UPDATE: NYC Donates Snow Fighting Equipment; Governor Releases $30 Billion Plan

APRIL FOOL'S DAY SATIRE UPDATE: Sadly, we won't be getting a donation of snow fighting equipment and the Governor seems to be committed to be more interested in leaning on gains to be had from operational efficiency rather than a combined invest-and-reform approach.

Spring has sprung today for transit as NYC MTA CEO Thomas Prendergast announced a small donation of snow fighting equipment and the Governor announced a commitment of $30 billion over 15 years to drastically upgrade the MBTA's infrastructure and equipment.

NYC's de-icer car, a retrofitted subway car from a series that has long since been retired, is just narrow and short enough to run on all MBTA heavy rail lines - Red, Blue, and Orange - to clear ice from the third rail.

'You'll need a diesel locomotive to be able to push the de-icer car, but...uhhh...my information is that you don't have one so we'll throw one in, too', said Prendergast to standing MBTA GM DePaola at South Station.

'I was very surprised', said DePaola. 'I woke up to consecutive calls from [Transportation Secretary] Stephanie Pollack and my secretary that I needed to make my way as fast as I could to South Station. They had just gotten word from the MTA that Prendergast had just left Penn Station on an Amtrak train with a special delivery.'

Landmark Capital Investment in Transit

Meanwhile at home in the Bay State, Governor Baker, Senate President Rosenberg, and House Speaker DeLeo jointly announced their 15-year, $30 billion plan to drastically increase investment in the T.

'We are fully committed to investment levels commensurate with the maintenance needs of the country's 4th largest transit system', said Baker. The plan was sparked by widespread outcry by Massachusetts residents for better transit and inspired by a recent crowd-funding effort to raise $30 billion for capital investment in the T. 'We ended up raising the money by getting donations from all the legislators at the State House and going door-to-door raising money with various businesses in our towns.'

The plan includes a veritable wish list of regional access and core upgrade projects:

• Commuter Rail Electrification
• North-South Rail Link
• Urban Ring - Silver Line to be fully upgraded to light rail
• Outer Urban Ring on Route 128
• 'Overground' network - frequent service on inner-core commuter rail segments, defined by the DMU plan released by MassDOT
• Green and Blue Line signal modernisation
• Power systems overhaul for all rapid transit lines
• 6 BRT routes
• Blue Line Extension to Lynn
• Red-Blue Connector
• Pay-off of all existing capital construction debt

Completion for most projects is slated to be within the next 10 years. The plan is to have frequencies of rush hour trains to be every 30 minutes on commuter rail, 10 minutes on 'Overground' services, 3 minutes on all rapid transit lines, and less than 2 minutes on light rail. The MBTA and MassDOT are also accelerating work with the transport departments of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Malden, Medford, Arlington, Watertown, Waltham, and Brookline to establish dedicated bus lanes or other infrastructure to improve bus travel times and ensure buses can establish frequencies to arrive every 5 mins during rush hour.

Paying off the T's debt will also eliminate over $400 million annual operating budget commitments and will allow the T to return to pre-austerity staffing levels.

'We'll now have the proper operating budget to give the people of the Boston metro the service they've expected of us for decades and that we have never had the investment to deliver on', said MBTA GM DePaola. 'This should brighten the day of many of our back office management, many of whom have been burdened with the work of three or more people for years as we've had to cut our budget by simply not back-filling positions as people left or retired.'

In addition to the budgetary breathing room, MassDOT has announced its partnership with several international development and property management companies to engage in accelerated development of multiple commuter rail lots and MBTA properties into mixed income housing, offices, and retail.

'Once and for all, we want to stop this practice of selling property for a one time cash infusion to make ends meet', said Secretary Pollack. 'We will be working with these neighbourhoods to add much-needed housing and valuable retail and office spaces to enrich the spaces around stations. We are capitalising on our vast properties to return even more revenue to reinvest in the system after we've caught up to the massive backlog of projects from decades of underinvestment.'

Regarding conservative concerns about excessive investment in the MBTA, the governor cited his understanding that operational efficiency can happen as we invest in the system. 'As my good friend Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone once said, "We can walk while we chew gum." I have confidence in the management I have in place at MassDOT and the T; we need to give these people the right resources to succeed.'

Legislators ride the T. Will it make a difference?

Yesterday 47 out of 200 state legislators rode some type of MBTA service as part of an advocacy push being called "Gov On The T". Governor Baker is skiing in Utah this week.

