It could be an enormous mistake to dissolve the MBTA and easily switch the T’s operations to the state Department of Transportation, as one Democratic lawmaker prompt.
You’d be simply exchanging one patronage-laden, hacked-up company for one more.
Instead of extra “no comments” and non-transparency from T spokesmen, you’d get “no comments” and non-transparency from a MassDOT spokesperson.
You need extra tolls and better fares? Then MassDOT is the right place for the MBTA.
You pleased with the Registry of Motor Vehicles, which can also be run by MassDOT? You need one other RMV? You like the truth that 2,100 Massachusetts drivers received licenses with no street check?
Then you ought to be thrilled if MassDOT takes over the T.
How about elevating a drawbridge with a automobile nonetheless on the bridge?
Yes, consider it or not that occurred beneath MassDOT’s watch. The two operators of the bridge have been fired, if that helps.
You like misspelled street indicators? Closing the Sumner Tunnel in the midst of a summer time warmth wave? MassDOT has that.
There’s a litany of bungled tasks, screwups and paperwork at our favourite transportation division.
The MBTA can also be struggling beneath a long time of patronage and ineptitude — not simply previous gear or know-how. And it’s run by a union that everybody — together with legislators — are afraid to face up and problem.
So for now, T passengers are confronted with a selection when the following practice explodes in hearth — both keep on the practice and dodge the blaze and smoke or leap and be afraid you’ll get electrocuted by the third rail or drown within the river.
T passengers are sitting geese at any time when a practice crashes, burns or malfunctions.
You actually need to add to that by placing the T beneath MassDOT purview — which in flip comes beneath the oversight of the Massachusetts Legislature?
It’s the improper reply, however not shocking coming from a Democratic legislator. Massachusetts lawmakers aren’t precisely recognized for his or her daring initiatives. That alone ought to be sufficient to appreciate that it’s a nasty concept. Democrats would like to get their mitts on the T, filling the company with extra hack hires and taxpayer funded contracts.
Better to fully clear home on the T. Terminate General Manager Steve Poftak and appoint a receiver to overtake the company for a 12 months. Issue progress studies each 30 days.
It could be much like the way in which the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education goes in to straighten out troubled faculty districts.
The MBTA receiver — who ought to be a daring reformer with no ties to the company — would work with federal transportation regulators to make security the highest precedence on the T.
The receiver would report on to the feds and the governor, who for just a few extra months is Charlie Baker.
This is the form of challenge that Mitt Romney would have beloved to run — if solely he hadn’t bailed on the state. Romney cleaned home and cleaned up the Salt Lake City Olympics and is aware of the right way to flip round a nasty establishment.
Mitt’s lengthy gone, however does Maura Healey or Geoff Diehl have the heart and willpower to dismantle and switch across the T?
Source: www.bostonherald.com”