What would you do to get the T out of its financial mess?

The St. Louis Metro system was just recently given funding through a voter referendum, raising the sales tax in Greater St. Louis by something like 0.05%. Metro now has a dedicated, taxpayer supported source of funding on top of it's (measly) fare revenues. I don't particularly like the solution, but at least it works. Perhaps a Gas Tax would have been a better idea.

I think that, especially in Boston where ridership is so high, that a mass transit system shouldn't need a lot of taxpayer of federal funding. I think creative marketing, adjusting fares, and greater involvement of the private sector could help minimize this.

Fare Adjustments: CharlieCards are a good start - incentivizing people to pay for weekly, monthly, or yearly passses is a good way to bring in extra funds. I'd like to see an unlimited yearly, or half-yearly option - perhaps somewhere in the $300-350 ball park for six months. I woudn't mind an increase in Charlie Ticket fares - up to $2.50, maybe even $3.00.

Private Involvement: Allow businesses to lease space in the stations - they're already got this in the bigger ones, but it seems pretty poorly run. A nice, clean, bright Dunkin Donuts in every station would make the T money, and the owner money.

Trim waste: We all know what a burden the union is, what with all the pensions and guaranteed positions. The contracts need to be renegotiated and redundancies need to be eliminated.
 
^^There was a DnD in Oak Grove. They closed. An imitation shop opened in its place. They closed a year later. They put up a sign saying they weren't doing enough business to stay open.
 
belmont square said:
When people on this board propose ideas like a two mile extension of the Blue Line under the Charles River to Kenmore, and then sarcastically suggest it can't happen because it makes too much sense, or that's it too good of an idea, do they do so in ignorance of the information presented in this thread?

It's tough to argue about the T's lack of "sense" until more is done to address their lack of "cents".
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In government land, operation money and expansion (capital) money are whole different money piles. Thats why DC is building a brand new subway line, but cannot afford to run existing service, and NYC is doing massive cuts even though they have two brand new subway projects happening. San Francisco, who also just did massive cuts, is about to start on a new subway.
 
One thing I don't think many people realize is how cheap public transit in the US is. If you go elsewhere, people aren't so lucky. A trip paid in cash on the London Underground will cost you ?4. A trip on the TTC in Toronto, $3. I'm not saying that the US necessarily has to adopt the same fare structures, but let's just say that I'm less than sympathetic that a single fare might jump from $2 for a single cash ride to $2.10 or $2.25 when a cash ride in Ottawa just went from $3 to $3.25 because transit is funded by the municipality, and the city has decided that transit must be funded 50% through the farebox; the other 50% coming from property taxes. I think that's somewhat extreme, but I think that some people need to realize that government can't be funding transit to quite the same extent as it has in the past.

However, I think other methods could be useful. For instance, are there any tax incentives that one gets from buying monthly passes? That could give some people an incentive to take transit if they're going to get back a percentage of the cost of their passes at the end of the year. This would not only boost ridership, it would help give the transit company a more reliable stream of revenue.

Also, following Ottawa's lead. What about a small property tax surcharge affecting the towns and cities serviced by the MBTA? It could potentially add millions to the annual revenue of the T, and probably wouldn't have a serious dent in the overall tax burden on people since it would probably amount to maybe an additional $100, for the average home.

Also, I think we should be pressuring the state to forgive at least some of the Ts debt. Fact is, a lot of it was involuntarily put on the T in order to make those pesky environmentalists go away. The T, as an arm of the government, had no choice in the matter but to get saddled with the responsibility. Now, it's the riders who are taking it, through a system that can't keep up with its regular maintenance and has no way to improve or expand service. Yes, the state can't afford another several billion in debt at the moment, but this should be something to be looked at in the next few years.
 
erikyow said:
One thing I don't think many people realize is how cheap public transit in the US is.....
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A ticket in mexico city, which has a subway system that blows away* anything in this country costs around 18 us cents.

