Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Koston's new radio.
Speaker 2: All right, thanks very much, Dan Watkins. As we move
Speaker 2: into the tenant the nine o'clock hour here, I don't
Speaker 2: get ahead of myself here, I am delighted to join
Speaker 2: by to be joined by Brian Kane, the executive Director
Speaker 2: of the MBTA Advisory Board. Brian, there's probably a little
Speaker 2: confusion here, so let's clarify things. What is the MBTA
Speaker 2: Advisory Board and as the executive director, what is your
Speaker 2: role in terms of either how the tea operates or
Speaker 2: how the people who operate the tea behave.
Speaker 3: Well. Dan, firstly, thank you very much for having me
Speaker 3: on Night Side. It's a real honor to be on
Speaker 3: your airwaves. Thank you very much. So. The NBTA Advisory
Speaker 3: Board was created in nineteen forty seven, at the same
Speaker 3: time the Metropolitan Transit Authority was created. We represent one
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy eight cities and towns that receive MBTA
Speaker 3: service or are next to a town that receives MBTA
Speaker 3: service via the station, and we have a statutory obligation
Speaker 3: to oversee the t's operating capital budgets, fair service policy,
Speaker 3: and we maintained very close links with the team management
Speaker 3: to try to keep them Monistan.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so you are in effect a representative of
Speaker 2: the towns. But in addition, you're a representative of the
Speaker 2: patrons of the m b t A. That's you know,
Speaker 2: you're not employed by the MVTA.
Speaker 3: We talked, Sorry, Dan, go ahead, I'm so.
Speaker 2: Go ahead if I misspoke? What did I What did
Speaker 2: you want to say?
Speaker 3: No? Sorry, I was going to say, I do not
Speaker 3: work for the governor. I do not work for the legislature,
Speaker 3: and I do not work for the t I work
Speaker 3: for the cities and towns and their citizens.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, No, absolutely, absolutely. Now, there was some news today
Speaker 2: that you probably have heard of our newscast that the
Speaker 2: number of slowed zones have been have been reduced dramatically.
Speaker 2: I guess there's only slow zones left on the green
Speaker 2: line or in parts of the green line. What caused
Speaker 2: the slow zones? I assume it was problems with the
Speaker 2: tracks for lack of maintenance or maintenance that had fallen behind.
Speaker 2: Just for those who do not know the genesis of
Speaker 2: slow zones, you can explain it much better than I can,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate it if you would.
Speaker 3: Well. So a slow zone is a safety measure. So
Speaker 3: if there are any defects on the track, like a
Speaker 3: cracked rail or a broken sleeper, which is the sort
Speaker 3: of piece of wood in between the two pieces of
Speaker 3: iron that make a train track, there's any kind of
Speaker 3: a problem there, or even a problem with the overhead wires,
Speaker 3: what they'll do is they'll put in a slow zone,
Speaker 3: which is a ten mile per hour speed restriction, and
Speaker 3: that means for however long of a length of track
Speaker 3: that slow zone is in place, the train can only
Speaker 3: travel at ten miles per hour. Now, these things usually
Speaker 3: or should get fixed every so often, but the t
Speaker 3: forvariety of reasons, including lack of resources and the fact
Speaker 3: that when they were trying to do this stuff overnight
Speaker 3: they didn't have a lot of time, was not able
Speaker 3: to get to them until some of these slow zones
Speaker 3: were in place for years. And as your newscast referred
Speaker 3: to the Triple Crown, I like that what Phil Lang
Speaker 3: has done. The new general manager has gone in and
Speaker 3: really put a real emphasis on this, and through a
Speaker 3: variety of shutting down the system, they've gotten rid of
Speaker 3: all the slow zones as well, except for four that
Speaker 3: are left on the green line, and the GM has
Speaker 3: promised that they will be eliminated by the end of
Speaker 3: this calendar year.
Speaker 2: Now, I assume that the slow zones are an industry
Speaker 2: standard or is it a self imposed restriction of limitation
Speaker 2: that the TEA has placed upon itself.
Speaker 3: Well, it was really done out of an abundance of
Speaker 3: caution and for safety. So the idea is that if
Speaker 3: the train is going ten miles an hour, it's less
Speaker 3: likely to derail or have any thing bad happened to it.
Speaker 3: And chances are it could have gone faster over that
Speaker 3: piece of track, but out of an bumpet pecaution, they
Speaker 3: just made it go slow. And this is very common
Speaker 3: in the railroad industry across the country in a public
Speaker 3: transportation system. What wasn't common, Dan is the fact that
Speaker 3: t had so many of them and that it took
Speaker 3: so long.
Speaker 2: Well, I assume that was delayed maintenance, that the TEA
Speaker 2: probably over time before you arrived and before phil Ang arrived.
