T’s high-profile woes keep agency stuck in vicious cycle

It made for good television footage and a nice front-page picture in this newspaper. The images illustrated a fairly abstract and complex topic: the MBTA’s abysmal financial condition and the resulting decay of the subway system.

But that simplification of the wide-ranging financial and public safety problem has long contributed to making things worse at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

In this case, leaks and subsequent corrosion have put the tracks at risk of falling out of alignment in the section between Alewife and Harvard stations. It would cost $80 million to fix, and the MBTA does not have the money. So Governor Deval Patrick, who ordered the independent review that identified the problem publicly last week, called on track inspectors who found no urgent problems.

But it’s important to remember the scene on the Red Line tracks demonstrated only a fraction of the MBTA’s problem.

That’s right, the Red Line was only a single example among 51 unfunded projects considered critical to preventing “a danger to life and limb.’’ All told, the MBTA would need more than $500 million more than it currently spends to fix the most crucial problems, $3 billion to tackle the entire backlog.

Here’s where the pictures on the Red Line put the agency back into the same old trap, explained rather well in the review released last week by former John Hancock chairman David F. D’Alessandro. (You can read the full report online at http://mbtareview.com/ )

His report showcases a pattern:

The media reports on a problem. Politicians order the MBTA to fix it. The MBTA devotes all its resources to fixing the problem, to avoid further criticism. Meanwhile, other problems get ignored and further shortchanged.

It becomes a high-stakes game of Whac-a-Mole, the arcade game that drives players nuts because they get distracted by one rodent, only to allow more rodents to pop up elsewhere.

The D’Alessandro report detailed another incident that played out almost identically, just a few weeks ago, when an old cable caught fire on the Red Line, halting rush-hour trains.

“Fixing this problem becomes a priority that supersedes previously approved projects,’’ the report explains. “The MBTA will require approximately $140 million to replace the aging cable, and that money will be diverted from other projects such as overhauling vehicles.’’

In compiling his report, D’Alessandro said he relied on the MBTA’s rating system that evaluates long-term maintenance projects on a 10-point safety scale. The 10s are the scariest “life and limb’’ projects, but D’Alessandro said he did not have the time or resources to dig further and he suspects that some projects rated 8 may really be a priority 10 and that other projects rated 10 may really be worthy of an 8.

After receiving the report, Patrick ordered a high-level staff review of the projects, to make sure safety priorities are in the right order. But he has not been able to offer a new source of money to pay for them. So he also announced that inspectors would be out on the Red Line.

It’s not surprising Patrick ordered the track inspections. Not only does he lack the money to pay for an $80 million project that would repair the Red Line, but he also had to contend with a public that was understandably concerned with the immediate dangers raised in the report. D’Alessandro, after all, had gone on the radio that morning and said he would not ride that same portion of the line.

How’s that for scary? It’s probably a bit dramatic as well.

In either case, most riders don’t have that choice. They need to take the T and they need to trust that it is safe. They will all be hoping the state can come up with a way to whack a few more of those moles.

Governor takes to the rails as sign of faith

“This is my line,’’ he said Wednesday morning, as reporters watched him stand on a Red Line car, the first leg of a trip to Logan International Airport. (He almost went to the wrong side of the platform after he entered at JFK/UMass station, but that’s easy to do there if you’re not paying close attention or, like Patrick, you don’t regularly use the station.)

Patrick lives in Milton, walking distance from the Mattapan trolley, which connects with the Red Line at Ashmont station.

The governor also took the Red Line after work Tuesday night, before the release of an important MBTA review he commissioned, but acknowledged he does not use public transportation much in his current job. He had never ridden the Silver Line bus before Wednesday morning, when he took it from South Station to the airport.

“Before I got this job, I spent a lot of time on the T,’’ he said. “It’s not easy on this job.’’

That was evident, as State Police and a throng of handlers surrounded him. Other passengers were left to stare and no doubt wonder when all of them would be getting off the train.