Could Historic Trolleys Bolster Civic Pride?

With the holiday season imminent, the MTA, operator of New York City's subways, buses, commuter railroads, bridges, and tunnels, has announced their nostalgia trains that have now become an annual holiday treat. These nostalgia trains offer tourists and natives alike the opportunity to step into the subway's past by riding in well-preserved retired rolling stock, like vintage Lo-Vs and R1s. For a few Bostonians, every commute is a nostalgia ride on the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, one of the last lines operating with original PCC streetcars in true revenue service. A couple of historic streetcars also sit unceremoniously at the unused northbound tracks at the Green Line Boylston Street. I suggested opening this up as an active museum exhibit to the GM at the round table the day before his appointment and he expressed interest in the idea.

Could opening a transit museum/exhibit in the heart of Boston and/or running one or more nostalgia trains be the key to raising civic pride in the system? It'll definitely fill in another piece of Boston's history, add another weekend activity for residents and tourists alike, and provide the MBTA with another revenue source.

However, it's unlikely that it will assuage the many frustrations expressed daily by riders on Twitter (and in real life). Only better service through capital and operations improvements can solve the negative rider experiences that haven't already been 'solved' with the availability of realtime information the MBTA has recently begun to offer. After all, the primary function of the MBTA is to transport people quickly, conveniently, and efficiently.

Ultimately, running nostalgia trains, offering tours of their facilities, and opening a museum shouldn't be high on the MBTA's agenda, but these would be valuable contributions to the greater history and culture of Boston, an aspect that is sorely lacking. As Brian Kane of the MBTA Advisory Board noted at the GM round table back in March, the MBTA has a story to tell and they could tell it better.

Update: An audit in 2007 actually found that the MTA operated the nostalgia trains at financial loss, though the MTA maintains that the maintenance and operation of the historic vehicles is important to the State's heritage. No doubt the MBTA would face the same dilemma with the added operations and the MBTA's tight budget would require serious evaluation of the financial benefits from those operations.

The Epic Struggle Continues

[Photo: moonman82/Flickr]

Transit faces a long road ahead as it strains under booming ridership

Welcome to TransitMatters. The genesis of this blog comes in part from my recent move to the Greater Boston Area, influence from transit blogs like Second Avenue Sagas, and the daily frustrations I see and hear expressed through tweets and on my commute. Like most other transit bloggers, I'm a huge transit and rail buff. I've loved trains for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I consumed Thomas the Tank Engine on television, the Long Island Railroad trains that ran behind our apartment building, and the New York City subway through the daily shuffle with my parents as one would go on shift and the other off. Today, transit is an integral part of my daily life and I've become a staunch advocate for the transit systems of America.

[Photo: almondbutterscotch/Flickr]

The struggle for better transit has become a big concern for many cities that are being choked by auto traffic with no end in sight. Boston is no stranger to this phenomenon as more people flock from the suburbs and into the cities for relief from the chains of auto culture and more people choose to take mass transit to spare themselves from volatile gas prices. With concerns for the environment, lost productivity from traffic, and personal budgets has come a massive strain on mass transit. Recent surges in ridership are exposing and widening the cracks that formed from neglect as our nation somnambulated its way deep into auto-centric development.

Today, these vulnerabilities prove significant security and safety risks to the increasing number of riders who choose or depend on transit. Worse still is the reality that it costs money and good leadership to address these vulnerabilities, two things that transit agencies are lacking in significant quantities, due in part to momentum within the agencies and the leadership outside these agencies at the municipal, state, and federal levels.

“Recent surges in ridership are exposing and widening the cracks that formed from neglect as our nation somnambulated its way deep into auto-centric development.”

We open this chapter of American history with the epic struggle already in progress. The impoverished have been struggling with transit since its decline and transit agencies have been struggling to get by with what they hgave for decades. With more people joining the struggle daily, it's important to keep in mind the fact that there is something we can each do about it, because transit is on the line.