Each week there is a negative story regarding the MBTA. If it’s not overtime costs, breakdowns, poor operations, deficit issues or poor service it’s something else and there appears to be no end in sight towards resolving any of the problems.
Governor Charlie Baker has vowed to start in motion solutions but he would have to serve a hundred terms as governor to make a dent in anything that will make a difference.
The old Band-Aid plan will go on forever and ever unless the total legislature decides to make some difficult decisions that could possibly end their political positions by taking on powerful unions that provide election donations, can produce boots on the streets and voters at the polls.
When a T employee can sign his own overtime boosting his yearly salary from $84,822 to $327,636 yearly, there is something desperately wrong with the system. That’s an average of 50 hours of overtime each week and about a 90 hour work week.
Everyone can make a difference by talking but no one is talking or walking the walk and everything remains the same year after year.
Currently the T in MBTA stands for “Terrible”.