I can hear the train as it moves past

[sovay]

I appreciate that the MBTA's newly voted fare hikes are not as comprehensively gouging as they could have been, but it's a kind of negative appreciation. The system needs real money and it needs to come out of the state, not the ridership. I am one of the people who doesn't have a car in Boston; I shouldn't feel penalized for not contributing to the congestion of the streets and the atmosphere. Or for not being able to bike everywhere, rain, snow, or shine. Five miles is walking radius for me, but sometimes I am sick or exhausted or carrying groceries and sometimes I have a lot farther to travel. I really wanted a governor who cared about public transit. Dammit, ethical artichoke.

Comments

[brigdh]

Ugh. My sympathies. I had thought the state vs city issue of public transit funding was unique to NYC, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that all of the US mistreats its public transportation in similar ways.

[sovay]

I had thought the state vs city issue of public transit funding was unique to NYC, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that all of the US mistreats its public transportation in similar ways.

As I understand from selkie, the D.C. Metro is underfunded to the point of being frequently, non-metaphorically on fire. What's the situation in New York?

[brigdh]

A significant portion of the MTA (NYC's metro) funding comes from state legislators, who are not always interested in voting in support of something that costs a great deal and doesn't benefit their region. We still haven't fixed all the damage from Hurricane Sandy (which was in 2012), and the system has hit the age where the infrastructure is falling apart and badly needs to be updated, but there's no money for that either. We luckily haven't had any actual fires (!!!), but delays have become so frequent that it's driving ridership numbers down. It's also appallingly un-accessible, which affects not just the actually handicapped (including me, when I was on crutches last fall!) but everyone in the city who has to transport carts or loads or large items. A woman died just a month or two ago, carrying her baby's stroller down a flight of stairs when she slipped and fell. (The baby was luckily unharmed, though not like having a dead mother is "lucky".) Less than a quarter of subway stations are accessible; after this recent misfortune, politicians made speeches promising quicker building of elevators, but again, that depends on actually getting the funding to do so.

[sovay]

A significant portion of the MTA (NYC's metro) funding comes from state legislators, who are not always interested in voting in support of something that costs a great deal and doesn't benefit their region.

Yep, we've got that. Western Massachusetts does not want to pay for the MBTA. I keep feeling this problem should be amenable to, say, patching the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority into the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, so that no one in Shutesbury feels like their tax money is just getting sucked eastward with no return, but it doesn't seem to happen.

We luckily haven't had any actual fires (!!!), but delays have become so frequent that it's driving ridership numbers down.

We are definitely dealing with that and I don't like it.

Less than a quarter of subway stations are accessible; after this recent misfortune, politicians made speeches promising quicker building of elevators, but again, that depends on actually getting the funding to do so.

I hope it happens. A death should be galvanizing.