MBTA Winter 2015: Failure and Recovery

[datadyne007]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

[Original quote stated that MBTA payroll increased 17% last year over previous year.] Are you saying this is a concocted fact? Just because the Herald is a conservative tabloid doesnt make this fact (which may or may not be true; I havent looked into the real details) untrue....

It's a true fact, but it plays into the narrative that the Herald is trying to build blaming this all on Beverly and the T. In the end it does us a disservice because it only riles up the base against funding the MBTA. Sorry they hired maintenance people (to service our f'ing pitiful aged fleet), some new drivers and the unions negotiated successfully.

 

[underground]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Underground acts like it matters not that somebody's going to have to pay for these goodies

I never even remotely implied that.

 

[CSTH]

Re: MBTA & Regular Driving May Be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Some of those melters must add pressure, right? I'm no engineer and have no knowledge of the actual equipment, but out of pure speculative curiosity - wouldn't there be some efficiency gain from throwing a hydraulic ram into the melt box too?

 

[kevtron2000]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

It's a true fact, but it plays into the narrative that the Herald is trying to build blaming this all on Beverly and the T. In the end it does us a disservice because it only riles up the base against funding the MBTA. Sorry they hired maintenance people (to service our f'ing pitiful aged fleet), some new drivers and the unions negotiated successfully.

it pretty much explains the rhetoric used to derail any attempt to raise the gas tax, increase taxes to fund the system, etc. Of course, we should cut waste and big pensions, but those millions of dollars in cuts don't come close to the billions of dollars in infrastructure repairs.

 

[datadyne007]

Re: MBTA & Regular Driving May Be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Trecan's explanation & diagrams:
http://www.trecan.ca/en/principles_of_operation.php

And from the FAQ:
11. What are the energy costs of the unit in gallons per hour?

Typically, one ton of snow requires 1.5 US gallon of diesel (heat energy) to melt. This will vary depending on snow density, types of contaminants, air temperature, elevation and to some extent on the capacity and configuration of snowmelter (the larger the capacity, the more chance the water leaving contains slush - therefore less energy is used to melt.

 

[FK4]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

it would be nice to have a state level leader stand up and loudly pronounce the mbta the clear victim of both underfunding and political graft and ineffeciency. Unfortunately no moderate is listened to and anyone with a voice just fans flames on one side or the other...

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

The MBTA was also, by some measures, the fasting growing transit system (expensive, underused, sprawly Commuter Rail), thanks to Dukakis-Salvucci-Weld-Foy deals.

Issuing debt to fund long term growth and repaid from taxes on the people who experience the long-term benefits is exactly what progressive governments with good credit ratings should do. Problem is, we spent too much and got to few new MBTA believers (e.g. the underused Greenbush line).

Too much rail was thrown into places with too few riders in the marginally successful attempt to build wider political support. Those (South Shore) votes were bought at too high a price. That's a Dukakis-Salvucci-Weld-Foy problem. Romney's role was to reshuffle. Patrick's role was to spend *8 years* trying to put together a fix, not because of anything particularly "Romney" but because of the state's political geography and suburban anti-tax voters.

It is only considered "too much" debt because the dedicated funding was over-estimated and there (understandably) isn't a statewide desire to "bail out" what mostly benefited one region (the MBTA district).

This. The state was in a crunch. Politically, the easiest and cheaper option to expand service was to go heavy on Commuter Rail extensions. It's easier to get more support from a wider base of politicos for bringing commuter trains farther afield.

But the Red Line alone serves more riders than the entire Commuter Rail system. Thing is that communities not served by the Red Line (or other RT services) don't have those issues on their radar, and aren't likely to vote to appropriate money for them without "getting" something for it. Nevermind the point that a healthy public transit system ensures that the Boston economy continues growing, and that Boston is the economic engine of the whole region, therefore they are helping out their communities by investing in a healthy metro-Boston. That's too macro for many people.

it pretty much explains the rhetoric used to derail any attempt to raise the gas tax, increase taxes to fund the system, etc. Of course, we should cut waste and big pensions, but those millions of dollars in cuts don't come close to the billions of dollars in infrastructure repairs.

