Silver Line Backup

My commute on the P508 was fine today, we were at South Station for 8:22 a.m. However, the commute wasn't drama free. A weird thing happened on the Silver Line. There was a backup on the platform and the first bus that came through was a SL1 for Logan Airport. So a bunch of us get on the bus, then a MBTA manager starts yelling at us that "the bus is too crowded and it is only going to Logan, so anyone not going to Logan had to get off." Hardly anyone moved and then the bus stopped at the Courthouse and the World Trade Center. The whole Silver Line bus thing has been effed up lately in the morning.

Today's Boston Metro ran an interview with MASSPIRG regarding Massachusetts' transportation infrastructure. MASSPIRG, which published a study about the Bay State's transportation infrastructure back in the fall, released a press release yesterday praising Governor Deval Patrick's administration for wanting to use $233 million of a requested $783 million recovery package to repair and rehabilitate existing roads. Here's a snippet from the press release:

But Massachusetts looks the best compared to other state requests. According to the MASSPIRG report, the Executive Office of Transportation has presented a good balance of public transportation improvements, bike and pedestrian projects, money for ports and aviation, and road and highway maintenance.

“Governor Patrick and his state agencies have put forward the most comprehensive request, with more than half of the proposal dedicated to modes of transportation that encourage people to get out of their cars,” said Bourassa.

Massachusetts is also the only state requesting its entire road and highway funds for repair and maintenance, with no new roadways funded under the plan

Our roads desperately need some repairs. Commute-a-holic relayed a story yesterday about travels on the Pike between Worcester and Springfield this past Sunday. Commute has never seen potholes on the Pike as large as the ones encountered during Sunday's drive. Some of the potholes could literally swallow a car.

Yesterday's Boston.com The Green Blog ran two different yet interesting posts. One was about why there are so many announcements on MBTA trains. This was a pick-up of the Boston Metro's weekly Q&A with our favorite GM, Dan Grabauskas.

Also posted yesterday to The Green Blog, information about a new $20 per month reimbursement available to bicyclists who commute. This new program launched January 1st and it is available to bicyclists either as a cash reimbursement or a pre-tax deduction if their employer participates.

The T Desires to Play the Role of Emily Post or Miss Manners

A bit of a change with this morning's commute. I decided to take the P512 train, which departs Grafton at 7:49 a.m. I barely made it to the station on time. There were police officers all over Grafton this morning, so commuters were driving super slow. The commute was fine. We arrived to South Station at 9:05 a.m. or so, a few minutes ahead of schedule.

Commute-a-holic saw our favorite friend, MBTA GM Dan Grabauskas, being interviewed this morning on Fox 25's morning news program. Commute said that Dan provided a better workout, as he was his swarmy self on the interview. For whatever reason, Fox 25 does not provide code so bloggers can post or share video, so here is a link to the video segment with Dan's interview. You may wonder "Why was Danny G. being interviewed by Fox 25 this morning." Well, it is because the T announced a new marketing campaign - aimed at making riders more polite.

Can you believe it? The T, which is basically bankrupt, is spending money to communicate to their passengers that they need to be more polite while using the T. Good grief!! You know, Muni Manners already does this and they probably do it better. So why couldn't they just save the money and link to the Muni Manners blog off of the T's website? I am incredulous that the T is spending money on this campaign. This is utterly absurd.

Here's an idea - maybe if the T ran its services on time and actually had clean trains/buses, people wouldn't be as pent up as they are. I'm not advocating that riders have poor manners, but sometimes tempers flare because commuters are just frustrated.

It is stuff like this that causes people to want to see things like Question 1 go through.

If you don't feel like seeing Danny G. smirk in the video, you can read all about the T's latest marketing campaign in this article from today's Boston Metro.

Moving on. The Boston Globe ran an article today about the proposed Silver Line III project. Funding that project and other transit initiatives is the focus of two separate articles in today's Boston Metro. The Metro articles pick-up on the MASSPIRG report, announced over the weekend. One article is about how "Funding will decide the fate of Mass. transit," while the other focuses on "Shaping the MBTA for the 21st century." We all know that funding for mass transit and other transportation issues in Massachusetts is in dire straits. Here are some data points that the MASSPIRG report noted:

• 93,000,000 - amount of hours wasted in traffic delays in the greater Boston area during 2005.
• $4.3 billion - Massachusetts residents spent $4.3 billion more on gas in 2007 compared to 1998.
• 57% - the increase in vehicle traffic in the Commonwealth from 1980 to 2007.

SouthCoastToday.com also published an article about the MASSPIRG report.

Finally, Rep. Tom Sannicandro (D - 7th Middlesex District) wrote a guest op-ed piece for today's The MetroWest Daily News. Rep. Sannicandro details the pending purchase of the CSX tracks. His article states that this purchase will "will lower commute times and vastly improve the overall effectiveness of the Commonwealth's commuter rail program. The most dramatic and immediate changes of the plan will be enacted on Oct. 27 when the number of daily trains leaving Worcester will increase from 10 to 13, and the number of daily trains leaving from Boston to Worcester will increase from 10 to 12."

Yes, when we first heard the news that more trains were being added to the Worcester line, we were initially excited about this. But then when we saw the schedule, we noticed that essentially trains just got moved around.

From what I want and from what I've gathered from other commuters on the Worcester line, riders would like to see the following:

• More express trains from Worcester: Frankly, it would be great if trains could run express from Ashland to Boston.
• More express trains from Framingham: Commuters who live in Framingham and points East do not want to have to rely on the regular trains for their commutes into Boston.
• More train options for off-peak commutes: This includes riders who commuter from Boston and points west and more afternoon trains leaving Boston for Worcester-Framingham riders who may need to leave the office early.

