Recent comments in /f/boston

Khearnei t1_je10ken wrote

Reply to Crisis-Hit MBTA to Be Led by Man Who Turned Around Long Island Railroad by Illustrious-Nose3100

I never quite understood why we don’t go overseas for stuff like this. Like, get me some people from the Swiss’s train system and have them weigh in. America’s public infrastructure lies on a spectrum of “well, it exists” to “serviceable”. There is no truly exceptional public transportation here. The big boys are all overseas. Call them in.

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thejosharms t1_je0zztz wrote

Reply to What part of your commute gives you the biggest headache? by [deleted]

Arrival and Dismissal at Mystic Valley Charter. On top of being a garbage organization they do a terrible job of managing parent traffic and employ some of the most aggressive crossing guards I've ever seen. Of course happens just offset enough from my school schedule to fuck it up M-Th

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resonant_waves t1_je0zz1m wrote

Reply to comment by RentAscout in Crisis-Hit MBTA to Be Led by Man Who Turned Around Long Island Railroad by Illustrious-Nose3100

That's one of the two major issues arising from the major restructuring of the MBTA's finances two decades ago. The other is that it's funding was set based on the projected growth of state sales tax revenue, which is responsible for most of the MBTA's funding. However, sales tax revenues grew much more slowly than projected.

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william-t-power t1_je0zy5x wrote

Reply to comment by tryingkelly in Crisis-Hit MBTA to Be Led by Man Who Turned Around Long Island Railroad by Illustrious-Nose3100

One person can be the solution. One person who has a clear perspective of the problem(s), a vision to move forward, and the power to do so; solves problems by the perspective and vision being good and getting people on board from the top down. That's how one person solves a big problem. They find the solution, get people to agree and work in concert, and sideline the people in the way.

Most people, though, aren't capable of this. Hopefully this guy is.

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miraj31415 t1_je0zqel wrote

Reply to Crisis-Hit MBTA to Be Led by Man Who Turned Around Long Island Railroad by Illustrious-Nose3100

In 2008 and 2009 LIRR on-time performance was a little above 95%. It declined to 90.4% in 2018 (the worst since 2000). Eng took over in 2018 after his predecessor’s improvement plan was mocked. Eng led creation of the “LIRR Forward” improvement plan in 2018, and in 2021 LIRR set the highest on-time performance record in 50 years (2020: 95.9%; 2021: 96.3%; 2022: 95.8%).

Eng did oversee a time where the LIRR performance went back to where it had been. So, much credit goes to Eng and I hope he did turn around LIRR but there may have been other factors, such as changes in budget or cuts in service that people don’t talk about.

Eng has been working in New York transportation for his whole career, from Junior Engineer up to Executive Deputy Commissioner of DOT and President of LIRR. It seems possible that he might bring assumptions and approaches from NY that are not a fit for MBTA. But I hope that Eng finds and fixes the right problems — godspeed!

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nottoodrunk t1_je0zptr wrote

Reply to comment by Haltopen in Crisis-Hit MBTA to Be Led by Man Who Turned Around Long Island Railroad by Illustrious-Nose3100

Oh sorry i was slightly wrong.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2012/02/29/mbta-big-dig-debt/

> The key point is that despite the moniker “Big Dig Debt,” all of these projects directly relate to transit expansion or improvements like extending the commuter rail on the South Shore and to Worcester, adding parking spaces, building out the Fairmount Line — not roadways and, certainly, not the Big Dig. They came about as a result of an agreement that had to be signed in order for the environmental permitting around the Big Dig to take place.

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