MBTA Winter 2015: Failure and Recovery

[underground]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I've spent my entire adult life dealing with design of instrumentation, experiments and processing tools, used to collect data and analyze it, in an attempt to understand complex systems of many types

So you really have no excuse for consistently being so incredibly wrong.

 

[TheRifleman]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm sure the taxpayers will be responsible for her 250,000 dollar pension

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm sure the taxpayers will be responsible for her 250,000 dollar pension

Let's look at her contract and see what the terms of her pension are given early release from contract before we make allegations like that...

 

[Jahvon09]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm sure the taxpayers will be responsible for her 250,000 dollar pension

Has she even been there long enough to get a pension that big?

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Andy Hiller nails it:

Beverly Scott's surprise resignation as head of the MBTA is bad news for Governor Charlie Baker.

Because before she resigned, Gov. Baker could use her as shield--putting the blame for the state's train troubles on the MBTA--and, by extension, on her.

But now, the trains are still slow or stopped--and Beverly Scott is officially gone--so the blame game moves from the "T" to the State House.

That puts the target on Baker, and as Scott said yesterday, there's no one anywhere on earth--or anywhere else--the governor can find miraculously turn the T around:

"I'm out--get what you need or what you want," Scott said, "but what you've got to do- is that you have to give that person whoever they are- God, Jr. or whomever- give them the resources that they need and that means there has to be significant investment and reinvestment in the system."

Thanks to her feisty personality, Beverly Scott will be remembered as a passionate defender of the T, and its need for money.

Still to come: how Governor Baker will be remembered.

http://www.whdh.com/story/28086730/hiller-instinct-beverly-scotts-surprise-resignation

 

[cburns]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Would there be a way to bring new Red and Orange Line cars in ahead of 2019? If/Could the Legislature pass emergency legislation to amend where the cars could be sourced from?

Basically, I'm wondering if we could shave off a few years if CNR built these in existing facilities. I'm all for "made in Massachusetts," but at what cost? Hundreds of thousands of people are being further inconvenienced at the expense of a few hundred temporary jobs in Springfield.

 

[KentXie]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Would there be a way to bring new Red and Orange Line cars in ahead of 2019? If/Could the Legislature pass emergency legislation to amend where the cars could be sourced from?

Basically, I'm wondering if we could shave off a few years if CNR built these in existing facilities. I'm all for "made in Massachusetts," but at what cost? Hundreds of thousands of people are being further inconvenienced at the expense of a few hundred temporary jobs in Springfield.

Doubt it. Bombardier and Hyundai Rotem have filed a lawsuit over the bidding process so if anything, any new cars would be delayed.

 

[kevtron2000]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Even if the pensions are extremely overpaid (Ex: Scott), cutting the waste still wouldn't even provide the necessary allocations of money of billions+ dollars to buy new tracks, trains, utilities, increase service hours, pay the workers' wages, connect North/Soth Station, build the Somerville Expansion faster, Blue Line Expansion, Commuter Rail expansions, etc. Of course, we should always find ways to cut spending, but Baker wants 40 million dollars in cuts without addressing any possible ways to make the T more effective to increase ridership.

To put the expansion money in perspective:
The Green Line Expansion into Somerville cost us over 2 billion dollars. 1 billion is subsidized from the Federal Government, I believe. Intially, it is a cost/benefit loss, but long term is a good for public transit.

 

[kevtron2000]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Andy Hiller nails it:



http://www.whdh.com/story/28086730/hiller-instinct-beverly-scotts-surprise-resignation

We know that Baker or Coakley (if she was our governor) has no control over how much revenues and budgeting, so how is he the blame? He can only run the adminstration from the budget sent to him from the legislative branch. We have a supermajority in our State House of Democrats, who can easily place the neccessary funds for the MBTA and send it to Baker for his signature.

Are State House Democrats unwilling to raise gas taxes + increase spendings because it would led to a competitor in his or her next election from a Republican Party or United Independent Party in areas that are not left-leaning?

or...

