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Legislative leaders to T: Drop dead

Blue Mass. Group ponders the seeming oddity of a Republican governor wanting to increase spending on our broken public-transportation system while Democratic leaders in the House, are, at best, cool to the idea.

You know what’s “crazy”? What’s crazy is that the T doesn’t work, and that the legislature doesn’t really seem to care. That’s crazy. DeLeo, Mariano and the rest of them can natter on all they want about a long-term maintenance plan and the T structure “and whatnot,” blah blah blah. But meanwhile, maybe somebody should make sure that the trains don’t catch fire.

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Comments

How many people know the name of their state reps?
How many people have complained to their state reps about the T?
How many voted in the last election?

If just 1/4 of the daily T riders made good on a promise to vote for someone else if T improvements where not the top priority you'd see a bunch of changes real quick.

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If only someone ever ran against my legislators, in the primary or general election... Sigh

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I have complained constantly to my state rep and senators for the last 5 years about the Red Line but nothing changed. This winter was just the last straw for the T - you can blame the snow, etc. but it was a system that had problems well before this winter. Problems during all seasons, massive delays, breakdowns, signal problems, even the excuse of a medical emergency went on for years. We riders have heard it all. I finally gave up on the Red Line and got a job that I could drive to and with free parking. It took years but I did it. Years of riding the Red Line and being late for work and using up sick/vacation time was enough for me. The legislature has done nothing. At least Baker is trying. The commuter rail is another waste of money -they build a Greenbush line and then raise the fares so much fewer people take it and end up heading to the Red Line. The whole public transportation system needs to be revamped.

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Jeff Sanchez.

Emailed him about the MBTA and his stance - no reply. This is guy who's entire district was certainly heavily impacted by the MBTA but he appears to be a lapdog of Deleo and the like.

I also asked him about the Olympics with no reply, but I'm sure he's all for it.

I can't point to anything bad he's done, but I'd love to see him replaced by someone who's interested in, you know, accomplishing things vs. collecting checks and accruing pension benefits.

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While a lack of an e-mail response may be annoying, it is commonplace with any legislative person. The reason is simple, just as we suffer high volumes of junk mail, so do they. Indeed even more so.

Consider that a number of Boston City Councilors now have robot text replies asking you to phone their office or give you a secondary e-mail address to re-route inquiries to, to someone on their staff. The volume is overwhelming.

Have you tried to e-mail a Congressman or US Senator lately? You won't easily find a published e-mail address but will have to go through a web form, and that will get a robot response as well.

The written letter posted via US mail is still a preferred method of contact, and is actually more effective.

Consider this... I recently had reason to fax some documentation to a US Senator who shall remain nameless. After trying 2 days to get the fax through, which didn't go, I phones and asked them to fix the fax machine, put paper in it, get it fixed. The reply was they were waiting for the IT person to come and fix it. I suggested a temporary el-cheapo model from Staples for well under $100 as a back up but that was not possible.

Government is not high tech. I don't like it, you likely won't either, but that is the reality. Those who do embrace it are a rare bird.

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I complained about the waste of transportation money on bicycling infrastructure that serve a mere 1% of Americans. I got a full page letter back saying he supported such spending. Not what I wanted to read, but some staff member took the time to reply.

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Those damn bicycle zealots, ripping up our roads and stealing our tax dollars to paint decals and green lanes all over the city.

For cars we have paved our forests, spanned our lakes, and burrowed under our cities. Yet drivers throw tantrums at the painting of a mere bicycle lane on the street. They balk at the mere suggestion of hiking a car-tab fee, raising the gas tax, or tolling to help pay for their insatiable demands, even as downtrodden transit riders have seen fares rise 80 percent over four years.

No more! We demand that car drivers pay their own way, bearing the full cost of the automobile-petroleum-industrial complex that has depleted our environment, strangled our cities, and drawn our nation into foreign wars. Reinstate the progressive motor vehicle excise tax, hike the gas tax, and toll every freeway, bridge, and neighborhood street until the true cost of driving lies as heavy and noxious as our smog-laden air. Our present system of hidden subsidies is the opiate of the car-driving masses; only when it is totally withdrawn will our road-building addiction finally be broken.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/okay-fine-its-war/Content?oid=9937449

Seriously so happy that Scotty told you to get bent. And he loves trucks!

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Not that I've ever done that ...;)

My point was that I got more than no response to a letter, or even a form letter, but a personalized letter back from the office of a US Senator. So, in some cases, paid staff of our Legislators do respond to voters.