Speaker 2: That people said, well, we'll save a little bit in
Speaker 2: the budget here. But what I'm saying is it was
Speaker 2: it wasn't imposed by some government agency. It was something
Speaker 2: that the MBTA recognized and did it for passenger safety
Speaker 2: for which they should be commended. Okay, So one of
Speaker 2: the issues that we deal with the tea and if
Speaker 2: anyone has any questions about the MBTA, Brian Kana be
Speaker 2: happy to talk to you and try to address those issues.
Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you. I tend to ride the
Speaker 2: Tea very infrequently, although when I have been in a
Speaker 2: situation where I've driven where I've ridden the Tea occasionally,
Speaker 2: It's worked fine for me. But I'm not commuting five
Speaker 2: days a week on the MBTA as so many of
Speaker 2: my listeners and so many people are you mentioned today
Speaker 2: to me that you know that it's what two dollars
Speaker 2: and seventy cents to ride the Tea at the regular rate,
Speaker 2: And if you're going from one of the you know,
Speaker 2: near in Boston suburbs, that's not bad when you think
Speaker 2: about it. If you had to drive your car, and
Speaker 2: not only did you have to deal with the traffic
Speaker 2: that all of us are familiar with, but in addition
Speaker 2: to that, you're going to have to park your car somewhere.
Speaker 2: So if you begin to look at it like that,
Speaker 2: it starts to look like a pretty good financial decision.
Speaker 2: You know, for most people who need to get in
Speaker 2: and get out of Boston on a day to day basis,
Speaker 2: which leads me to my question, and that is, with
Speaker 2: the slow zones now slowly but surely having been eliminated,
Speaker 2: the number having been diminished, has TE ridership had a spike?
Speaker 2: Whe's Where's where's t ridership at this point?
Speaker 3: Sure? Dan, So, first of all, I misspoke earlier to
Speaker 3: your producer, and it's two dollars and forty cents for
Speaker 3: a one way fair. It's one seventy for a bus fare.
Speaker 3: So my apologies for that. That was my mistake. Ridership
Speaker 3: is coming back. It certainly is back on commuter rail,
Speaker 3: which has not had these sort of shutdowns to do
Speaker 3: this track maintenance this year. So the MBTA's contractor, Kiolis
Speaker 3: tells us that their ridership return rate is the best
Speaker 3: in the United States. In other words, more people are
Speaker 3: coming back to the MBTA commuter rail than any other
Speaker 3: commuter rail system in the cunt and that's very good news.
Speaker 2: And I assume that that refers to both pre and
Speaker 2: post COVID.
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes, In fact, they tell us that in many
Speaker 3: cases there their ridership now is above pre COVID levels
Speaker 3: on some commuter allies. One thing they've noticed though, is
Speaker 3: it's a different kind of ridership. It's not the five
Speaker 3: day a week folks buying their those monthly passes like
Speaker 3: which used to happen. It's folks going on a Saturday.
Speaker 3: They have the tea is a great program. For ten bucks,
Speaker 3: you and up to two kids under the age of
Speaker 3: twelve can ride for free. So it's a great deal.
Speaker 3: It's called a family Fair and they've had a lot
Speaker 3: of ridership, take a lot of ridership uptake, and it's
Speaker 3: caused their total ridership numbers to come way up.
Speaker 2: I'd never heard of that, and I listened a lot
Speaker 2: during the day. Did they advertise that? Seriously? That's that's
Speaker 2: the best deal in town. You know, a parent of
Speaker 2: mom or dad can take a couple of it's in
Speaker 2: or out of Boston for free on a Saturday. You're
Speaker 2: going to visit the Children's Museum of the Science Museum.
Speaker 2: That's that's terrific.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all weekend actually, so you can even use
Speaker 3: it the following day if you go on a Saturday.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But what I'm what I'm saying is that the
Speaker 2: pr people got to get on the stick here and
Speaker 2: get that word out. I was unaware of that.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, they should advertise on nightside then.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, but no, but they should advertise a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of places, because that to me sounds really fabulous.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so let's take a quick break here. I
Speaker 2: want to invite callers to call. This is an opportunity
Speaker 2: for you to raise questions. I've got a lot to
Speaker 2: talk about. We want to talk about the debt. How
Speaker 2: the MVT is going to dig themselves out of this
Speaker 2: this debt, How much of a deficit they'll have even
Speaker 2: this year is impossible? Is there any projection that it
Speaker 2: might break even some year? We get to all of that,
Speaker 2: everything you want to know about the MVTA. We talk
Speaker 2: about safety. The T had a spate of problems. You know,
Speaker 2: whether or not it was a staircase that would collapse,
Speaker 2: or whether or not a train would catch fire over
Speaker 2: the Mystic River and you'd end up people seeing somebody
Speaker 2: jumping off of train tracks into the water. All of
Speaker 2: us remember, those are the images that are indelibly etched
Speaker 2: in our mind. And the MBTA can improve, and they
Speaker 2: apparently have improved based upon what we're here tonight. But
Speaker 2: they got to let people know it's improved, and they
Speaker 2: got to let people know that it is safe and
Speaker 2: get this MBTA back in the organization which in operation,
Speaker 2: which in turn will lessen the number of people are
Speaker 2: out on the roads coming in on a daily basis
Speaker 2: or even coming in during weekends. If you want to
Speaker 2: talk with Brian Kane, he's the executive director of the
Speaker 2: MBTA Advisory Board. It's a very important board and it's
Speaker 2: a very important position. You can talk directly with him
Speaker 2: at six point seven two five four ten or six
Speaker 2: one seven nine ten thirty. And if you have a
Speaker 2: constructive comment or suggestion, we'd love that as well, particularly
Speaker 2: if you're somebody who utilizes the NBTA. We'll be back
Speaker 2: on Nightside with more conversation with Brian Kine, executive director
Speaker 2: of the MBTA Advisory Board, right after these few messages.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News.
