Red Line a Leaky Death Trap, MBTA Basically Screwed, Says Report

Okay, we might be exaggerating a little, but this sentence from the independent review of the MBTA that was released yesterday caught our attention:

In some areas [along the Red Line between Alewife and Harvard], the fasteners are no longer holding the track in place, causing track to move out of alignment and presenting the possibility of train derailment.

The $80 million project to fix the leak that is causing that deathtrap is only one of "51 projects classified as ‘a danger to life or limb of passengers and/or employees,'" which will cost the T approximately $543 million to complete. Meanwhile, the report also forecasts budget deficits of $550 million by 2014, and we will be riding our bike to Davis Square.

The report, which was ordered by Governor Deval Patrick, places blame for the T's financial apocalypse where riders have long suspected that it lies: the legislation in 2000 that changed the structure of the state's support for the agency. Instead of paying off the T's debt at the end of each year, as it had, Massachusetts now pays the agency a fixed rate every year. Unfortunately, costs of labor, health care, and electricity have skyrocketed since the overhaul, and the T has been racking up debt like a drunk gambling addict trapped in Suffolk Downs for eight straight years.

How to fix the situation? As the report says, "The Outlook is Bleak." (The report also includes a chapter called "Debt—The Faustian Bargain," which we wished we could have written.) But, the report does suggest that the agency "Slow expansion until the safety and maintenance priorities can be addressed"—goodbye Green Line extension—and that "the MBTA should not be able to enter into new debt obligations without MassDOT oversight." So there's that. [Globe]

Image from the 2007 Red Line escape courtesy Lolita Parker Jr.