Frosty Commute

Hello! Did everyone stay up to watch last night's Academy Awards telecast? I actually watched the Oscars with Commute-a-holic. Good times.

Last week was a blur. I was off on Monday for the holiday, was sick, went to work, and the was off on Friday. At least today's commute was good - the P508 rolled into South Station around 8:24 a.m., even though the train was late departing Grafton.

Somehow I missed this story reported by The BostonChannel.com on Thursday. Shocking . . . the MBTA is over budget and behind delivery on multiple construction projects, WCVB-TV Channel 5's investigative team learned. Of the 19 current projects only 3 are on time/on budget!!

I personally love how they started the report by mentioning the Kenmore Station - I curse the T every time I have to drive through Kenmore Square. What a blight!! As a professional project manager, I concur very heartily with this statement:

"There's obviously an issue with project management if they're so far behind like this," said another commuter.

Indeed, I do agree, there is an issue with the T's project managers. Are they even PMP certified?

Of course, the T "stands behind" the delayed projects. Sure - why not - it isn't like T employees have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut due to the inept deliverability cycles. Can you say unnecessary "scope creep"?

I received a nice note from Grafton Train Rider who shared some interesting feedback on Friday. Grafton Train Rider is referencing Thursday, February 19th:

I was feeling ill yesterday and a nice coworker gave me a ride back to the Grafton station last night. We noticed a Transit Police vehicle parked in the rear corner of the lot about 4:45 PM - good to see some police presence after last year's vandalism.

Some not so good news about MBTA police: I watched the I-Team report last night about the MBTA employee's scam to collect for training which he did not attend with his assigned canine dog. Fortunately, the employee resigned and may face criminal charges.

Lastly, I am pleased to report that I have accepted a volunteer position on the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee. Our first meeting is this Monday evening from 5-7 PM so I will keep you informed about developments.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their comments on last Thursday's reimbursement post. I'm glad everyone found the information to be helpful. I also found the comments helpful, so thanks for sharing.