Concord - Accessible by Commuter Rail (5 minute walk to Concord Center). Concord center is a quaint New England town center with lots of unique shops. Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott lived is nearby as well as the pretty historic site the Old North Bridge (part of Minuteman National Park).

People are going to have to wait out the market. People can get everything ready for when something comes up so they can move quickly.

This is also a support and maintenance contract, not just implementation.

Turnstiles, fareboxes, software/back end payment systems, etc.

The existing fare system already has those costs and they would be expected to be higher (as it gets more obsolete and harder to support) over that time period than the new system. So those aren't exactly new/additional costs vs what the MBTA was already spending at status quo to continue to have a fare system.

You're looking at more like a $650m number for the actual "new fare system" and $300m for a decade of support/maintenance. To be clear, I'm not at all happy with that price or the project management/timeline.

MBTA fare revenue in 2019 was around $672m, 2023 fare revenue is expected to be around $475m.

We're talking about 1 year's fare revenue to implement the project itself, and combined costs (project + ongoing costs) should still be only around 10-15% of the decade's fare revenue. With the at least 20 year project life, you'd be looking at fare collection costs coming in probably below 10% over the 20 years.

Ignoring inflation, over 10 years at pre-pandemic levels, the MBTA would bring in ~6.7 billion in fares. (At current levels, $4.75 billion), and $13.4 billion for 20 years. The fare system can be expected to cost around $1bn for the decade, around $1.3bn for 20 years.

So, the question is:

Where are you coming up with another $4-5 billion for the T in the next decade from?

And if you do have that $4-5 billion, is free fares the best use of that money or is any of the huge list of projects people want to improve the system a better use of it?

Not sure the choice of doing nothing fits into a bucket of successful leadership.

Depends mostly spoon

I think more studies and skill building should do the trick.

Do you eat macaroni with a fork or a spoon?

[deleted]

You'll be shocked to learn that not everyone is healthy.

I wear one because I'm going through chemo therapy, have no immune system, and getting sick could kill me. My loved ones wear masks so that they can safely be with me and not have to worry about killing me. I go to a building full of people in my situation every week.

Clipper Ship Inn is just over the bridge in Salem and is the best lodging deal around. It's not fancy but it's clean.

My favorite was a couple years ago they had that whole Fare is Fair thing.

You know what else is fair? Trains that run on time. Tracks that don't light on fire. Faster train service than walking from A to B. Fair goes both ways, I'm paying for a service.

Also the vast majority of the time when tickets weren't checked on the commuter rail, it was because they were understaffed and couldn't check tickets. But I'm sure they thought of that... Right?

All just to count money. Wtf

lol you people will continue blaming Baker in 2030.

You are absolutely delusional to not see that your politicians absolutely don't care about you. Why should they? You'll lap up all the garbage values they spit out while doing fuckall.

Did you happen to know that the Democratic Party in Mass had a complete veto proof supermajority in the legislature branch during all of Baker's reign? Do you know what this actually means? It means Baker didn't do shit unless the DNC approved it first.

But yeah continue to vote for the same politicians that figuratively spit in your face while telling you they care about housing equality or public transportation.

I mean FFS we voted out a politician that brought billions in federal transportation grants into Mass and replaced him with a woke twitter moron that has done fuck all but loves to ride the coattails of AOC (who is a better politician than Pressley will ever be).

Yes, there can be delays. What sucks is if you take an earlier train and you don’t have a delay you just get there early.

But yes snow can mess with the trains. Cold temperatures can prevent them from starting too.

It's wild. Between MassDOT and MBTA, the city grinds to a halt.

There are a few decent Mass Government agencies. I'm usually pretty impressed with Massport. Logan Express buses operate well, the parks they service (like Bremen Street Park) are very beautifully maintained. Plus Logan's renovations went really well - and the Logan renovations went off without a problem. It's a much smaller agency and have a lot of Federal oversight (cause, ya know, planes). But it's still proof that a State agency can be good with with the right management structure and fuckin' accountability.

I love this take, Bob.😂😁🏆

It's gwaffiti uwu

I bought a 2 bedroom fixer upper in Hyde Park with 0% down (NACA) in 2019 AMA

That's scary. I was on 495 this weekend and saw someone on the shoulder with a smashed windshield. I assume it was from the same thing but with worse consequences.

To answer your question, a lot of people are selfish, dumb or both.

I agree, N95 is the best. I was commenting that for OP. If you really want a cloth mask then do it as safely as possible.

[deleted]

Are you sure you need to cut them yourself? They usually have a tool so it becomes the exact size they need.

Pigs don't need more overtime. We already pay millions for them to harass homeless people

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/09/26/boston-police-run-up-millions-in-overtime-at-mass-and-cass-homeless-encampment

Ain’t called Massholes for nothin. Watched some dude blow a red light this morning, barely missing a crossing guard and about 4 school kids. Like wtf is wrong with you.

The “fares” is mostly the commuter rail too, like free busses would cost almost nothing because there aren’t that many bus fare dollars to give away in the first place.