BOSTON — A fight is being waged on Beacon Hill over a newspaper’s request to keep tabs on the comings and goings of lawmakers — and the controversy has provoked additional press criticism of Gov. Deval Patrick.

After press time, the governor's office submitted the following statement: "The governor and his entire administration are extremely accessible to the public and the press on a regular basis. From daily public events and press briefings to consistent compliance with public meeting and records laws to putting the state budget and finances online, we are by far the most transparent administration in recent memory."

Patrick appears tonight at 7 p.m. on Greater Boston.

 
BOSTON — When Lisa Li moved in with her sister’s family in Boston 4 years ago, the job prospects were dismal, especially for someone who didn’t speak English. What she did have was 15 years of experience running Chinese restaurants in Colombia.
 
“When we watched the news or read the paper, we saw that so many Americans didn’t have jobs. So we said, ‘Let’s work together to open a restaurant!'” she said.
 
She and her family set out to buy the perfect takeout. One in Somerville was too small; another in Walpole was too far away from the home they share in Malden. In March, they found something promising in the Savin Hill section of Dorchester, called Hong Kong Chef.
 
“We were here scouting the place for a good week and we saw that it does have really good business,” said Li's niece Mei Chen. “So we came and we were training with the owner for about a month, just seeing how things work and his interactions with his customers. And we kind of fell in love with this place because it’s spacious, there’s room to grow. It’s a packed neighborhood, so we figured that, why not? Give it a try.”
 
A neighborhood institution
 
By April the Dorchester takeout was theirs. After 5 years, the previous owner had become tired of the long hours and was moving on to run a laundry.
 
And even before him, Hong Kong Chef had been a neighborhood institution. Crystal Stanish, 28, remembered it well.
 
“It’s been a neighborhood place," she said. "It’s been here since I’ve grown up, since I was a kid. We always have it. I don’t live around here anymore so we make a habit, when we come to visit the parents, we come in and get it and have it for dinner. It’s just good, and it’s home.”
 
What really makes it home is the deliveryman.
 
“He knows my mom, he knows the family, he knows our address and it’s always right there really fast. And he’s so funny and he comes in," Stanish said. "It’s neighborhood, it’s the same people. There’s not a high turnover. You recognize people. I like that about it — and I like the food.”
 
Turning a customer into a regular
 
What the Li family has been finding out is that food quality can sometimes be secondary to the relationships with customers.
 
Chen said that since they’ve taken over, the flow of customers has slowed. She suspected it was because people miss the old owner and don’t trust the new owners yet. It couldn’t be the food, since the chefs are the same, as is the menu, for the most part. They’ve even added a few new dishes — like fried plantains, which some customers had asked for — and tweaked the recipe for others like chicken wings and crab Rangoon.
 
Chen had paid attention to the previous owner’s interactions with his customers.
 
“The customers would come in or even call and he would recognize their voice and he would say, ‘Oh do you want a D25 or a D2? Oh, no onion in your fried rice.' Something like that. He would just know from looking at them or just hearing their voice. That’s great. That’s something that we want to accomplish as well, because it seems like it’s one of the things that really brings customers back into the restaurant,” she said.
 
Ted, who declined to give his last name, has lived in the neighborhood his whole life and remembered the old owner fondly. “He was just genuine and kind and the whole family seems to be — the whole group just seemed to work together so well,” he said.
 
For Li, running the takeout has become a family affair too: Her nephew runs the counter several days a week and Chen works there when she’s not working as a nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her mom helps out after her job at a dollar store. And they both pick up produce by hand several times a week.
 
While Ted isn’t quite sure about the new staff, he said he was willing to give them a chance: “Let’s see how the food is, how the comfortability factor is, and go from there.”
 
When I told regular customer Crystal Stanish that the takeout had changed hands, she said she'd noticed having a harder time ordering on the phone. But she said the food hadn’t changed and most importantly, neither had the deliveryman.
 
“He’s a great, fun guy and he literally has been delivering since I can remember. He’s been here forever, so hopefully they keep him,” she said.
 
Can the takeout evolve?
 
But is it any easier to start a takeout from scratch? I went to Wok N Talk on the border of Mission Hill and Jamaica Plain to find out. It doesn’t look like a traditional takeout: The walls are painted a cheerful lime green and orange, and udon noodles and pad Thai sit alongside lo mein on the menu.
 
Owner Nathan Long and his business partner borrowed $300,000 from relatives 2 years ago to set it up. They didn’t want to open just another run-of-the-mill Chinese takeout.
 
“You go to a traditional one, and you usually see hundreds and hundreds of items. I go to there and I have a headache ordering,” Long said.
 
So Long and his partner stripped down the menu. Only five appetizers. The main dish was stir-fried noodles: Customers could choose their noodle, their sauce and their meat, and it would be cooked up right in front of them.
 
But customers found the menu too sparse and business suffered. So crab Rangoon, chicken wings, boneless spareribs and around 20 other takeout standbys reluctantly went back onto the menu.
 
Still, Long didn't include any "very traditional" dishes like egg foo young. "Because I think the way people are eating, they’re already slowly, slowly changing,” he said.
 
A new generation with old tastes
 
Long hopes Wok N Talk is welcoming to busy young professionals in the neighborhood. He's hired non-Chinese waitstaff and installed a comments box, which overflows with tiny pieces of paper.
 
Some the comments affirm that Wok N Talk is fulfilling one of the basic functions of the traditional Chinese takeout: supplying the neighborhood with greasy food until 3 a.m. One customer wrote, “Late-night food is essential to the functioning of a proper society and you, you provide this — be proud!”
 
Wok N Talk has also found itself part of the gentrification of the neighborhood.
 
“Some people tell us, before, at nighttime, [the neighborhood] was quite scary. So I think that as we come in, as more and more businesses come in, and the community does more work at this, to keep the place clean, it will change the neighborhood. It will change the neighborhood,” said Long.

Where are you a regular?
 
We want to hear your side of the story. What’s your relationship with your local takeout? Do they know your order when you walk in the door? Do you know your deliveryman? Is Chinese food a late-night indulgence for you?
 
To tell your story, call 617-477-8688, or go to the Planet Takeout website to leave a story or upload photos. And stay tuned for the next installment of Planet Takeout, where we’ll explore more deeply the tensions between takeouts and the neighborhoods they’re in.

BOSTON — The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Here's some of the analysis airing on WGBH radio and television.

> > Complete WGBH coverage of the decision

Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts:
"We're finally going to, I hope, move ahead with decent, affordable health care, especially for working families in this country — unless of course Mitt Romney, who's done his 125th 180 — in this case on health care — gets elected! If he does, then forget it." Listen to Bob Seay's interview with Dukakis on Morning Edition on June 29.

Jonathan Gruber, MIT economics professor who helped write Massachusetts' health care law, on the significance of upholding the individual mandate:
"The most popular and important part of the law is ending discrimination by insurance companies. No longer allowing insurance companies to deny people insurance or charge them more for insurance just because they're sick. You can't do that piece without the mandate."

Kerry Healey, Mitt Romney's lieutenant governor, on negative public opinion of the act:
"I just think the voters aren't stupid … there's nothing free coming from the government. Someone is paying for it, and that's the taxpayers."

Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts: 
"I think today's Supreme Court ruling really validates almost a decade's worth of work here in Massachusetts to expand health care for everyone in the country and now all Americans are going to have the same health care benefits and protections that people in Massachusetts have enjoyed for years. So we're excited about the ruling and supportive of it. … Not knowing how the Supreme Court was going to rule created a lot of uncertainty for employers, for health plans like ours, for hospitals and physicians because we really didn't know what the rules were. Now we have a clear message."

Renée Landers, professor at Suffolk Law:
"One of the unanswered questions ... is the extent to which the court has really imposed some greater restrictions on Congress using the power of the Commerce clause to legislate." Landers talks with Bob Seay on Morning Edition on June 29.

Dr. Paula Johnson, chair of the Boston Public Health Commission board, on why the federal law matters here:
"Through the Affordable Care Act we've seen elders getting rebate checks [and] physicians being able to get higher reimbursement rates for primary care ... We've had all the public health dollars that have come into our state ... so it absolutely has been a plus for Massachusetts."

Dr. Vivek Murthy of Brigham and Women's, president of Doctors for America:  
"I think this is a victory for the country, for patients, and it’s also a victory for providers like me who see patients everyday and who realize that many of our patients aren’t getting what they need because they are in a broken system. And this law being upheld gives me hope that we can now have a real shot at fixing the broken system. ...

"In this law, there are a number of provisions including wanting to set up health insurance exchanges like what we have here in Massachusetts which will place downward pressure on premiums because it will promote transparency in terms of pricing and information and also create more competition among insurance companies so that patients have more choice." 

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate:
"This is really about bringing health care into families in a way that works and starting down the line of trying to bring costs under control. … I think the Democrats are saying we've helped solve a problem. It may not be perfect but we have sure moved in the direction of getting it a lot better."

Arnie Arnesen, N.H.–based political commentator:
"This was just an amazing piece of ballet on the part of the chief justice. It was genius. I wish I could have choreographed it."
 
Robert Whitcomb, editorial page editor of The Providence Journal:
"This is going to enrage people on the right — and they're going to pump vast quantities, even more money, into Romney's campaign."

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, in a statement:
"The federal health care law may be constitutional, but it is wrong for jobs and the economy. In Massachusetts, we had already dealt responsibly with the problem of our uninsured without raising taxes or cutting care to our seniors. All we got out of this massive new federal entitlement is higher taxes, cuts in Medicare and additional debt at a time when we can least afford it. The bottom line for me is this law makes it harder for our economy to add jobs and for that reason I continue to oppose it.”

Did you miss the president's speech? Watch it online.

June 28, 2012

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act in a complex ruling. In March, WGBH News followed the case as it was argued with a full week of oral arguments, analysis and features. Today, we have a full day of coverage to help you make sense of the decision.

> > Read the decision (pdf)
> > Consequences of the ruling: WGBH analysis

89.7, 10 a.m.
NPR special coverage

Diane Rehm Show, 11 a.m.
Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of Health Affairs, and an on-air analyst on health issues for PBS NewsHour
Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today
Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law at The George Washington University; legal affairs editor at The New Republic

Emily Rooney Show, noon
Jonathan Gruber, MIT economist and one of the chief architects of the Affordable Care Act
Kerry Healey, Lt. Gov. of Massachusetts under Mitt Romney
David Kravitz, former clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor 
Dr. Harry P. Selker, head of the Tufts Medical Center Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies

Callie Crossley Show, 1 p.m.
Arnie Arnesen, N.H.–based political commentator
Brian Rosman, Health Care for All
Robert Whitcomb, editorial page editor of The Providence Journal

89.7, 7 p.m.
NPR special coverage

Greater Boston, on WGBH 2 at 7 p.m. and from 7:30 p.m. online
Kerry Healey, Republican analyst and former lieutenant governor
Dr. Paula Johnson, chair of the Boston Public Health Commission board
David Kravitz, co-founder of Blue Mass Group
Renée Landers, Suffolk University law professor and WGBH analyst

June 29, Morning Edition
Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts
Renée Landers


All segments subject to change.
 

Recent stories

> >  Decision might not mean much in Commonwealth
> >  Renée Landers discusses the possible outcomes

 
BOSTON — Sometimes the best way to find the flavor of where we live is … through a restaurant.
 
Not the fancy places people cross the region to see. The humble spots where people stop and get something to go — and in the process, have conversations across the counter that make life a little bit more human.

WGBH News' Val Wang is spending the next 6 months documenting these for her project "Planet Takeout": a look at Chinese food, our neighborhoods and ourselves.
 
Wherever you go, there they are
 
Every neighborhood in Boston has at least one. In the heart of Roxbury there’s Peking House in an old Church’s Chicken building. In Dorchester, Yum Yum stands shoulder-to-shoulder with nail salons and Irish bars. Jamaica Plain has Food Wall and Charlie Chan’s. They are among the almost 10,000 Chinese takeouts that dot the country, preparing more than 2 million meals every day.
 
Ever since I’ve lived in big American cities, first New York and now Boston, no place has fascinated me as much as the local Chinese takeout. Each is deeply a part of their neighborhood but also somewhat separate. The people who work there come from halfway around the world to serve Americanized Chinese food to people of every color. Those on both sides of the counter have to meet each other halfway, often at a bulletproof window.
 
This cultural crossroad teems with stories. I think of the humble takeout as a lens through which we can see both the tightly knit local neighborhoods of Boston and global immigration patterns to the city. And most importantly, we can see how the two fit together.
 
One restaurateur's journey
 
Tom Chen was born in Hong Kong. After a decade of working in Chinese restaurants he bought his own takeout in Chelsea, Mass., called Dragon Kitchen. He ran it for a decade.
 
Most of his customers were Latino. He said they tended to order three dishes: lobster sauce, shrimp fried rice and chicken wings. Every week, he sold 400 pounds of chicken wings. And because he had to adapt to his customers, he learned basic Spanish. Shrimp fried rice became arroz con camarones. Chicken wings, alas de pollo. And lobster sauce was salsa langosta.
 
Chen said he didn't know much Spanish beyond what he needed for the job, “but I try to make a living. So everybody will adjust yourself.”
 
It wasn’t easy running a takeout: mastering simple Spanish, learning the names of his regular customers and, on two life-threatening occasions, getting held up at gunpoint. But it was a big step up from bartending, his previous job. 
While most restaurant profits hover around 40 percent, Chen said Dragon Kitchen cleared 60 percent.
 
“The takeout restaurant basically is work hard, long hours. You can make a better income. Buy materials by myself, then we cook it, we prepare. Just four people, work close together. I see co-workers more than my wife. The kids, I never saw my kids. The kids go to school at 7 o’clock, get back at 9, we’re still working,” said Chen.

He sold his takeout 10 years ago and bought a more upscale sit-down restaurant in Needham called Mandarin Cuisine.
 
A tight-knit world
 
Talking to Chen may seem easy, but in my experience, it’s difficult to walk in the front door of a takeout asking to interview workers and customers. He only opened up because I met him through Helen Chin Schlichte — or "Auntie Helen," as everyone in the Chinese immigrant community calls her. A native of Charlestown, she is very active both in Chinatown and in the city at large. Auntie Helen immediately understood my predicament.
 
