BOSTON — The Boston-area transit system is considering several options for compensating customers for weeks of winter weather-related delays and breakdowns.
A Massachusetts Bay Transportation official said Tuesday those options include one week of free fares, which he estimated would cost the agency $6 million.
Other possibilities include rebates or discounts for monthly pass holders or letting customers with monthly passes use them for another month.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation board will vote next week on whether to approve any of the plans.
Also Tuesday, officials estimated the cost to the MBTA of the winter storm cleanup was $36.5 million to date.
They also announced that the most recent accounting of the aging transit system's total "state of good repair" backlog had reached $6.7 billion, more than double the last estimate in 2009.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
Sorry - but the city is spending plenty on dealing with the snow. I think everyone is impacted, but that's kind of the risk you take when you buy monthly passes, and when you live in northern cities. What's next - compensate owners of cars pro-rated amounts of their tag fees for the days they didn't get to drive?
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
Perhaps instead of passes that are for a calendar month, they be for a certain number of rides.
People do not control the weather. Never have and never will. The transit system should let the current pass holders use their passes another month. That seems the best option.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
If the transit has let this happen, letting people ride free. Then they have created a bad habit they are going to have to correct. And breaking a bad habit is hard to do. People will be mad and there will be problems they haven't planned for.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
No, they are just letting them on buses, etc. I have the same pass. You tap it and it deducts money. Everyone should hide their pass!
Then why does anybody buy a pass?
I used to buy a 12 ride pass when commuting into Boston. If you flirt with the train conductors in your 30's, a 12 ride pass can last all year. Plus maintenance is an issue, it's been largely ignored for years and is now coming to a head. The biggest problem is the cost due to the union. The pension system is out of control too. During the storms, they should have used the prisoners to shovel, but instead, they had the union peeps do it at probably 5X the cost.
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
