This one may add up as a surprise : the good ol' Boston MBTA was recently ratedone of the good public transportation system systems in the rural area . Yep , we ’re as appalled as you … but it did get us consider : is the T reallythatgood ? Also , is it reallythatbad ? Or is it just our bottomless need to send the blamesomewherethat has ruined the thymine ’s unspoiled name for Boston residents ? Well , we did a deeper diving , and had to concede that the MT might actually be the best , while still being the inviolable worst . Here , the point - counterpoint .
Ours is the oldest transit system in the country
… or , as the MBTA itself puts it on its web site : “ While Boston is the birthplace of American indecorum , it is also the birthplace of American mass transferral . ” The story of our lamented system is actually middling bang-up . It take off in the 1630s , with the creation of a ragtag and bobtail ferrying organisation between Boston , Charlestown , and Chelsea . “ America ’s First Subway ” came along in 1897 , in part as a reaction to the Great Blizzard of 1888 , when workers die attempt to walk home after above - priming coat trolley car were waylaid . Our humble niggling system thus set the touchstone for every US system that came after it .
… which would explain all the infrastructure issues
DC has nothing on us . One last - minute 24 - hour closure ? taste age signal systems and months of shuttle busing thanks to track repairs . In fact , just a couple of months ago , we had ridiculous Red Line delays owe to some planned Longfellow Bridge repairs that somehow still seemed to cast the MBTA into a dither . Some of the Mattapan trolley railroad car , now more than 80 old age old , are also in perpetual need of repair , with character actually sourced from – * face palm * – trolley museum . And , of course , there was last winter , when railway car broke down , track became unpassable , and commutes doubled or tripled in length . Historical , yes , but also historically underfunded .
But it’s still cheaper than New York
How many of us go to New York for a weekend , suffer abstruse touch sensation of inadequacy , and then shrug aside the pain ? Well , at least we pay less to get on the subway system . justly now it ’s $ 2.75 versus $ 2.25 for the subway system . We ’ll take it .
… but rates go up, like, every year
9.3 % this year . A 5 % hike the year before . The latest fare hike goes into a repair stock , yes , but are n’t we still owe money for the wintertime of 2015 ? Never mind the recent reveal that dozens of MBTA worker make six physique .
It actually serves large swaths of Boston
One understanding the MBTA rated so highly in the aforementioned survey is the sheer routine of people who use it : 390 million ride per class , with 34 % of commuters principally relying on the thyroxin , the fifth - highest percentage in the US . And as much as we bitch and moan , the organisation does extend into many Greater Boston neighborhoods .
… except the parts of Boston proper that could greatly benefit
Hyde Park , Roxbury , and much of Dorchester have no easy access to underground transportation system , trust instead on much longer bus commute . And the said Mattapan trolley car is in incessant danger of getting 86’ed . certain , the Silver Line made a dent in this inequity , but the Silver Line is also a proclaim heap line , which means it ’s still beholden to the perils of Boston traffic .
It brakes for animals
Who can forget about Kenmore the cat ? Good ol’ Ken was a isolated kitten who decided to make the Kenmore station his place back in ‘ 09 . MBTA stave kept a constant watchfulness , trying to trip up him whenever they could , and eventually nail that fur bundle month after his first appearance . Eventually , the footling striped cutie was sweep up by a tramcar operator . Sure beats that dumb pizza pie squealer , New York .
… but not always humans
Ah , the peachy Runaway Train fib of 2015 . Because nobody got hurt and no trains were damage , we can express joy now , but a driverless Red Line train with 50 passengers alongside passed through four stations without stopping , and could have jam a stop car at the Wollaston station . The circumstances are still murky ( was it a driver ’s reliable mistake owing part to outdated hack equipment , or was it something more sinister ? ) , but nothing about it makes us attend good .
Hey, late-night service!
2013 was our twelvemonth ! Late - nighttime weekend service intend we could party like adults and still have a safe and cost in force way to get home . We were finally a fully grown city .
… thatrecently got canned!
Well , that was fun . Granted , the service was costing the city $ 14 million a year , but how did a mere 2 - 1 MBTA circuit board vote relegate us back to second - grade status ? Even more mortifying , the FTA knock the add-in for betray to postdate civil rights guideline . And to top it off , theNew York Timeswrote a condescending little story about our regretful state of intimacy . This one hurt .
We have an actual folk song about our transit system
“ Charlie on the MTA . ” If you went to camp , you sing the sucker . And if you originate up in the Boston area , you got all tingly about a vocal that mentioned Kendall Square , Jamaica Plain , Roxbury , and Chelsea . It ’s also just a bloody catchy melody ( and just miss make our leaning ofMost Boston Songs Ever record ) .
… that’s all about rate hikes
This is n’t an clean-handed ditty written and performed by The Kingston Trio ; the melodic line was really a hunting expedition Song dynasty written in 1949 for mayoral candidate Walter O’Brien , who opposed the fare raise that coerce riders to pay an extra Ni to get off at above - solid ground stations . ( That ’s why Charlie ’s married woman had to keep chucking sandwiches through the window . ) O’Brien complete dead last in the race despite the popularity of the melody ( write by supporter Jackie Steiner ) , and then the tarradiddle pose even more ludicrously Boston . After kinsfolk singer Will Holt register it in 1957 , radio station give up act it because they pick up that O’Brien , a progressive tense , had been blacklisted for speculate commie activities .
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Meaghan Agnewfirst rode the T alone when she was eight years old . It ’s really not that sorry . Track her commute times at@meaghandeth .
Flickr/Andrea Monari
Flickr/Daniel Parks
Flickr/Bill
Flickr/Dave Lawler
