General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Maybe they have a seat for this guy. He may be able to help them out.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

JoeGallows said:
Chance for those of you with the time, know-how and desire to try to change the T to do something. Looks like the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee is trying to fill some vacancies. Here's the press release PDF. The actual press release on the website doesn't have any info on it, but here it is anyway.

Does this committee have much power at all? I'm not sure I've heard of it.
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Advisory only, my friend.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The Globe - March 6
T card has security flaw, says researcher
Cracked code could lead to counterfeits, study team warns

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | March 6, 2008

A computer science student at the University of Virginia asserts that he has found a security flaw in the technology behind the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's CharlieCard system.

German-born graduate student Karsten Nohl specializes in computer security. Nohl and two fellow security researchers in Germany say they've cracked the encryption scheme that protects the data on the card. The team warns that their breakthrough could be used to make counterfeit copies of the cards, which are used by commuters to pay for MBTA bus and subway rides.

"You could have thousands of cards and sell them in the underworld," said David Evans, an associate professor of computer science at the university, and Nohl's adviser. Nohl himself is on spring break and could not be reached.

The CharlieCard uses a Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, chip. The card is pressed against a detector, which reads data from the chip and deducts the price of a subway or bus ride from the owner's account.

The T spent $192 million to introduce the CharlieCard in 2006. The system replaced cash and tokens.

A press release issued by the University of Virginia said Nohl's research team obtained the same kind of chip, then used abrasives to scrape away the chip layer by layer. By examining the chip circuitry, they were able to figure out the encryption algorithm it uses and found weaknesses that made it easy to break. Next, the team was able to use commercially available RFID readers to capture data from any RFID-equipped cards that came within range. They could then decrypt the data on those cards and copy them. Nohl said that his team needed only about $1,000 worth of equipment to dismantle the chip and crack the code.

Nohl said that the RFID chip they compromised, the MiFare Classic by NXP Semiconductors of the Netherlands, is the one used in London's subway system and in the MBTA CharlieCard. But MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo refused to confirm or deny this. "It's MBTA policy not to discuss security measures around its smart card technology," he said.

A 2004 policy analysis of the CharlieCard system produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that it would be based on MiFare technology.

NXP Semiconductors issued a statement saying that Nohl's team breached only one of several security features built into the MiFare Classic chip. "This does not breach the security of the overall system," the company said. "Even if one layer were to be compromised, other layers will stop the misuse."

Evans said it might be hard to solve the issue. "There are chips that have a much higher security level available," he said. "They cost more and it is not a trivial matter to upgrade the system."

Ari Juels, chief scientist and director of computer security company RSA Laboratories in Bedford, said that Nohl's research illustrates that there are serious security flaws in many smartcard applications. "The vulnerability is most certainly for real," Juels said.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The Globe - March 6
T will dip into reserves for $20m
Rainy day fund will fall to $35m No fare increase seen for 2009

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | March 6, 2008

The MBTA board is expected to approve a spending plan today that will depend heavily on money from its rainy day fund and on refinancing its current debts to cover a $75 million gap. There will be no fare increase in 2009, but the head of the T refused to rule out a 2010 hike.

"You can't keep doing this," Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said of the plan to plug the deficit for 2009.

The proposed budget, which would take affect July 1, takes $20 million from the T's $55 million rainy day fund. In addition, the T would restructure $50 million in debt under the plan, adding to the cost of future payments, and find $5 million in savings in the coming budget year, partly by hiring fewer administrators.

"We're concerned," said Lee Matsueda, program director for the T Riders Union, a community group. "There's no way that the system can sustain itself the way it is set up now."

The Riders Union and other consumer groups have been lobbying state legislators to bail out the T, arguing that riders cannot afford more hikes. So far, Governor Deval Patrick's administration has talked about restructuring the state's transportation agencies and raising money from proposed casinos, but he has not laid out a specific plan to plug all the financial gaps.

Grabauskas has also been lobbying state and federal government leaders to put more money into the system. In an interview yesterday, he declined to comment on fare hikes beyond the coming year.

"I don't think you can predict that far ahead," he said. ". . . Everybody knows there's a problem. We're trying to find a solution."

Spokesman Joe Pesaturo added later that "the MBTA is not developing plans for a fare increase."

Grabauskas called the latest spending plan "the lesser of two evils." Last month, in an interview, he called the MBTA "broke."

The depletion of the rainy day fund could have serious consequences. The T's own budget standard calls for $100 million to be kept in the fund, which is supposed to be used in emergencies. The 2009 plan will take it down to $35 million. The T has dipped into the fund to balance its budget two of the last three years.

