Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The T Debacle

What a weird and strange situation. While Aloisi was publicly calling to hold off T fares and secretly pushing for them, Grabauskas was publicly pushing for the fare hike, but privately trying to avoid it as long as possible. Huh? JohnK is right; something's gotta give. Despite what a few of the naysayers and ABD (Anybody but Deval) crowd's been saying, Grabauskas had to go and was a massive failure.

This last relevation he helped get in the paper, that Aloisi was essentially lying, doesn't mask the fact that Grabauskas was lying too -- in a way that bizarrely wouldn't win him any brownie points with the public, arguing on the airwaves and in print for fare hikes now. That's not exactly effectively leadership, to say nothing of all the safety mishaps and service nightmares he's allowed during his tenure.

Goodness knows how to fix any of this. The Patrick administration hasn't been inspiring on this issue, but there's a chance Patrick could buck the trend and put someone competent in charge of the MBTA - may he have the good graces to appoint someone who actually has experiencing running a major public transportation system.

Patrick needs a clean start and slate on transportation. Mr. One-Walking-Disaster-After-the-Other (Aloisi) isn't solving anything, other than becoming the Republican Party's wet dreams. The state's already revamped its transportation system, getting rid of the Pike at least in name. There's the added opportunity to change the face and leadership of the MBTA - hopefully putting someone who will make service the number one priority. Now we just need the clean sweep in the form of Aloisi's resignation, pronto.

Other T notes,
  • Scot Lehigh is his typically dense self, missing the broader picture and focusing on the obvious as some sort of tangled web-weaving. Ah, Scot, this isn't a pair of your silk pajamas.
  • Scot's appalled that the governor wants control of the T. Apparently, he'd rather obscure authorities that answer to just about no one instead of forcing Governors to accept responsibility - along with the credit or blame - of running authorities like the T.
  • The administration's pushing back the fare hikes, probably at least to next year. Probably not a coincidence, but certainly justified.
  • Apparently, there's a new public transportation caucus at the State House. I want to know more about that.

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