“Even though you’re very Chinese and you can speak fluent Mandarin, they’re not quite sure if you’re from the IRS, or from Homeland Security," she said. "There are all kinds of reasons that they might be a little wary until somebody comes along to say, ‘Okay, this is a great project. This is one that would be terrific for you to participate in and for you to be a part of this larger community of takeout restaurants, and it’s okay to talk to her."
 
I asked Chen what he would have said if I’d come in the door of his old Chelsea takeout asking to interview him. “No,” he responded simply. “I say, ‘Nope, you kidding me?’ Eighty percent, or 90 percent, close the door for you. I already know that. First thing, they don’t know you" — and if they don't know you, they don't know why they'd do you a favor.
 
Furthermore, Chen said, "Most Chinese people don’t like [to] talk in public. They need to close everything in their mind. They’re not open. Even your father, your mother, won’t open anything for you, right?"
 
When asked for his explanation of that dynamic, Chen responded, "That’s the way we brought up. Like, why we eat rice?”
 
I started to wonder about the underlying social structures that hold the community together — and keep outsiders at a distance. So I called Baruch College professor Ken Guest, an anthropologist who studies Chinese immigrant communities living in New York.
 
“The Chinese restaurants are deeply embedded in an ethnic economy. And there is a sense of ethnic solidarity that people draw on to make a go of it. There’s a way in which that economic framework also shapes some of their notions of how they are in American culture, where they fit. It frames a lot of their business and social networks,” he said.
 
Getting connected
 
Networks were the key word here.
 
“Get somebody know somebody," Chen summarized. "From the back, not from the front. You walk in the front, you don’t get any answer. They will tell you they’re busy. No. Thank you. That’s it. Get somebody behind the owner. If you not Helen Chin introduce you, you won’t be sitting here. I tell the truth.”
 
It’s good advice. I found I had to work through existing networks — social service agencies, civic groups, food suppliers, menu printers, academics, filmmakers, hoping someone could introduce me to someone else who could get me in that proverbial back door.

But the project also needs the other half of the story: your half.
 
I found Philip Lodge, 17, at Yum Yum in Dorchester after school, waiting for his takeout order.
 
“Well, I got hungry after I left school, so I just had to eat a little meal before I go home," he explained. "A $2 plate of rice and ribs and I added crab Rangoon, fried shrimp and chicken teriyaki."
 
And it's not a rare visit. "I come like three times a week. My mom told me that their food was good so I started ordering my own plates, and I liked it," he said.
 
I bet you’ve probably been to a Chinese takeout before — you might even be a regular at one. Or maybe you went to one with your family growing up. If so, I want to hear your story.
 
If you have a story about a Chinese takeout, give Val and Planet Takeout a call at 617 477-8688. It's a free call in the Boston area, and the recording will explain what to do. You can also leave a story, upload photos or listen to others' stories at planettakeout.org.

BOSTON — Thursday is the first installment of Planet Takeout, Val Wang's exploration into Boston Chinese takeout joints as a nexus of community. She talks to Bob Seay about how she got the idea for the project. To share your experiences with Chinese takeout, visit planettakeout.org.

Planet Takeout is produced by Val Wang and brought to you by WGBH 89.7 and Localore, a national initiative of the Association for Independents in Radio.

 
BOSTON — On Monday, Attorney General Martha Coakley called for an amendment to the state's open meeting law. The need for change comes as no surprise to those who have followed the State Integrity Investigation, a nationwide look at corruption risk.

Massachusetts flunked the "public access to information" category on the SII report card. Investigators found that while citizens have a legally enshrined right to government information and records, in practice those rights are hard to access. The state earned a C overall, placing it 11th in the nation for corruption risk.

"The amendment would clarify the standard for a finding by the AG of an intentional violation of the Open Meeting Law," Coakley said in a statement.
 
The current law states that a violation is considered "intentional" if it occurs after the official or governmental body has been given a warning by a court or prosecutor. Coakley's change would add situations where the board or member "acted with specific intent to violate the law" or "with deliberate ignorance of the law’s requirements."

The Massachusetts Legislature is exempt from the open meeting law.
 
The attorney general's office plans to hold a public hearing on the regulation in July.
 
> > READ: The AG's press release

WGBH's Bob Seay, right, interviews Richard Davey of the Mass. Department of Transportation

Excerpts from the interview ...

Seay: The first suggestion: Expand service. More riders, more revenue.

Davey: True. That is true. But what folks have to realize, though, is usually that our costs go up.

The only service we run that makes money is our Patriots game-day commuter rail.... All the service that we run is subsidized. Today it costs you $1.70 to ride the subway with a Charlie Card? To run the service costs more like $3.20 per ride.

Seay: The second suggestion: Have the state take back the Big Dig debt.

Davey: I think that's a fine idea but with the caveat that — that is about $1.7 billion. It equates to about $125 million a year. You're just handing them, the state, the same problem. How are they going to pay for it? What kind of either programs would be cut or revenues would be raised? ... I think folks have to be careful what they wish for.

Seay: Suggestion #3: Raise the gas tax.

Davey: If we did that in the future, as the governor proposed, we have to be clear that that or any other revenues we might raise, would be dedicated to transportation across the Commonwealth. I think that whether real or imagined, folks that live outside the metropolitan Boston area... feel as though in the past, too many resources or a disproportionate number of resources have gone into Boston-based projects.

Seay: Suggestion #4 is have better PA systems so we can hear what they're saying.

Davey: [laughs] Charlie Brown's teacher has been retired. ... I think the PA systems certainly in the stations are pretty clear. I agree that the PA systems in some of the trains aren't so clear and so as we buy new trains we're moving to automated announcements. And soon, coming soon, we've been talking about it for a while but we don't want to roll it out until we get it right, will be the countdown clocks in the subways. 

Seay: The fifth suggestion was improve fare collection.

Davey: I think the most challenging piece for us has been our commuter rail. And we just announced last week that we're going to launch a pilot program later this year with a company from England that allows you to purchase your commuter rail ticket on your cellphone. It will be the first commuter rail in the U.S. to adopt this. ... We estimate through surveys that about 75 percent of all of our commuter rail customers have smartphones. So rather than spending tens of millions of dollars to put in gates and Charlie machines, this will cost us virtually nothing and the customer will literally have the ticket machine in their hands.
 

As fare hikes and service cuts await passengers, there's been little movement on solving the T's long-term problems. In the second part of his interview with WGBH News, Davey addressed the question what will happen if the legislature fails to act to address the T's budget deficit by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

BOSTON — A number of responses to our "How You'd Fix the T" survey mentioned other cities and countries that show how good a good transit system can be ... possibilities explored by WGBH's Phillip Martin in his story "How to Create a World-Class Transit System."

 

David Wilson, Cambridge
Uses the Red Line, Orange Line
I've lived in Zurich, Switzerland; Shanghai, China; and Singapore, and in particular Singapore and Zurich have remarkable public transportation systems. The key in both cities is that the cost of driving into the city has to be prohibitively high enough that it becomes burdensome not only to low-income individuals, but also high-income individuals. Tolls paid via transponder as you enter the city core in an automobile, which can be graded to be higher at peak traffic times, are a particularly effective way to do this, as Singapore and London have demonstrated. There should be no way to get downtown in a car without paying tolls. The vast majority of that significant revenue source can then be diverted to support the growth of public transportation.