Like Baker, Brown's political party does not define him in all the stereotypical ways that ignorant people use with labels. The simple minded like their labels. Brown, a former nude centerfold for Cosmopolitan magazine is athletic and a fitness buff who both runs and bicycles. That is not in conflict with liking trucks, which also have their uses- not served by bicycles.

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Ya glazed over the part about drivers paying their fair share, cause your whole point was about cyclists not paying their fair share.

You wanna stamp your feet about a perceived waste of money to a small minority but not a peep about a large majority that not only heavily utilizes our roads but are the biggest causes of damage to our infrastructure, public and environmental health?

Not to mention the subsidies, wars and military bases we have to support so you can have affordable gas. (Although society does benefit outside of transport with regards to oil products)

Reinstate the progressive motor vehicle excise tax, hike the gas tax, and toll every freeway, bridge, and neighborhood street until the true cost of driving lies as heavy and noxious as our smog-laden air.

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"Reinstate the progressive motor vehicle excise tax, hike the gas tax, and toll every freeway, bridge, and neighborhood street until the true cost of driving lies as heavy and noxious as our smog-laden air."

What would that do to the price of services, goods, well just about anything travelling via truck, van or car?
I would think we would see a price increase on goods and services that would hit the middle class and poor the hardest.

Similar to when we saw gas over $4.

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What would that do to the price of services, goods, well just about anything travelling via truck, van or car?
I would think we would see a price increase on goods and services that would hit the middle class and poor the hardest.

We already pay the costs associated with the transport of goods traveling by truck, van or car. It's just that those costs are subsidized through various other sources. You wind up paying more in income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, etc, in order to subsidize those truck, van and car costs.

It would be far more progressive to lower all those taxes and have the costs of transportation be more closely associated with the source of the costs.

In addition, the lack of good public transportation hits the middle class and the poor very hard. When we all are forced to subsidize the cost of driving, it is the rich who benefit the most, at the expense of everyone else. It would be much better for the true cost of driving to become apparent, so that our taxes could be lowered and/or used for better purposes. Such as helping middle class and poor people get to work.

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then maybe you should rethink every single thing about yourself.

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Maybe Mark is actually a female university professor.

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Well, we about 1.6% of our transportation funding on bicycling and walking. Which account for 12% of the trips people take in the US. Some of that goes to programs like Safe Routes to School so kids can safely walk and bike.

I think we should devote 12% of our transportation spending to walking and biking, since it serves 12% of the trips Americans take. What say you, Markk?

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Bicycling is 1%. Walking is far larger, so you try to distort the data by lumping them together.

Spending for walking should get much more funding than bicycling, and indeed it does. There are sidewalks on most every road with more than minimal pedestrian traffic levels.

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Or STFU

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Bicycling makes up only 0.6% of all commutes nation-wide, not 1%. Men are 0.8% and women 0.3%. I apologize for exaggerating the amount of bicycling by nearly double.

Data is from the US Census Bureau. See page 3 of this document:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/commuting/files/2014/acs-25.pdf

Ignore the pro bicycling spin put on the data before that. Its propaganda and outdated. Bicycling has peaked out generally, especially given the recent decline in gas prices. Portland OR has the highest bicycling rate at 6.1%, but its been nearly flat since 2008.
http://bikeportland.org/2014/05/13/something-has-gone-wrong-in-portland-...

Oh, and the new generation still drives.
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/12/these-numbers-challenge-the-notio...

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Yeah my generation still drives, but the nation is driving fewer and fewer miles each year. Yet we keeping planning forecasts that are nowhere near the realty seen in the data.

http://www.uspirg.org/news/usp/federal-highway-administration-quietly-ac...

After many years of aggressively and inaccurately claiming that Americans would likely begin a new era of increased driving, the agency’s latest forecast finally recognizes that the Driving Boom has given way to decades of far slower growth. The amount that the average American drove actually declined nearly 9 percent between 2004 and 2014, resulting in about a half trillion fewer total miles driven in 2014 than if driving had continued to increase at earlier rates.

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But still growing, unlike bicycling. So tell me, who has been more overoptimistic, the FHA on driving increases or the bicycling lobbies/advocates? I wish I could cite recent data on bicycling, but cities like San Francisco haven't been reporting new numbers. The numbers must be in conflict with their anti-car policies, so withheld. Bike advocates will still cherry pick anecdotal increases and blast social media with it, but its hardly representative of the general stagnation.

BTW, the FHA report is from May 2014, so data used is even older than that. Meanwhile gas prices are far less than what they predicted, so driving will be greater.