The comments from those using Commuter Rail were reflective of the issues we've been dealing with for decades, though unfortunately many seem to take aim at the T as if every problem is simply a management failure. For example:

“Having the message board not reflect the accurate time of the train until just before it was due to arrive is the problem, and it’s a serious problem.”

In other words, "I demand this be fixed. Now, I said!... Reform before revenue!" Even the Transportation Secretary is jumping in on the T bashing:

“Just giving the T money alone is not going to solve the problem,” Pollack said.

No! Money is not the complete answer but it's the first step. There may be a lack of vision and planning within some segments of the T but for the most part our issues are related to inadequate funding and lack of political will to support transit. How much "reform" must we endure before we see adequate revenue?

MBTA management defers to political pressure in other ways too. Whenever a politician complains about something the T works hard to appease them. That's what I'm afraid of now. These same politicians (and riders) who scream about poor transit service never come up with any answers. They just want their people taken care of, at someone else's expense, and only offer more comprehensive studies that will conclude the same thing as the last five comprehensive studies. By that time they hope frustration will subside, it will be summer, and everyone will forget about the snow just like we do every year.

Let's track our representatives to see who didn't ride yesterday and more importantly, see which ones actually support adequate transit funding and decision making. The T can't advocate for itself. That's for all of us. Otherwise Gov On The T was just a photo opportunity and it's back to business as usual.

CharlieCards Coming to a Commuter Train Near You

If you have a corporate monthly pass...

Commuter rail passengers rejoice! In addition to having restored 42 more scheduled trains to service, bringing them up to 82% of normally scheduled service, it looks like Keolis and the MBTA will soon be issuing CharlieCards to all customers who receive their monthly passes through the corporate program.

According to an advisory issued to corporate subscribers, customers will be given CharlieCards on a monthly basis, replacing paper CharlieTickets. These will be loaded with a LinkPass that can be used on buses and trains (presumably for all non-Interzone passes). By the sound of it, there will be an indicator of the card's validity and cards will only be visually examined by commuter rail conductors.

Update: MBTA Director of Communications Joe Pesaturo filled us in with some background on the program:

In January, the MBTA began a pilot program involving CharlieCards with a monthly pass printed on them.  These cards have been used as  ‘flash passes’ on board commuter rail trains, then they are used like any other CharlieCard (tapped for entry at fare boxes and fare gates).
 
With the March CharlieCards/Monthly passes, the end of the 3-month trial program is approaching.   Because feedback from customers in the pilot program has been very positive, interim MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola is extending the program.  GM DePaola says the CharlieCard/monthly passes are available to all participants in the Corporate Pass Program and customers who purchase monthly passes through the MBTA website.

Advisory for Commuter Rail Cards - April

Photo Credit: Masabi (Flickr)

One and a half steps forward

This isn't quite the full implementation of the CharlieCard system that was originally planned with the rollout of CharlieCard. Only 3 years ago, the MBTA unveiled plans to implement Masabi's smartphone ticketing platform; New York's MTA commuter railroads followed suit months later.

Apparently implementing mobile ticketing isn't a problem unique to Boston. Other agencies, including Chicago's Metra and CTA have struggled to harmonise fare payment systems, even after the recent introduction of the relatively forward-thinking Ventra payment system. Even New York City's deployment of an RFID smartcard system has taken decades.

Cubic, the company who now owns NextBus, the information broker for our bus tracking and prediction system, also happens to make the smartcard systems for the Bay Area, Minneapolis, and Seattle, all of whose commuter rail networks accept payment via smartcard.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Many of these investments have been hampered by the more threatening spectre of deepening backlogs of safety-critical repair projects, many of which continue to go un-addressed by the state leadership who hold the purse strings of regional transit agencies.

Biding our time may end up paying off in the end. As contactless payment systems have emerged, there's been concern about different technologies security vulnerabilities, universal compatibility, and overall cost of implementation. At this month's Mobile World Conference, Cubic and MasterCard announced a partnership. We're likely to see further partnerships as these technologies mature and standards emerge.

Plentiful, standardised technologies will make it cheaper to implement a new fare payment system (but will still cost millions to implement). This is the type of organisational and electronic change we should be expecting of the T as ask them to improve operational efficiency. To that end, we can't pursue this efficiency without investment—a very significant point we hope this winter has proven.

For now, we'll settle for a little extra convenience, even if it's really only a half-step in the right direction.

Lede photo: MBTA Press