It also seems to me that there are a lot of cities in the world which have successfully expanded their transportation grids in recent decades in a planned, coordinated and ultimately highly successful fashion. My impression (which admittedly is based only on casual observation, not any kind of research) is that the upper echelons of the T are hired from within. As a result, it seems likely that there is an endemic corporate culture of "this is how we do things" at the T. I think that it would be a worthwhile investment to bring in consultants from some of the world's biggest public transportation systems, like London and Tokyo and certain cities in continental Europe, as well as some of the cities in the US which have recently and successfully grown their own public transportation networks, like LA, and advise on how to coordinate and facilitate growth and sustainability within the system.

Julie Ecker, Boston
Uses the Orange Line
While recently in NYC subway fare was $2.25/trip and is good for a 2-hour window. I would change fare structure in Boston. Those who need connections from bus to bus or subway/bus should be able to ride one direction for one flat fare and not have to pay for each leg. Especially since poorer neighborhoods are more likely not to have subway and to have buses instead.

Mary Devlin, Washington, D.C.
Uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Commuter Rail
As a Massachusetts resident attending college in Washington, D.C., I've noticed how much better and more efficient the Metro is than the T. First of all, the rules against eating on the Metro make it extremely clean. Second, there are extended hours on the weekend. Third, there's cellphone service almost everywhere underground. And fourth, you know exactly when trains are coming and can download a cellphone app so you can see when the next train is coming. The T could definitely take a few lessons from the Metro.  

Jan Pechenik, Cambridge
Uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Silver Line
If you want to see a world-class public transportation system in action, go visit Hong Kong. The first thing I do would be to make the T much more convenient than it is now, without raising fees. Buses and trains should arrive every 5 or 10 minutes. Smaller buses and shorter trains for off-peak periods, but no need for schedules because you would never have to wait more than 10 minutes for a ride. Once you have the convenience problem fixed, you can increase the comfort level (e.g., slightly wider seats on train) and promote programs that encourage people to take the T.  

Joanne Fray, Lexington
Uses the Red Line
I would post clear maps showing the routes of the vehicles like the maps in the Paris Metro and the London Underground.  

Gerry Katz, Chestnut Hill
Uses the Green Line
Run it on a schedule — like every other urban train system in the developed world!

And one dissenting voice, from Gillian, in the comments on Martin's story:

I'm a little surprised you held WMATA in such high regard. The Metro is saddled with debt, has serious safety concerns and the ridership is hardly enthusiastic about the customer service. The Metro fiscal model is horrid. The sheer number number of employees as well as inflated salaries help make it one of the most expensive public transit systems in the country for riders. Research peak of peak fares, penalizing those who use Metro for what it was created for, commuting! Because of this the federal government subsidizes employee commutes or offers free parking so they don't have to shell out over $400 a month for commuter bennys. Each year Metro is faced with dwindling funding because of the "tri-state" reach and zero commited funding from either of the three districts. Having lived there for 6 years it was great to be able to go just about anywhere on Metro as well as have updates on boards in the station but it was a budgetary stretch each month and considering weather constrictions (heat, snow and rain), safety (theft and train crashes) as well as overcrowding and horrid attitudes by employees made it a D+ in my book. At least in Boston you get what you pay for: a less expensive system that isn't very extensive and not technologically advanced. If Boston can provide Metro service (at its best) and keep Boston-sized fares, I'd move closer to the city!  

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Fred Salvucci headed the state transportation department under two governors. He rode the #1 bus with WGBH's Bob Seay and gave his take on what's wrong with the MBTA and how to fix it. Their conversation, in five parts:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

"I would put in more runs per day. If the buses between my home in Medford and my workplace in Newton were reliable and frequent, I wouldn't be driving."
— Rachel Sommer, Medford
 
"Add more service and reduce fares. Ridership would increase, with increased revenue."
— Kenneth Brody, Sharon
 
2. Have the state take back the Big Dig debt
 
"The first thing I would do is get the state to re-acquire the Big Dig debt from the MBTA. The MBTA spends over $100 million every year just to service the debt, which is totally unfair to its riders who want or have nothing to do with the Big Dig."
— James Lee, Jamaica Plain
 
3. Raise the gas tax
 
"I would ask the state legislature to up the gas tax another 5.1 cents per gallon and dedicate that to paying down the T's debt and making it more efficient."
— J. F. Dargon, Wareham
 
4. Have better PA systems so we can hear what they're saying
 
"Simply fixing public address systems in stations and on trains and making sure that delays are communicated effectively would make traveling by T much more civilized."
— Alicia Toney, Stoughton
 
5. Improve fare collection
 
"I rode the T daily from Cleveland Circle to Coolidge Corner in 2011. Leaving Cleveland Circle, at least 50 percent of the time the drivers would wave us on and NOT collect fares. This would happen at all the stops until I got off! No wonder the T is broke!"
— Dr. Deb Sampson, Hancock, N.H.

 
HYANNIS, Mass. — Summer on the Cape means beaches, boating and sun. It's a boon for Cape businesses — but a hassle for everyone getting there, with traffic from Braintree to Bourne and beyond. An influx of tourists each summer doubles the Cape's population to 215,000.
 
Transportation officials expected to launch a new weekend train service from Boston to the Cape this summer to help ease that congestion. But with the MBTA facing its most significant budget crises in its history, the service is now on hold — and not because it would cost the MBTA money. It wouldn't. But with fare hikes and budget cuts on the table, launching a new train service to the Cape could be a political blunder.

 
A man, a plan
 
The plan was to spare weekend visitors from traffic by having a commuter rail train leave South Station bound for Hyannis on Friday evenings, Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons. Passing through Middleboro Station, it would travel over Cape Cod's most-forgotten bridge: a railroad bridge in Bourne. Today, it's used only a few times a week by a seasonal dinner train, as well as by what's called the "trash train," because it hauls away the Cape's garbage.
 
This new service is known informally as the "tourist train." It would travel along state-owned tracks before arriving at the Hyannis Train Station and Transportation Center, where buses idle in the parking lot before heading to Boston … in the same traffic as cars.
 
On an upper floor of the transportation center is the office of Tom Cahir, the head of Cape Cod's transit authority and the person who first proposed the tourist train. He said a recent study concluded there's a demand for rail to the Cape. With the bridges handling 130,000 vehicles per day, people are looking for a car-free option.
 
"Quite frankly," Cahir said, "our plan was to have the plan commence Memorial Day weekend this year, 2012, and we told the folks doing the study that was our objective. And the guys came back to us with a report saying we could perhaps meet that objective."
 
All the necessary maintenance and repairs could be completed to meet the deadline and run the train safely this summer. But the report raised concerns about the MBTA's financial troubles — concerns Cahir shared.
 
"It does appear as though this service ... would be an expansion of the MBTA," he said, "at least that's how I would look at it, and I think the citizens of Massachusetts would look at it: ''What is the MBTA going to Cape Cod for when they haven't gone to Fall River and New Bedford yet, and they have all this debt and are raising fares?'"
 
To spare the MBTA any public perception problems, Cahir decided to put off the tourist train until next year, and in the interim to move forward with the maintenance issues the study identified.
 
"I should be very clear," Cahir said. "The MBTA never said, 'Tom, this might appear like expansion.' This is just from my knowledge, and I don't want to create any further headaches for them."
 
