(The following column by Noah Bierman appeared on the Boston Globe website on June 7, 2009.)
BOSTON — This column provides a lot of distressing news about commuter rail, so I’m pleased to reveal what every passenger hopes is a new trend for the suburban train system.
Trains have been on time – within 5 minutes of scheduled arrival – more than 90 percent of the time for three months running. That’s the longest such stretch in two years, according to Richard Davey, general manager of Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., the private consortium that runs the service for the MBTA.
Davey credits “a renewed sense of urgency, a renewed focus.”
The T also adjusted the schedule on two troubled routes – the Fairmount and Haverhill lines.
Overall, trains in May and April both came in on schedule 94 percent of the time; March trains arrived on schedule 92 percent of the time.
That’s a vast improvement over previous months. In January, for example, trains arrived on schedule 77 percent of the time.
Winter is always tougher than the warmer months, but Davey said his crews have taken advantage of the warm weather to get a head start on persistent problems that crop up in cold weather. The biggest issue remains old locomotives, which the T has not been able to replace.
Despite the positive trend in recent months, the company still has something to shoot for. The T’s official goal for on-time performance remains 95 percent.
“I got some advice when I took this job,” Davey said. “You’re only as good as your last rush hour. I’m pleased but, there’s always a but.”
Those perplexing ‘popcorn’ potholes to be patched
The weird, remarkably symmetrical potholes are back.
They are the almost perfectly shaped rectangles that appear on highways where lane markers once dwelt.
At least one car commuter noticed them on Route 128 between Braintree and Randolph and on northbound sections of Route 24 between Bridgewater and Randolph.
Are they secret alien missives? Initiation rites of prankster flagmen?
None of the above. They are, in fact, a bad reaction caused when road workers lay down thermoplastic pavement markers over “popcorn” mix asphalt.
The problem was first reported in Starts & Stops in 2005. The Massachusetts Highway Department began using the popcorn asphalt on busy highways in the mid-1990s. It improves traction, prevents hydroplaning, and makes for a smoother ride at high speeds, according to spokesman Adam Hurtubise.
But the markings on top of the asphalt are applied at very high temperatures, which can damage the popcorn pavement underneath, he said. The normal freeze-thaw cycle accelerates the process. And there you get the rectangle potholes.
“We don’t use that kind of pavement marking with that kind of pavement anymore,” a change that began in 2005, Hurtubise said.
That means newly paved roads with a latex-based marking should not have that problem. Route 24, for example, is scheduled to be repaved this year. In the meantime, workers will patch the rectangles on older surfaces as they pop up, he said.
Fare share? Hike talks get into gear
Governor Deval Patrick’s top transportation official promised last week that debate over a coming MBTA fare hike would be robust and public. But the promise got off to a rough start.
The monthly agenda that announces Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority business made no mention of the issue before last Thursday’s key board meeting. Then, when the MBTA board finished its scheduled agenda and reached the “other business” portion, Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr. revealed that board members would be taking a significant vote – immediately – to begin a public hearing process for a fare increase within weeks. He said he expected fares to go up by the fall. He said he would speed up the usual public hearing process, but still provide commuters with 12 opportunities to make their feelings known.
That’s big news that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of daily commuters.
Even if Aloisi did not want to share details ahead of the meeting, he could have signaled in the public agenda that there would be a discussion of fares that would bear immediate consequences.
This was hardly an off-the-cuff addition to the agenda. Aloisi was well prepared when he made his presentation, and his board members had all been given information related to the discussion ahead of time.
In the days and hours before the meeting, when I asked Aloisi’s spokesman, Colin Durrant, whether a fare hike would be discussed, he answered vaguely that “budget issues may come up.”
Carrie Russell of the Conservation Law Foundation heard a few hours ahead of the meeting that the fare hike process would be discussed, and called fellow transit advocates Thursday morning to make sure they attended. She tried to get details from Aloisi’s office but was denied, she said.
She’s worried about Aloisi’s plan to speed up the normal public hearing process. She and others have been arguing for months that the T should have shared specific consequences of the T’s budget problems, such as service cuts and fare increases, particularly if the Legislature declines to come through with an expected $160 million in additional aid.
“That information has not been shared with the riding public,” Russell told the MBTA board.
She argued that shortening the public hearing process punishes MBTA riders, shortchanging them of the opportunity to make the same kind of impact that Massachusetts Turnpike commuters had to influence their legislators.
Aloisi has been in a tough spot in one regard. Every time he warns about significant fare hikes, legislators shout back that he’s blowing smoke and using scare tactics. Legislators were furious when the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Board members voted to hike tolls twice, dramatizing their financial plight.
But the results are interesting. Turnpike commuters will probably avoid a toll hike. MBTA riders, it now appears, will get a combination of a fare increase of 15 percent to 25 percent and possible service cuts, the full details of which have still not been released. The options could be a lot worse without help from the state.
Aloisi, meanwhile, promises that details – including what combination of service cuts and fare hikes to impose – will depend on a “completely interactive” public hearing process, where commuters will get to choose among a menu of options.