The MBTA: an embarassment for Boston

Well, I just had an opportunity to take our clunky old relic downtown.

I headed over to Riverside station here on the Green Line; it's allegedly a commuter station right off Route 128 and goes through the heart of downtown. Imagine my surprise to find the parking lot only about 1/3 full.

I'm betting the high parking fees don't help...it's up to $5.75 these days, and some of the other lots around the "T" are charging $6. It wasn't that long ago that you could park all day on the Fan Pier, about a five-minute walk from Downtown Boston, for about $7.

In any case, I made the long walk past all the idling trains to the station, which is conveniently placed as far as possible from the parking areas. Reaching the first level, all 3 of the new "Charlie Card" fare machines were broken. Some had duct tape applied over the relevant slots; all had amateurish hand-written signs directing us upstairs.

Upstairs we hardly fared better; the machines seemed to be working, but I had to feed several dollars into it before it finally accepted one. Awfully touchy for a subway vending machine, but I digress.

Boarding the train, it was one of the infamous "Breda" trolleys that had some derailment issues a few years back. Finally, it was time to leave, so they closed all the doors and the lights promptly went out and the car died. After several false attempts, the motorman finally got everything working and we <<>> out of the station.

KA-THUMP! KA-THUMP! KA-THUMP!

Perhaps you're familiar with a "flat spot"....when you park a car in subfreezing weather, it may develop a flat spot on the tires and make some unusual sounds and vibrations until it's warmed up. I didn't think steel wheels did this. Of course that added to the ambiance of the ride; I wasn't certain we were going to make it into town in one piece. Never mind that the car was filthy, the windows had graffiti on them, and the required abandoned newspaper was rattling around on the floor. And these trolley cars aren't five years old yet!

The "Highland Branch" is allegedly a high-speed line....but today that meant about 35 mph. The ride grew longer and longer, and we never seemed to increase speed at any point. Finally somewhere around Brookline the automated station-announcement system finally kicked in, fortunately naming the correct station. It must have gone offline back when the car died, but the driver never got around to fixing it until a half-hour into the trip.

The ride was uneventful until we reached the central subway....then we slowed down even more, if that's possible. It took over an hour to get downtown from Newton....a ride I can do in 15 minutes at the most on I-90 in the clear. (It easily takes that long in traffic, though.)

I shudder to imagine what tourists to our city think....especially if they come from a city with a better subway system, which would be EVERY OTHER CITY ON THE EARTH.

We were just in Washington, DC...and the metro put our system to shame on Inauguration Day. Boston has enough trouble dealing with the average morning commute...I'd imagine the "T" would collapse if a million people tried to ride it all in one day.