The Special Report

Now, on the the important stuff. So yesterday a wall panel at Porter was in danger of falling down, which caused delays on the Red Line, and obviously made the other northern end stations very jealous of the attention given to Porter's issue. So today, Alewife decides to get attention for itself, and does so by derailing a train of 01800 series cars. At rush hour. Fun. This is really not good, NOT GOOD. The MBTA has ignored this for waaaaaay too long. Between endless studies for expansion to feed political ambition, to an ENORMOUS debt, the MBTA has managed to completely ignore the fact that the oldest subway in the country,(something which makes it an engineering marvel, probably) NEEDS SOME MAINTENANCE SOMETIMES, YOU KNOW? The extent of the system's problems was recently delivered to the (T) in a nice, independent review. Which basically said that there were a number of major and minor issues, and further indicated that the reviewer would generally tend to stay away from some parts of the red line, which were what amounts to being UNSAFE. Ooooookkkkkkaaaaaaayyyyyy. Not acceptable. Not at all. It is one thing for a few green line trains to hit each other, not that that is a good thing, but that comes from having no control system, which the (T) rightly says would greatly harm capacity. They should know, they did it themselves to the Red Line. Anyway, a problem caused by a lack of control is one thing, but DEFERRED MAINTENANCE? Unacceptable. The MBTA consciously ignored the problems, putting band-aid fixes on everything due to its other projects and financial woes. That cannot continue. If the system has reached a point where the lack of funds and resulting deferral of necessary maintenance begins to impact the safety of the passengers, then the MBTA must be forced to change its policies. If the (T) is incapable of maintaining a SAFE system, then the state must step in to ensure it, and if they cannot, then they are not the fit custodians of the subway, and must be replaced in order to ENSURE that Boston's subway remains operational, remains efficient, and ABOVE ALL ELSE, that it remains SAFE. The MBTA is increasingly demonstrating that they cannot handle the problems. I will say once more, this is unacceptable, and something MUST BE DONE. Immediately, and before anything else happens, which it almost inevitably will, probably sooner than expected. Time's up MBTA, there's work to do.

-An MBTA Rider.