I am hopeful that these changes will happen. However, I do not want to see our elected officials just rest on their laurels because they were able to purchase the tracks from CSX. Acquiring the tracks is one thing. Implementing a more vibrant train schedule is another.

Connecting the Commonwealth and the T's Expansion

From today's Sunday Boston Globe two different takes on mass transportation in Massachusetts.

In the weekly Starts & Stops column, the newest report from MASSPIRG is cited. MASSPIRG just published "Connecting the Commonwealth: Key Public Transportation Projects and Their Benefits for Massachusetts." The 53-page MASSPIRG report focuses on why more and better mass transit is needed in the Commonwealth in the 21st century. Transit enthusiasts will embrace this report, which also details how Massachusetts can expand its infrastructure to include New England metro-areas outside the state. Of course, the larger question is how to fund the recommended initiatives, especially in the current fiscal situation the state is currently facing. Not to mention the economic issues plaguing our federal government.

On a different note, the "Starts & Stops" column lead story, about emergency services on the Pike, should be read by all Pike users.

Moving on - the second T-focused piece in today's Globe was an op-ed article authored by Charles Chieppo, who was a member of the MBTA's Blue Ribbon Committee on Forward Funding. Mr. Chieppo makes the case that the state needs to ensure better oversight of the T and the Authority's expansion projects.

The bulk of the editorial focuses on the proprosed Silver Line III expansion, connecting the Silver Line that runs between downtown and Dudley Station with the portion running between South Station and Logan Airport. This project is estimated to cost $1.8 billion. The project is in place because of environmental mitigation surrounding the Big Dig, specifically the additional vehicle traffic as a result of the road improvements. The reason the Silver Line III project is so expensive is because the T would need to tunnel under densely populated urban areas. If completed, the Silver Line III will only attract 15,000 new riders a day - mainly people who are probably already just walking around the city.

Mr. Chieppo is not arguing against funding mass transit projects. Rather, he has attempted to make the case to ensure that these projects are properly funded and properly managed.

The Big Dig initially appeared to have the funding, but look at where the mismanagement got us. The State is reeling from this project, designed to "improve" traffic flow in Boston. We need to urge our state leaders to look at the larger picture and put in mass transit and transportation infrastructure projects that benefit everyone.

Editorial: Funding Mass Transit in Massachusetts

SouthCoastToday.com published an editorial today written by an advocate for MASSPIRG.

The editorial, Funding mass transit requires difficult choices, provides examples of why commuter rail service to South Coast communities (such as New Bedford and Fall River) is needed. As a voter, I do not understand why the Commonwealth pushed so hard (and for so long) to re-establish the Greenbush commuter rail line (which serves towns included Hingham and Cohasset) to an area that already had ferry and rapid transit service into Boston.

If I had been a state transportation leader, I would have established commuter rail service to Springfield and the South Coast and improved the service on the Worcester, Franklin and Fitchburg lines because that is where the population growth in Massachusetts is occurring and all of these communities are not near rapid transit lines (such as the Green Line and Orange Line trains).

The editorial calls on the Legislature to approve Governor Deval Patrick's transportation bond legislation.

This is a great statement:

When it comes to public transportation, the region's transit network must expand to keep pace with its growing needs. As growth has shifted outward, new passenger rail and other forms of public transportation provide a vital role in connecting people to their workplaces and communities. Public transit allows the clustering of people together around vital centers without choking that vitality in traffic congestion and parking hassles. Anyone lucky enough to use subway or commuter rail instead of being stuck on the roads during the first snowstorm of the season knows what I'm talking about. New England's character and quality of life will be strangled if future growth simply puts more cars on the road.

The editorial also mentioned that no plan is yet in place to balance the MBTA's massive $5.2 billion debt. A third of this debt (roughly $1.7 billion) was due to the Big Dig. Also. the Commonwealth's bipartisan Transportation Finance Commission recently found that the state faces $15 to 19 billion in a transportation funding gap over the next 20 years. That's crazy, huh?

The Transportation Finance Commission has proposed that Massachusetts remove the levy currently imposed on the state's gas tax (which has not seen an increase since 1991). If the state adds a 11.5-cent tax to gas, most Mass. drivers would only seen an additional $66 increase in their annual vehicle expenditures.

As a commuter rail rider, I would not be opposed to seeing the levy unfrozen. However, I have a feeling that my fellow citizens would be in an uproar. People are already complaining about the rising cost in gas over the past two years. An additional tax could send people over the edge.

That being said, it is imperative that the Commonwealth educate its citizens on why a functioning commuter rail service serving the entire state is important. Over time, our home property values and our business opportunities could be negatively impacted if we do not have a sound and reliable mass transportation system.

I hope this is a conversation that engages other Mass. residents in 2008.

Commuting in Massachusetts

From MassPIRG's Transportation agenda:
74% of commuters drive to work alone in Massachusetts, while only 10% take public transit.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has 15 regional transit authorities that provide public transportation to 231 cities and towns across the state. While public transportation extends across the Commonwealth, I've noticed that within Massachusetts more and more businesses seem to be moving to the suburbs. I have quite a number of friends who live in metro-Boston but work in the suburbs. They've said that commuting on the Mass Pike to the Western Suburbs (including Waltham, Framingham, Hopkinton and Westborough) has become more and more difficult. Unfortunately, most of the suburban office parks are not located near commuter rail stations. And the commuter rail schedule is far too limited to encourage "reverse" commuters.

MassPIRG also noted that the MBTA is facing a downward spiral in which the transportation authority cannot generate the revenue necessary to achieve a state of good repair. This means that the T is unable to improve the service and quality needed to retain and attract riders and increase revenue over time.

No wonder I seem to maybe make it ontime to the office 2 out of 5 days during the week (on those weeks when I am only taking the commuter rail).