While many MBTA riders will likely throw their phone, computer or newspaper across the room when they read this, may this publication suggest June’s Red Line derailment was just the lucky break the state needed?
While grousing and data-backed critiques of Massachusetts’ biggest public transit system and Gov. Charlie Baker’s effort to fix it have been running in the background of state politics for the last several years like a low-grade fever, the Red Line derailment shoved the full scale of the disease in front of Massachusetts’ leaders.
As a survey of biopharmaceutical workers published last week by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council showed, the rebuilding of signal systems destroyed in the incident turned the summer into hell or tracks for anyone dependent on the Red Line. Rage screamed through the statistics. Nearly 47 percent of those who take public transportation commute for over an hour, the survey showed, and 59 percent of all respondents said their commute had gotten worse in the last year.
In the past month, 79 percent had been late for work due to delays on public transportation, 69 percent were late for personal commitments after work and 61 percent had public transportation service break down at least once. It’s clear few were content: 60 percent of respondents said they would change jobs for a better commute and 23 percent even considered moving to a different state for a better commute. Eight-two percent of respondents did not think the state government is doing enough to improve transportation systems.
Business leaders beyond the few who truly grok transit’s importance to the region’s economy came out of the woodwork following the derailment to do what good leaders do best: stand up for their employees and try to fix the problem. Tweet after tweet and op-ed after op-ed declared the MBTA to be “in crisis.”
It was powerful stuff, powerful enough to get Baker off the stoop to announce limited funding to accelerate efforts to return the T to a state of good repair – even if the new timetable is still not sufficient.
Let’s hope they stay engaged while legislators debate new transit funding measures this fall, even though the T declared the Red Line was back to normal the day after MassBio announced its poll. As anyone who is or knows a transit rider can tell you, “normal” for the MBTA is often insufficient for the region today, let alone the near future when we will have to move the thousands of expected new residents to the jobs our booming economy looks set to keep creating, regardless of any national economic softness. Public transit must be expanded and sped up to keep pace.