Are they unwilling to do so because it would make Baker look good on the MBTA because he will sign the bill into law?

 

[BostonObserver]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Realistically, he probably has one of his toadies already lined up and ready to go. Look forward to some toll company exec stepping into the role.

In what universe can Secretary Pollack be described as one of Baker's toadies?

 

[BostonObserver]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Let's not forget Scott will be on the job for several more months. She also was retired or ready to retire when Deval Patrick brought her to the T, i'm sure this job will be easy to leave. I like her public persona but don't know enough about how well she did her job - just like everybody else on this board. She wasn't in the job long enough to deserve the blame. After 8 years as governor Deval Patrick has to shoulder a big chunk of the blame - see today's article on the repair tracking program. http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/02/mbta_stopped_reporting_repair_needs

I'm actually kind of happy things are this bad. Maybe now we can have some real changes.

 

[FK4]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Let's not forget Scott will be on the job for several more months. She also was retired or ready to retire when Deval Patrick brought her to the T, i'm sure this job will be easy to leave. I like her public persona but don't know enough about how well she did her job - just like everybody else on this board. She wasn't in the job long enough to deserve the blame. After 8 years as governor Deval Patrick has to shoulder a big chunk of the blame - see today's article on the repair tracking program.

Way too much partisan stuff on this board. Why is everyone champing at the bit for Baker to fail? First off, Patrick didn't didn't do a whole hell of a lot of great stuff - he was alright as far as I'm concerned - I voted for him, anyway, but not with a ton of confidence... but we have yet to see what Baker will do, so what's up with all this schadenfreude?

BostonObserver, I somewhat agree - Patrick definitely deserves more blame than he is going to get because the local, biased media will shield him. Now, certainly it is also worth noting that he does not make the budget and is beholden to the legislature who makes the budget, and we all know (or should) that the legislature is the worst of all political entities in this state. And I will give him credit for his going against the legislature, particularly on transit policy - but only a little bit of credit, because his opposition to the legislature was more tepid than I would have liked, and because he rarely said anything about the T's real maintenance issues. For the most part, Patrick blabbed on about South Coast Rail and even rail to the Berkshires which is truly an asinine waste of money. So he actually does bear a fair bit of responsibility for promoting foolish and wasteful expansion projects and not using the bully pulpit enough to draw public attention to the real core issues facing the T.

Andy Hiller nails it:



http://www.whdh.com/story/28086730/hiller-instinct-beverly-scotts-surprise-resignation

Data, we usually agree, but I don't see this article as very helpful - it's pseudo-journalism by someone who quite clearly is just bitter that a Republican is in the State House. The only reason I can see to be happy that attention turns to the governor is that it will hopefully force him to try to fx the T in a meaningful way. But the wrath should be directed at the legislature first, governor second, and politics should have nothing to do with it.

 

[underground]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Why is everyone champing at the bit for Baker to fail?

Who exactly is chomping at the bit for Baker to fail? We're discussing one instance in the last few weeks that was a demonstrable mistake on his end, and your conflating that with a total straw man. Pointing out a clear mistake, and hoping Baker ultimately succeeds are not mutually exclusive.

And not to nitpick, but I'm going to nitpick:

Now, certainly it is also worth noting that he does not make the budget and is beholden to the legislature who makes the budget,

The chief executive (in this instance, the Governor) proposes the budget. The legislature then approves or doesn't approve. Of course, Baker hasn't had the chance to propose a budget at this point - he's just made spending decisions based on the budget that's already in place - so I think the crux of your argument is still correct that this budget issue isn't his fault (discounting his role in the Big Dig).

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Data, we usually agree, but I don't see this article as very helpful - it's pseudo-journalism by someone who quite clearly is just bitter that a Republican is in the State House. The only reason I can see to be happy that attention turns to the governor is that it will hopefully force him to try to fx the T in a meaningful way. But the wrath should be directed at the legislature first, governor second, and politics should have nothing to do with it.

