Think T has problems? Look to NYC

Be careful if you get a reading tip from Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA. He's spreading some very scary news for commuters.

"I've sent many people to read the New York newspapers, to travel forward six or seven months in time," Grabauskas said last week.

In New York, they've proposed cutting entire subway lines and bus routes. They're looking at fare hikes well above 25 percent, including, according to one newspaper report, single subway rides costing as much as $3, up from $2. Drivers won't catch a break either, as the same authority controls nine bridges and tunnels and is looking to charge as much as $7 at some tolls.

"You don't have to look into the crystal ball to look at what we may face here, not on the same scale, but in Boston," Grabauskas said.

The scale is different, but the problem is proportionately the same - roughly 10 percent.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to plug a $1.2 billion deficit in an $11.2 billion operating budget. Grabauskas now says the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is looking at a $160 million budget gap next year, from an operating budget of about $1.6 billion.

That deficit projection, which Grabauskas calls a moving target, is even higher than a $142 million estimate reported earlier this month in the Globe.

New York papers say riders are very worried there. The MTA board is now holding hearings on the proposals.

"It's obviously very tough and we've said on numerous occasions that we don't want to have to implement these measures," said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for New York's MTA. "This level of increase is a burden and will discourage people from using transit."

The MTA imposed a small increase in March. Just a few months ago, the system was looking at an unwanted 8 percent increase. But finances have grown worse since then - a combination of low tax revenues, high costs, and big debt - fairly similar to the T's problems.

The MTA had to pass a balanced budget by January, so the board has included the fare hikes and service cuts to plug the budget gap.

But a recent state commission, appointed by New York Governor David A. Paterson, recommended ideas that include putting tolls on more bridges and dedicating a payroll tax to public transit. MTA managers are hoping the Legislature in Albany helps fix the problem before the hikes actually go into effect.

Grabauskas said the MBTA has one advantage over New York: "They're in crisis mode because their current fiscal year is already a mess. We're in dire circumstances, but we've got time."

He said lawmakers in Massachusetts have been receptive to his pleas to help the T as they look to reorganize the state's messy transportation agencies, including the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

Remember the MIT student hackers who exposed how the MBTA's electronic fare tickets could give free rides? They're back, working free for the MBTA to improve the Charlie Ticket system whose flaws they exposed.

"The best way to fix these problems is to approach them head-on," R.J. Ryan, one of the students, said in a statement released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the hackers in their legal fight with the MBTA.

A judge denied an injunction against the students that was filed by the MBTA in August, in which the agency contended their findings could cause "significant damage to the transit system" if released publicly.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology students had maintained all along that they were willing to work with the T to improve security. After losing the decision in August, the T's lawyer, Ieuan Mahony, said agency managers wanted to work with the students.

The T later dismissed its suit against the students after they agreed to work with the agency, Mahony said. The T's case against MIT is pending, according to Mahony. Under the agreement, the students will not release sensitive findings until the end of June, he said.

"They're smart guys so we're just talking to them about some of the other things we're doing and bounced some ideas around," Grabauskas said last week.

Is it really possible that more people worry about the state's roads and bridges than their own tax bills?

That's what a Boston Globe poll found this month. The poll's highlights appeared in last Sunday's paper, but there is lots of interesting stuff tucked in the full results, which the paper published online.

Asked to list the state's "most important problem," more people mentioned problems with infrastructure or roads and bridges (9 percent), than high taxes (8 percent).

Infrastructure is "something that's mentioned typically, 2 to 3 percent in any state that I've looked at," said Andrew E. Smith, the Globe's pollster. "For it to get up to be 9 percent there, it's a concern. It's been raised either because people have seen it themselves or it's been discussed by political leaders and the press."

Or because of a toll hike proposal passed by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority last month. That got a lot of people's attention, as commuters have rallied to try to stop the tolls from rising by as much as 100 percent at some booths.

In addition to the 9 percent who cited bridges and roads as a problem, another 2 percent of the population specifically cited tolls as their chief concern.

Transportation and infrastructure has usually been rated the top concern by 2 percent of the population in past Globe polls. Last September was another exception to that rule, when it was cited by 10 percent of the population. But last year, taxes still rated a higher concern (17 percent).

Please send complaints, comments, or story ideas to starts@globe.com The column and a listing of major road closures and other transportation advisories can be found at www.boston.com/starts.