Open Letters, Cont’d.

Dear MBTA:
I feel that I am not alone in saying I’d gladly pay double the fare on the T if I thought it would be well-used. That’s why your capital investment program proposal and the comments period are so important: they really makes clear what the MBTA is doing with the money, and that gives me peace of mind and makes me feel that my tax dollars and fares really are at work on something good. To expand on your customer outreach, it might help to put up posters explaining where your money comes from (so much from fares, so much from state grants, so much from the feds, etc.) and what percentage gets spent on things– information that is in the capital investment overview but which is not going to be seen by many riders.

My comments on the capital investment program are as follows:

First, I love that you are planning on the ticketing and fare changes. I especially like the idea that they may some day permit fare adjustments based on traffic (charge more for peak hours, less for off-peak, for example), and if they help us gain better data on passenger usage patterns. Another way to get better system data would be to install GPS systems in busses, like those installed in snowplows, so that we know when and where a bus line is late. For example, the 47 bus is too often late, perhaps because it is such a long route and delays anywhere in the system add up. Maybe it would help to divide it into two bus routes or to adjust its path somehow– you could tell what to do if you had better data from GPS systems.

I would like to point out that the stairways at Park Street station are too small and that it’s slow to get from the Red Line to the Green Line during peak hours when transferring. I guess you already know that, and from looking at it, it wouldn’t be easy or cheap to fix.

In an ideal world, I’d like to see the Green Line replaced with real trains. When you examine the Somerville extension, please consider running it underground rather than aboveground, because you can see on the B, C, and D lines that aboveground lines, especially with so many at-grade crossings, are a disaster.

Also, can I just whine about how Arlington was stupid to reject the Red Line extension, and suggest that the issue should be revisited? I mean, really. I look at Washington DC and what it has accomplished with its Metro system, and it just makes me so jealous– they have interstate cooperation on this thing, and we can’t even get Arlington to agree to something that benefits them and everyone around them? Come ON! We need greater coverage, because Boston is a huge metro area, and if they don’t want a stop, well, put in a Lexington stop and pass Arlington by! And how about Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Chelsea?

Yours,
Aaron Weber
Slummahville