Hiller is a pretty equal opportunity hound of state politicians. Definitely not a cheerleader for Baker's failure or a holder of sour grapes for Coakley losing.

It's a political analysis article. Hiller isn't saying that Baker should be blamed for it, he's saying that Baker will be the official with the bull's eye on him now that he can't use Scott as a foil. That could well be incorrect analysis, but he's not assigning blame to Baker at all.

As a general aside. Assigning blame to anyone at this point is a pointless pissing match. Obviously the situation isn't Scott's fault. But it's just as asinine to pin the woes on Baker. Even if he was responsible for foisting a chunk of Big Dig debt onto the MBTA, that is also not the root of the problem. It's a problem, and was a mistake, but it's not like Baker is the guy who personally crippled the T. Generally the blame belongs to all of us, through our votes, and more directly to our legislators. The broken MBTA is a product of a general failure of governance from the General Court, several Governors, citizen referendums, and the MBTA's administrative policies over the last 25 years. There's plenty of blame to go around, and getting into a pissing match over who's more to blame is a waste of time. Just accept that it's broken because we broke it, collectively, as a Commonwealth. Once we move beyond the past and just accept that it is what it is, we'll be in a better position to look forward on how to mend it, rather than backward at who we are pissed at.

 

[Arlington]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

It's a political analysis article. Hiller isn't saying that Baker should be blamed for it, he's saying that Baker will be the official with the bull's eye on him now that he can't use Scott as a foil. That could well be incorrect analysis, but he's not assigning blame to Baker at all

That's how I read it. The reality is that with veto-proof majorities on Beacon Hill, the General Court is the one true source and solution of the T's problems.

The House and Senate leadership get what they want if they can just hold a majority together (which has been something of a problem with the T since every legislator outside the T's district is pretty clear that it is a political winner to not give the T anything).

Sadly, CR expansion, while bad on a riders-per-dollar basis, was a political winner because it gave ever-more legislators a stake in the T...but really only the T's CR operations, and the core & transit still suffered (except getting new rolling stock built at pop-up foreign-owned factories in state)

The real political winners in Bev Scott's resignation are Beacon Hill legislators who get to split the blame between Scott, as departing scapegoat, and Baker as the guy left exposed by her departure.

Either way, they don't have to admit that they were complicit in any of Deval's failures (all of the last 8 years have been pinned on Bev Scott now), and can continue to put up the Governor as the fall guy.

Rich Davey also gets off Scott free (pun intended).

It was better for the T politically to have a Democrat as governor if only because the legislature was slightly more likely to own the T's problems rather than see it pinned on a member of their own party.

All Baker can do at this point is come up with very clear data and a very clear plan that is so obviously appealing that no legislator can be seen voting against it. Given the $ and geography that's really really hard. Still, I hope that Baker as a "fixer" is better than Deval or Coakley (both attorneys).

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Hiller is a pretty equal opportunity hound of state politicians. Definitely not a cheerleader for Baker's failure or a holder of sour grapes for Coakley losing.

It's a political analysis article. Hiller isn't saying that Baker should be blamed for it, he's saying that Baker will be the official with the bull's eye on him now that he can't use Scott as a foil. That could well be incorrect analysis, but he's not assigning blame to Baker at all.

As a general aside. Assigning blame to anyone at this point is a pointless pissing match. Obviously the situation isn't Scott's fault. But it's just as asinine to pin the woes on Baker. Even if he was responsible for foisting a chunk of Big Dig debt onto the MBTA, that is also not the root of the problem. It's a problem, and was a mistake, but it's not like Baker is the guy who personally crippled the T. Generally the blame belongs to all of us, through our votes, and more directly to our legislators. The broken MBTA is a product of a general failure of governance from the General Court, several Governors, citizen referendums, and the MBTA's administrative policies over the last 25 years. There's plenty of blame to go around, and getting into a pissing match over who's more to blame is a waste of time. Just accept that it's broken because we broke it, collectively, as a Commonwealth. Once we move beyond the past and just accept that it is what it is, we'll be in a better position to look forward on how to mend it, rather than backward at who we are pissed at.