In 1996, the T had an actual rainy day, when it needed $50 million to repair radio, signaling, and power equipment on the Green Line after a flood, said Jonathan Davis, chief financial officer of the authority. Some of the costs were reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But a similar event or another unpredictable disaster could put the transit system at risk.

"That really is the only fund that we have to draw upon in the case of unforeseen circumstances," Davis said.

The T has been struggling financially for several years, despite fare hikes.

The agency owes $8.2 billion in debt and interest payments, a constant drag on its budget. In 2000, the state stopped giving the agency a blank check every year to cover its expenses and required that it live off a subsidy from the state sales tax. But the sales tax has grown much more slowly than projected, generating $200 million less than even the most conservative estimates projected in 2000, Davis said.

In addition, the T is the state's largest power customer. As the cost of oil has gone up and the T's old contract expired, its annual power expenses have grown from $41 million to $110 million.

The T hiked fares twice since 2004, most recently in January 2007.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

I love the T. Last night in Cleveland Circle i was boarding an inbound train with one of my friends, and the T driver just waved my friend and I, as well as 3 other people on the train without having to pay fair. Who cares if there is a fair increase? You only have to pay half the time. Shit drives me crazy. There was no reason for us not to pay.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

MBTA: Our schedules ?lie? JP Gazzette

The MBTA for years has failed to run all of its scheduled bus and subway service under a money-saving policy of deliberate understaffing, General Manager Dan Grabauskas revealed last month in the Boston Herald...
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Boston.com - April 3, 2008
High gas prices credited for spike in T ridership

April 3, 2008 10:57 AM

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

High gas prices may be sending more commuters to public transportation, with a nearly 10 percent spike in MBTA trips in January and February compared with a year ago.

Almost every category ? commuter rail, subway, bus ? saw big increases this year in the number of riders, according to statistics released by the MBTA. Commuter boat traffic was the exception as some riders probably fled to the new Greenbush commuter rail line.

The T can use the money. The agency has a heavy debt load and plans to dip into its reserves to cover operating expenses beginning in July. The T last hiked fares in January 2007.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Boston Globe - April 4,2008
T ridership jumps with gas prices
Traffic easing with drivers off streets

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | April 4, 2008

The high cost of gasoline has helped fuel a sharp increase in MBTA riders over the first two months of the year and a decrease in the number and length of traffic jams, according to T officials and traffic specialists.

The number of T trips rose from 27 million in February 2007 to nearly 30 million last month, up more than 11 percent for the month, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials said. The numbers were up about 5 percent for January. Combined, the average increase is 8.3 percent.

The rising MBTA numbers follow a national trend. More Americans rode public transportation last year than at any time in history, according to the American Public Transportation Association, which also cited gas prices as a major factor.

People who monitor traffic patterns said the price of gas, which has risen about 50 cents per gallon in Massachusetts over the past year, has also played a part in a smoother ride on the highways.

The higher gas prices get, the easier the math becomes.

"It was costing me, easily, a couple hundred dollars a week for gas," said Janet A. Lee of Braintree, who drove a sport utility vehicle to her old job.

She was laid off in September, found a new job in the Financial District, and now gets a ride to the Braintree station so she can take the T. She estimates that the $59 she spends on a T pass is saving her hundreds per month.

The arguments for switching to the T keep getting stronger, said Daniel A. Grabauskas, the general manager of the MBTA.

"We had a really good case when prices were where they were a year ago," Grabauskas said. Now, he said, the T has a "great case."

Ridership is up for buses, commuter rail, and subway. It is down on commuter boats, possibly because the T introduced the Greenbush commuter train line along the South Shore late last year. The train drew about 2,500 daily round-trip riders in February, many of them former boat commuters.

The increased ridership is especially remarkable, given the poor economy. In past economic downturns, - including the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - the T has lost riders.

Grabauskas said gas is a major factor in the overall ridership increase. He also attributes it to the Greenbush train, the change to all two-car trains on the Green Line last year, and a rebound from the January 2007 price increase that prompted a temporary decline in ridership.

T statistics show ridership was higher in January and February 2006, before the fare increase. But the T's counting method changed when it introduced the Charlie Card in 2007. The automated system measures the exact number of paying riders, whereas the old tallies were estimates based on the total amount of money collected.

The MBTA, which is dipping into reserves to pay its own rising gas bills, is hoping to ride the recent wave of popularity by promoting more weekend rail travel to local beaches and nearby mountains this summer as families cut down on long-distance vacations to save money.

The weekend train to Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, in its second year, has been growing in popularity.

Art Kinsman, director of government affairs for AAA Southern New England, calls the move to public transit and the subsequent reduction in traffic congestion the "silver lining" in the gas hike.

"The gas prices, coupled with the uncertain economy, equals people traveling a little less," he said.

