Patrick administration tries to get MassHighway, Massport to help out MBTA, turnpike authority. Can it work?

Gabrielle Gurley considers:

... Massport is in comparatively good financial shape (at least for now) thanks, in part, to its lucrative parking concession at Logan Airport, but MassHighway has its own debt issues, so it remains to be seen what "assistance" means in the real world.

And, what of MassTrans, the once and future department re-organization plan that no one wants to own anymore? If the Patrick administration can restore a semblance of fiscal health to the T and the Turnpike, all while bypassing a Legislature definitely unenthused about anything that smacks of defiling the state’s sacred transportation org chart, so much the better for the Patrick administration. (Oh, and yes, presumably Massachusetts commuters...) What's next, Fast Lane transponders and Charlie Cards for everyone?

UPDATE: The MBTA won a temporary restraining order that will keep the students from discussing their findings. Read the judge's order (in PDF). Read the MBTA complaint (in PDF).

Wired reports the T wants to stop three MIT students from giving a talk at a hacker convention this weekend on their efforts to crack the CharlieCard system.

The transit authority, known as the MBTA, is also seeking to prevent the students from "publicly stating or indicating" that electronic passenger tickets used on the transit system have been compromised until the MBTA can fix security flaws in the system. It further seeks to bar the students from releasing any tools or providing any information that would allow someone to hack the transit system and obtain free rides.

A hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Boston on the T's request for a temporary restraining order to keep Zack Anderson, RJ Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa from giving a talk at the DefCon conference in Las Vegas on Sunday on The Anatomy of a Subway Hack: Breaking Crypto RFID's and Magstripes of Ticketing Systems:

In this talk we go over weaknesses in common subway fare collection systems. We focus on the Boston T subway, and show how we reverse engineered the data on magstripe card, we present several attacks to completely break the CharlieCard, a MIFARE Classic smartcard used in many subways around the world, and we discuss physical security problems. We will discuss practical brute force attacks using FPGAs and how to use software-radio to read RFID cards. We survey 'human factors' that lead to weaknesses in the system, and we present a novel new method of hacking WiFi: WARCARTING. We will release several open source tools we wrote in the process of researching these attacks. With live demos, we will demonstrate how we broke these systems.

Human factors? So they managed to sweet-talk some T employees to inadvertently help them out.

Anderson told the Register the trio initially contacted the T to offer their help in fixing the vulnerabilities and that they weren't planning to release specific enough details to let somebody else replicate their feats.

Train Rider muses:

I must say - the media loves MBTA GM Dan Grabauskas. I just don't get the love affair? Why are they so hard on other elected officials and public leaders, but they just give Dan softballs everytime?

As a recovering reporter, I think the answer's actually fairly simple: Grabauskas gives reporters and editors what they crave: Access - or, at least, the appearance of access. Imagine how the current "We're going to die!" fare-increase story would have played out if, oh, a Globe reporter had ferreted out the possibility of massive increases in some obscure document related to the Green Line expansion project (maybe in some appendix on financing the work). There'd be outrage, outrage! Instead, Grabauskas simply arranged a series of interviews with local media types and got in front of the story. It's good media management.

Charlie on the Commuter Rail notes that the issue of commuter-rail conductors not announcing where their trains are going at Ruggles grows only worse:

They often don't bother to announce the destination of the train, and sometimes they don't even step out on the platform! Since the trains have been more and more erratic, time-wise (they can vary from the schedule by five minutes or more) this is particularly worrisome. Often passengers have to go into a train and ask the passengers inside where the train is going.

Also, there was a car on the Franklin Line last night that smelled like sewage.

You may recall how the initial "let's mess with commuters' heads and not announce destinations at stations like Ruggles" thing started during the secret work action, which is supposed to be over, but, you know, conductors just wanna have fun.

Meanwhile, Train Stopping shows that what we have on commuter rail is a failure to communicate: In response to a commuter complaining about inaccurate delay info on mbta.com, a customer-service manager at MBCR (which actually runs the trains), replied:

We provide the MBTA with the delay information but we cannot access their website to post delay information; that falls under their purview.

Allegedly the MBTA is working on a fix, but has provide no completion date.

First the turnpike authority, now the T: T warns of fare hike if agency is not rescued - in 2010. Massive fare hikes, dontcha know, although Dan Grabauskas says he hasn't quite worked out just how massive.

The Outraged Liberal is sympathetic but notes MBTA honcho Dan Grabauskas's lack of subtlety:

... The timing of the threat is especially interesting -- right after lawmakers started to address the mismanagement at the Mass. Turnpike Authority caused by another legislative scheme that saddled the Big Dig costs on a highway system that thought it was good politics to eliminate tolls on most of its users.

Smilin' Dan's threats come as the system is experiencing major increases in ridership caused by soaring gasoline prices -- the perfect time, in his mind, for a blackmail threat like this.

And funny, there is no mention of the quid pro quo that must be demanded in exchange -- cleaning up the T's house -- right at the top. ...

Mike Mennonno: Stop the madness:

... Deval Patrick has yet to show any real leadership on the issue, as he promised to do back in 2006 when he was running for office. But his office has released a statement, according to the Globe "expressing Patrick's commitment 'to work together to deliver quality, affordable public transit.'" Well, Governor, let's get on it already.

Riggs: Is anyone really ever surprised by any of the nonsense that comes out of the T?

Commute-a-holic is not amused, either:

... Seriously - why can't the T at least manage within its budget? Did they really need to roll out WiFi? Do they need to have 65 odd vehicles for employees to commute to and from work? ...

Lori Magno has started a Flickr group to chronicle late MBTA trains and buses and the signs that (sometimes) announce their lateness (the ultimate MBTA lateness announcement). She describes her inspiration:

... So last night I arrive in time for the 6:25 only to have the sign say "Late 10 min" and then the sign changed to say "Late 15 min" with no announcement and North Station was left to ponder "15 minutes from now, or 15 minutes from 6:25?" GAH! ...

But thanks to a screamy conductor who forgot to check tickets, she at least got a free ride.

Cambridge Police busted a dangerous criminal last night. Well, a guy drawing a smiley face in chalk outside the Harvard Square T stop, at any rate.

Jiffywoob reports Cambridge cops detained him for 25 minutes while they waited for an MBTA cop to show up to determine what to do about his wanton disregard for the law:

What's really weird is that as I was being detained, I saw right nearby a guy chugging a Natty Light in plain view and a guy chugging a Heineken in plain view. And smelled the sweet aroma of our friend Mary Jane. What did Officer Anti-Punk do? Continue holding me for drawing a f*cking smiley face. ...

He does not say if the officers took 27 eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. However, the T cop was "wicked cool" and let him go.

Nathanael reports how passengers and their trolley's conductor helped a man who had a seizure, falling to the floor and opening a gash on his head at BU West:

... While the situation was sad and scary, for him and by association for the rest of us who but for grace could been in his place, collectively this was the kindest behavior I’ve seen strangers exhibit towards another in our odd little isolationist transit dystopia. In a way, it was the nicest thing that happened today. ...

Yes, another morning commute on the Orange Line.