MA Proposed Transportation Reform(Service Cuts/Impact)

How about the T actually collect the fares and give free rides?

RailBus63 wrote: FWIW, I think that MBTA management is doing the right thing by trying to force the issue and not quietly letting the politicians get away with the fiction that the recent infusion of state aid solves all of the agency's problems. Perhaps by showing the pain that would be inflicted on the region's transit riders, pressure can be brought to bear on the legislature to look again at the gas tax hike. Boston-area gas prices are 10 to 20 cents lower than the cost of gas in most parts of New York state, so there is definitely room to pay more.

The MBTA is essentially trolling the metro area with these planned cutbacks. It aimed for every sore spot certain to bring about a substantial reaction.

cpontani wrote:How about the T actually collect the fares and give free rides?

Might want to re-read that one.

Prediction: a lot of bitching and moaning, but the hikes will go thru anyway.

Honestly, an extra $10 a month in commuting costs doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me.. if you aren't making $10 a month more than you were 3 years ago, it's time to get off your ass. (I don't want to sound totally callous in the cases of fixed-income folks.. but I understand many of them get a break on fare anyway).

Ideally, the fares could be pegged to cost of living and inflation indexes vs. operational costs... but obviously the T isn't interested in ideals

An extra $10 on an already fairly low-priced pass isn't bad if you use transit. If you use commuter rail, its a lot more on an already expensive pass or ticket (plus often parking). The commuter rail fares are the most expensive of a major system outside of NYC - and we certainly lack the kind of service those roads provide. I'm sure some will say "they're commuter rail riders, they're from the suburbs, they can afford it." There are a lot of folks who aren't exactly parking the BMW or the Lexus at the station who ride those trains as well - and I bet they're a lot less likely to have an employer subsidizing their monthly pass.

The quote from Aloisi in this morning's Globe kinda puts it all in perspective:

Aloisi has said several times in recent weeks that he looks forward to the day when fare hikes on the MBTA, which affect some of the state’s poorest residents, are as politically unacceptable as higher tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike and an increase in the gas tax, which drew significant opposition when they were proposed by Patrick.

We're not there yet. Ax the toll increase, ax the gas tax increase, stick it to the transit rider...

People will moan and complain, but in the end I don't think it will matter. I spent 10 years doing all sorts of fun communtes on the T (Arlington to Waltham, Boston to Waltham, Boston to Harvard Square, Melrose to Harvard Square, Melrose to Watertown Square) and only recently started driving to work because killing a couple hours on the T is less fun when I have a house to keep up and a family that I want to see. I drive about 30 miles roundtrip each day, which equates to roughly 1.5 gallons in my car for my non-highway drive. That comes out to roughly 35 gallons for the average work month. Gas prices don't need to go up much more to equate to an additional $10 for passes.

I guess what I'm saying in a long-winded fashion is that yes, it stinks fares are going up, but the reality is that it will probably have little impact on ridership and give the T some much-needed money.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Yep, and like the sun rises in the east there reads "Eliminate E Line branch service beyond Brigham Circle." At $0 lost revenue from lost ridership?

I too noticed that claim of zero-dollar revenue loss, which presumably assumes that 100% of current ridership will switch to the bus when the one-seat ride to Park Street goes away. Unfortunately it may be close to true, since some riders at the north end of the street running section will just walk to Brigham Circle, and my guess is that most others would in fact choose the parallel bus over driving or just never going out again.

The impact of the evening and weekend service cuts would be huge if this goes through, although as Messers Railbus and Arborway suggest, at this point the whole thing is probably a scare tactic designed to force the funding issue.

If Im reading this correctly, the MBTA didnt get a very big slice of the stimulus pie.....

WHY THE HELL NOT?


http://dc.streetsblog.org/transit-stimu ... statecity/

LA: 225 million
Philly: 128 million
Seattle: 70 million
San Fran: 48 million
Boston: 26 million

You think maybe the money could have helped a bit?

rethcir wrote:Prediction: a lot of bitching and moaning, but the hikes will go thru anyway.

Honestly, an extra $10 a month in commuting costs doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me.. if you aren't making $10 a month more than you were 3 years ago, it's time to get off your ass. (I don't want to sound totally callous in the cases of fixed-income folks.. but I understand many of them get a break on fare anyway).

Ideally, the fares could be pegged to cost of living and inflation indexes vs. operational costs... but obviously the T isn't interested in ideals

I'm quite fortunately not in this position (I ride the MBTA voluntarily? I must be nuts!), but know plenty of people who WERE making $10 a month more than 3 years ago. Then the economy crumbled under the weight of two wars and years of regulatory non-oversight: things like mandatory furloughs and mandatory salary reductions hit.

There's a terrible gulf in this country between lower class (who are able to claim your magically imaginary "fixed-income" advantages) and what was once called the upper-middle class (people who end up driving because they have critical jobs).