The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline in Massachusetts was $3.14 yesterday, up from $2.66 a year ago, according to AAA surveys. The increase was higher for premium grades.

Jeff Larson has also noticed the difference. He runs SmartRoute Systems, which monitors traffic for drivers who call 511 for alerts. Larson said traffic back-ups around hot spots like Route 128 have been shorter and less frequent in recent months. He is also getting fewer calls from frustrated drivers trying to figure out the bottlenecks, another indicator that things are getting better on the roads.

"It's not like there's no traffic out there," he said. But overall, "it's easier to get around the city now."

The biggest downside is crowded buses, subway cars, and trains. Rider groups have complained that the T cannot keep up with demand, leaving commuters cramped on some popular lines during rush hour.

Grabauskas acknowledges the problem, but said it is not a bad one to have. He said the T's dire financial situation, including more than $5 billion in debt, means he will not add trains or buses as demand grows.

"I'm just struggling as hard as I can to maintain the service I've already got," he said.

Still, even some drivers who find public transit inconvenient are making the switch.

"There's something about having your own car, your own wheels; it's a little more comfortable and you're not on that deadline," said Joe M. Grillo, who increasingly uses commuter rail to get between his home in Medway and his job in Boston. "This increase over a period of months, weeks, and years has really started to flip the equation, if you count the dollars."

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

these high gas prices are personally hurting my wallet since there isn't much alternative transportation down in Virginia. but I get so excited each time gas prices reach a new high, because this is the only way that Americans will get out of their damn SUVs and politicians will actually pay more attention to public transportation and alternative energy. it's a win-win situation with a little temporary loss on the side. i hope gas prices keep going up for a looooong time!
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

lexicon506 said:
these high gas prices are personally hurting my wallet since there isn't much alternative transportation down in Virginia. but I get so excited each time gas prices reach a new high, because this is the only way that Americans will get out of their damn SUVs and politicians will actually pay more attention to public transportation and alternative energy. it's a win-win situation with a little temporary loss on the side. i hope gas prices keep going up for a looooong time!
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Hopefully the changes made will last longer than in the last gas crisis...Remember those tiny Mustangs Ford made?
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

"T statistics show ridership was higher in January and February 2006, before the fare increase. But the T's counting method changed when it introduced the Charlie Card in 2007. The automated system measures the exact number of paying riders, whereas the old tallies were estimates based on the total amount of money collected."

Ehm, so ridership did NOT go up... just the counting method. Its like the Worcester line, trains are on time now because the schedules were changed.

""Grabauskas said gas is a major factor in the overall ridership increase. He also attributes it to the Greenbush train, the change to all two-car trains on the Green Line last year, and a rebound from the January 2007 price increase that prompted a temporary decline in ridership."

Two-car trains do not run all the time.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

JoeGallows said:
Chance for those of you with the time, know-how and desire to try to change the T to do something. Looks like the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee is trying to fill some vacancies. Here's the press release PDF. The actual press release on the website doesn't have any info on it, but here it is anyway.

Does this committee have much power at all? I'm not sure I've heard of it.
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Just wanted to remind everyone that the application deadline for this is today.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

The Globe - May 6, 2008
Drivers leave cars home, put T use on record pace

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | May 6, 2008

Their wallets siphoned by high gas prices, more Americans are taking the subway, bus, or commuter train, particularly in Boston, where officials say the number of subway riders is increasing faster than in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

MBTA officials said yesterday that the number of rides on the Red, Blue and Orange lines surged almost 10 percent in the first three months of the year, an unusually high increase that they say has put the transit system on track to smash its previous record of 354.1 million rides in 2001.

While MBTA officials hailed the figures as very exciting news, commuters who have given up their cars expressed mixed emotions. They said crowded trains and buses reflect a bitter economic trade-off - the affordability of public transit over the freedom of the road.

"I used to always drive in the morning, but with these gas prices? Forget about it," said John Garceau, a 53-year-old construction worker waiting at South Station for a commuter train to his home in Middleborough yesterday.

"It's downright ridiculous, what with prices now $3.50, $3.75," said Garceau, adding that his wife just bought a Ford Explorer that costs more than $60 to fill with gas. "The way to go, I would say, is the MBTA."

Apparently, thousands of other beleaguered drivers agree. Over the first three months of the year, the number of rides on all branches of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has risen nearly 230,000 - or 6.2 percent over the same period in 2007. The figure includes increases of 5.6 percent on the Green Line, which is considered light rail and is measured separately, 4.8 percent on buses, and 1 percent on the commuter rail.