Budget politics
 
Politically, launching a weekend service during the MBTA's budget crises could be a mistake. But the irony is … the tourist train wouldn't cost the cash-strapped agency any money. Cape transit officials said no new equipment would be needed, and they estimated the train would attract more than 16,000 riders each summer at a fare of $20 each way. Combine that with parking revenue along the route and some federal dollars, and Cahir said the service will pay for itself.
 
"So it really would be a windfall for the MBTA rather than an expense," Cahir said.
 
Acting MBTA general manager Jonathan Davis said he relied on the judgment of Cape Cod officials as to when to begin the service. "However, we have the reality of having a budget deficit and we need to concentrate on what we're providing today. But I also think we should look at providing ways to expand service," he said.
 
Try again next year
 
Cahir was optimistic the tourist train will begin Memorial Day weekend 2013. But still, with projections indicating the service will bring more than $1 million in new tourist spending to the Cape, Chamber of Commerce director Wendy Northcross told WGBH News that she was disappointed with the delay.
 
"It is doubling frustrating when you look at the delays we're potentially suffering from bridge construction and bridge repairs and Massachusetts Department of Transportation repairs," she said. "It would just be nice to have that alternative to put up for the people, that you can get here without your car."
 
Cape transportation officials also are considering launching service between Hyannis to New York City in the coming years. By easing traffic congestion and including bicycle transportation on the trains, both plans are designed with the environment in mind. With train service, supporters say, there's no reason for a Cape Cod vacation to begin and end in traffic.
 

BOSTON — The door closes behind me and I slip $1 into one slot and 50 cents into another. I’m on the #28 bus heading to Dudley Square. Many residents of Boston’s Black and Latino neighborhoods who use mass transit each day pass through that historic depot. The station, among the city’s oldest, is located at the heart of those communities, and all area buses — like the road to Damascus — lead there.
 
The problem with elevated rail
 
Beginning in 1901, Dudley was the main stop for direct train access in Boston. Like Chicago’s famous "L," the Orange Line traveled above the city on an elevated rail line until it was torn down in 1987 and moved to the Southwest Corridor. It’s what happened after that that has made so many people in Boston’s minority neighborhoods question the fairness of mass transit policy.

Those questions are the subject of a recent documentary titled Equal or Better: The Story of the Silver Line, by Kris Carter. The film maintains that a promise was made to replace the old Orange Line with equal or better transportation options. But the service that replaced the elevated T was a bus, the Silver Line, which can take more than half an hour to get downtown. The elevated rail got you there in 10 minutes.
 
However … “elevated rail in a city cuts the city in half," said systems expert John Sterman of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “This was the problem with the old elevated rail in Boston and the old elevated highway for cars, and we have a much better environment now that that elevated railway is gone.” Sterman is a member of MIT’s newly created transportation initiative, which was formed to explore innovative ways of improving public transportation.
 
“Even though it’s cheaper to throw up some steel and put the train up overhead, there’s a lot of social costs to that,” Sterman said. The old elevated rail line also literally cast a permanent shadow over houses and business along Washington Street.
 
Arriving at Dudley at rush hour, Camera Core said though she’s not all that nostalgic about the old elevated train, it was easier and more reliable getting back and forth from downtown than buses. “It’s just always late,” she said as her bus finally pulled into the station.
 
Alejandra St. Guillen leads the Massachusetts Latino Civic Education Organization from offices just blocks from Dudley. She asked, “Why can’t we go underground in the places that are really crowded and come up for each stop, which would facilitate the traffic and really allow for direct access in town instead of having to take two buses or take the bus and the Silver Line, which is really just another bus?”
 
Getting to the workplace, whether urban or suburban
 
Marilyn Swartz Lloyd heads up MASCO, the Medical Academic Scientific Community Organization. She said Latino and Black activists in Boston have long pointed out a disconnect between minority neighborhoods and historic transportation policy, and that with cutbacks in service it is more important than ever to ask questions.
 
“How do you get people to work in their neighborhoods to the larger areas like the Financial District and the Longwood area, so that they have jobs and so that it takes them as short a period of time as people who are going on the direct spokes on the wheel?" she said. "You have to have more transportation that ties the spokes together and I think that it's particularly true in the Longwood area, where the highest population of our workers are from Dorchester and Roxbury.”
 
As many as 104,000 workers, students, patients and vendors pour into Longwood each day. According to MASCO, about 20 percent of employees who work in the medical district would be affected by cutbacks, including the elimination of two bus routes.
 
But it’s not just downtown Boston and inner-city job centers like Longwood that are dealing with how to get their workers to their desks, stations or machines.
 
Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson wrote the seminal book When Work Disappears. He said there is a mismatch between many new jobs — which are in the suburbs — and the people who need them most.
 
“80 percent of the entry-level jobs are located in the suburbs," he said. "And, therefore, a lot of people really depend on transportation to get to the jobs. The lack of feasible transportation, however, exacerbates this mismatch because the lack of transportation options not only increases reliance on automobiles, it also makes it difficult, very difficult, for those without cars — particularly inner-city residents — to get to suburban jobs.”
 
That’s a catch-22. You might say, “Well, there is commuter rail.” But most MBTA rail service was set up to get suburbanites into and out of the city and not the other way around.
 
Searching for solutions
 
“The Brookings Institution actually did a big study last year and they specifically looked at how well the transit system served jobs," said Stephanie Pollack of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. "And we weren’t .the best and we weren’t the worse. We were in the middle of the pack.”
 
Even so, it’s going to take some major planning to alter the way we think about transportation and jobs, especially as it affects the poor and minorities, she said. “So we need to both make the transit system better serve the places where jobs are and where people are who need those jobs, and we need to change land use policy so that we make sure that when we’re locating new jobs in the region we put them in places that folks can get to on transit.”
 
Swartz Lloyd and others are calling on companies — public and private — to step up efforts to provide transportation to and from transit stations for workers and job seekers without the means to get to those jobs. “I think just like the private systems are working to pick people up from train stations and at subway stops, there may be some way that we can all interconnect as well,” she said.
 
It’s estimated that companies to subsidize the cost of transportation for their workers are spending as much as $40 million. Waiting for a bus, commuter Sean Walker said that’s the only way he could afford the rising costs of getting back and forth from his home near Ashmont Station to his job: “I got a pass for both the bus and the train, so it’s about 60 bucks.”
 
But he’s still dealing with the lingering problem of time. He works near Symphony Hall and lives near Ashmont Station in Dorchester. “It takes me overall an hour," he lamented. "In some areas if you don’t catch [a bus], another won’t come for half an hour to 45 minutes. “
 
Alternatives to the bus
 
African Americans, Latinos, Cape Verdeans and Haitians are heavily dependent on bus service. MBTA ridership is estimated at around 400,000 per weekday, with the heaviest passenger concentrations in Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester.
 
Boston city councilor Charles Yancey is lauding a joint MBTA and community plan to provide minority commuters more direct rail access, getting them from Mattapan to downtown in 20 minutes rather than 60. “It’s called the Fairmount Line, which runs right through the heart of the communities of color from the Newmarket down to Mattapan Square,“ he said.
 
The crown jewel of that plan is a new station that will be located off Blue Hill Avenue near the Cummings Bridge. The station will include a modern platform with wind screens and a message board announcing train arrivals.
 
