The Globe is diving into the nitty-gritty of the T problems with its "GlobeWatch." A reader let Christina Pazzanese know that conditions at the Sullivan Square stop are not only dirty and gross, but also unsafe: A Globe reporter's visit last week found that while snow had melted along the sidewalk from Broadway to Maffa Way, the busy walkway was dirty and a section under the highway overpass was quite dark even during the day.......

Stuart Spina, a 17-year-old student at Commonwealth School, stood before the MBTA Board of Directors yesterday and told them how to fix some of the most sluggish, inefficient routes. Spina produced a 22-page report that was more detailed than what any pricey consulting firm could pull off. Read it, and you might want him in a major transportation leadership position. He studied multiple bus lines, including the notorious bus 23, which another teenager exposed as......

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......

First Night What to choose? Ice sculptures? The film festival? Harry and the Potters? Visit First Night's official site for a full schedule. Music --Bang Camaro will bring their huge band and their even huger metal sound to the Hard Rock Café. The Hard Rock should thank Bang Camaro for making them cooler. Hard Rock, 22-24 Clinton St., Boston, 8:30 pm. $20. --The Upper Crust will look bewigged, powdered, and bloody well gorgeous as they--ahem--rocque.......

It's official. You can now put Charlie in your cell phone or on your computer. The T has a big, fat announcement on its home page, featuring an image of a gleeful woman. She's happy now, but she hasn't seen the charges that will result from all her text messages. Anyway, Bostonist has signed up. You can choose the "mode of service" you prefer: commuter rail, subway, bus, silver line, and boat. (Thank goodness......

The T announced that it is going to order 10 more of the infamous Breda cars for the Green Line. We wondered why the T would order more cars that don't work. The T's problems with Italian company AnsaldoBreda go waaay back: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority signed a $222 million contract in 1995 with an Italian company now known as AnsaldoBreda to provide the trains. The company was supposed to deliver 100 "Breda" cars,......

There is a lot to love about the MBTA. Its mascot is a man who began a nightmarish lifelong captivity 'neath the streets of Boston when he tried to take the T to Jamaica Plain. It offers Bostonians spontaneous trust exercises. It grants importance to our geographically inclined citizens. And, let's face it, it gets us to work. But America's oldest subway is poised to become America's most annoying. The concept is T-Radio, and it......

It's Miller Time, but you might not be getting to the bar as quickly as you'd like. We heard from a tipper at 4:45 pm that trains were dumping all their passengers off at Park Street and that it was mighty hot and mighty crowded. In a Boston Community Live Journal post that appeared at noon, littlestarletta noted that a communications center at High Street lost the ability to communicate with all trains and buses.......

A C-Line trolley hit a flatbed truck on Beacon Street this morning. The collision caused the truck to flip onto its side, where it straddled the tracks like a hooker for several hours. Newly minted BU students traveling between St. Mary's and Coolidge Corner got a crash course in T Shuttle Bus 101. Other commuters rued the Day that Mr. Trucky Didn't Yield as traffic gridlocked all the way to Cleveland Circle. According the......

Ah….. summer in Boston: Lobster rolls, ice-cold Sam Adams, and teen-agers shooting each other on the subway. Boston.com issued a breaking news alert today at 2:44 PM: “Police Search for 2 Suspects after Teen Shot on Orange Line Train.” According to the story by Mac Daniel, at about 1 p.m. a teenager exited the outbound train at Ruggles and pulled a gun on another “18 to-19 year old” male, who was still on the train.......

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,......

a Herald review shows passengers at busy MBTA stations such as Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, Ruggles in Roxbury and Dorchester’s Ashmont stop are most likely to be victims of assaults, robberies and other mayhem. Watch out, "other mayhem" may afflict you next time you're looking to hop a train. The Herald has a write-up today (with interactive -but incorrectly labled (thanks for the tip reader GreenLine) - maps if you head to the website)......