Virginia Miller, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based American Public Transportation Association, said transit officials have long known that when gas prices hit $3, it signals a "price point" in the minds of many consumers. AAA of Southern New England said gas prices yesterday hit an average of $3.56 for a gallon of self-serve unleaded in Massachusetts, up 51 cents since the start of the year.

"They say, 'I can't afford that anymore,' and they start looking for other options," Miller said. "Now, we're way beyond $3 - $3.50, $3.75, $4 in some places - so there's a whole other level of people who are going, 'Whoa. This is just too much money, and I'm going to look into taking a bus or train."

MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas credited the increase in part to trains, buses, and subway cars that he said are faster, cleaner, and safer than in past years. But he acknowledged the surge also is coming from riders who have been driven by "scary" gas prices to "dump the pump."

"Absolutely, no question, we are seeing gas prices drive up the ridership numbers here in Boston and in transit agencies across the nation," Grabauskas said at a press conference yesterday at Ruggles T station in Roxbury.

The Orange, Red, and Blue lines have seen the biggest increases: 9.5 percent in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year.

Los Angeles and Washington, by contrast, have seen about 5 percent more subway riders during the period, while Philadelphia has seen about 4 percent more. New York has seen 7 percent more subway riders in the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year. Its March figures were not available yesterday.

The MBTA may be outpacing other systems because Boston has a higher share of its jobs in its downtown than other cities, said David Luberoff, executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard.

"It's the benefit of having an economically vital downtown and having some [nearby] places served by transit," Luberoff said. "It's the folks who are living relatively close-in who have some access to the subway."

The MBTA, of course, is itself suffering the effects of higher gas prices and will have to pay $16 million more this year to run its transit system, Grabauskas said. The increase will eat away at least some of the increased revenue from the boost in riders, he said.

The system appears to be benefiting from small shifts in people's commuting habits. For years, Mike Avery, who commutes twice a week from South Attleboro to downtown Boston, took the train one day and drove the other day. Now, he takes the train both days.

"You factor in parking, frustration, and gas prices, it's the better way to go," he said yesterday, as he waited for a train home from South Station.

He noted that he seems to have more company, too. "The train is looking more crowded these days," he said. On his 8:20 train yesterday morning, "it was standing room only," he said, "and that's usually not the case."

Geoffrey Campbell, who gives tours of historic sites around Boston Common, drives from his home in Plymouth to the Braintree MBTA station, then takes the Red Line to Park Street.

Yesterday, he said he planned to start driving to the commuter rail station in Kingston, which will save him about 40 miles of driving a day. Campbell, who was riding the Red Line in his uniform of a feathered tricorn hat and blue Revolutionary War coat, said the change made economic sense.

"People don't have the disposable income that they had to dump into the gas tank," he said.

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
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Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

To ease the passenger crunch the commuter rail trains need to stop making the three-person seats, since they're rarely occupied by three passengers, and make more standing room- which people seem to prefer.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

This is all very nice for now, but since the MBTA commuter rail system relies on diesel, and the subway electricity is fossil fuel based, fares will go up.

If we had electrified commuter rail, and renewable or nuclear power, then the MBTA would be in an excellent position.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

If there are three seats, people should sit in the three seats. No reason to reconfigure the cars.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

jass said:
This is all very nice for now, but since the MBTA commuter rail system relies on diesel, and the subway electricity is fossil fuel based, fares will go up.

If we had electrified commuter rail, and renewable or nuclear power, then the MBTA would be in an excellent position.
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True, but it's still more economical than driving. There is a much greater passenger mile/unit of power ratio in mass transit than automobiles.
I'll also assume it doesn't take much more electricity to move 100 people than it does to move 10 people. Most of the power goes towards moving the equipment itself, so the more people, the more economical.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

USS JFK as a museum in South Boston with the reactor running the city's power grid or perhaps Harbor Island wind power. New complete downtown network of trolleys and trackless trolleys, oh how one can dream.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

Ron Newman said:
If there are three seats, people should sit in the three seats. No reason to reconfigure the cars.
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I agree that people *should* just sit in these seats (I certainly do). But nobody can make them, and they just stand there clogging up the aisles and entrances and the. I see it time and time again. If people prefer standing to sitting in tightly packed seats, the MBTA should take note.
 
Re: Driven By Customer 'Service' Parte Dos

statler said:
True, but it's still more economical than driving. There is a much greater passenger mile/unit of power ratio in mass transit than automobiles.
I'll also assume it doesn't take much more electricity to move 100 people than it does to move 10 people. Most of the power goes towards moving the equipment itself, so the more people, the more economical.
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There's also the astronomical cost of converting the rail lines to electric and buying new locomotives and cars. The MBTA is in no financial position to make these sorts of investments, even if it does save them money in the long run.
 
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