Commuter rail pass worth fare value
 HOLIDAY EXODUS — Passengers catching the 2 p.m. Amtrak train to Washington, D.C., Friday dashed to the doors. They were among the thousands of riders who crowded the trains at South Station. (John Tlumacki/ Globe Staff) |
Back in the day, whenever a T fare increase approached, money-conscious Boston commuters would load up on tokens the month before the fare hike took place, paying the old price in the new year.
Not so this year. With the token now out of circulation, it s value will stand at $1.25 into the new fare hike. And that $10 you loaded on your CharlieCard this year will remain $10 next year when fares go up.
"Cash value is the same cash value in the new year, and the token will be honored as $1.25," said MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas.
But we found some wiggle room.
When Eric of Framingham looked at his current 12-ride commuter rail ticket, it says it expires 180 days after the date stamped on its back.
"There is no indicated cash value for the fare," he wrote. "It's my interpretation that this legally means that it's valid for 12 rides, whenever I chose to take them, within 180 days of the purchase date.
"That was the contract I agreed to when I paid them cash for the ticket," he added. "They do not, however, indicate anywhere what they will do with existing 12-ride tickets after the start of the new year."
Grabauskas said that even with the fare hike, such 12-ride tickets will be honored in the New Year.
"If that was unclear, I'm making it very clear right now," Grabauskas said.
"For the handful of people who may want to go out and hoard these, I do not want to inconvenience the people with whom we made an agreement with the old 12-ride tickets," Grabauskas added. "I think that's reaching deeper into somebody's pocket than we should."
Grabauskas said he plans to clarify language on the new web site that any on line purchase of a 12-ride ticket is for the month of January, not this month.
According to the T, the site had more traffic to its schedules and maps than the contractor expected. There was also something the T called "a flaw in stress testing."
The Web guys who designed the site had it look up each schedule and map route every time someone requested it. But that was occurring so often that many of them never got through to the application server -- and never came back from the database server.
Stress tests were done, but they didn't reproduce the stress the schedules and map requests would cause on the server. And then the web site died.
They have since fixed the problem and run more stress tests, which were 10 times the amount of the highest traffic seen on Dec. 15 when the site debuted and failed. T officials said the servers did get overburdened and response times were sometimes slow, so the T has decided to get additional hardware, which should be in place by mid-January.
It would no longer hold meetings in far off locales with little prior notice. It would be open and honest. It would show that government works for the people.
Well, after the authority passed its 2007 operating budget last week, we couldn't get a copy of it. And for the first time in our illustrious journalism career, we witnessed a budget presentation in which the total amount of the budget was never quoted.
(We found out later that it's $187 million, up 9.5 percent from $171 million this year).
But at the meeting, there was no talk of how much the budget had gone up, where the money came from to make up for the $7.5 million in lost tolls when the tunnel was shut down, and how the authority plans to add more jobs to its lineup. Nothing.
We asked the press officer for a copy of anything, even an executive summary. Nothing.
Another driver let passengers have a free ride because of a broken fare box, which we found out was T policy.
We took the matter to the T, and officials said the wayward driver would be retrained. They also talked about their rigorous training.
Well, it happened again.
"I just find it amazing that after the Starts & Stops column in Sunday's paper, the T continues to have drivers who don't know the 505 route," wrote Mike of Waltham. "I just got home on the 0164 bus [left Boston around 4:10ish]. The driver did not know he had to take a right on to Commonwealth Avenue. Told the nice passenger that helped him that it was his first time driving the route and then had to confirm that he took a right on to Lexington and straight into Waltham."
He got a response back from T officials, who talked about the Cabot/Albany Garage and how it has 45 bus routes and that drivers from the garage "are shown each route one time and usually must rely on their notes for the first few times they drive the route."
Each route one time?
"What happened to the 'extensive training' that James Folk was quoted as saying they give the drivers?" Mike asked. "How does showing the driver 'each route one time' equal 'extensive training.' "
Folk, chief transportation officer for bus operations, said drivers do drive each route once, but after driving all the routes, "they are given opportunities to drive routes again."
"And we encourage them that if they're not familiar with a route before they go out, ask for help," Folk said.
Part of the problem is new hires, an estimated 200 drivers in the last several months, as part of the T's effort to bolster bus service.
Now the $2.3 million project is done. And with the change come s the low-floored Breda cars, which last rode the branch three years ago before a derailment. T officials said last week the changes should result in safer and more reliable rides.
The Red, Orange, Blue, and Green line trains will operate on a Sunday schedule.
Buses and trackless trolleys will operate on a Sunday schedule.
Commuter rail will operate on a Sunday schedule. Tomorrow, the Fairmount, Needham, and Stoughton lines will not operate.
Inner Harbor ferries will operate a normal weekend schedule today and will not operate tomorrow.
Hingham and Hull commuter boats will not operate.
Quincy commuter boats to Logan International Airport and Long Wharf will operate on a revised Sunday schedule. Last departures are from Quincy, 3:30 p.m.; Logan, 4:30 p.m.; and Boston, 4:15 p.m.
THE RIDE will operate on a Sunday schedule both days.
Exit 23 to Purchase Street off I-93 south will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
The Essex Street on ramp to I-93 south will close 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
Two lanes of I-93 south approaching and through downtown will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
Two lanes of I-93 north from South Bay through downtown and Charlestown will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
The Sumner Tunnel on ramp to I-93 north will close 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday morning.
Exit 26 (Storrow Drive) off I-93 north will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
The Essex Street on ramp to I-93 north will close 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Tuesday through Wednesday morning.
One lane in the Ted Williams Tunnel eastbound will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday morning.
One lane of I-90 west near Logan Airport will close 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday.
The Congress Street on ramp to I-93 south and I-90 west will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
The Sumner Tunnel on ramp to Storrow Drive will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday morning.
Complain to us at starts@globe.com. Don't forget to send us your hometown. Outside the paper, the column can be found at boston.com/starts with daily updates on the Starts & Stops Blog at boston.com/starts/blog. Our mailing address is Starts & Stops, P.O. Box 55819, Boston, MA 02205-5819. 