Exactly. People interpret data in the way that works for their agenda. You can pick a budget apart to go after line items (like $ to study the mating habits of the Atlantic Cod) that might seem wasteful to you. You can also take a whole budget number (that 17% increase in the T's payroll) and use it as a bludgeon to show irresponsibility without looking at those line items to see what that increase is from.

The problem is (as Arlington has said) is that the T increased payroll to hire more personnel to handle increased bus service and late night service. But right now those enhancements are completely invisible due to the calamitous buckling of the T's general operations. So people are looking at those numbers with blinders.

 

[sm89]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I honestly don't think Commuter Rail is the best type of expansion. It promotes more urban sprawl. Why do we want to make it easier and faster for people who lives mile and miles away from the City to get here when people who live a mile away are stranded due to packed buses?

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Smile. It's Friday!

 

[kevtron2000]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Exactly. People interpret data in the way that works for their agenda. You can pick a budget apart to go after line items (like $ to study the mating habits of the Atlantic Cod) that might seem wasteful to you. You can also take a whole budget number (that 17% increase in the T's payroll) and use it as a bludgeon to show irresponsibility without looking at those line items to see what that increase is from.

The problem is (as Arlington has said) is that the T increased payroll to hire more personnel to handle increased bus service and late night service. But right now those enhancements are completely invisible due to the calamitous buckling of the T's general operations. So people are looking at those numbers with blinders.

Better Bus service is a start to move cars into public transit especially in a city such as Boston. Late-Night Service can allow businesses to extend the hours of operation, so the city can still be lively during the night. Somebody should have told the Herald that.....

Of course, nothing will change by the resignation of Scott and Governor Baker's attempt to fix the situation with "waste cuts". The hands are on the State Legislature.

Smile. It's Friday!

Baker's Allies: Privatize the MBTA!

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm not on the bash Baker train. To be honest, I don't see that Coakley would be saying anything different. We should look into the T's finances and see where we can streamline. The employees should expect to make some sacrifices. For a true political and practical solution to be found, any deal out of the General Court will include those sorts of things as well as revenue reforms. Baker's not the only one who doesn't want to raise revenues. DeLeo already said he's not looking at any options that include raising taxes.

Start writing your letters, tell your friends, and stay on it.

 

[HalcyonEra]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm not on the bash Baker train. To be honest, I don't see that Coakley would be saying anything different. We should look into the T's finances and see where we can streamline. The employees should expect to make some sacrifices. For a true political and practical solution to be found, any deal out of the General Court will include those sorts of things as well as revenue reforms. Baker's not the only one who doesn't want to raise revenues. DeLeo already said he's not looking at any options that include raising taxes.

Start writing your letters, tell your friends, and stay on it.

This situation begs the question - if everything is too old and is falling apart and needs to be replaced, rebuilt, etc., why are we undertaking a $2.3B expansion of which the state will pay $1.3B of it? Is it a remnant of the Big Dig?

 

[Equilibria]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm not on the bash Baker train. To be honest, I don't see that Coakley would be saying anything different. We should look into the T's finances and see where we can streamline. The employees should expect to make some sacrifices. For a true political and practical solution to be found, any deal out of the General Court will include those sorts of things as well as revenue reforms. Baker's not the only one who doesn't want to raise revenues. DeLeo already said he's not looking at any options that include raising taxes.

Start writing your letters, tell your friends, and stay on it.

Exploring how to make things more efficient is a critical process that should be ongoing at every agency all of the time. That's not what Baker has done. Claiming that you can trim the fat from "every" state agency while failing to address the very real and very serious revenue issues that so many of them face is irresponsible and naiive.

Again, I don't think Charlie Baker forced Beverly Scott out, but if his solution is going to actually work, it will need to increase revenue and decrease the real drag on the MBTA cost side: the Big Dig debt load (for which he is personally partially responsible). Any functional plan to fix this agency begins with higher taxes, higher fares, and reduced debt. Any plan that does not do all three of these things will not succeed. End of story.

