So tell us a little bit about all the many things that the MBTA does.
>> The MBTA's basic service is,
it provides 1.3 million trips every day to people throughout Greater Boston.
It does this through an extensive bus system,
four subway lines, a huge commuter rail system and
as well as a handful of ferries. >> How does the age of Boston's subway
system come into play here?
How does it matter for you? >> It's really the issue that our
customers care that the subway and the bus is reliable and
the age of the system sort of strikes at the core of that.
We have one rail line with cars from 1946.
We have cars that only 12 years old that are not performing as well as we hoped and
it really affects the reliability of the system, and
I think what folks want is a train or a bus that shows up on time on schedule.
And gets them where they wanna go In the amount of
time that they've been told it's gonna take them.
I think making investments in the system is the key to doing that.
Or we're bringing in hundreds of new cars for the red and orange line.
And as a consequence, the newer,
the new technology is gonna require us to upgrade the track and signals.
We're gonna get to the point where,
probably by 2023 where we can have three minute headways on the Red Line.
Right now we have four to six minutes headways at about 75% reliability.
I think we can get to three minute headways at 95% reliabiity.
So all the way up and down the Red Line, you're gonna be plus or
minus 90 seconds from a train during rush hour.
I think that's gonna be a real benefit to customers.
I also think it's gonna bring marginal customers
who might be considering an alternative mode of transportation.
It's gonna bring marginal customers into the system.
So I think these type of investments is what's gonna drive new ridership and
provide better service to our existing ridership.
>> And how is this paid for?
Surely the subway passengers can't possibly be expected to pay for
the upgrading of their own service. >> We did raise fares so
they are in fact paying for some it.
But we have capital funding available from the State through internally generated
funds and
as well as through Federal Funds. >> What is internally generated
funds mean? >> We essentially have
the capacity to borrow.
So we borrow to fund certain projects.
One of the- >> So
you think they'll actually be paid for by future customers, is that what that means?
>> They will be paid for, yes,
they will be paid for by future customers.
There's also been some dedicated state funding
as well that is gonna pay for them. >> This is an area where the trade off
between rail and bus becomes quite clear where you could clearly do some version of
what's going on in these 46 and 56 trains on buses instead.
How should I think more generally about that trade off in transportation
systems? >> I mean,
I think there's attractive features to bus, right?
You have the flexibility to redesign your system.
You have the flexibility to serve populations that.
And do it in relatively short order and
we have areas where we are underserving customers as the Boston area has
developed there's been a bunch of transportation nodes that have grown.
I mean the ones that leap to mind are particularly north of the city.
We have big populations in East Boston and Chelsea that are using the bus.
We're trying to build capacity in that area in terms of bus stations
and large intermodal stations.
But also supplement the bus routes.
On the otherhand, with rail, there is some virtue in having a fixed rail system,
particularly in a congested city center where you can get people rapidly to and
from a place.
And I think as we improve service, we talked about the red line, as we improve
service on the red line, I think the benefits of that will become clearer.
The issue with rail now is construction cost.
And available space to actually build new capacity.
>> Late night service.
So, the T has, in the past, a familiar battle cry,
people who are much younger than I am was that it's horrible for Boston,
that the T doesn't run later than it does.
How should I think about this and
what changes have been made in this area? >> Yes, the T has gone through several
iterations of late night service and I think we're still thinking about
what actually makes sense and what there's actually demand for.
One of the issues with the previous late night service was there was relatively low
demand.
I think the one thing that folks don't think about because they are not, they
shouldn't necessarily but in a system with really unbelievable state of good repair
needs where we have to do so much work on this system to get it up into condition.
Running trains until 1 or 2 in the morning on a service that opens
up at 5:00 am, really constrains your window to do work.
You also have to think about what populations you want to serve.
Is this a vehicle to promote night life in Boston or is is for service workers
who have limited transportation options who need to get to and from places.