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

If people just advocated for funding the T through general revenue instead of picking the pockets exclusively of non-transit users to give to transit users, they'd get a lot farther. It's when you pit one group (motorists) vs. another (transit) that you get problems. Use a small increase in the income tax for transit, you'd get a lot less objections and rabid opposition and it'd be a lot less regressive. It might not be some people here's ideal policy preference, but if it does 90% of what you want with 50% less opposition, why not?
 
What if instead of the T being a division of MassDOT it was put under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority? They already deal with boston-centric transportation AND know how to be financially self-sustaining (not saying that's what the T should be but it would be better then bleeding money).

They would almost certainty be more focused on improving the core rapid transit system, as that is more in line with their operation rather then endless commuter rail expansion (more in line with the DOT experience with roads).

Also, since they own the cruise terminal and airport I could see them being extremely interested in Silver Line improvements (conversion to light rail), as well as better blue line expansion.

In addition, they already do have some in-house experience running the shuttles and Logan Express services.

I could also see some cost savings by combining the Port Authority police with the T police.

Its not without precedent either, the NY/NJ Port Authority runs PATH, as well as the bus terminal.

Thoughts?
 
MassPort is financially self-sustaining not because they are more efficient or particularly well-run than the MBTA (they aren't), but because they have a more steady revenue stream and more control over that revenue stream.

And MassDOT doesn't run the MBTA, they just share a board of directors.

Read the D'Alessandro Report - the T is actually pretty well-run. The high wages and excessive benefits don't help, but they aren't the main source of the problem. They're just revenue-starved.
 
Speaking of running the T, some information about the successor to the GM position:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/brooklin...nsit-officials-are-finalists-for-MBTA-GM-post

By Matt Murphy
StateHouse News Service
Posted Sep 17, 2012 @ 04:41 PM

Boston —
The next head of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will almost certainly be heading north from Atlanta as that city’s top two transit officials have emerged as finalists for the general manager’s job in Boston, according to Transportation Secretary Richard Davey.

The MBTA general manager screening committee plans to meet Wednesday to announce the two finalists for the general manager position. Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Davis has filled the position for the past year on an acting basis since Richard Davey became secretary of transportation.

The finalists are Beverly Scott, chief executive officer and general manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and Dwight Ferrell, deputy general manager and chief operating officer of Atlanta’s MARTA.

Scott would be the first female to lead the MBTA, while either candidate would become just the second African-American - Robert Prince Jr. was the first - to hold the top job at the MBTA.

The screening committee on Wednesday plans to schedule a meeting for the full board to interview the candidates publicly on Monday, Sept. 24, and it is expected that the board will vote the same day on an appointment, Davey said. The screening committee included Davey, MBTA Board Chairman John Jenkins, and former board member Elizabeth Levin, who was replaced last week.

Davey said the committee considered over 100 people for the job over the past year, conducting about two dozen phone interviews and interviewing three candidates in person in Boston. One of the three candidates interviewed in Boston has since withdrawn from the process.

“Either one would be terrific,” Davey said, explaining that some potential candidates declined to participate because the MBTA was making the names of finalists public for the first time.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is the ninth largest public transit system in the country with four rail lines, 132 bus lines and 38 train stations in its network. The agency is one of the largest employers in the Atlanta region with 4,500 employees servicing nearly 500,000 daily passenger trips throughout the greater Atlanta metro area, including service to Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport.

The T is the fifth largest public transit agency in the country. Initially formed in 1971 as a bus system, MARTA is not nearly as old as the T, but its system is also beginning to show the effects of age and the infrastructure needs that come with that, Davey said. “It’s not as big but it’s close. It has bus and subway and some of the same financial challenges that the T does,” Davey said.

Scott was appointed to the head MARTA in 2007, becoming the first female to hold the position. She has also worked in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York and the Sacramento and Rhode Island transit agencies.

Scott informed the MARTA board in Atlanta last year that she would not seek to renew her contract, which led to an announcement last Friday from the MARTA board that it had selected two finalists to replace her, neither of whom were Ferrell, who has worked as Scott’s deputy since April 2008.

Ferrell, according to his resume, is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of Atlanta’s transit system, as well as developing, implementing and evaluating the systems long- and short-term policies.

The MARTA system includes 600 buses, 175 paratransit vans, 318 rail cars and 47 miles of track. Ferrell’s previous public transit experience includes positions in New Orleans, Philadelphia and Austin, Texas.

The new general manager will inherit a debt-laden transit system that raised fares and trimmed some services in July despite a one-time $49 million bailout approved by the Legislature. The Patrick-Murray administration is in the midst of preparing a long-term transportation financing plan due in early January and likely to include new revenue options to support existing infrastructure, as well as an extension of the MBTA’s Green Line into Medford.
Click to expand...
 
massmotorist said:
If people just advocated for funding the T through general revenue instead of picking the pockets exclusively of non-transit users to give to transit users, they'd get a lot farther.
Click to expand...

That's what the sales tax allotment is.

The flip side is that automobile related tax revenues should be going into the general fund too.

And the increase in the fuel excise tax isn't about funding the T, it's about bringing it into line with inflation since the mid-90s.
 
Wait, wait wait....

Were importing someone from ATLANTA to run the MBTA?

That about wraps it up for mass transit in the state.
 
You know things are bad when we're looking at someone who's coming from a system with a quarter of the ridership of the MBTA. In a dream world we could bring over a whole team from France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan or Korea to overhaul the entire thing.
 
Atlanta's MARTA is very pleasant, efficient, and user-friendly compared to the T.