 

[Matthew]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm not bashing Baker, yet, either. He's made good appointments. Let's see what happens.

This situation begs the question - if everything is too old and is falling apart and needs to be replaced, rebuilt, etc., why are we undertaking a $2.3B expansion of which the state will pay $1.3B of it? Is it a remnant of the Big Dig?

Minor nit: It doesn't "beg the question", it "raises the question." The act of "begging the question" is something else entirely.

The GLX is a Big Dig legally mandated requirement. Technically, the Big Dig is not finished until the GLX is up and operational. Also, the GLX will fix a bunch of long-standing problems with the remainder of the Green Line, such as not having a balanced set of maintenance yards at either end. They're putting in some much needed maintenance to the Lechmere Viaduct under the guise of the GLX. It will also increase service levels to [New] Lechmere by 100% and to North Station by 50%. And it should ease some of the scheduling crunch in the Central Subway. So it's not just a benefit for Somerville, it's an improvement overall. And that's not counting the 24 new cars.

I'm frustrated by the cost escalation but it's a very good project and has always been.

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

Exploring how to make things more efficient is a critical process that should be ongoing at every agency all of the time. That's not what Baker has done. Claiming that you can trim the fat from "every" state agency while failing to address the very real and very serious revenue issues that so many of them face is irresponsible and naiive.

Again, I don't think Charlie Baker forced Beverly Scott out, but if his solution is going to actually work, it will need to increase revenue and decrease the real drag on the MBTA cost side: the Big Dig debt load (for which he is personally partially responsible). Any functional plan to fix this agency begins with higher taxes, higher fares, and reduced debt. Any plan that does not do all three of these things will not succeed. End of story.

Trimming the fat from every state agency is about closing the mid-year budget gap. It's not his budget. I may well have a lot of issues with his budget if it's all cuts to services, but seeing as he hasn't generated a budget yet, I'm withholding judgement. Not going to base my assessment on his budget-gap solutions. Any governor would have done something similar.

If he keeps parroting his worse instincts I'll turn on him quickly, but if we want a strong advocate for transit and infrastructure reform that includes more revenues, we need to look for a candidate that does that. We didn't have one of those last election. Coakley supported the higher gas tax, but that's in the past. I doubt that she would have jumped on the opportunity to raise more revenues right after she got to office either. Again, it's not just Baker who is talking about no new revenue; it's the Speaker too. Our politicians are scared to talk about raising revenues, and it's honestly a fair fear to have given that the voters just repealed a revenue adjustment that was pegged to inflation.

We have a cultural problem overall. It's the famous "I want this stuff!" followed by "I won't pay for this stuff!"

We can say that politicians just aren't brave enough to fight it, but why would they? The public doesn't "get" long-term investment. Big Dig Syndrome is real. Not just for pols, but for the voting public. So many otherwise rational people in New England go off the deep end when it comes to long-term infrastructure planning.

This situation begs the question - if everything is too old and is falling apart and needs to be replaced, rebuilt, etc., why are we undertaking a $2.3B expansion of which the state will pay $1.3B of it? Is it a remnant of the Big Dig?

Assuming you're talking about South Coast Rail? I agree that question being a big one. Hopefully Baker can make that one go away.

If you mean GLX, that's a matter of lawsuits and settlements. That said, there are plenty of instances where "maintenance" and "expansion" are part and parcel. Red-Blue is both, for example.

As for the answer to the question, it's about sexy versus not sexy. Maintenance is expensive and necessary, but it's not sexy. It doesn't give politicians a shiny new thing to unveil. It just makes things work. I think it's part of the same disconnect that I mention above (and in other threads the last couple days, all conversation has been steering to our political culture lately). People don't see "see" the spending on maintenance as something they value. Maintenance inconveniences people in the short term, and they bitch and moan about it. Expansion sounds sexy. It produces something new, which makes it easier to sell to politicians and their constituents.

 

[Jahvon09]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I think that she cracked under pressure and had decided to get out now.