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My research shows that you're posting is 100% bullshit. It'll be published next month in the peer reviewed journal "Bat Shit Internet Posting Monthly."

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but I have gotten email responses from him or his staff in the past on other topics. So this could be an oversight or they're overwhelmed by volume or they simply don't want to take a position on a charged set of issues. TBD.

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If Senator Brownsberger can promptly email his constituents with thoughtful, personal replies, why can't the rest of the

Seriously, he's on top of his constituents' issues. He has a website where he has forums and comments (much like this one, actually). He responds, quickly, to emails, whether from constituents or people like me who live outside his district but email him anyway.

Oh, and he actually wants to fix the T, shows up at meetings, etc. My Senator (Petruccelli) and DiDomenico seem to be most worried about the cost discount that residents of Eastie and surrounding areas get in the tunnel as opposed to transit (which most of their constituents use). Cambridge being gerrymandered out of any representation in the Senate doesn't help.

(FWIW, Jay Livingstone, my rep, has responded to emails.)

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NO! If Sen. Kennedy's office and Gov. Romney's office can find time to send me a personal letter answering my question, there's no excuse why our current crop of state pols can't respond. They have staff for that.

Why do you not expect more from our elected officials?

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He seems like an earnest enough guy, but I'm not sure he's nimble enough to balance constituent needs while currying the favor of a powerful speaker. Too often, that has resulted in him voting against neighborhood interests. Nevertheless, I plan to also write him about MBTA funding. If he gets enough letters, it might make a difference.

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I don't have any animus towards him, but he seems like a follower, not a leader and that doesn't help us, his constituents.

The needs of JP/Rosi residents vs. Winthrop residents are night and day in terms of the MBTA yet he's working for them, not us.

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Unlike you, I did get an e-mail, but it was the classic politician's not response:

I've worked with so and so to support such and such over past legislative sessions, I agree with you that the MBTA is crucial..., therefore plan to call for study to ensure suitable response to crisis.

Laughable.

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Jeff is good at showing up at public meetings, putting on performance and going back to his comfy office to do absolutely nothing about the subject at hand.

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I live in Denise Provost's district - she was the sole vote against Baker's transportation cuts.

I mean, that's great, but it's similar to national representation where I hate so many of them but the one I have any chance to vote out doesn't deserve to be voted out.

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Yeah they'll really remember my letter next time they're running unopposed, I'm sure.

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Didn't vote for Baker. May or may not vote for him in 2018. But he has my full support in seeking to raise revenue for the T and especially in taking on the legislators who refuse to acknowledge reality. Too often this state is seen as super liberal because it's mostly Democratic officeholders, but people who pay close attention know that guys like DeLeo are anything but progressive in their thinking. Good luck, Governor.

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I think this has more to do with Baker's refusal to raise new revenue for T spending than a desire by Dems to ignore it.

Interesting that even Baker's proposed transportation funding is still below the target set in 2013:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2013/Chapter46

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Mariano represents part of Quincy, probably the most adversely affected of all the subway cities in last month's storms. But yeah, why would he want to be part of the solution?

How do we get these clowns primaried?

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How do we get these clowns primaried?

See comment #1. Most people couldn't name their state rep if you put a gun to their head.

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Cities and towns in the MBTA service area have per capita assessments that make up the third largest part of T income. Boston is the top tier, paying the most per capita to the T, then Brookline and Cambridge. Arlington is in the third tier, yet has no subway or commuter rail service. Quincy is in the fourth tier and enjoys red line service and stations, a commuter rail stop, a few parking garages, and many bus lines.

Quincy paying its fair share is one of the needed reforms, and exclusively with the state Legislature to fix. What's the chance of that!

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The guy has run unopposed for like 20 years now. Why WOULD he care? He has a job for as long as he wants it, then a pension for life.

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As long as Robert DeLeo and the likes of him are in charge of the Legislature.

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Unfortunately for all us T riders, Deleo just changed the rules he enacted so he can be leader for life. A person elected by a small group of people has the same power as the Governor.
http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/01/speaker_deleos_flip-fl...

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I know, it sucks. And when Democrats who opposed the hypocritical DeLeo vote in favor of abolishing term limits just to vote along party lines it just compounds the problem.

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... legislators who voted against his demand to be allowed to remain dictator of Massachusetts for life.

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because until the crazy primary/general election format is fixed (e.g., to allow two people nominally of the same party to run in the general) this kind of thing will keep happening.

But take heart, and if you're DeLeo, listen for the footsteps. The feds got the last 3 guys, and they will get this one, too.