“I also believe that we should improve the connections with Dudley Square and ultimately in the future we should have a Green Line–type of LRV type of operation running from Dudley Street all the way downtown," Yancey said.
 
Still, for those who rely on buses to get home, to school, to work or in search of employment, the amount of time it takes to get there leaves many frustrated. Some on that day passing through Dudley Station thought back to the time when the elevated trains pulled up to the platform and headed downtown. It was not the best system, but it was faster.
 

 
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is running a deficit, it's carrying a huge debt and its infrastructure is getting older and older as ridership increases. So, what's the best way to solve the T's problems?

A number of experts say part of the problem is debt payments from the Big Dig that were shifted on to the MBTA in 2000 — an issue cited, in fact, by a number of respondents to WGBH's online survey.
 
Fred Salvucci, former state transportation secretary, saw one dramatic way for the "T" to turn the corner:

 
"I think the short-term solution to this is for the Massachusetts Port Authority — which is a primary beneficiary of the transportation system and is in the black — to step up to the plate and provide some of the debt relief that the T requires," Salvucci said. "But they're not going to do it unless the governor and the legislature tell them to."

Massport is an independent public agency that owns and operates major transportation footprints, from Logan Airport to Worcester Airport, from the Port of Boston to hundreds of acres of waterfront property. 
 
"Over half the cost of the Big Dig was involved in the seaport access road and the Ted Williams tunnel, " Salvucci said — and the airport is the biggest beneficiary of those roadways.
 
The response from Massport

Massport spokesman Matthew Brelis sent the following statement to WGBH:
 
"Massport has worked to support the state’s infrastructure in any way it can in a legally and financially responsible manner and it will continue to do so. Massport cannot ignore federal law which regulates the use of airport revenue. The federal government and the airlines take a very dim view of airport operators — generally cities, counties or authorities — using any money generated on the airport for anything other than the capital or operating costs of (A) the airport; (B) the local airport system; or (C) other local facilities which are owned or operated by the airport owner and are directly and substantially related to the air transportation of passengers or property.
 
"Logan Airport passengers did benefit from the Big Dig and the third harbor tunnel, and in the 1990s Massport used $365 million in airport revenue — with federal approval — to pay for the Logan tunnel exit and for the highway roads on airport. We were able to do this because the exit directly and substantially benefitted airport passengers, and we own the property the highway traverses.
 
"Three years ago, again with federal approval, Massport paid down its debt on the Tobin Bridge and then gave the bridge — and the $30 million it generates each year — to MassDOT.  And when the City of Worcester wanted out of the airport business, Massport stepped up, purchasing Worcester Regional Airport — which loses about $4 million a year — for $15 million. Not a good deal for Massport’s bottom line, but it was the right thing to do. We know how to run, maintain and grow airports; Worcester’s area of expertise is delivering municipal services to residents.
 
"We continue to look for ways to assist the T. That is why we are again in discussions with the FAA to see what we might be able to accomplish — absent Congress changing the law — in terms of increasing our contribution to the Silver Line. Massport spent more than $13 million in buying eight Silver Line buses and pays $2 million a year in operating costs to the T. But we want to increase our contribution and we want to increase HOV access to and from the airport.
 
"We are also asking the FAA to examine the feasibility of Massport subsidizing a ferry system that does not benefit the airport.
 
"We need to tread carefully because a wrong step could be serious: Massport could be blacklisted from receiving federal funding for airport projects, and we could lose the ability to use passenger facility charges for airport improvement (and we have spent or will spend more than $1.5 billion of PFCs on airport projects). We would face strong legal challenges from airlines and our own bondholders if airport revenue was used for some new project that was not directly and substantially related to air transportation.
 
"(Prior to 1982, when the federal Airport and Airway Improvement Act was passed, the Authority used airport (and bridge) revenue to support our port operations. We maintain that grandfathered ability today, and it, too, would be at risk if our support of new projects were found to be illegal)."

What you said

Here are just a few of your responses to our online "how you'd fix the T" survey that cited the Big Dig debt as a serious problem.

First: move the Big Dig debt back where it belongs. According to the state's Transportation Finance Commission, that would reduce the annual burden by $120 million.
— Matthew Danish, Allston

Take the Big Dig overages and put them back on the state.
— Cynthia Dye, East Boston

No longer make the T responsible for paying for "the Big Dig."
— Maggie Harling, Northborough

Do you have an idea about how to fix the T? Let us know. We may post your response online or use it on the air.
 

 
BOSTON — When it comes to chipping away at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority budget gap, every fare counts. "We do need to collect every single fare that is due us," said Jonathan Davis, acting general manager of the MBTA, in an April 24 interview.
 
As part of a new campaign, the T is cracking down on fare evaders: Plainclothed officials on the Green Line are issuing more tickets to people who try to ride for free. "What we want to be able to prove to our customers is that we are doing everything we can to make sure that everybody pays their fair share," Davis explained.
 
But as the T goes after freeloaders, some riders believe the T is losing money due to broken fare boxes.
 
The driver waves his hand over the box

Edward Clarke lives in Malden and rides the 105 bus. He brought up this issue at an MBTA public hearing in February.
 
"Two weeks ago I rode a bus that I ride every day back and forth from the senior center where I volunteer, and the meters aren’t working. Three days in a row," he said. "That same week coming home, same bus, meters not working, buses are jammed, people riding for nothing."
 
The fare boxes are meant to collect cash and coins and read Charlie Cards. But when they’re not working, Clarke said he’s seen the bus driver wave his hand over the box, indicating it’s broken, and everyone gets on without paying. He’s seen it happen on weekdays, when the bus is filled, and he’s heard the same story from other people who ride different buses.
 
"I don’t know how widespread it is, but it seems to me that it is pretty widespread," he concluded.
 
At the same public hearing in Malden, which was packed with angry riders facing service cuts and fare hikes, Davis addressed the crowd, saying he'd encountered the problem himself.
 
"I’m a daily bus rider, and over the past two weeks I have found the bus fare box on my bus not to work. So I called it in and they are now looking at all bus fare boxes to make sure they are working," he said.
 
According to the MBTA, the malfunctioning fare box Davis encountered was on the Route 326 bus from Medford Square to Haymarket. Despite his own experience, Davis said the problem was not widespread. But some frequent riders disagree.
 
"At least once or twice a week"
 
A few weeks later at the Senior Center in Malden, where Clarke volunteers, the cafeteria was packed before bingo. Clarke asked participants to raise their hands if they'd been on buses with broken meters. Several hands went up.
 
"I take the 99 bus every morning to go to work and the fare boxes never work," Janet O’Brien said.
 
Patricia Bainton takes the #106."The fare boxes are broken at least once or twice a week." When that happens, the drivers "just tell you to get on and sit down."
 
Dianne Colson, 75, also rides the #106. "It didn’t work at all yesterday," she said. "It wouldn’t take my money. It wouldn’t take my change. It just wasn’t working. He kept flagging everybody on. Coming home was the same way. So I drove home and back for nothing. It’s not something that I would do, but I couldn’t pay."
 
And Kerry Madola has taken the 105 bus when the fare boxes weren’t working. "He just waves us in, don’t even try," she said.
 
