In general, a person should save a little money in case something bad happens. But the MBTA, which General Manager Dan Grabauskas says is broke, has had to deplete its reserves significantly. The Globe reports today that the T's new budget will take $20 million from the emergency fund, bringing the reserves down to $35 million. The reserves are supposed to be $100 million. Now that emergency funds are no longer technically "emergency," the T......

Radio Boston had MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas on the air on Friday, and he took questions from callers about the T. He likely realized that he was about to put his feet to the fire, as Radio Boston began the show with a few quotations, such as "I hate the people on the T, I hate the service, I hate everything about the T." When Grabauskas had his turn at the mike, he repainted......

Ever "Written to the Top" to complain to the MBTA that a bus or train you expected never arrived? And maybe, just maybe, they wrote back in apology? It's likely they did it on purpose, according to a Herald article: Top MBTA officials acknowledge that for years the agency has been secretly cutting thousands of bus and train trips from published schedules to lower costs - a practice that has left legions of customers waiting......

--MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas has received plenty of angry e-mails in his time, and should be able to take some serious heat. But he is furious about an e-mail from a Department of Corrections employee that got way too personal. Grabauskas is gay, and the e-mailer used anti-gay slurs about Grabauskas when describing MBTA service. Now Grabauskas is upset with Deval Patrick and his administration for not doing something about it sooner. The......

MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas is on vacation in Thailand, which is in itself not a crime. However, the Herald is reporting that Grabauskas left for vay-cay as an Amtrak strike looms. But is it a story? Rarely do we defend the MBTA, but Joe Pesaturo at the MBTA noted that the earliest time a strike can take place is January 30. Then again, a possible strike would be a "giant snowball of crappiness" for......

If Amtrak workers follow through on threats to strike nationwide on January 30, Boston commuters of all stripes will find themselves deeply embedded in a giant snowball of crappiness. If you take the Commuter Rail, you'd better come up with a Plan B -- fast. During an Amtrak strike, South Station and the Providence/Stoughton line would basically shut down until it's all settled. Not so smug, everyone else, because you're screwed, too. If South......

A bright spot after the various scary episodes on the Green Line--MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas has announced improvements to a few bus lines in the city effective Saturday, December 29. The improvements will affect Route 15 (Kane Square/Fields Corner--Ruggles) and Route 111 (Woodlawn/Broadway and Park--Haymarket). According to the MBTA office announcement, specifically, Route 15 service "will be extended to provide increased evening and weekend service to Bowdoin Street, Geneva Avenue and Fields Corner Station."......

Our little boy is growing up so fast! December 4th marks the one-year anniversary of the debut of the CharlieCard, and the milestone has left General Manager Dan Grabauskas waxing poetic: "I guess you'd have to say that Charlie is a precocious child." Precocious? That's one way of putting it. Charlie loves playing practical jokes on us, like when we just need to pay for one ride, only have a $20 bill on us,......

Bostonist saw today's "Rolling Rally," featuring the players riding duck boats across the city and relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon dancing to the Dropkick Murphys, from two different vantage points--near the Common and at the Hynes Convention Center. Everyone clearly enjoyed themselves, especially Papelbon: Wherever you were along the parade route, it was simply madness. Of course, the Red Sox faithful turned out in their jerseys. Hundreds of little kids skipped school. College students sat down......

We've fretted over the fate of food delivery people before. Now, after the Globe's latest piece about the perils faced by food delivery people, we ask you to hug your pizza delivery guy today. Those people work hard for their money, and it's a risky gig. There have been 52 delivery-related robberies this year. The BPD blotter is often full of cases in which a food delivery guy gets held up for a free pizza......

The Herald is shocked...SHOCKED! that MBTA General Manager, Daniel Grabauskas, get this ... makes a lot of money. About $255K per year. "Chief $eeing green as T’s in red: Slammed for ‘absurd’ salary" That's a sh*tload o'dough! The T is in debt! Fire his a$$! Send Grabauskas on an express bus to Unemployment Crossing! Wait. Who in his/her right mind would want that crappy, thankless job? It sounds sorta hard. If you ran the T,......

