One person's love for the T general manager.

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.

It's become a most unpleasant part of my daily commute: the smell of commuter train brakes. When I get off the train, I flinch at the odor, which puts me in the mind of week-old diapers on fire.

I don't think it was this bad a year ago, and I notice I'm not the only one who's asking why. To a Wilmington commuter, The T's Dan Grabauskas suggested:

Aaron Read is not one to blame Dan Grabauskas for everything that is wrong with the T - things were going wrong there long before Grabauskas moved over from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. But having said that, he blames Grabauskas for not using Schedulegate to push for better MBTA funding:

... Now he's got the worst of both worlds: the scandal is out and everyone above and below wants his head on a platter. The MBTA comes off looking even worse than usual (that's no mean feat, itself). And worst of all, there's no groundwork laid to leverage this scandal into embarrassing public officials into providing more funding that the T desperately needs...instead there will be just be demands that the T end the practice regardless of the impact on already-overtaxed resources.

You can't make this stuff up. The Herald reports:

Top MBTA officials acknowledge that for years the agency has been secretly cutting thousands of bus and train trips from published schedules to lower costs - a practice that has left legions of customers waiting for rides that arrived late or not at all.

Dan Grabauskas says he started trying to change the practice when he became general manager two years ago. Yes, that's right: They've been doing this for years. Oh, yeah, and when asked about service cuts, T officials would lie, Grabauskas added.

Jay Fitzgerald marvels at this authority omerta, which extended from top to bottom:

... How do you begin to reform such an agency? Who do you discipline first? How deep do you go? They were all in it together. Us versus them. The permanent bureaucracy versus the public. Did they all prick their fingers and take blood oathes over pension brochures that they'd never betray the organization?

The Outraged Liberal shakes his head in amazement:

... Our public transit system is a certifiable basket case. It has been leaderless and clueless vile comments by angry riders don't change the fact that the man who has been in the forefront of the fiasco needs to be held accountable.

Smilin' Dan has GOT to go -- and soon.

Earlier:
How the T is getting Worcester Line trains to run on time.

Seems a fed-up Worcester Line rider e-mailed some increasingly choice words to MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas, eventually escalating to descriptions of what Grabauskas could do to himself, and now Grabauskas is demanding the Patrick administration do something about this violation of his civil rights. The alleged e-mailer works for the Department of Corrections and was suspended - with pay.

It's good the Globe has a transportation reporter again, maybe they'll stop getting scooped by BostonNow by a month. Compare today's Globe story on how Dan Grabauskas says the T is broke with BostonNow's Jan. 9 story on how Dan Grabauskas says the T is broke.

But speaking of our bankrupt transportation authority, the Outraged Liberal says it's time to stick a fork in Grabauskas. TJIC doesn't express much sympathy for him, either.

One Fitchburg Line commuter was apparently too tired to write to the top so he or she wrote to the side of train 429. As Tom Wheaton's photo shows, the MBCR's response was to paint over just part of the message, so it wasn't quite so offensive. Now THAT's service.

Grabauskas explains how the T will increase ridership in a BostonNow interview. Making trains and buses run on time is a big part of it, he says, which will no doubt come as welcome news to Renee Walsh, who is fuming mad at continued commuter-rail suckage, such as her train being 45 minutes late today. Alas, for Renee, a bunch of new commuter-rail cars won't be delivered until 2011.

Spatch is willing to accept that trains break down and fires break out. What he can't deal with is the way the MBTA wanted to force people to sit in overheated trains for more than an hour during Friday's Red Line meltdown:

Frankly I find it absolutely deplorable that the T ignored its stuck passengers to the point where the passengers felt like they had to evacuate the trains themselves. That is terrible customer service -- hell, it's not even service at all -- and staying in the trains could have posed a serious health problem if someone had panicked, or if someone had passed out, or otherwise required serious medical attention while stranded on the tracks, especially in the Kendall tunnel if there was no cellphone reception or any way to call for help.

So the next time Danny Boy Graubaskas pipes in on the station intercoms with his pre-recorded "it's your job to keep us safe from the terrists" announcement and begins his inane speech with the useless platitude "Safety is our number one concern at the T", if you hear someone in the station loudly coughing "BULLSHIT!" that person will probably be me. Because it's clearly obvious that's not the case. I wholeheartedly encourage you to join in on the coughing whenever you hear that.

Apparently not.