This group of seniors was clearly upset. They wondered: How can fares go up when the T’s not even collecting fares from all of its riders?
 
The scale of the problem
 
Lee Matsueda of the T Riders Union wants to know how widespread the problem is.
 
"People are saying, ‘Listen, we want to make sure that if we are being asked to pay more, then the T is doing everything it can, like it's trying to say it does, to make sure its system is running as efficiently as possible,'" he said.
 
In an interview with WGBH News, Davis said that over 1,000 fare boxes were in the system. "We do have occasional service issues with the fare boxes not working," he said. When that happens, "the bus drivers report that incident to the operation control center and we try and get it repaired as quickly as we can. It is equipment that is aging, first put into effect in 2007, but generally I think it is reliable."
 
The fare boxes, only 5 years old, were part of a massive $75 million project to upgrade the T’s fare collection system with automated equipment.
 
In 2009, only a few years after the new equipment was installed, a state audit (pdf) found that the T had spent more than $600,000 to repair its new equipment. The audit also stated that the manufacturer, Scheidt and Bachmann, had never developed a working fare box prior to its contract with the MBTA and that "the MBTA was paying S&B for the opportunity to create one."
 
Davis said he didn't know how much revenue is lost due to malfunctioning fare boxes. "It’s hard to estimate," he said.
 
It might not seem hard to estimate — if the system knows the typical ridership of a bus and how frequently the boxes break. But the X factor is how customers are paying, he said: "Without the fare box working, we don’t really know who is on that bus with a pass versus paying by cash." If a rider had a monthly pass, there would be no loss of revenue.
 
When asked if he considered it important to figure out how much revenue was lost to malfunctioning fare boxes, Davis said, "I think what is important is to make sure that we do collect all the fares that are due us. And we need to make sure the equipment is working properly."
 
The question of accountability
 
Although WGBH has been working on this story for months, Davis, just in this April 24 interview, said that he was looking for more answers.
 
"I did charge the engineering and maintenance group, yesterday, with a mission to go out and see what they can do to ramp up the preventative maintenance program so we can have all of our equipment working, all of the time," he said.
 
Someone else looking for answers is state auditor Suzanne Bump, who is a few months away from releasing her 2012 audit of the T’s automated fare collection system.
 
"People rightly are demanding accountability from the MBTA, as they are from all agencies of government, for the effective and efficient spending of their dollars," she said.
 
When asked if she thought the T was being accountable to taxpayers, Bump said, "I’m going to let my audit speak for itself."
 
Until then, the riders at the Malden Senior Center may have more stories to share.
 
> > READ: The 2009 audit noted that the winning fare box contractor got lower points for technical quality than its competitor. Download the audit (pdf).

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — While the T faces a budget deficit, a massive debt, political maneuvering and an aging system, some outside experts are working, largely unknown, on a new way of looking at mass transportation. They hope to increase ridership by creating new tools that rely on your smartphone and maybe even folding cars to get you to the nearest station. Also: Read about some of your innovative ideas for fixing the T.

1. Fare: $0
The T should be free with more frequent service paid for by a major increase in the gas tax and much larger tolls on driving into Boston. More people would ride the T, help the environment, help city congestion. I do drive, by the way, and would be happy to pay the higher gas tax and tolls if it meant the T could be made a fantastic, world-class public transportation system.
— Submitted by Nancy Gold, Cambridge; uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Silver Line
 
2. No more paper bus schedules
This is a very small thing, but I figure that every little bit helps. I have compared schedules for the routes I ride for all four quarters and the differences seem insignificant enough to me to merit the cost of printing and distributing the schedules. Some times change by only 1 minute, others 3, 5, and some 10 minutes. But given the not-on-time-ness of the buses I have taken, does the schedule difference matter?
— Submitted by Evelyn Persoff, Somerville; uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Silver Line, Orange Line
 
3. The Red Sox Red Line
Sponsorship: From Charlie Cards to the Green Line, everything should have a corporate sponsor's colors and logo emblazoned on it. For example, the Boston Red Sox Red Line, the Boston Bruins or John Hancock Blue Line, the Fidelity or Boston Celtics Green Line, the AARP or the Coors Light Silver Line, the ING or Home Depot Orange Line, the New England Patriots or Samuel Adams Brewery Commuter Rail, Royal Caribbean or Belmont Springs Ferry Service and the New Balance or Legal Seafood The Ride. Of course, extensive planning, full disclosure and citizen input would be key.
— Submitted by Bob Damatin, Dorchester; uses the Red Line, Silver Line, Orange Line, Ferry Service
 
4. Extend the Blue Line to MGH and Lynn
I would extend the Blue Line from Bowdoin Station (which should be closed due to lack of usage as well as close proximity to Government Center Station), to Charles/MGH linking with the Red Line. I would extend the Blue Line to downtown Lynn via the original right of way. This would bring jobs and increase tourism to the area and would also help reduce the strain on traffic and local bus routes. The stations on the new route would include one in the Oak Island neighborhood on Oak Island Street, one in the Point-of-Pine neighborhood, then one in the existing Lynn commuter rail station.
— Submitted by Andrew Toksoz-Exley, Chestnut Hill; uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line
 
5. Cabbies take over The Ride
Find out the cost of the "Ride "program. Can't that be done for less by giving vouchers to those who need it and let the cab companies run it? I have heard many people have to wait for the "Ride" and I mostly see empty vans on the road.
— Submitted by Doug Friend, North End; uses the Red Line, Silver Line
 
6. Measure usage and adjust schedules to match
To fix the T, I would approach it from an optimization perspective using principles from operations research. First, identify the utilization of each train on each line in terms of how many passengers each train has, and track that over the course of the day. Second, we would need to identify the expected number of customers who miss a train at any given time. With these figures, we can identify when the true "peak" hours are, and remodel the schedule around these times.
— Submitted by Faried Beladi, Dedham; uses the Green Line, Orange Line, Commuter Rail
 
7. A special lottery
I would have a special, once or twice a year lottery to subsidize the T budget that would share proceeds 50/50 between winner(s)and state.
— Submitted by Kimberly Siebert, Bedford; uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Silver Line, Commuter Rail
 
8. Charge cars per trip
Every Massachusetts auto ought to be equipped with an EZ Pass transponder and every major road passing under I-495 and 128 ought to assess a small fee from every car passing. The money collected would be used exclusively to support the T.
— Submitted by John Haule, Chestnut Hill; uses the Green Line
 
9. Make T execs commute on the T
Require management and executives at the T to use it for commuting. This should be mandatory. If they saw how badly it was run they might come up with some creative management solutions.
— Submitted by Mary Ann Krebs, South Boston; uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Ferry Service, Commuter Rail
 
10. Digital aids for the parking garage
I am a regular user of Alewife and love the T. I typically drive there and struggle to find a parking spot. It would be wonderful if there was a way to note at the top of each floor whether parking is available and where. I assume there is an app for that method. Also, is it possible to tie parking payments to the Charlie Card? Alewife requires cash, which seems a bit outdated.
— Submitted by Ann Guay, Bedford; uses the Red Line

Which ideas are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

BOSTON — “The doors will open on the left side. The signs will point to the Red Line on the upper level.” A regular announcement over the subway loudspeaker guided commuters through the crowded underground at rush hour. I was on the Orange Line trying to get to Arlington and commuters were talking about their ride home. One woman said, “It’s better than driving.” Another commuter volunteered, “I ride the Blue to the Orange on to work and then back.” And another said, “It’s fairly efficient. It gets me home quickly.”

