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As T readies more service cuts, municipal leaders gather to push for more transit funds

Mayors and other civic leaders meet at South Station today to call for "statewide investment to build the 21st century transportation system Massachusetts needs." The conclave convenes at 2 p.m. in the station's mezzanine level.

Meanwhile, the T is getting ready with a bunch of bus-line cutbacks should the legislature not come through with $51 million for the 20th-century transportation system the Boston area uses today by July 1.

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Comments

A game of chicken where everybody loses, fantastic. Because you know the legislature will never actually fund the MBTA enough to make it a world class transportation system.

Peterborough
http://www.bostontipster.com

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They are too busy dreaming up ways to spend the anticipated casino revenue and shore up benefit packages for their political clients to deal with the MBTA. The T is no longer a significant enough of a patronage fiefdom for the crooks in the legislatures to care about it.

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yay, more cuts!

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LET THE T FAIL !

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That way they're not wasting "your" tax dollars, right?

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The T should be cutting some bus routes, and expanding others. But the current process makes it very hard to change the status quo, and for the most part, buses run where the trolleys ran 75 years ago.

Also, I don't agree with how they chose which routes should be cut. One route I regularly ride often has every seat full, yet it was on the original proposed cut list. Meanwhile, other routes that usually have less than 5 people per trip (and sometimes 0) weren't on the list.

I think the cost accounting favors turnover above long routes that serve a lot of passenger-miles, since they count revenue by counting boardings. But that's not a useful measure when most people have monthly passes, so more boardings doesn't mean more money for the T.

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More boardings mean more customers served, which means more people who are willing to buy passes, so it does come around eventually to increased revenue. For a bus trip not involving a subway ride, the T estimates that it makes $0.76 per boarding. After the fare changes, I believe they are projecting $0.95 per boarding.

Express buses typically get more miles per passenger but they have their own set of problems. Since they stop fewer times and use highways, they serve a much smaller, focused market. They tend to be a peak-only unidirectional service, which means that buses have to make the return trip empty. That automatically cuts revenue in half. Plus, running peak-only means you may have to pay drivers extra to work a non-standard shift.

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If you look at Arlington, the 87 bus is packed all the time in the afternoon during peak hours, but they just cut service. Then you take the 80 bus and it's only got a handful of people until you get to Ball Square. I don't think its schedule has changed.

If I had a magic wand, I would make the 80 bus go to Medford Square via West Medfod and the 94 stop in Arlington Center. That would relieve congestion on the all the buses on Mass Ave shuttling people to Davis or Alewife. Then I would extend the 88 to Arlington since it can't add that much extra time to the trip anyway. Sadly can't imagine this kind of change ever happening.

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