Speaker 2: Radio with us is Brian Kane. Brian, let's talk a
Speaker 2: little bit of money here. The tea has always been
Speaker 2: in debt, or at least during my lifetime. Uh And
Speaker 2: right now you mentioned to me earlier that they're carrying
Speaker 2: about five and a half billion dollars in debt. That's
Speaker 2: about ten percent just to put in perspective of an
Speaker 2: annual Massachusetts budget. That debt has come down a little
Speaker 2: bit recently, but they have about five hundred billion dollar
Speaker 2: debt service, which is interest on the debt. I mean
Speaker 2: they're servicing the debt of half a billion dollars a year,
Speaker 2: and that is more money that the t earns during
Speaker 2: an entire year. Is this hole a hole that the
Speaker 2: MBTA will ever dig out of or can ever dig
Speaker 2: out of?
Speaker 3: In European Well, I don't know if they can ever
Speaker 3: dig out of it, then probably not, But I can't
Speaker 3: tell you that they have. They and their predecessor agencies
Speaker 3: going all the way back to nineteen eighteen have always
Speaker 3: been in debt, and that debt has always been a
Speaker 3: millstone around the necks of those transportation agencies. We just
Speaker 3: have a new report come out called Always Broke, and
Speaker 3: it looks like the history of governing and financing the
Speaker 3: MBTA since nineteen eighteen. And the thing that we discovered
Speaker 3: is ever since public control started right around World War One,
Speaker 3: this debt has been a problem that that the public
Speaker 3: transportation systems here have never been able to get out.
Speaker 2: From under of Now did you did the advisory board
Speaker 2: author that report?
Speaker 3: I wrote it for the Advisory Board, which voted to
Speaker 3: accept it at its meeting last week.
Speaker 2: And that is your second report that you have authored,
Speaker 2: as I understand it. Correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah. In two thousand and nine, when I was first
Speaker 3: starting out in this field, I wrote a report called
Speaker 3: Born Broke, which for the first time looked at the
Speaker 3: effect of the sort of so called big big debt
Speaker 3: on the MBTA's finances and really put that into the
Speaker 3: public realm for the first time. So the.
Speaker 2: MVTA, with seventy five hundred employees, that has to be
Speaker 2: one of the biggest employers in the state, or it
Speaker 2: has to be right up there in the top ten
Speaker 2: at big employers in the state.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, I imagine it is.
Speaker 2: Yes, Okay. So with and you've got pension issues that
Speaker 2: go back decades where people were able to retire after
Speaker 2: twenty years, and there were individuals who retired after twenty
Speaker 2: years and then took a job in team management, some
Speaker 2: very high profile cases. It really ran wild in particularly
Speaker 2: after sixties, seventies and eighties, in terms of spending, and
Speaker 2: it seems to me that that is where the problem
Speaker 2: really mounted. Or am I missing something?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I think you're right, Dan. I think the problem has
Speaker 3: been when sort of political patronage gets involved and the
Speaker 3: NBTA gets away from its mission of moving the people
Speaker 3: of Massachusetts around the region on buses and trains and
Speaker 3: ferries and other types of vehicles, and it becomes a
Speaker 3: political dumping ground. I mean, that's when they start to
Speaker 3: get into money, quite frankly. And I'm not sure what
Speaker 3: the solution is, but we need to sort of get
Speaker 3: this thing up on its seat and then kind of
Speaker 3: get the politicians to butt out, quite frankly and let
Speaker 3: the managers run it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean there was a long time where the
Speaker 2: acronym MBTA did not represent for in the minds of
Speaker 2: many people, as the three Masters of Bay Transportation Authority
Speaker 2: was mister Bulger's transportation agency, I guess. And there were
Speaker 2: a lot of people who were close to the then
Speaker 2: Senate President who were picking up jobs. We'll leave that.