*rubber tired trains with 9 cars coming every 70 seconds, very extensive network, and yes, safe and clean
 
kennedy said:
Private Involvement: Allow businesses to lease space in the stations - they're already got this in the bigger ones, but it seems pretty poorly run. A nice, clean, bright Dunkin Donuts in every station would make the T money, and the owner money.
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I completely agree with this! I go to Northeastern and needed to walk through the Ruggles "T" station everyday... not even to use the T necessarily, but just to get from the NU campus to the International Village residence hall on the other side. Easily at least 5,000 people walk through that station during the week, and it's so freaking big! I always wonder how much more sense it would make to add more shops/restaurants along the main walkway above the bus pick slips. You could put a bar there, maybe a burger king/KFC, even a CVS pharmacy would do great there. It's something the MBTA should think about. I certainly have...
 
There were shops at Ruggles when it first opened (oh, those halcyon days ...) but they didn't last - too little traffic.

I know it's just an example but give me one (okay, more than one) example of retail / food doing well at a subway station. Well, except for the Subway at the Mass Ave subway station.

Don't see a big money maker.
 
Dunkin Donuts at Harvard Square, Au Petit Pain at Davis Square, a whole bunch of food vendors at Forest Hills, Nubian Notion at Ruggles (yes, it's still there), a donut & coffee place in Sullivan Square -- those are the ones I can think of immediately.
 
There is a Dunkin Donuts at Ruggles though. Or so I thought.
 
Backbay has two Dunks and a number of food carts. The burrito cart always has a long line. Shops didn't work at Ruggles in the late 80s, but that by no means they wouldn't work today, given Northeastern's expansion across the tracks.
 
Thinking even bigger, now that we have MassDOT, all air rights developments over the pike will see cash flowing to MBTA coffers, right?

And meanwhile the MBTA owns underutilized land ripe for re-development, e.g. Cleveland Circle. Does the MBTA own the land under the proposed South Bay Tower? (I doubt it, but you see where I'm going.) Or, for that matter, all the South Bay land between 93 and Dorchester Ave? New leases can help defray operational expenses.

Additionally: Raise tolls on the pike, add tolls to 93 (such an absolute no-brainer!) all to help cover MBTA operational costs. MassDOT, are you reading this?

Bust the unions, single operators on multi-car sets, etc. etc. etc. ...
 
I guess I'm thinking of the ones in downtown Boston - there was one at Copley (torn down) and the one at State Street is inconsistent in hours, etc.
 
I considered mentioning it, but then who would be drinking coffee in their car while parked directly in the path of the bus stop in front of Hynes during rush hour?
 
incorporate them into the state police just as we did with the MDC police.
 
Can we milk the commuter rail lines more in order to improve / maintain the subway and bus lines?

Actually, let's just kill all the buses.

Not recommending it, just saying it would cut a lot of expense, no?
 
JohnAKeith said:
Can we milk the commuter rail lines more in order to improve / maintain the subway and bus lines?

Actually, let's just kill all the buses.

Not recommending it, just saying it would cut a lot of expense, no?
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IMO, there's probably alotttt of money to be gained from cutting buses. I think routes should be heavily cut and redrawn. The 428, for example, is empty by Saugus Center, if not sooner, and then proceeds all the way to Wakefield High. And outbound trips do not reverse and come back, they just end, so what do they do? They must waste gas, time, money, etc and go all the way back to the Everett shops or something. Not to mention numerous empty buses running around the Seaport. Even the Silver Line runs around the streets empty during midday.
 
How do we reconcile this concept:

palindrome said:
incorporate them into the state police just as we did with the MDC police.
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with this gap in professionalism?

Shepard said:
Who would be drinking coffee in their car while parked directly in the path of the bus stop in front of Hynes during rush hour?
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Merging the MDC and Registry forces into the MSP was a trainwreck that is only now being cleaned up through retirements.

A phased integration (rather than uniform-swapping) is a better solution. If the MBTA police force is eliminated, officers should be retrained through the Academy.
 
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