But she IS right when she said that the system is old, aging, ancient & antiquated. Because technically speaking, it IS the oldest public transit system in the country.

 

[HalcyonEra]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

I'm not bashing Baker, yet, either. He's made good appointments. Let's see what happens.



Minor nit: It doesn't "beg the question", it "raises the question." The act of "begging the question" is something else entirely.

The GLX is a Big Dig legally mandated requirement. Technically, the Big Dig is not finished until the GLX is up and operational. Also, the GLX will fix a bunch of long-standing problems with the remainder of the Green Line, such as not having a balanced set of maintenance yards at either end. They're putting in some much needed maintenance to the Lechmere Viaduct under the guise of the GLX. It will also increase service levels to [New] Lechmere by 100% and to North Station by 50%. And it should ease some of the scheduling crunch in the Central Subway. So it's not just a benefit for Somerville, it's an improvement overall. And that's not counting the 24 new cars.

I'm frustrated by the cost escalation but it's a very good project and has always been.

Ah, the Big Dig, the gift that keeps on giving.

I'm curious as to how it ease some of the scheduling crunch? I understand it's more spread out. Won't the 24 new cars keep the volume similar?

 

[Jahvon09]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

And giving, and giving, and giving.

There was a crash inside the Southbound tunnel that snarled traffic and backing it up for miles yesterday.

All they did was just take the traffic problems that were upstairs and put them downstairs.

 

[Equilibria]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/massachusetts_senate_reluctant.html

This is the scariest part to me:

"But Republicans said there are things lawmakers can do other than raising taxes. State Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, urged Democrats not to turn transportation into "a political football." He said Republicans have offered solutions that do not raise taxes, such as limiting expansion of the MBTA until maintenance needs are addressed."

Sen. Hedlund has (along with other Republicans, I'm sure) latched on to a comment the Governor made about this without understanding it at all what it means (frankly, I don't think the Governor does, either). Operating and capital funds do not come out of the same bucket. Large expansion projects are paid for by Federal grants as well as other means that are unavailable to address maintenance needs.

The trade-off is between large capital projects to expand service and other capital projects to address longstanding deficiencies in equipment, such as track, signals, and rolling stock. Presenting it in this disingenuous way gives the impression that the MBTA has expanded at the expense of maintenance. That's not true. The MBTA has invested at the fringe (such as, say, IN THE SENATOR'S OWN DAMN DISTRICT) instead of investing in the core, and that's what needs to be corrected.

Conservatives here are trying to obscure the fact that this. agency. does. not. have. enough. money. That's it. There is no solution to be found simply by blaming a "wasteful" agency and denying it money.

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Dr. Beverly Scott resigns

For what it's worth, here's the statement put out by State Sen. Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville) who chairs the MBTA caucus:

Many of you have written or called recently about the problems with the MBTA. You told me about how important the T is, and how we urgently need to provide adequate funding for operations and maintenance – as well as the legacy debt service that consumes four times as much each year as maintenance. I couldn’t agree more.

The silver lining to the recent crippling storms is that it demonstrates how totally reliant the economy of Boston – and of Massachusetts – is on public transit, and how foolish it would be to continue to underfund it.

I chair the MBTA Legislative Caucus with Rep. Sean Garballey. We’ll be working with colleagues in the House and Senate to find long term solutions. The transportation finance package that was passed by the legislature in 2012 was helpful but did not do nearly enough to provide the sustainable sources of revenue that the system needs. The referendum question that eliminated indexing of the gas tax reduced future revenue by $1 billion.

The finance package did allow the T to order new Orange and Red Line cars. This is very important, since many of those cars are over 40 years old – long past their predicted useful life, which helps explain their unreliability. I’m pleased that the Red Line cars will be built in Springfield, which desperately needs jobs, but it will be 8 years before they’re in service.

But we need to do more.

So what can you do? Write to Governor Baker and elected officials for your district and ask your friends in other parts of the state to do the same. It will be helpful for legislators and the new Governor to hear that this is still a top priority for MA residents.