MBTA Winter 2015: Failure and Recovery

Arlington said:
Also part of what's wrong with the GLX is its Taj Mahal headhouses, much of which (maybe $200m...10% of the project) is upsizing/sheltering to feed/funnel/protect the faregates...sheesh)
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Only in Boston could these be considered "Taj Mahal" headhouses. :D
 
datadyne007 said:
"To our passengers, we know this has been an incredibly frustrating time. You have endured cancelled or delayed trains, information snafus, and mechanical issues like doors that don't open," he said. "We know you've waited on cold platforms and been late to work or had a difficult time getting home at night. We know we haven't performed up to the high standards you have a right to demand
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Ah yes, the very high standards such as basic communication and working trains. We really do ask a lot from you, Keolis!
 
FenwayResident said:
Ah yes, the very high standards such as basic communication and working trains. We really do ask a lot from you, Keolis!
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This was the sentiment on Reddit too.

Anywho,

Jim Aloisi will be live on WBUR radio at 9.

Synopsis:
http://linkis.com/radioopensource.org/ebKWG

Listen:
http://www.wbur.org/

Gridlocked
This week we’re talking about roads, rails and powerlines — and the lives we live with them. Our Boston staff and radio listeners are mostly hearty New Englanders, but this winter of discontent has exposed all kinds of shortcomings in the underpinnings of our great city.

The roads are a mess, and the MBTA won’t be up and running fully until one month after the last snow. We spoke to commuters on the Charles/MGH platform whose fingers are cold and nerves are shot — and they told us that the T had been mismanaged, the governor needed to step in, and that (finally) we all had to take responsibility for building a tougher, better transit system.

Meanwhile, Fred Salvucci and Gov. Michael Dukakis remind us that our hometown’s got a proud tradition of public transporation: from streetcars and smooth-roads legislation to the Tremont Street Subway, the oldest in North America. Boston is a pre-car city wondering how to become a post-car city — in time for the Olympics, if we’re lucky!

But we’re seeing here, as everywhere, how the big American building craze has gotten complicated. As infrastructure improvements shrink in the budgets and the keystone projects of the last century show their age: subways flood, bridges crumble, and highways fall apart. We’re not quite boosters for our own Olympics bid yet — but it would make for a real opportunity to futurize our 400-year-old hometown. And opportunities like that are hard to come by in an moment of debt, climate change and patching up potholes.

How did it get this way? How do we break a cycle of disappointment and decay? And if the state of American infrastructure is an index for the state of American civic life, what does it say when the train breaks down? Let us know in the comments, or leave us a message at (617) 353-0692.

Guest List

Jim Aloisi
former state secretary of transportation, columnist for Commonwealth magazine, in the private-engineering sector at AECOM's emerging tech group, and author of The Vidal Lecture.

Ryan C. C. Chin
managing director of the City Science Initiative at the MIT Media Lab.

Fred Salvucci
civil engineer and lecturer at MIT's department of civil & environmental engineering.

John Stilgoe
flâneur, professor in the history of landscape at the Visual and Environmental Studies Department of Harvard University, and author of the forthcoming book, Landscape and Images.
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^ I'm listening to it. Aloisi's first bit was good; briefly hit a lot of his Commonwealth Magazine points. Salvucci killed it on the economic argument for expansion and maintenance. Conversation's ongoing...
 
Forgive the pun, but this winter has been a "perfect storm" for the MBTA in every sense. I am sure specific mistakes were made by specific people, but I also feel for the folks who are being tarred and feathered because they happened to be in a position of power at the precise moment when all the chickens came home to roost. Some of the last month's failures have been literally decades in the making (with the rest being unavoidable in almost any transit system faced with this much snow). A problem this comprehensive requires an equally comprehensive fix. That includes fixing the state government's inability to properly oversee and fairly fund the MBTA.
 
What did John Stilgoe contribute? What a nut. "One child policy" for America? WTF does that have to do with anything?
 
Didn't I tell y'all that Charlie Baker would be selecting the next person to run the MBTA?
 
Matthew said:
What did John Stilgoe contribute? What a nut. "One child policy" for America? WTF does that have to do with anything?
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Yeah, he kinda went off on wild tangents. I could see what he was aiming for -- I didn't see him as advocating for the ideas he was talking about. He was reporting changes he's seen in his students' thinking as influenced by Chinese students who are critical of the American system. In Stilgoe's mind, young Americans are mentally prepared to begin abandoning social welfare and democracy in favor of an authoritarian, superficially efficient east Asian model. Stilgoe himself said he thinks the thoughts are absurd, but that it's what he's hearing from Harvard students.

Also, you could tell that Open Source had an editorial agenda that was pushing the "ascendent Asian efficiency vs struggling American democracy" angle. Both Stilgoe and Chin were hammering that, albeit in different ways.

Jahvon09 said:
Didn't I tell y'all that Charlie Baker would be selecting the next person to run the MBTA?
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Who? DePaola? Not sure what your point is... no reporting has indicated he was handpicked by Baker, and he's probably the best interim they could have chosen.
 
I posted this a while back - post# 302 page 16.


"I wonder just who will Baker hire to replace her. She leaves on April 11th."
 
Jahvon09 said:
I posted this a while back - post# 302 page 16.


"I wonder just who will Baker hire to replace her. She leaves on April 11th."
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Appointing an Interim GM is not the same as naming a replacement.

Also, wondering who the Governor will pick ≠ you telling us that the Governor will pick the next person.
 
Then why did the info come from HIM and no one else first?
 
aaaaaa said:
Head of the commission to review the MBTA, Paul Barret just resigned. Off to a start that would make a disabled red line train proud.
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He owes nearly $200,000 in federal taxes. I wonder if he'll ever come back from Jamaica. -.-
 
aaaaaa said:
It's a different guy. That would have been too perfect.
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I think that's the right one:

BostonGlobe said:
Paul L. Barrett, who was Governor Charlie Baker’s point man to lead a high-profile review of the beleaguered MBTA, abruptly resigned Friday after the Globe raised questions about the adviser’s personal financial troubles, including unpaid federal income taxes of nearly $200,000.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/27/baker-point-man-mbta-review-resigns-amid-questions-about-his-finances/gVlrJwSNXaxtwdqC89hanJ/story.html?s_campaign=email_BG_TodaysHeadline
 
aaaaaa said:
It's a different guy. That would have been too perfect.
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It's actually the same guy:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...s-finances/gVlrJwSNXaxtwdqC89hanJ/story.html#

Despite Baker’s sense of urgency, Barrett went on a long-planned trip to Jamaica right after he was named to lead the review.
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...ief-jamaica/UrFyc8pxS8o4bl9MX7dMyL/story.html

He was also a former head of the BRA. That should explain EVERYTHING.

So, yes, this IS too perfect. It's Boston politics at its finest.
 
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So, some former BRA directors do very well when they cross the aisle from regulating development to doing it (Tom O'Brien w/ Congress St. Garage project), other former BRA directors, such as this gentleman, do quite badly. And I'm sure there's a vast midsection of former BRA directors who are merely mediocre at it.

Life just following the standard Bell curve distribution, eh?
 
Honestly, When can there be good things to talk about for MBTA's future from Baker?

This resignation doesn't look good....
 
While he was the chair of the ad hoc committee, he really was one of the lesser qualified people to be on it... hopefully this only effects the committee's work as a negative public relations hit...
 
Am I missing something, or did Baker only appoint one person with public transit management experience at all? That being Katherine Lapp.
 
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