Is excellence too much to ask?
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IN "T traps 60,000, raises doubts: Maintenance error halts entire system" (Page A1, May 22), about the MBTA's rush-hour power outage, a 75-year-old rider compared T service to that of "a Third World country." Apparently he hasn't taken public transportation in a Third World country - in my experience, service is better than ours.
The outrage isn't that the T recently shut down, it's that delays are common. There are too few trains and buses, and service is unreliable. As a result, many potential T riders drive, needlessly clogging our roadways with cars. Service is even worse in low-income neighborhoods, and better for suburban riders who pay the commuter rail premium.
I am amazed at how low our expectations are for the T. Too many of us accept poor service as a given, and only express outrage when a texting driver causes an accident or the whole system shuts down. Why aren't we demanding excellent service all the time? Why aren't we demanding sufficient state funding for the T? Think of how many more commuters would take the T if service was frequent and delays were rare.
There is no reason we can't have world-class mass transit in metro Boston, except that few seem to believe we deserve it.
Ken Pruitt
Stoneham 
