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Red Line to slow to a crawl at 7:30 p.m.

Well, even snailier than it already is, to allow for emergency repairs at Porter Square where, the Globe reports, a water-weakened wall is in danger of collapsing.

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Comments

It shouldn't take that long to stuff a pile of Metros under the wall...

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Yup. As of last Wednesday, they're still there (both tracks). If I hadn't been in a rush to catch the train, I would have checked the date.

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"[...]causing some slowdowns in service."

Ahahahhahaha. I guess they're right though, going from nearly stopped to completely stopped isn't so much of a difference.

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Trains were running normally in both directions, on the proper platforms, when I entered Harvard station around 9 pm.

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This is not funny anymore.

It is simply not acceptable to wait until lots of people get killed to decide that maintenance must be stepped up on the T and the rest of our transportation infrastructure. I do not want a pledge that T fares or a gas tax will not be increased for X years. What I want is to be reasonably assured that a wall will not collapse on my red line train, that I won't drown on a blue line train while I'm under the harbor and that the bridge I am driving over won't go into the water below, all because it wasn't politically palatable to "raise revenues before reform". The notion that we can effectively maintain some of the oldest transporation infrastructure in the nation by "squeezing out more savings" and not raising additional revenue is, for lack of a better way of saying it, complete crap.

The "improve service before a fare increase" cry is as hollow as it is nonsensical, and every person who has kept his or her job over the last two years is familiar with the discredited directive on which it based - unfortunately for the alchemists who demand it, you reach a point where you simply cannot do any more with less, or even maintain the (poor) status quo. Luckily for most of us, that outcome entails losing only money, not lives. The T and MassDoT is not so situated.

The construction and maintenance of transportation infrastructure to allow for the commerce of the people has always been one of the core functions of government in our republic. Our newly created DOT has been tasked with ensuring our transportation infrastucture is safe and efficient. It is each individual legislator's job to make sure that DOT has the financial resources to allow it to do so. If they do not, they will be responsible for the unpleasant and inevitable outcome, and they will have demonstrated that they are simply incapable of effectively fulfilling one of their core responsibilities. Consequently, the first order of business before the Legislature when it reconvenes should be the passage of legislation to raise additional revenues to fund the maintenance of transportation infrastructure.

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Sadly our elected officials have created the fundamental problem of our state infrastructure being dependent on washington dollars. Until the taxes go from 30/5 to 5/30, we will need to keep groveling at the foot of Washington, DC and hope that they don't take away any more of our rights as a price of the funding - FAT FUCKIN CHANCE.

So it's nice to say we should "raise additional revenues" but I will viciously fight any additional costs to taxpayers at both state and federal level when the fundamental problem is the money being taken by Washington and wasted on the "security theater" and global warfare.

You want a bridge? You had better get ready to argue against wanting predator drones, because that's where our bridge money is going and you can't fucking have any more.

And power-hungry liars like Martha Coakley are not going to be your salvation.

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Well I suppose that I can readily agree on at least one of your points - that Martha Coakley is not my salvation. Interesting that you brought it up though, because one of the things I was thinking about when I wrote that builiding and constructing transportation infrastructure is a core governmental function was that it was a statement that most Republicans, Democrats and, I think, even Libertarians could agree with.

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