Leaky T Stops, Leaky Budget

We can't control the nasty weather that occasionally strikes Boston. When the sleet stings your face, or when you step into a deep, cold puddle, you just have to convince yourself that the moment will pass. Soon, you'll be underground in a cozy T stop where you can thaw out or dry off.

Or will you? Over the past weekend, the Globe did a piece on how rain is soaking through T stops thanks to perpetual construction. Tania deLuzuriaga describes the condition at several stations in detail:

As a winter deluge soaked the city yesterday, water stains the color of coffee spread across the ceiling at Kendall Station and oozed down the walls. Maverick resembled a site for water torture. State Street sounded as if a river ran through it. At North Station, where MBTA officials have spent more than $262 million renovating the station, water poured in through the ceiling.

deLuzuriaga ices that cake with a line about the desperate conditions at North Station: "... a worker dressed like a Gorton's Fisherman in yellow plastic pants tried in vain to battle the water with his mop." We hear Stony Brook also has drippy tendencies.

When one of the employees is dressed like the Gorton's Fisherman, the situation has hit rock-bottom. If the city weren't in perpetual construction, then it wouldn't be Boston. But it would be so nice to enter a warm, dry T stop, a little safe haven before stepping out into a cold, rainy day.

But don't expect that day to come anytime soon. Despite a fare hike, Dan Grabauskas had this to say about the MBTA: "We're broke." The Globe reports that Grabauskas doesn't plan on raising fares this year, but that means more holes are going to spring open, leaving the MBTA to drown--in water and in debt.

Image from the Gorton's website.