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"Unindicted co-conspirator" DeLeo somehow got away with his corruption in the Probation Department corruption scandal. But I think the Feds have him on their radar. It's only a matter of time.

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T sucks last year and the year before and the year before that. Its ALWAYS sucked...

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But what's your point? Is it supposed to suck FOREVER?

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No. It hasn't always sucked. I've been riding the T to work every day for years and it has gone steadily downhill. It was NOT always a wasteland of track fires and disabled trains. It used to be better.

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I was out of the country for two years, and was appalled at how much worse the T was when I came back. Before I left, it wasn't exactly "world-class" - but it was basically functional. I could rely on it in all but the most dire circumstances. Was it always perfect? No, of course not. But it was solid. It would have gotten a B. When I came back, things had gotten markedly worse - and they've continued to do so in the two years since then.

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From what I gathered, there was a time the T didn't always sucked either. Though, yes, it would have to go back a number of decades. How many depends your definition of not sucking.

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Reading what Baker says and what DeLeo and Mariano say is odd.

I don't read it that the House does not want to fund maintenance, just that they want to have accountability, which is typically a Republican calling card. Baker, on the other hand, is pledging to spend money on the problem, typically a Democratic calling card, along with pledges of reform.

That said, the House should have less of a tin ear. You don't throw money at a problem, but the solutions to the T will involve an infusion of cash.

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When has MA ever done anything BUT throw money at problems?

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Health Connector, $1 Fu_k'n BILLION for a website.

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They didn't exactly open up the wallet after the D'Alessandro Report.

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With respect to suspected Rinos (though I think that is political puerile name calling in its context) there have always been Dinos: Democrats in name only. A long time politician of a another virtually single party city, Baltimore, had a mayor for life who was a quinteessential rabid Dino, Don Schaefer. He believed himself a king, treated his subjects with bread and circus, lay with the monied class and gave a big "Go to hell" to anyone he didn't like. His internalized self-hating homophobia was a local legend. He hated his Gay consitutents (where the lady doth protested too much). He retained the Democratic label because his political calculus forcifully concluded Republicans have not chance in Baltimore. In a virtual uniparty Massachusetts the same problem exists. Step beyond the few areas where Republicans have a chance (a handful of districts and the governership) and the only option is to call yourself Democratic.

Whether the name is Finneran or DeLeo the attitude remains the same: "We are king by divine appointment (what they consider an election) and the rest of you are our useless subjects who exist only to reappoint."

That the Commonwealth will as a whole suffer because the engine that runs the Commonwealth's primary economic engine is failing and will ultimately harm the entire Commonwealth. An irrelevancy for people sit in their fancy seats, underneath their dead dessicated sacred cod and act like they are princes exempt from reality.

Although Finneran deserves credit for one thing: He supposedly did use the T. He was an arrogant fellow but at least rubbed elbows with the plebes on the T.

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I'm fine with spending money on maintenance but the T should really be totally redesigned without fixed lines. That might mean eliminating the trains entirely but I think it would be an improvement in efficiency and service.

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You mean like the silver line and its "dedicated" bus lanes on Washington Street?

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You punch up your location a destination on your phone and the computer at the T mashes it all together with 60 other people and sends out appropriate vehicles to pick you up and drop you off where you belong.

Maybe its on an existing line but probably not. How many years away is this technology?

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Maybe its on an existing line but probably not. How many years away is this technology?

About -40 years. It's existed since the 1970s at least, where you can call up and have a flex-bus routed your way. It's nice for people with disabilities, people in rural areas, and other low ridership places.

As you can imagine, it does not scale very well. Even a bus with relatively low ridership such as the 64 would not be able to operate well in such a system. It would be slow, subject to numerous delays, and become nearly impossible to predict or rely upon.

Utopian techno-schemes like you propose are just that -- schemes. The systems and methods of good public transportation are based on the laws of geometry and physics, and the laws of geometry and physics have remained the same, and will remain the same for the foreseeable future. Short of a teleportation device, no amount of techno-nonsense is going to change the constraints put on by geometry and physics.

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Run that by anyone who lives near a train that would be "eliminated" and see what kind of response you get.

The T can barely improve bus routes without every person complaining about a stop moving, and you want to suggest the idea of removing trains. Right..

And replace it with what? a bus? riiiiiiight.

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Why do you think this, it kind of seems against all logic but Id love to see the studies or research that led you to this.

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Did you see how awful the Red Line was when it was running buses instead of trains? Do you have any research or studies or even anecdotes that back up your idea?

