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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBoston-area public transit won't be back to normal for 'at least' another 30 days
Boston Herald, via Mass Transit Mag:
Feb. 17--The blizzard-battered commuter rail and subway will not be back to normal for "at least" another 30 days, the transit authority's embattled general manager admitted yesterday, forecasting a bleak month of long, expensive slogs for hundreds of thousands of commuters -- as another storm looms.
"The 8 feet of snow that has been dumped on our transit system over the past three weeks has very honestly crippled our infrastructure and our vehicle fleet -- not to mention the real toll that it has take on our workforce and that of our contractors," MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott said yesterday. "These unprecedented storms have caused us both operational challenges -- which quite candidly everyone is feeling -- and in some instances some pretty severe damage that is going to take us some time to drag ourselves out of."
Despite vowing to implement what she called an "operating and service restoration and recovery Marshall plan" aimed at "strategically and methodically taking the system back line by line, vehicle by vehicle, station by station," Scott said riders can expect service cancellations and lengthy delays to continue for the foreseeable future.
"In order to be able to say we're back to normalcy, that's going to take probably at least about a good 30 days for us," Scott said, adding that "this is not something that we an just throw magic dust on and make it be all OK tomorrow." .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/11843442/scott-says-at-least-30-days-needed-to-get-t-on-track
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Boston-area public transit won't be back to normal for 'at least' another 30 days (Original Post)
marmar
Feb 2015
OP
This is proof that public transportation is a failure and must be eliminated...
onehandle
Feb 2015
#3
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)1. 30 years of disinvestment. nt.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)2. that's the WE CAN DO IT attitude everyone is looking for
Get to work lazy!
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)4. Oh boy...
onehandle
(51,122 posts)3. This is proof that public transportation is a failure and must be eliminated...
...says a GOP Congressman. Probably.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)5. The train stock is incredibly outdated...
Years of underfunding and saddling the MBTA with unnecessary debt (Big Dig).
One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)6. "chickens come home to roost"
A bit more detail on how we got here is in the attached Boston Globe story.
The Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission, tasked with taking a deep look at highway and transit finance during the Romney administration, found a staggering funding shortfall, $15 billion to $19 billion over 20 years, just to maintain the infrastructure.
Fancy expansions catch headlines and are used to secure votes. But infrastructure needs to be maintained and most people won't rush to vote because the bridges were painted, water leaks fixed/prevented and trains replaced at the end of the useable life.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/14/transportation/U7vNqP861gKQFRly2jmjdL/story.html
mythology
(9,527 posts)7. This sort of incompetence is why I refuse to give up my car
There really isn't a valid excuse for this. It would help if the region had a valid plan for dealing with the snow more than leaving it in big piles where it won't melt.
When I lived in Colorado, we would get major storms, but the Denver metro area didn't throw their hands up and say there's nothing to be done.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,169 posts)8. You forgot the sarcasm tag.
This ain't Colorado, and it's a worn out, underfunded, outdated transit system.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)9. I guess it's back to taking the bus.
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)10. So Like, when the spring thaw comes? N/T