Note on MBTA Funding

1. Thank you.
   We all want to see the “T” succeed.
   I would like to see monitoring and goals and objectives out in place for quarterly review.This will determine if our funding is working and being utilized properly.
   We have (finally) excellent leadership at the top.We need it to trickle down through the system as many people with expertise have retired and took their 25 years of knowledge with them.
   We need to review the retirement system as well ,many who retire are young, get another government job creating a second pension.
   I do not blame them.They are simply working within the system we currently have.It needs to be addressed to retain expertise.
   Let’s get outside the box and become smarter about how we handle these issues once and for all.
   We need a system we can all be proud of.

   1. I too enjoy the media’s showcasing of general manager Eng. I like him. He is a breath of fresh air. It is beyond my skill set to analyze to what extent success and the perception of success is due to his leadership skills and to what extent it is the assorted circumstances, such as: Covid, funding, projects, strength of his backers in government and the degree to which they are playing nicely, &c, &c. He is certainly the whole package to make it work, when lesser men would not.

      I would hope that the Massachusetts press would tease-apart the factors of his success. I know people aren’t paying for the news and you get what you pay for and what we mostly get is a mouthpiece for state and commerce.

   2. Yes. The MBTA board does a good job of setting goals and following up. I strongly encourage people to take the time to watch some MBTA board meetings and get a sense of the quality of the oversight. They are all archived for streaming here.

2. Are all of the problems at the MBTA resolved? Why would you want to increase their budget when they have proven that they have misused the funds in the past. Poor maintenance, little supervision, absent leaders are among the issues. Have all these issues been resolved? Are you confident that the funds, which are substantial, are being utilized efficiently?

   1. I do have confidence in both the MBTA board and the General Manager. They are moving the organization in the right direction.

3. Per Jeff Jacoby recent article:
   Public transit in Boston and elsewhere held little appeal for the vast majority of working people even pre-pandemic. Now their interest has shrunk further.
   Percent of commutes using Boston public transit has falled to 6% from 1960 value of 25%.
   More work at home and for other reasons don’t use the MBTA.
   Maintain but don’t increase funding.

   1. Just to maintain existing service, we will need to increase funding. The revenue picture is poor because of sustained ridership loss. See the board meeting linked to above.

4. We’re going to need more MBTA buses and trains to accommodate illegal aliens.
   Let’s hope the MBTA budget takes that into account. If not, make it even larger.
   Also, the thousands of units of housing being planned by law for MBTA communities such as Watertown & Belmont?
   Make sure enough units are reserved for illegal aliens and their children (along with more schools).

5. Are we really still below the pre-pandemic level of MBTA ridership? I ask because from my perspective, riding from B.C. or Cleveland Circle to Downtown, fairs are usually not collected. I insist on tapping my card, because I tell the driver that I want to be counted. (I have a monthly senior pass.) However, most drivers do not question anyone who does not pay to ride and usually open all of the doors of the tram to allow people on without asking them to pay. I just don’t understand what data are being collected to indicate that ridership is currently below pre-pandemic levels. It might be true, but how do we know?

   1. For the first time since the pandemic I heard a 75 driver implore “please move towards the back of the bus to allow people on,” but that was a one-off and before the pandemic the fRed Line was tighter than shoulder to shoulder, now it is only just shoulder to shoulder.

      I have noticed at major stations since around the pandemic and maybe earlier the practice of regularly leaving a fare gate open. I haven’t seen that recently.

      I have noticed people sitting in priority seating studiously deepening their attention on their phones and laptops when I get on with my cane. Maybe include Chinese and other languages on the Priority Seating placards, but I think as a population we’ve become less moral and caring about people not in our group.

   2. I’ve also observed this and wondered about it. To my recollection, they began allowing riders to board at all doors at the street-level stops as a social distancing measure during the COVID pandemic and they simply never returned to normal boarding. Now many green line riders are habituated to it and only board at the rear doors. I’ve seen similar behavior on the buses as well. More often than not, a driver who sees that I’m about to try to add cash value to my Charlie Card at the fare box just waves me in without paying. Aren’t these free fares in the trains and buses on the street level distorting the ridership metrics?