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Well, that would make for much less expensive vehicles and fewer lost lives from trains unable to stop for trespassing pedestrians and vehicles. These are still fixed roads, much like buses on catenary wires, which rail beds could be.

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The simple and short rebuttal to why a paving over rail and a bus do the exact same thing is a bad idea is buses can't handle the same capacity as heavy rail.

In your mind, it sounds cheaper, but you're probably comparing the cost of a bus versus one train or maybe a car-train. But to carry the same number of people will take more buses. Not to mention bus drivers. Also buses only last about 10 years. A train around 20 or 30 (meanwhile we are pushing 40). So you need to factor long term cost too.

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Wait, really? So how is this going to work then, you go out to the street corner and snap your fingers and magically a bus appears and takes you exactly where you need to go? This is called a taxicab or an Uber and the cost per ride is 3-6 times the full cost of a ride on the T (fare + subsidy). Also, the T's rail lines cost about half per trip as compared to the bus lines. Rail transit is much more efficient at moving large volumes of people. 50-75% of the T's costs are personnel. Which is cheaper: 1 motorperson and one inspector for a train carrying 1000 people (500 passengers per employee) or 1 driver for a bus with a capacity of 50 people? Math. It's a thing.

(And, no, South America-style Bus Rapid Transit is not the panacea, as the cities where it comes anywhere near approximating rail capacities have 200-plus-foot-wide streets where four to six lanes can be given over to surface transit, and full grade separation build. The number of streets in the Boston area where that would be feasible? Zero.)

Plus, if magically you had a fleet of minibuses or something driving around carrying people on these unfixed routes, you know what you'll get? Lots of traffic.

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Have you lived in a city comparable to Boston that lacked a subway? I have. Where the only public transporation was buses. Far longer rides for the same distance, lots more SRO in sardine can density, waiting for a bus that makes waiting for a subway seem to last only seconds.

A major city without a subway system is like fishing with just hands. You can get the desired result but it will take all day, you will be soaked, your results will be paltry and by the end of the day you will be thinking, "There has to be a better way."

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Transit riot.

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Adam, that is a highly inaccurate interpretation. They just want accountability while Baker is proposing a one year stop-gap measure while figuring things out.

Sacking the T board of directors however, would go a long way towards getting Legislative support for the one year cash infusion. The board has been irresponsible for shortchanging maintenance while wasting money expanding services and the system.

Many private corporate boards of directors suck too. I don't understand how they can approve ever more obscene CEO etc. salaries, bonuses, benefits, and platinum parachutes. Stockholders should be voting them out more often.

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To interpret their reaction as "Drop Dead" can be viewed as a biased exaggeration. But believing they just want accountability is biased as well.

MBTA will need a cash infusion to fix its issues. You can replace the unheated and unreliable switch or under-maintained train part with better management. After all these years, we kept talking about removing mismanagement and corruption. Somehow after all these years we can't make that happen. And then we got the previous month. Perhaps it's try to try a different approach, give them the goddamn money they say need. We can hang them later if the MBTA still act the same as before.

-----

And another thing you said this -

The board has been irresponsible for shortchanging maintenance while wasting money expanding services and the system

WTF. You know the board does not handle expansion. If you want to argue the state should stop putting its portion of the building the line and reallocate that money towards maintenance, at least there's some truth in that, despite the flaws in that argument (the lost federal government money, how you seem to always attack GLX while ignoring SCR, dismissing arguments GLX might be worth the money). Stating in the way you stated in that quote implies the board has been taking its budget and spending it on expansions. Which they have done no such thing. Expansions projects is under the state, not the board.

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Instead of giving the T more money, they should eliminate the stupid requirement that the new Red and Orange Line cars have to be built at a factory in Massachusetts that doesn't exist. That will save money, get the new cars here faster, and allow the use of proven, reliable designs by respected manufacturers.

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Even if they were built at an existing factory, even if they were assembled in China or Japan or Germany or wherever, these new cars would still be years away. There is no magic assembly line like Toyota or Ford has. Each model with have specifications from the Red and Orange Lines- trains from one line will not be usable on the other, to say the least.

Second, there are assembly plants in Springfield. They just need the staffing. The original fabrication of the parts and bodies need specific tools, and that end will probably be done in China (or if they went another way, Japan or South Korea or Germany.) Springfield is where the final assembly will be done. I'm no expert in the field, but I'm willing to bet that an assembly plant could be operational in a year.

Or we could just throw out the contract, deal with that litigation and associated costs, and rebid the whole thing from scratch. Yup, that will get things done quicker.

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goes to Wintrip and all my nephews have jobs so screw Charlie.

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