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Sometimes, timing is everything

With many Red Line riders still fuming over delays this morning that lasted more than an hour, Gov. Baker's office decided 12:35 p.m. was a good time to boast about improvements being made to the Red Line.

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System in the country and has been neglected for decades. At least action is being taken. As a daily rider its frustrating, but not as much as watching the entire system rust out.

We need more shutdowns and more workers, even if we need to bring in non-union labor.

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and has been neglected for decades.

When he was Secretary of Finance and Administration in the Weld administration, Charlie Baker shifted billions in Big Dig debt onto the T's books, which is at least as big a factor in the T's poor financial condition as the pension abuse. For some reason this just doesn't seem to stick to Baker.

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What happened was that the T was made to pay for T improvements related to the T (Old Colony), and that's ignoring that the feds paid part of that. The T didn't pay for the O'Neill or Ted Williams tunnels, nor their connectors.

I'll say this much- the T's poor financial health was based on a 1990s decision, and that was "forward funding." Before that, the T just had the General Court pay whatever the overages were on their budget after the fact. The reality was that tying the budget of the T to the sales tax was very bad for the T. Still doesn't explain why the Orange Line is running 40 year old trains and some of the Red Line trains being 50 years old. The age of the trains, conversely, explains most Red and Orange Line delays.

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"[The system] has been neglected for decades. [...] We need more shutdowns and more workers, even if we need to bring in non-union labor."

That's an astonishing instance of reasoning, considering it was precisely neo-liberal ideology that enforced the breakdown of unions and things like the dismantling of public funding of transportation from the 70s onward.

But yeah, let's make things better by doing what made things worse to begin with.

The climate crisis can also undoubtedly be fixed by opening up more markets for fossil fuels, which will in turn allow for dreamy future "innovation," too.

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don't you remember when Elon Musk solved the Flint water crisis, Bill Gates revolutionized the very nature of education, and the surplus profit from stock buybacks trickled back down to the workforce?

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Cash exact change only at all the fare machines. Not a single MBTA employee or 'ambassador' in site. Finally managed to add a 7 day pass on my card as I exited at Porter Sq. The machine said it couldn't provide a receipt. When I tried to use it again at Porter it showed 'no value'.

BTW: I encountered a mentally unstable homeless dude who has been arrested multiple times for assault and sexual assault. Last time I saw him in DTX was 24hrs after being charged with a sexual assault. Today he asked me to buy him a coffee. He showed me his leg monitoring bracket and said he was just released from Suffolk County jail. They just keep releasing him

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I can't say much about the first paragraph here except to note that is seems like a general MBTA experience.

The second paragraph, however, is very weird, especially in the context of a thread on public transportation, not least because it misrepresents anything like what someone dealing with mental illness and the criminal justice system in MA has to confront. First of all, as someone experienced on this issue, I highly doubt that anyone who has been arrested multiple times, and who is now wearing an ankle bracelet, has been simply released from Suffolk over an over.

That simply doesn't happen. Nor does it happen that someone on an ankle bracelet is thrown out into the world, willy nilly. These devices are highly temperamental, and the people monitoring their viability overworked and stressed themselves (they also need to be charged each day for hours or they will stop working) and, if anything goes wrong, a warrant will be placed for that person's arrest.

The anecdote is surely horrible. Victims of assault and of sexual assault need facts, however, not anecdotes, and certainly not disinformation. These kinds of stories, without evidence, do nothing to help those who are actually suffering from physical and sexual violence, much less those suffering from homelessness, who are often victims of the former crimes too.

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He has previously been charged on MBTA property with sexual assault. I saw it reported. I also saw him 24 hrs after his arrest at DTX. He was disoriented but maybe by lack of sleep.

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Can MBTA employees or ambassadors actually do anything with cards? I had a problem with my card not being recognized at all. The only thing the MBTA employee could do was tell me to go to the office at DTX (which has extremely inconvenient hours). Of course my problem was on the weekend and the office has no weekend hours.

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The only action is the propaganda machine at the MBTA is spending thousands of taxpayers dollars to take out full page ads in newspapers telling the public what a great job they are doing. They are also hoping that by spending thousands of dollars in advertising the newspapers editors will bury negative stories.

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Let's take away all the free parking perks that all the elected officials get. Take away Baker's state car, while we are at it.

Maybe reimburse mileage for those who have to drive to Leominster or other terminal station from the hinterlands, but no more.

I know they would just nullify it any way they could ... but it would be fun to watch them get the point that people are pissed off enough to try to strip them of their transportation privileges that isolate them from our daily reality.

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We have the worst traffic in the nation. Nobody is isolated from the misery, unless of course you’re an entitled unicyclist.

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...between sitting behind the wheel stuck in traffic (and then paying $$$ for parking at the end of your trip) and sitting in a SUV chauffeured by a state trooper, working or reading or doing whatever you want to because you aren't driving, until your arrival at a parking space right by your office, none of which you pay for.

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They ride the commuter rail and use their unicycles to get that last mile.

Do you get out much at all?

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