   3. Yes — ridership remains depressed. See page 7 of this budget presentation to the board.

6. So, the T is funded by: sales taxes, riders, federal funds and state bonds?

   What % of the federal funds come from taxes on business revenues, capital gains, earnings dividends and the whole gamut of profit that’s to some degree facilitated by the country’s infrastructure? And, what is the philosophy for and against that revenue stream increasing? (There are limits to the argument of capital flight as Boston, and Massachusetts must have some virtue? And, if not- who needs ‘em)

   As for the “fiscal cliff” I might suggest a riders’ strike and work out, but I’m not going to.

7. In terms of MBTA fiscal responsibility, accountability and funding priorities:

   0. I LOVE the seat material!!!! You can tell of they are clean or dirty, wet or dry. They could be ever so slightly bucketed as the trains jerk mightily starting and stopping.
   1. The handicapped/Priority seating seats have a monitor overhead and tall people can’t sit up straight to say nothing of wearing a brimmed hat.

   2. The Orange Line was down over a month last year for new tracks, ballast, ties/eggs and the cars themselves are brand spankin’ new yet the ride is bumpy as all get out. And this is due in part because the wheels didn’t come round and won’t stay round?!

   3. The jump seats have points that cause soft tissue injury and if someone puts a limb to the side of one and someone sits down it can cause a fracture.
   4. I have seen old people fall attempting to lower an Orange Line jump-seat and sit down only to have it spring up while the train jerks to a start.

   5. The OL trains are a different height from the platforms.

   6. How many retrofits have CCP Rolling Stock cars required and will require?

8. I have seen and heard comments from people I know who say the T has had to rework many projects big and small. The Orange line trains built by the low bidder CRRC that do not work without massive rework and cost overruns, to electrical contractors who are not overseen by competent T employees and fail to correctly do the contract. In the 50’s the T maintenance department built the riverside line with in house resources. Clearly back then, the T had competent management and engineering staff who knew how to do the work. Today I wonder. I am concerned that with all the money flowing to fix the T, the T actually is not able manage the work in a cost effective manner, and depends on the abilities and competence of its private suppliers. If the management and engineering at the T were able, they would supervise and know as it happened if the the suppliers were doing the work correctly, rather than as it seems to be the current situation after the fact finding of failure to perform. The lack of able management and engineering resources is causing money to be spent very badly and the patronage aside, the legislature should be concerned. Rather than stick with a prime contractor who has demonstrated failure, the T should be looking to terminate the relationship in the case of CRRC. If the T cannot, it is a failure in how the relationship was structured from the beginning. and the rules that the Commonwealth uses to contract for work. The biggest issue with the subway car contract was the vendor had no track record in North America of doing work, and should not have been in the running for a big contract at the T. Why the legislature is not questioning the continued use of CRRC is a question I would like to see addressed.

   1. There are two fundamental problems with the CRRC relationship: (a) we insisted on doing a big chunk of the assembly in Massachusetts, vastly complicating the project; (b) Congress cut all of the motivation for CRRC by prohibiting future Chinese contracts — the project was a loss leader for CRRC and Congress turned into just a loss.

      For better or worse we are stuck with CRRC. We are too far in to back out. MBTA leadership is wisely doing what we have to do — give CRRC enough money to complete the project.

9. I worry about really three things. First on existing third party contracts–the Fare Transformation project (which was due to be final this year) doesn’t seem anywhere close to being done. And if Streetsmart is right about the cost and budget increase, I have to agree with their 2023 assessment that this turning into a ‘boondoggle.’

   Second, capital projects cost benchmarking. I seriously think that what Vegas is doing on transit is truly transformative. I have no idea if their Musk boring project work would even work here, but I think its worth having T-officials and yourself Will go out there and ask public officials in Clark County how they plan to scale their system to its expected “68 miles of tunnel and 93 stations for the Vegas Loop.”

   Third, and this is related to tech improvements–are T officials taking seriously the implications of autonomous transport? Like if I can summon a car to pick me up at my house and take me to wherever–the office, the beach, Fenway, even Cape Cod–what does that do to existing ridership? We shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand an d pretend that tech change doesn’t exist.

   1. I’m worried about the fare contract too! But, progress is happening — please see this presentation which came out at last Thursday’s MBTA board meeting.

      Vegas doesn’t have a lot in common with Boston in terms of anything — urban layout, transit needs, underlying geology. I wouldn’t take that as a model.

      But yes, my sense is that T planners do try to consider a wide range of technologies and be aware of emerging trends, which are, of course, hard to truly discern.

10. Is the MBTA’s proposed and, or planned Watertown Square bus to Forest Hills Station going to be running soon?

    1. Not soon — route changes planned before COVID are under review.

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