Completely agreed.

If anything, I've found Andy Hiller to be slightly skewed more conservatively, but he typically does a nice job maintaining an objective opinion on his criticisms of Beacon Hill.

 

[Equilibria]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

That's how I read it. The reality is that with veto-proof majorities on Beacon Hill, the General Court is the one true source and solution of the T's problems.

I know you don't mean this as absolutely as it sounds out of context, but placing the blame for this on the General Court misses the point of democracy. Elected officials represent their constituents, and a veto-proof majority for one party doesn't mean in MA what it means in the US Congress. State legislators are elected by their immediate neighbors and have similar views. There's no evidence that serious corruption, corporate special interests, or malfeasance have produced this situation, so pinning it on government is, frankly, unfair.

The MBTA is broken because the people of Massachusetts don't want to pay for it. Blaming Deval Patrick, the guy who created MassDOT, reformed transportation statewide, and spent a great deal of his political capital pushing a transportation spending package unprecedented in its size, is revisionist history. Citizens outside of the MBTA's service area don't think their tax dollars should be spent in Boston, and the people who use the system think (catastrophically) that it can continue to function at $2.25 per ride.

I actually doubt that Beverly Scott was fired or pressured to leave - I think she just had a crappy week at work when she wasn't planning on sticking around long-term anyway and maybe lost faith in some of the people above and below her. Blaming Charlie Baker isn't going to be helpful, since the solution will have to come from him. The people we need to start blaming are ourselves and our neighbors, who stiff this agency every time we ride it.

 

[djimpact1]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

...so I think the crux of your argument is still correct that this budget issue isn't his fault (discounting his role in the Big Dig).

Why, throughout all of this, hasn't his Big Dig financial role been highlighted? Did he not oversee a shift of at least $1.8 billion of the (then) $14 billion+ debt over to the MBTA?

Wouldn't that be a big catalyst (though not the sole one) for the next 20 years of what has now become a financial cluster****, contributing to ever-increasing financial mismanagement?

The "financial instability" ball might've already been rolling 20 years ago, but Baker's overseeing of debt reshuffling to the T certainly gave a big momentum push to said ball.

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Coincidentally an ice storm happened in Atlanta during her time there:
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/...nounces-resignation-after-boston-snow-storms/

Note: I suspect this article's purpose is naively slanted toward blaming her, but the article actually proves how much she cares about transportation. She's merely guilty of choosing to run underfunded systems destined to fail. This isn't an Atlanta problem. This isn't a Boston problem. This is an American problem.

 

[HalcyonEra]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Let's not forget Scott will be on the job for several more months. She also was retired or ready to retire when Deval Patrick brought her to the T, i'm sure this job will be easy to leave. I like her public persona but don't know enough about how well she did her job - just like everybody else on this board. She wasn't in the job long enough to deserve the blame. After 8 years as governor Deval Patrick has to shoulder a big chunk of the blame - see today's article on the repair tracking program. http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/02/mbta_stopped_reporting_repair_needs

I'm actually kind of happy things are this bad. Maybe now we can have some real changes.

Mini-Me Deval bloated this state with high paying hack jobs that are going to drain us for years to come. As far as I am concerned, when the heat got turned up on her, she bailed out as fast as she could. She didn't say anything that every one didn't already know. She is a coward, nothing more. When you deal with old crap, you figure out a way to make it work, that's how real life/work is done. She didn't want to do that. Good riddance.

Anyone who thinks the rest of the Commonwealth is going is subsidize the T anymore than it already does after the Big Dig fiasco is going to be solely disappointed.