--Someone took the name of a Somerville sports bar quite literally when they brought in 46.7 grams (about 2 ounces) of cocaine into the Good Time Emporium. These fellas took the tagline of the Good Time Emporium – "New England's Largest Indoor Entertainment Destination" – way too literally. Somerville News reports that police officers swiftly took the two in, not just for the abundant white powder but also for the three rounds of ammo they......

The friendly powers-that-be are setting the boundaries for this year's St. Patricks' Day festival. Whether or not these priorities are enforced remains to be seen, but you may as well know about them lest you become acquainted with someone who isn't quite feeling the luck of the Irish. The BPD released a statement on what you might be able to expect from law enforcement while you're celebrating: Throughout the weekend and on Parade Day, the......

… why not Boston? The NYC design is based on their subway system. The T logo would lend itself well to a condom wrapper. It's circular with a target T in the center, which just screams, "Hey, buddy! Put it in here!" Plus, it would give a whole new meaning to the Wonderland T stop, wouldn't it? Then again, the thought of T employees enthusiastically endorsing sex might repel you. So we have another option.......

The Globe brings us a story of crime fighting success by the MBTA police. The T has installed a number of cameras in subway and bus stations over the last few years. The cameras have helped solve some crimes which have occurred on T property. A string of robberies on the Orange Line by a group of young people has reportedly been solved. The incidents occurred late last year and into the early part of......

Just two days after the fatal commuter rail accident in Woburn, a Green D Line trolley ran into a man on the tracks. WHDH is reporting that Brookline police are looking into the incident which happened in a tunnel. The trolley reportedly struck a homeless man who was walking along the tracks. He is expected to be ok, though no specifics were given on his condition. We heard few complaints from people that there was......

When the MBTA rolls the first trains at the start of service on Monday morning it will be on a Sunday schedule for the holiday and the 2007 fare increase will be in full effect. There's still a lot of confusion as to how the changes will effect riders and we're going to attempt to run down the most significant changes below. CharlieTicket and Cash: Both these methods will cost the most. $1.50 for a......

MBTA employees are getting their surly on, perhaps because a handful of them got busted for having affairs and running side businesses on company time. It's fine if they're in a crabby mood, but it's not fine if their negligence causes someone to get hurt. Via Universal Hub, Jenny reports a disturbing incident on the Red Line that could have had a terrible ending were it not for some quick-thinking riders. She describes what happened......

The MBTA made a bold marketing move in branding the new fare cards. Bold, but perhaps brilliant. Before the CharlieCard, before the CharlieTicket, all passengers have is the MBTA to blame. Now riders simply raise their fists and curse Charlie (think Shatner screaming "Khaaan!") the MBTA isn't scapegoat - it's the new cartooned mascot. A mascot who was taken from the verse of a song about a guy who was stuck on the T because......

The MBTA recently set into motion their newest advocate of the CharlieTicket/Charlie Card system – the Charlie Truck. The official spokes-truck of the fare collection system will now roll to public events and locations across the MBTA service area to promote the use of the new fare collection system. Fare collection has been confusing to tourists and locals alike ("Charlie down, arrow up.") The T administration hopes that the customer service vehicle will help to......

So this Saturday, as we learned from a recent MBTA press release, the Old State House entrance to the State Street station was closed for a week (till the coming Saturday) for the installation of exciting new Charlie Ticket machines and the Blue Line stopped going to State Street. Nothing terribly exciting, right? Right. But here's what vexes us: The T is providing free transfers so that Blue Line customers who ordinarily change for the......

Oh MBTA, why are you so, so, so wrong all the time? We read in Brian McGrory's column today in the Globe that the T is unveiling a new "courtesy campaign" to address employee and customer rudeness. Now, we know about rudeness (both receiving and dispensing), and more good feelings on public transportation would surely be a good thing. But when the state's secretary of transportation says, "The public isn't going to ride if......

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......

This morning Bostonist heard a report that the Red Line had been closed underground from Kendall to JFK due to an accident at Park Street. Details have still not become clear but it has been reported that “a person got caught under a train.” Here at Bostonist we tend to read into vague and slightly illogical statements like that. We know of three ways to get under a train, pushing, accidental pushing, and self placement.......