Assuming they can transform the T into a 30 year old system with just 3 types of rolling stock, docile unions, sufficient funding, and low debt, we should be in great shape.
 
massmotorist said:
If people just advocated for funding the T through general revenue instead of picking the pockets exclusively of non-transit users to give to transit users, they'd get a lot farther. It's when you pit one group (motorists) vs. another (transit) that you get problems.
Click to expand...

I agree, so give me back all the tax dollars I paid that went to oil subsidies.
 
massmotorist said:
Atlanta's MARTA is very pleasant, efficient, and user-friendly compared to the T.

Assuming they can transform the T into a 30 year old system with just 3 types of rolling stock, docile unions, sufficient funding, and low debt, we should be in great shape.
Click to expand...

Kind of a random complaint but one thing I can't stand about MARTA is the smell of the trains. Probably has something to do with the heat and humidity. I worked there for a summer and every train smelled like urine/b.o. WAY worse than anything I've experienced on the T.
 
jass said:
Wait, wait wait....

Were importing someone from ATLANTA to run the MBTA?

That about wraps it up for mass transit in the state.
Click to expand...

Well...we send our ex-GM's to Honolulu to run the transit system that doesn't exist yet. :rolleyes:


MARTA's a very big and well-run system. 9th largest by ridership in the U.S. 4 lines/48 miles of heavy rail all constructed inside of the lifespan of our Orange Line cars. Don't let Deep South stigma or Metro Atlanta's 20th century sprawl issues poison that view. They've been aggressively expanding and have over the last 35 years had a significantly higher "conversion rate" of getting proposed rail lines actually built and operating than nearly every other transit system in the country. They just broke ground this spring on construction of their brand new streetcar line.

I don't really expect anything revolutionary out of the hire...the T's just not able to help itself enough internally as long as it's structurally crippled and left for dead by the Legislature.
 
Well, here we go: The "adult conversation" on transportation finance is about to begin...
http://transportation.blog.state.ma...ot-statewide-transportation-conversation.html

"MassDOT Statewide Transportation Conversation

MassDOT will kick off a series of statewide public meetings next week, engaging with residents, community leaders and business owners to discuss the future of transportation in the Commonwealth.

Legislation passed in August requires the Department to host at least six public meetings in advance of developing a long-term financing plan for the state’s transportation system next year. To ensure that all regions of the Commonwealth are represented, MassDOT will hold 15 meetings.

“Every person in the Commonwealth has a stake in our transportation system,” said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey. “Whether someone drives, walks, takes public transit or rides their bike, there is rarely a day that goes by that they don’t interact with the system. These statewide discussions are intended to allow the users of our system to share their ideas, thoughts and proposals for improving and paying for our transportation network for many years to come.”

Representatives from each division of MassDOT – RMV, Highway, Aeronautics and MBTA/Rail and Transit – will be available to answer questions and provide information."

See the list of meetings on the blog.
 
massmotorist said:
Read the D'Alessandro Report - the T is actually pretty well-run. The high wages and excessive benefits don't help, but they aren't the main source of the problem. They're just revenue-starved.
Click to expand...

The MBTA gambled a lot of money on Wall Street and lost... The MBTA needs a Federal bailout to pay off the debt that it owes to several Wall Street banks.

http://massuniting.org/2012/06/07/mass-transit-riders-pay-for-wall-street-windfall/

http://mikethemadbiologist.com/2012...our-mbta-fare-the-interest-rate-swap-edition/

http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-...t-transportation-projects-reorganization-plan
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
Kind of a random complaint but one thing I can't stand about MARTA is the smell of the trains. Probably has something to do with the heat and humidity. I worked there for a summer and every train smelled like urine/b.o. WAY worse than anything I've experienced on the T.
Click to expand...

Which line? I notice Orange Line smells more than RL, BL, and GL. The other thing you may smell is Ozone, created naturally by sparks off the third rail reacting with the air.
 
Found this reading the Herald today:

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061163687&srvc=news&position=recent

The T’s automated fare collection system known as Charlie Card was supposed to eliminate any accounting black holes, but faulty, high-tech software has instead led to a $100 million misreporting of cash receipts, according to an alarming state auditor’s report that also found missing keys to vaults and suggested revenue theft is a serious risk.

“The MBTA embarked on this automation in order to improve the accuracy and security of fare collection and reporting. After many years and tens of millions of dollars, we still don’t have technology that can deliver on those promises,” said state Auditor Suzanne Bump. She added that while her office found no evidence of any crimes, “those failures cause us to say that we cannot assure the public that theft has not occurred.”
Click to expand...

There's more to the article. If I'm reading it right then it appears somewhere we lost about $100 million in revenue.
 
They seem pretty confident that the error is the other way and the software is over-reporting revenue. From the same article:

One of the key findings of the audit is that the software that collects revenue figures at the fare boxes on buses and trolleys is sending erroneous data to the central accounting system.
Click to expand...

But the point remains that we don't know for sure, which is a serious problem
 
I took a quick look at a few pages in this thread, and noticed a remarkable absence. That would be the word Democrat. Democrats rule this state with an iron fist, and have for decades. Any institutional problem you see starts and ends with Democrats on Beacon Hill. The problem isn't 'politics' or 'Beacon Hill,' its' the Dems who run the state, and consciously chose to make things the way they are.

Unlike in Washington, you can't blame the last Republican administration. Dems have controlled the state for longer than most of you have been alive.
 
Are you claiming that what this state needs is a few more Mitt Romneys?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top