You can also get the list of rallies, meetings, and events at this link.
The elimination of weekend commuter rail service is a major concern. That would mean many fathers would not be able to visit their children, as visitation often occurs on weekends, and many father’s cannot both pay child support and own and operate a vehicle. Similarly, the parents of children who are in residential treatment facilities and work during the week will be unable to visit them. The commuter rail is a major link that helps keep families together.
Some of the bus routes, if eliminated, would also disrupt schooling, medical care, and visitation.
People forget that Beacon Hill dumped its poor management of the Big Dig on the MBTA – and to have every dollar of fares go towards that debt is unmanageable. The incompetent stewardship by Beacon Hill (not the MBTA management who had a mess dropped on them) involved in running the MBTA into the ground deserves a big, fat “E” – a failing grade all around.
Gah. I will think I have learned how to “work” this site only to have things like this happen where posters or graphics just don’t work out the way I think they should. If anyone can fix it (someone fixed the poster for the Martin Luther King event) I would be grateful.
You hit that lead paragraph out of the park – but still, shutting down the commutter rail will really hurt parents with inter-city visitation.
You don’t know how many people I talked to love Boston but refuse to relocate here, even when they are hired for good jobs, because our transit system sucks. Cutting it would make it suck more. I’d let it run until 4am, I’d fix all the tracks and modernize the trains, expand the green line into Medford, expand the orange line past Malden and into other suburbs and exurbs, expand bus services all around, and expand the commuter rail. Lets raise the necessary funds to make a world class transit system. Being the first in the US isn’t worth it anymore when every other system I’ve used makes ours look backward and provincial (Chicago, DC, NYC, and even Baltimore have better transit systems)
I very rarely use the commuter rail on the weekends because the timing is not convenient. They depart Lowell on the odd hours and Boston on the even hours, yet those trains have lots of empty seats.
With the Red Line closed beyond Harvard Square on weekends, I can’t take public transit into Boston and I refuse to drive and attempt to park. Result: fewer tickets sold, fewer restaurant meals eaten. If the E line, which serves Symphony Hall, the MFA and other Huntington Ave. locations, plus Northeastern, doesn’t run on weekends, major cultural institutions will be in even more trouble than they are now.
Just so you know, I live near the Alewife area and its not uncommon to see 3 or 4 empty shuttle buses (Red Line replacements) queued up at the stoplight at Mass. Ave. on weekends. (The T has apparently pulled buses from regular service, which has suffered.)
I’m sure these buses are not as quick as the subway service they are replacing, but they do stop at all the stops and they run VERY frequently, more so even than the Red Lne at rush hour.
I agree that the E line should keep on running, but in that instance, the MFA to Symphony Hall corner of Huntington Ave is very close to the Orange Line. (Mass Ave and Symphony station are practically right next to each other, and Ruggles is basically on the Northeastern campus.) The bigger problem is the part of Huntington further down the road.
And yeah, the MBTA has been running free shuttle busses between Harvard and Alewife. (The stations are shut down because of construction rather than budget reasons.)
“The problem extends past the MBTA, as the state put $3.3 billion of debt from the Big Dig project onto the MBTA’s shoulders”
– The Hunting News (Northeastern University) 1/12/12
“Under the Legislative restructuring {Forward Funding Legislation July 2000}, the T inherited $3.6 billion in outstanding debt from the state. A significant portion of this debt originated from public transportation projects the state committed to build as part of the Big Dig; the rest came from other capital projects and maintenance. At a total of $5.2 billion, the MBTA currently has the highest debt burden of any U.S. transit agency.
Approximately 30 cents of every dollar in revenue goes to pay principal and interest costs.”
– MBTA Fare and Service Changes / Report by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Why are we talking about fare increases and service cuts instead of dealing with the real problem – the debt dumped on the MBTA, its riders, the businesses that rely on public transit and the communities that help fund the MBTA. It’s time the State Legislature fixed the real problem –
Cut the Debt NOT the Service!
http://www.mbtatruth.org