Those in the middle, the worker-bees, the 20-somethings paying rent AND student loans---which is around 65-55% net for those making $32-38K---well, to them, an extra $10 p/mo actually does equal real money.

Never mind the precedent that's been cemented at headquarters in thinking 10% fare increases are appropriate (rather than indexing them annually to CoL, inflation, or another estimatable figure.)

Finally, the proposed $10 is only for the LinkPass (subway and that other conveyance which we dare not speak of), from $59 to $69. Look at the other proposed increases.

This comes as no surprise. The T doesn't have enough vision to get a project together in case money might come its way. One could be inclined to say this is due to a lack of funding to pay for such engineering work, and in some ways this is correct, but a lot of (far less expensive) studies are still produced, which are followed by more studies, but nothing substantial ever comes of it. Consultants still get hefty paychecks, but the T and the public it serves are left with vague ideas and little in the way of actual design documents.

There should always be something, anything that can start work reasonably soon. As much as I dislike the Silver Line Phase III plans, it's really amazing and sad that the T couldn't have thrown the Feds a proposal to get it started within 180 days. It came up with a bunch of unworkable plans for years before kinda sorta settling on one that wasn't substantially better than the rest - and with a whole new host of problems.

Years are spent talking about building things, huge sums of money are spent writing down other people's thoughts of what could be built, but nothing ever comes of it. The Green Line extension has been talked about since before most people reading this were born. Do we have any plans? Kinda sorta but not really. The best the T could come up with was a diesel bus project. Admirable intentions, but we all know unattended fare gates are going to be problematic at best, and those 60' articulated buses will be gone the moment the roads get slippery. The EOT/MBTA should have at least pitched a trackless trolley and saved the local residents from the fumes, but hey... different standards for different neighborhoods.

This is going to make a big different to high school student too like me. Right now esp. in the summer when the Student charlie card expires. I pay $1.70 right now to take the subway. How much will student charlie card fare be increase? (If I'm right It would be $1 since is half of $2). Also even with this fare increase we'll still get service cut. So sick of the MBTA fare hike. I really don't think that $10 fare hike on the Linkpass wouldn't matter much.

Service Cuts? If it gets cut by half a red line train to Ashmont or Braintree would take 18min + delays? = 20 min for a red line train during rush hours to come? That would just overcrowd the platform. Reform? I sure do hope so!

EDIT: My friend from Hong Kong recently visit Boston. He said Boston is a great city, and people are really friendly, BUT he said MBTA is like going back to 3rd world country.

TomNelligan wrote: The impact of the evening and weekend service cuts would be huge if this goes through, although as Messers Railbus and Arborway suggest, at this point the whole thing is probably a scare tactic designed to force the funding issue.

The #39 bus absolutely cannot absorb the full brunt of the E Line traffic on a good day. It has a hard enough time dealing with the regular crowd. Shunting E Line passengers to the #39 and running fewer buses on the #39 will be a complete disaster.

This is diabolically brilliant on the part of the T. The E Line cuts alone are going to sent the Arborway supporters, residents, the MFA, Northeastern, Wentworth and the Veterans Administration into simultaneous fits of rage the likes of which we've never seen.

Arborway wrote:

cpontani wrote:How about the T actually collect the fares and give free rides?

Might want to re-read that one.

Well, he's not incorrect. They're already doing that

itszjay wrote:This is going to make a big different to high school student too like me. Right now esp. in the summer when the Student charlie card expires. I pay $1.70 right now to take the subway. How much will student charlie card fare be increase? (If I'm right It would be $1 since is half of $2). Also even with this fare increase we'll still get service cut. So sick of the MBTA fare hike. I really don't think that $10 fare hike on the Linkpass wouldn't matter much.

I don't know where you can get one, but there are charlie tickets that are printed with STUDENT PERMIT on them and are loaded with money and allows the rider half fares during the summer. I am assuming they give them out for summer school.

It's been said before, but the best thing for everybody in the state would be to not raise fares or taxes to support the MBTA but to allow it to declare bankruptcy immediately.
That way all the dead weight in management (which is almost everybody) could be cleared out, the union contracts could be voided and new reasonable contracts could be negotiated, and the $8 billion and debt could be addressed head on.
I don't know if the state should take on the debt, especially when their is no money available to help or if a new authority could handle it either.
However, I do know that continuing to throw money at the T will only prolong the long, slow decline to even worse service, cut backs, lost chances at needed expansion, waste of taxpayer money, and bankruptcy at some point.
A re-organization with of a public/private setup that is overseen by a board with reps from MA Govt, private business, local communities, and citizens could run things like a business and not a bottomless money pit.
And please hire transportation professionals to run the show, not political appointments and politicians family members and neighbors.