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MBTA ridership up again

The MBTA reports ridership increased again in November, by 1.3% over the previous year's figures. Average weekday ridership was 1.3 million, the T says.

The most noticeable increase was in the subway, where Red, Orange, and Blue Line weekday ridership climbed by 5.6% in November, contrasting significantly with the pre-fare increase projection of a subway ridership drop of 5.3%. Commuter Rail average weekday ridership increased by 2.4%. Average weekday ridership on buses and the Green Line decreased slightly, by 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively. The decrease was less than the projected drop of 5.5% and 5.3% for the year, respectively.

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Comments

But..but...the T still has no money?

Get rid off pensions, unions...and let the supply/demend market guide who works on the T to minimize the overhead.

I bet you there will be 50 well qualified employees who want the job for each 1 position, who will take half salary.

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The most important thing is always for the state to accept the lowest bid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig#Substandard_m...

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You missed a key word: qualified.

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The MBTA’s debt comes from three sources — $1.85 billion from spending since the 2000 start of forward funding, $1.65 billion that was transferred to the MBTA under forward funding and was related to previous transit projects, and $1.7 billion in funding for projects mandated under a Big Dig-related agreement (Debt associated only with mass transit projects, this doesn't include debt from the roadway work of the Big Dig.)

http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/...

Unions and pensions are no doubt part of the equation but they are not the only numbers involved. We have a $160 million budget deficit to fix, with about $110 million related to debt services if I recall correctly. I would think fare increases, service cuts and benefit/salary cuts would all be up for discussion but its a patently narrow minded view to say that employee benefits and salaries are the only source of this budget deficit.

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Why should debt payments to banks and hedge funds be sacrosanct, if you're going to talk about cutting salaries, raising fares, and cutting services?

Let the 1% pay their fair share too.

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I keep seeing that phrase "pay their fair share" - as a percentage of federal income taxes - what would that fair share be? 10%? 25%? 50% 100%?

Curious what their "fair share" should be (I've asked Michael Capuano and Elizabeth Warren -thus far they have refused to answer.)

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Bonds are held by a large variety of people and institutions, not just Rich Uncle Pennybags.

If you want the "top 1%" to contribute more, then the correct and least harmful way to do it is to increase the top marginal rate on a progressive income tax. Not to arbitrarily default on certain debt.

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A lot of people invest in municipal bonds. Defaulting would hurt a lot of retirement plans of average people like me who, honestly, cannot afford any more hits to my retirement account.

So please, stop with the 1% platitudes and think about what bonds actually represent. We're not all JP Morgan out here.

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of the saying that "If someone who owes the bank $300,000 declares bankruptcy, that guy has a problem. If someone who owes the bank $300,000,000 declares bankruptcy, the bank has a problem."

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You're dead wrong if you think there won't be problems for all of us if the T starts defaulting on debt.

Think about it: Would your financial life and future be better if you declared bankruptcy or defaulted on your mortgage?

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Public Transit is not supposed to be competitive. Yes, a significant amount of T employees are overpaid, and there should be some cutbacks, but we should not turn it into McDonald's either. And getting rid of people's pensions that they WORKED FOR their whole lives? Nah, you're nuts and need to take it down a notch.

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Public transit would receive the same level of subsidies that personal car driving does.

In fact, given impacts and cost to society of private vehicle travel, perhaps it should be more subsidized.

Lets talk about public funding priorities before we start talking about cutting things further into the bone.

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I bet you there will be 50 well qualified employees who want the job for each 1 position, who will take half salary.

According to , MBTA motorcar operators make between $31K and $36K per year. Would there really be 50 "well qualified" people eager to take these jobs at $15 - $18K per year?

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How did they count passengers?

If it's from farebox data, then bus riderhsip wouldn't include all the people with weekly passes on tickets who get waved on because the fareboxes are so slow.

Plus, you know, the bugs in the fare collection system which make the fare data (and possibly ridership data) meaningless. http://www.universalhub.com/2012/state-audit-actua...

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