Thursday, August 7, 2008

P504 Late

As I was watching the morning news on WCVB-TV this morning at approximately 6:35 a.m., the SmarTraveler updated noted that the P504, which departs Framingham at 6:50 a.m., was running late. While it is great that they announced the train was going to be late, I wonder how many actual train riders heard this update? I would think that most people were already either at the station or driving to the station. Does anyone know why this train was late this morning? I hope the rest of the morning trains on the Worcester-Framingham late run on time.

The SmarTraveler update also said there would be delays on the Middleborough line. Boy, this line seems to experience a lot of delays too.

Editorials about the MBTA were published in today's Telegram & Gazette and yesterday's The Boston Globe.

I must say - the media loves MBTA GM Dan Grabauskas. I just don't get the love affair? Why are they so hard on other elected officials and public leaders, but they just give Dan softballs everytime?

The T&G closed their editorial with this . . .

We are confident that Grabauskas will explore every means of balancing the MBTAbudget. The public knows Grabauskas is capable of massive reform — witness theturnaround he made when faced with a similarly intractable situation at the
Registry of Motor Vehicles. Now we want to see him take on the T.


Seriously - whatever Grabauskas did at the Registry was in the past. As the head of the T, he really hasn't done anything to blow off anyone's socks.

The Globe sent this love letter to Grabauskas - belch!


It must have been frustrating for Grabauskas to watch the Massachusetts TurnpikeAuthority get help from the Legislature in the waning hours of this session.
After all, Grabauskas didn’t get in over his head with exotic market‘‘swaptions’’ the way the Pike did. Governor Deval Patrick broached a plan to let the Pike transfer a portion of its debt to the Commonwealth, where it could pay a smaller interest rate, and the Legislature added some much-needed oversight reforms. But unlike the Pike, the T’s credit rating is actually better than the state’s.


What about "it must be frustrating for commuters who rely on the T's services to not know if their train or bus will actually show up, be functional, have their fares collected, etc., etc." And what about other Massachusetts residents who don't necessarily use the T, but support it through gas tax and other financing methods. Aren't we owed an explanation about the vapid mismanagement?

In today's Globe there is an article about the state transportation bill approved last week. Also in today's Globe, Salem residents and businesses are trying to encourage commuters to use alternative methods to commute.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The media loves Danny G. because he "reformed" the Registry of Motor Vehicles from the hack agency it was ... into the hack agency that it is!

Anonymous said...

I have no idea why the 504 was late but there was something going on. I take the 502, between Southboro and Ashland we were told the train was going to run local from Framingham because the 504 was going to Worcester to rescue the 512. This was around 6:10 - the 512 doesn't even leave Worcester until 7:35. We were told again after the Ashland stop - and oh, by the way - we would be sitting in Framingham for 20 minutes since the 504 didn't leave until 6:50. Shortly after that we were told that our train would be express.... I have no idea what was going on with the 504 but logic would say to me - the 506 arrives in Framingham at 7:09 and is already a local - why make the 502 wait 20 minutes and make it a local when there's another local right behind it?

Anonymous said...

We were supposed to take the 504 from Framingham but got an email right before we were about to leave saying it had been CANCELLED. We were psyched, because this is the first time we actually got an alert when it could do us some good.

We got to the station at 6:55 to take the 506, at 7:09am...and there was no one waiting. We thought that was really odd, since with the 6:50 train cancelled, there should have been a glut of uninformed, grumpy riders waiting.

We got on the train at 7:10am and it was pretty much empty. For some odd, odd reason our car had working wireless (first time in two months) and saw that a second email alert had arrived, at 6:52am, saying that the 504 was NO LONGER CANCELLED.

How messed up is that? If we did not subscribe to the T alerts we would have gotten to work on time today? Maybe have been in a crowded train though? How much more messed up can this "system" get?