The season has begun! Well, it really starts for the Red Sox tomorrow when they play against the Kansas City Royals, but we have a raging case of spring fever. The Red Sox held their last spring training game against the Phillies. With Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching, the team won 7 to 5. However, on Fox 25, we caught a glimpse of the Phillies' Pat Burrell giving Terry Francona the one-fingered salute. When people are flipping......

It seemed as if the Celtics were riding high when they finally beat the San Antonio Spurs this weekend and gave the Dallas Mavericks a run for their money. St. Patrick's Day had been kind to the Celtics, especially with anything regarding the state of Texas. However, the good luck was only on the court. News also emerged this weekend that the Celtics organization had "excessive contact" with a Texas VIP - University of Texas......

Nothing really seems to change on the T because most of the people riding it are ordinary schlubs like us. We "write to the top," and our letters escape into the void of transportation bureaucracy. Until now. Paul Levy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, posted a letter to Universal Hub about a Green Line Ride From Hell. The entire letter is available at Universal Hub, but, in short, Levy......

Trot Nixon has moved on to the Cleveland Indians for a $3-million-dollar contract. Seems like the Sox put him to pasture: "Nixon had repeatedly expressed a preference to remain with the Sox, even as a series of injuries severely curtailed his production the last three seasons." Dirt Dogs quotes Mark Huntley of Red Sox Nation in NYC: "When will this ownership and this general manager learn that players are not just interchangeable parts to be......

It feels like only yesterday when Bostonist wrote Jason Priestley and asked him to be our date to the junior prom. Unfortunately, Priestley never responded and after many unanswered phone calls to his agent, Bostonist decided to ask someone on the soccer team instead. It’s that time of year when teenagers get into a twitter over the upcoming prom season and two Maine teens decided to skip over all the average boys and go right......

The MBTA is revving up the flux capacitor and delivering to New Orleans reliable green line service. In a Romney supported dispatch the MBTA will be shipping a portable power substation, capable of pumping the 600 volts into the rail system to get the streetcars moving. Bostonist is not an electrician and our high school physics knowledge is a little, well, dusty, but with some quick review it looks like 1.21 Gigawatts is still quite......

Mo Vaugn really is the strangest guy ever. We understand that the end of his baseball career wasn't so dignified, but damn, do we have to keep learning new ways in which the former Sox slugger is really weird? First, we heard that he's opening up a high-end car wash in Attleboro, which despite making sense in light of his well-known love of Providence's Foxy Lady strip club, is pretty odd. Now it has come......

The initials "GM" have taken on an entirely new meaning for the Red Sox of late. "Gigantic Mess" seems appropriate. It's been two weeks since the press conference where we saw Theo Epstein depart the position everyone assumed he'd hold until at least his twenty-year reunion at Yale. It's been two weeks since we saw principal owner John Henry, at the very same press conference, speak in a manner of disbelief usually reserved for those......

If Bostonist could paraphrase the infamous words of Colonel Jesop in the movie A Few Good Men, "You weakened Red Sox Nation today Larry Lucchino, that's all you did." Theo is gone, and the Boston Red Sox are without a General Manager. In what will go down in history as one of the supreme boffo manuevers in the Boston Red Sox checkered history became "official-official today" when Theo Epstein held his farewell press conference with......

Last week Bostonist was all in a tizzy over the idea that the Red Sox wouldn't be able to work out a deal to keep General Manager Theo Epstein here in Boston. His contract for the past three years was going to end today, but there was lots of negotiating the past few weeks to have Theo stay with the Sox. Well, Bostonist awoke this Monday morning to see a nice article stating that according......

As of this morning, the Boston Red Sox and their prodigy General Manager Theo Epstein still had not yet agreed on a contract extension for the 31-year old baseball prodigy. Epstein, a homegrown Brookline boy and local celebrity after bringing the Red Sox a World Series title in 2004, has a contract that ends Halloween at midnight, yeah, like in six days from now. Supposedly, over these past few weeks, it has been business......

Governor Romney was spotted this afternoon at the Park Street MBTA station. The Governor returned to Boston from a Washington DC fundraiser in order to show residents that things were perfectly safe. Bostonist usually rides on the Trolley with a couple of body guards too, perfectly safe Mitt. Channel 5 already has posted a report on Mitt’s return home just to ride the subway (similar to when he slept in his own bed in the......