attack
MBTA rider accused of assaulting bus driver
Man badly hurt after being hit by T train
Ticketing app for MBTA rail rides expands
Mass. gives the go-ahead for electronic billboards
Drivers along Massachusetts highways could soon be seeing new, eye-catching scenery: electronic billboards?
Shouldn't they be keeping their eyes on the road?
Student groped outside JFK/UMass MBTA station
37 hurt in Green Line trolley crash
T focuses on driver in crash on Green Line
MBTA fires trolley operator, says he was drowsy
MBTA driver in crash also worked overnight for BHA
And was only grossing about $100,000?
Grueling schedule caught up with MBTA driver in crash
Police step up patrols after Red Line robberies
Government Center T station to close for 2 years
Loose panels removed from Callahan Tunnel
Oscar Epstein, Mass.’s oldest employee, keeps on working
He reads the newspaper The Forward in Yiddish, and it's a $50 fine for a free ride in addition to the new taxes to pay for the incurred debt.
Also see:
Banking on kindness at the MBTA
MBTA to commuters: Don’t be beastly
MBTA safety video urges riders to ‘Safety Bounce’
MBTA to commuters: Don’t be beastly
MBTA safety video urges riders to ‘Safety Bounce’
I see the "terror drill" didn't go live.
That's my last ride on the T, readers. I'm not saying I'll never post about it again, but I'm getting off the Globe now.
That's my last ride on the T, readers. I'm not saying I'll never post about it again, but I'm getting off the Globe now.