Wednesday, March 16, 2005, 8:16am
Wednesday, March 16, 2005, 8:16am
We roll to a stop at Framingham Station this morning with no other train waiting on the other track. Soon I begin to notice the beat frequency of two locomotives growing in volume until the engine nose of the Boston to Framingham outbound pulls up beside my window. The motion is nearly seamless as that train stops and ours gets underway. Once again from my relative perspective the other train never fully halted at all.
Today’s Metro newspaper contains more news of the MBTA – not surprising considering how the riders of the T are perhaps the backbone of this free rag’s distribution base. It seems that governor Mitt Romney wants to fire the Turnpike Authority chief — Matthew Amorello. He probably lacks the power given the innocuous turnpike charter written to prevent excessive oversight. There’s no harm in trying, I suppose.
The Turnpike Authority was originally instituted to build the Pike and pay off the original construction expense. Yet in its first fifty years the authority has found one reason after another to perpetuate itself. Just when a previous Republican governor –William Weld – was beginning to make headway in stripping the authority down to size, they managed to grab a leading role in the Big Dig construction project. The the turnpike extension to the airport was only a small fraction of the overall plan. Yet somehow they weaseled their way into the front seat. Now nicely saddled with billions in debt, the institution isn’t about to fade away anytime soon.
Recent events are hardly new. The governor holding office between Mr. Weld and Mr. Romney – Ms. Jane Swift – actually managed to pack the board and fire a couple of old-guard members until the courts overruled her. According to Mr. Romney the authority is awash in waste and very likely hiding massive ineptitude and corruption behind its bureaucratic veil. Normally I might smell partisan politics here. Yet, with respect to Mr. Romney’s interventions, this may be a rare example of genuinely effective government at work.
The latest confrontation began in November when a section of the Liberty Tunnel wall sprang a massive leak. This is the main I-93 tunnel north and south through the heart of the city. In places it runs many dozens of feet below sea level – so a leak down there is no laughing matter. An investigation has revealed several things. Lots of leaks are possible. They happen all the time.
The main bone of contention is how the Turnpike Authority has been lax in their efforts to deal with leaks — both by burying the extent of the problem behind a stone wall of bureaucratic silence and simply choosing not to act.
Mr. Amorello did hire high-powered consultants to investigate tunnel safety — yet they were hired to address political pressure, not real safety concerns. These past months as roadways were coming on line the standard refrain has described the tunnels as ‘perfectly safe.’
To me, the notion of ‘perfectly safe’ should be a clue in itself. Nothing is ever perfectly safe – nothing. Just weeks after opening, when the tunnels flooded in November this briefly parted the veil and gave Mr. Romney the opening he needed to act.
But enough of that for now.
Another Metro story covers the saga of four trolley stops being eliminated by the T along the Boston College Green Line branch. The story is most notable for its statistics. According to numbers quoted by the newspaper, the trolley line along this branch has been making 22 stops over the course of its 3.94-mile route – some less then 500 feet apart (and according to my own math — on-average about 990 feet station-to-station). Trolleys on this line require an average of 45 minutes to complete the 4-mile trek and a number of riders wanted to drop a few stops to speed things up a bit.
Forty-five minutes to travel four miles — I can see their point.
Not surprisingly, some riders conveniently served by these four ‘extra’ stops were up in arms. In response they pushed for a survey to demonstrate extensive support – which appears to have backfired.
Of the 1,142 survey respondents only 27 percent want these stops saved. The rest are happy to see them go away if trolley service would move along a little faster.
The MBTA formally announced the closing of these four stops — Greycliff Road, Mount Hood Road, Summit Avenue, and Fordham Road. The trolley is now expected to run end-to-end three to four minutes faster, or roughly 40 minutes — perhaps averaging a whopping six miles per hour!
At that speed it would take six or seven hours to reach South Station from Worcester. Riding only from Ashland, I’d barely have time for lunch before turning around to reach home in time for dinner.
Why would someone wait for a ride that isn’t a whole lot faster than walking? In fact, if I had a one-mile ride planned and had to wait more than five minutes, the whole process would be slower than walking.
Speaking of walks through the city — it’s a nice day as far as I can see out this window – sunny, warming into the high 30s. So I suppose I’ll stroll across the 1899 Bridge today, leaving the Silver Line buses for lousier weather.