But this Orange Line is not the one you’re thinking about. This one is in Washington, D.C., where I recently paid a visit.

“The Washington Metro is one of my favorites,” said John Sterman of MIT. “It is even now, after 30 years, remarkably clean, well maintained. There is essentially no graffiti. There’s a strong norm among the riders — all over the city — that you don’t leave trash on the train. You don’t leave your old newspaper. You don’t litter with your food container, your coffee cup. It’s a pleasure to ride the Washington Metro.”

The problems at home

And that is just one way that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority contrasts with public transit in other U.S. cities, said Sterman, a professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management and director of MIT's System Dynamics Group. He is also part of MIT’s Transportation Initiative, tasked with figuring out better ways of getting Americans from point A to B without spending money we don’t have on gas.

“We need a lot more transit and fewer cars," he said. "More and better commuter lines with more frequent service; more up-to-date rolling stock for subways, for streetcars; a denser transit network; more bike lanes. During rush hour it’s just as fast and sometimes faster on the bike than it is in a car. I actually bike to Alewife, lock it up and take the T.”

That’s common practice in world-class cities like Paris and Amsterdam. Urban planners believe that a so-called world-class city must have at least two things to deserve that title: class and a good subway system. But Bostonians can take comfort in knowing that that their subway ranks high up—at least in the U.S.— on some lists of indicators. For example, according to the American Public Transportation Association, the T is fourth in terms of ridership behind Chicago, D.C. and New York.

Grading the T

So on a scale from A to C, how do Boston commuters grade their own transit system? On the Red Line one day, three passengers gave it three different grades: an A-, a B- and a C.

The MBTA got an average grade from MIT’s Cynthia Barnhart, who heads the new transportation initiative. Barnhart is the associate dean for academic affairs for the MIT School of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering and engineering systems. But her grade came from experience.

Given the amount of time it takes to get from MIT to Logan Airport, “I would have to give that a B-,” she said. And if there were one standard to strive for, she recommended Singapore, where the university is running a big project. "We're looking at future mobility and we’re using Singapore as our playground, our experimental playground,” Barnhart said.

A model in the East

Singapore is a half a world away and far from a perfect comparison to Boston. Both have plenty of cars clogging roads. But Singapore is different. It is investing time and lots of money in modern, technologically advanced public transit. As part of that initiative, the city-state has been working with MIT to better integrate subway and bus routes in ways that connect disparate Chinese, Malay and Tamil neighborhoods.

One spring day, I was 9,400 miles from Park Street — in Singapore heading into a subway with my guide, Tanny Lee. We were going to Chinatown, which Lee said was only two stops away. The train moved smoothly and quietly along the track at almost twice the speed as Boston’s Red Line. We covered the two miles within minutes.  

Charlie on the … bus?

Back on a city street in Boston, I saw the MBTA’s system of connectivity working well, on the surface; subways, trolleys, commuter rail and buses are integrated. They connect. But Sterman said our city’s bus system is problematic. “The problem is we don’t have dedicated bus lanes in Boston and the buses are stuck in traffic like everybody else,” he said. So it takes a long time to get where you need to go.

The question is: What else can Boston do to become a world-class transit city? Geographer Andrew Lynch thought we needed to expand.

“I had gone to high school in Arlington and I heard all the stories about them extending the Red Line and possibly extending it into Arlington, and ultimately shot down by the people of Arlington, but that sort of got my mind going and I wanted to know what that would look like on a map,” he said.

A few years ago Lynch, a member of the Boston-based Association for Public Transportation, grabbed an original MBTA map from 1945 and started mapping out new lines to connect the suburbs not easily accessible without a car. He not only looked at what the Red Line would look like into Arlington and beyond, but he mapped out other lines too.

“In the '70s when the Orange Line was being reconstructed north of Haymarket Square, the plan was to continue that all the way to Reading,” said Lynch. “In my plan, I take it to Reading, but I also insert a couple of stations into Medford and I also add a spur to Medford Center. A lot of this was just building off of existing rights of way.”

On Lynch’s website, the Blue Line extends way beyond Wonderland. “There’s been a plan to extend the Blue Line out to Lynn for 50 to 60 years," he said. "I continue that, but I also added a branch through Chelsea and into Everett” — communities that have never had decent rail service into the city.

A need for speed

A world-class transit system also requires faster trains; something Sterman said the U.S. has tried to address with Amtrak's faster Acela.

“Of course there’s been attempts over the years to fund development of high-speed rail in the United States," he said. "I think we should get it going truly in the Northeast Corridor first. The Acela is a big improvement, but of course it has to go much slower than it can because of the condition of the track. We need to fix that problem first.”

How much is the success of high speed tied to Boston’s struggling transit? In two worldwide surveys most of the best subway systems also linked to high-speed trains.

“A high-speed rail link between Boston and Worcester would take an awful lot of traffic off the Mass. Pike,” said Sterman. “And you can imagine that it would then be a big driver of economic development along that corridor. And the Worcester Airport, as Logan reaches capacity, could then be a viable option for a lot of people rather than driving to T.F. Green or up to Manchester.”

Andrew Lynch said he brought his idea for mapping out an elongated MBTA to T officials, but he’s a realist. It will never see the light of day. But then there’s the reality that when talking about ways to make the T world-class, "right now it’s so saddled with debt any serious consideration of massive expansion on this level is something that can’t really be taken seriously,” he said.

A crumbling system and crushing debt

And this is the discouraging picture facing Boston’s future. Richard A. Dimino is the president and CEO of the Boston-based nonprofit organization A Better City. He said you cannot be a world-class city if you shortchange public transportation.

The state is facing a $20 billion gap in transportation and a $3 billion gap in transit, he said. "That means that things are starting to break down. The transit system is going to become unreliable. We estimated that if people decide to get on the highways [it costs] about $65 million. Transportation is no free ride. And all of us, both in the business community and the community at large, residents of this state, need to work with our legislators to define the kind of transportation system that we want. And then find a way to pay for it.”

And if we don’t find a way to pay for it — what happens? Boston will be at a disadvantage to grow, compete and attract people, talent and businesses. Marilyn Swartz-Lloyd is president and chief executive officer of MASCO, a group representing medical and academic institutions in Boston’s Longwood area.

“The glass right now is really half empty," she said — but thought it was crucial to maintain hope.

"You need to look out for what you want in 20 years. You want some more routes that are underground. You may want some people-movers that are aboveground. I think it’s really important that in spite of the difficulty that we’re in, you’ve got to keep in mind what the ultimate transportation plan should be, and what’s the very best, because even if you only get 25 percent of it, you never stop thinking ahead and planning ahead and dreaming a little bit,” she said.

And those dreams are key to creating a robust transit system that brings growth to a metropolitan area, connects its suburbs and marginalized areas and creates more economic opportunities. For many, an expanded, faster and better-integrated transit system is the essence of a true cosmopolitan center: a world-class city.
 

Call us at 617-903-0840 and leave a message with your idea. (Please leave your name, because we may play your response on the air this week during Morning Edition or All Things Considered.) Or you can add your voice here: