fares
A squadron of state representatives are telling MBTA officials this afternoon that the idea of fare increases or service cuts this year is simply unacceptable because the legislature approved the $160 million T officials initially said was enough to keep the T operating this year.
Meanwhile, Dan Grabauskas told the Globe today he was fired because Deval Patrick needed a scapegoat in the fare debate, because he told Patrick minions weeks ago no fare increase was needed. Read more
One of the first steps of the new regime at the MBTA is to table proposed fare increases originally scheduled for Jan. 1, to give a new outside panel enough time for a "top to bottom" review of T finances, spokesman Colin Durrant said this morning.
However, the T is going ahead with public meetings on possible fare hikes and service cuts. The first is scheduled for this Monday, 4-7 p.m. in the Gardner Auditorium in the State House. T officials have portrayed the "workshops" as a way for the public to help decide between either a 19.4% average fare hike or massive service cuts to help make up anticipated deficits over the next three years.
In the past, Secretary of Transportation James Aloisi - who helped maneuver T General Manager Dan Grabauskas out of his job last night - has said he would chose fare increases over service cuts because T services, once cut, tend not to come back.
Gov. Patrick is expected to name a three-member commission to look into T operations either today or Monday.
Carl Stevens of WBZ rides along with some undercover T cops on the Green Line, including one who probably needs to grow a mustache now or something:
George O'Brien would be amazed: Fight the fare increase by twittering fare evaders to help convince the MBTA to go after fare evaders before raising fares.
That's the idea behind Ride Fare, which somebody is setting up to let MBTA riders whip out their six guns and apply some T justice compile stats on just how much revenue the T is losing through fare jumping. See somebody, say something @ridefare (Web site coming).
Sure, his train this morning was 40 minutes late into South Station. But, Steve Sherlock
reports, at least the conductor announced over the PA:
You can put your tickets and passes away. I am not going to get around to checking them today. Don't leave them behind.
Does Channel 5 know about this?
Channel 5 reports the shocking news (to them, anyway) that Green Line and bus drivers often wave passengers on without bothering to see if they have passes or money. It was, at least, good to see Dan Grabauskas acknowledge that fare collection is, indeed, a priority at the T. Again.
Joe Pesaturo at the MBTA passes along a letter to the T from Daniel Verinder of Jamaica Plain:
Recently, I was preparing to enter the gates at the southbound T station at Kendall when a passenger said to me, "I'm going to go through with you," meaning that they were going to enter for free on my pass. Without thinking about it, I said, "OK." But as I entered the train car, I started thinking about how unreasonable this action was. I am a big fan of public transit, including the MBTA, and I did not like the though that I had cost the MBTA money. ... Regardless of the fare-evader's economic situation, the MBTA should not be the one to suffer for their lack of funding.
So Verinder bought a CharlieTicket and sent it back to the T and made a donation to Alternatives for Community and Environment. And next time, he says, he'll pay for a CharlieTicket for somebody who wants to get in with him for free.
Kids, don't bother talking to Pahkcah02. She thinks T fares should go up.
Suddenly, Dan Grabauskas is everywhere - and not just on PA systems 'neath the streets of Boston. Today, the daring T general manager vows to go after subway fare evaders. Sure, it's roughly two years after legitimate riders first started complaining about how easy the new fare system made evasion, but better late than never. Maybe next year, he'll even figure out that people evade fares on the trolleys, too.
Mike Mennonno sees the sudden honesty about operating expenses at the T as mere groundwork laying for new fare hikes next year, now that Gov. Patrick and the legislature have made it clear they won't do anything about the T's crippling debt:
... The only question is whether it'll be thirty-five or forty percent. How does $2.30 for a single subway trip with a charlie card sound? $2.80 with a paper ticket? And bus fare of $1.75 with a card, $2.10 with cash? $79 for a monthly pass.
I'm starting a pool. Get your guesstimates in now.
Hondo reports on a fun little incident yesterday morning at Haymarket: A guy scoots through a CharlieGate without paying, under the watchful eye of a T employee, who refuses to call T police even when a paying customer asks him to:
... The other passenger basically lit into the T employee. All he had to do was call it in. But he openly said that he didn't care. ...
A growing number of cities in the U.S. and elsewhere are making their mass transit systems free to use.
The argument goes that you can't build your way out of gridlock. Either you simply run out of room to build new roads, or by building new roads you increase the number of private cars in a small area, and end up with worse gridlock than you had before spending a few billion dollars.
Fare increases reduce revenue: Read more
Without any reform to do something about its debt payments (which now cost more than the system takes in via fares), the answer is yes, John Daley writes.
Third Decade wonders:
... My commute on the Orange Line has definitely been much faster and less crowded since the new fare structure has been in place. Are fewer people riding the system or am I just lucking out and finding trains with fewer crowds?
Jon Petitt learns today he can't bring a guest with him on the T for free anymore (although one sympathetic bus driver did let his friend on without payment).
John Daley notes the T's fare increase is timed to coincide with the formal launch of CharlieCards, which, of course, are named for the protagonist of a song who will never return, no, he'll never return, because he couldn't get offa that train after a fare increase:
... I suppose it makes sense since, just like Charlie, a lot of working people now won't have enough money to pay the fare.
More than you'll ever want to know about the song.
Somebody at the company that built the software for the new Charlie machines needs some help with decimal points.
Sick of poor service, uneven automated fare collection machine implementation, and rising fares? Think the new fare increases (from $1.25 to $2.25 cash) are outrageous?
The T Riders Union (TRU) is going to march on the MBTA tomorrow at 12:30pm at MBTA Headquarters (10 Park Plaza, intersection of Park and Charles.) Frustrated riders who are trying to prevent increase of 29-83% to cash and Charlie Ticket fares will march to the monthly MBTA Board meeting, and present over 1,200 signatures opposing the fare increases.
Voice your frustration by joining us tomorrow.
Apparently, if you are not quite spry enough, the new CharlieGates can close right on you - and they will hurt:
... Why isn't there a sensor on these, like elevator doors, so they don't close on a body. I was one step behind the guy exiting in front of me; and I've never seen these new gates close THAT fast behind someone exiting. ...
On BadTransit, Joe Bowden reports witnessing an innovative new way to beat the CharlieGates, although part of the scheme's success involved nobody caring:
... His buddy came in, and no one seemed to care as the buzzer went off indicating that a fare had not been paid. ...
Because the T apparently failed to consider what riders would do with used-up CharlieTickets, stations that do support them now look like your basic convenience-store after everybody's realized they didn't win the Powerball - the damn things are scattered everywhere. Mac Daniel admonishes riders to stop being such slobs, while also getting an acknowledgment from a T flack that CharlieTrashcans are still two to three weeks away.
When Josh Ourisman was getting ready to move from San Francisco to Cambridge, he puzzled over all the complaints on Boston-area blogs about the MBTA - which seemed a far more convenient system than his BART.
Thanks to the T's current dual token/CharlieCard system, he's puzzled no more:
... Even now, at least a month into the transition, if I want to go to Harvard Square (as I did on Saturday) I have to buy a $1.25 CharlieTicket to get there, then a $1.25 token to get back. Of course if I didn't realize that Harvard Square didn't have their CharlieTicket machines installed yet I'd probably end up getting a $2.50 CharlieTicket thinking I could use it to get home only to be surprised when 1) I couldn't, and 2) they only have one window open selling tokens at Harvard Square on a Saturday afternoon so there's an enormously long line. Long story short, I walked home to Central Square. ...
BadTransit reports that the T has issued large envelopes to drivers on some Watertown routes to collect cash because the new Charlie machines onboard their buses are already broken and unable to take dollar bills.
Yes, those CharlieTickets can be so annoying. Thankfully, at least for today, the T left a nice open gate at NEMC for anybody who didn't want to bother going through that whole buy-a-ticket thing - which I discovered when I saw somebody taking advantage of it.
BadTransit posts a report from the Watertown yard this morning in which supervisors were forced to just wave large numbers of people onto buses because the CharlieCard system was taking so long a bus backlog was starting.
Somebody else who was at the Watertown yard this morning, however, thinks commuters will eventualy get the hang of the thing.
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