A running rant about bad television, crappy products, horrible service, mindless politics, corporate and government ineptitude, moronic media, marketing overload, public idiocy, stupid entertainment, etc. Here's what's annoying me today:

5.08.2006

You Call This RAPID Transit?



I used to be a regular MBTA Commuter Rail and subway rider, so I am very accustomed to Boston's dysfunctional system- especially the Green Line and North Station. Both are jokes.

I've mentioned here before the absurdity of building an all new transportation hub (North Station) that is used by thousands of commuters a day (in addition to serving as the entry area to a 20,000 seat stadium) that has a 15 foot wide waiting area, and one two-stall bathroom located at the furthest possible point from the train platforms. The place is an absolute joke.

And when I worked in the city, I generally would walk from the Back Bay to North Station because the chances were 50/50 that you would beat the Green Line by walking. At least you knew how long it would take if you walked.

So yesterday I took the train in to the Red Sox game. The commuter rail ride from my home on the North Shore is only about a half hour, half of which is spent negotiating the track switching area along the final mile. It used to be that the biggest bottleneck of the trip, and the reason I usually avoided taking the train to such events was having to use the decrepit elevated Green Line station, and having to wait in line at the single booth for a token.

But hey, I figured, I know there is a spiffy new subway station, there is the much hyped Charlie Card. And it's 2006. Boston must finally have caught up with the times, and there must be token machines galore.

Well that was giving much too much credit to this stupid annoying city.

Came out of the train station, and entered the gleaming new combined Green and Orange Line station, and sure enough, a line stretched nearly out the door to the SINGLE token booth manned by the same slow lazy, government union worker type that was always manning the single token booth in the old elevated station. Not a token machine or Charlie Card machine in sight.

That's Boston. They can build new multi-million dollars stations, increase prices regularly, but they can't figure out that at one of the busiest subways stations in the system on the day of a Red Sox game, they could probably use more options for selling tokens than one slow fat man.

Then, of course, once through the token line, it was 15 minutes till a train came, when one came it was an E train that didn't go to Fenway, and the thing creaked along at 2 miles an hour the whole way. Finally just got out and walked.

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gotta love those suburbanites who come to the city
twice a year & complain about the lousy service for
the $2.50 they spent on the subway ride.
Keep in mind the Feds subsidized half of that crappy
ride on the "T".

12:22 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dont even pay full price for the T. ive been getting around it for about 2 years since coming to college. if youre paying directly on the train (like some green line stops), take a dollar bill, cut it in half, pre-fold it and slip it in the slot. drop in the additional quarter to make it the $1.25 fare. with the other half you get another ride (w/ an additional quarter). if youre paying in a station, hope they dont duct tape over the discount gate. take 12 dimes and 1 nickle ($1.25) in one hand, take a bunch of pennies in the other. if someone asks you about it, hold out the dimes and nickles to show youre putting them in the bin to speed things up. drop in the pennies instead. if no one asks anything, just drop in some pennies. if there is no line at all though, just go up to the booth and say, "i have all dimes and nickles, should i just drop them in the bin?" then the typical lazy T worker says yes, and you drop in pennies.

i cant remember the last time i paid the full fare.

3:45 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They would have been better off building new public transit instead of the big dig. New transit would encourage people to use it and reduce traffic. The big dig encourages more car travel increasing traffic. We also have leaky tunnels and bridges named after people no one knows...who the hell is zakie Zakem?!

9:11 PM

 
Blogger Cranky said...

I'm all for public transportation, and think the T is a reletively inexpensive service. It's the stupidity of the operation that gets me. Building a new multimillion dollar station, and not putting one fucking token machine in it. Certainly doesn't encourage the "suburbanites who come in twice a year" to take the T when they have to wait 20 minutes to buy a token at North Station, because they were too stupid to install a fuckin token machine at one of the busiest entry points in the system.

8:12 AM

 
Blogger Sick of Extremes said...

Got my first try using the 'Charlie' card today! Got on the subway at Kendall to go downtown to have lunch with 'Johnny H'. They showed me the new machines to get the ticket out and it was cool because you can load up the card with as many trips you need.

Problem was, when I wanted to get back on the train at Downtown, they don't have the 'Charlie' card set up there and I had to buy the friggin' token! The train dumped everybody out before it started because of a bad smelling burning brake problem and we had to wait 20 minutes total for a new train. Ahh, the shitty of Boshton!

5:28 PM

 

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