Speaker 2: We'll leave that for another time, for another night. Let's
Speaker 2: let's get some callers in here. Let me start off
Speaker 2: with RITA in East Boston. Reta, You called in early,
Speaker 2: and I'm more than happy to accommodate you. Before the
Speaker 2: nine thirty news around with Brian Kane, we're talking about
Speaker 2: the NBTA reader. What question do you comment? Do you
Speaker 2: have for Brian Kane?
Speaker 4: No, I just wanted to say, first, thank you for
Speaker 4: taking my call, and then I want to say, is
Speaker 4: it even possible to run a public transit that doesn't
Speaker 4: have like a deficit?
Speaker 3: Because I just think.
Speaker 4: It's the cost. The cost of having it is very
Speaker 4: important because if you start to reduce it and you
Speaker 4: start to take away features, that affects the population, which
Speaker 4: in turn I think would be then a bigger burden
Speaker 4: because then they'd have to try to live close to
Speaker 4: the city or wherever they work. Is it ever possible
Speaker 4: to never mind a deficit, but to ever just run
Speaker 4: it as sort of a break even? Are there transit
Speaker 4: systems in the area that can do that? Thank you?
Speaker 2: Stay right there, we'll get we'll get an answer for you.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. Rita. Yeah, and so the answer is no.
Speaker 3: The only two that I'm aware of are in Singapore
Speaker 3: and Hong Kong, and those have a bit of a
Speaker 3: different government structure, shall we say, But in North America, Europe.
Speaker 3: None of them operate without government subsidies. This is a
Speaker 3: public good that we all benefit from and we all
Speaker 3: contribute towards it. A little bit.
Speaker 2: Rider to get a follow up or does that do
Speaker 2: it for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that does it for me on that issue, but
Speaker 4: we'll talk about specific lines on another call.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks Verder, appreciate your call. Yeah, how do we do?
Speaker 2: Everybody knows the Bay Area rail transportation system in San Francisco,
Speaker 2: New York, the Metro in Washington. Is there any way
Speaker 2: to compare the public transportation systems in other cities Philadelphia, Boston, wherever?
Speaker 2: Or is it just impossible? They're all so different.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're all very different, but they all do
Speaker 3: receive some federal money to help with their infrastructure, and
Speaker 3: so because of that, they all have to report the
Speaker 3: same information to the federal government. There is an organization
Speaker 3: but that Yes, it's they called the National Transit Database,
Speaker 3: which compares all of them across the whole country with
Speaker 3: the same measures. So yeah, it's quite possible to compare
Speaker 3: how each one is doing. Right now, the best performing
Speaker 3: system is the Washington DC Metro, which is actually run
Speaker 3: by a former NBTA guy Randy Clark, and they're doing
Speaker 3: very well. They were in real trouble a couple of
Speaker 3: years ago, very similar to what the trouble the TEA
Speaker 3: was in with the federal government, and they've come out
Speaker 3: of that and now ridership is back in many ways
Speaker 3: and they're doing a lot better.
Speaker 2: Well. I assume that of all the transportation systems, Washington,
Speaker 2: probably because it is Washington, has a lot more federal
Speaker 2: moneies available to it than Boston, New York, Chicago, and
Speaker 2: San Francisco or any other major city.
Speaker 3: Would it. Sure does? It, Sure does. I mean there's
Speaker 3: also a lot newer than certainly what we have in
Speaker 3: Boston or Philadelphia, Chicago or New York City. Like you mentioned, Ye, that.
Speaker 2: System was built, I believe, particularly the underground aspect, in
Speaker 2: the late sixties and into the seventies. Am I right
Speaker 2: or wrong on that?
Speaker 3: I think that's right then, Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I had a buddy of mine who had been a
Speaker 2: major league pitcher who you know, in those days, they
Speaker 2: didn't make a lot of money, and his post career
Speaker 2: job was digging tunnels for the Washington DC metro system. Well,
Speaker 2: maybe probably not as glorious a job but it was
Speaker 2: regular pay and for several years. Brian Kane is my guest.
Speaker 2: He's the MBTA, he's the executive director of the MBTA
Speaker 2: Advisory Board. He knows all things MBTA. He's been in
Speaker 2: this post since twenty eighteen. I think he's doing a
Speaker 2: great job. Happens to be one of my favorite guests
Speaker 2: because whatever question you ask him, he will give you
Speaker 2: an honest answer. There's no political veneer with Brian. It's
Speaker 2: straightforward answer. So if you're an MBTA rider and you
Speaker 2: got a question, or you cite or you perhaps want
Speaker 2: to recommend something that could make it better, this is
Speaker 2: the person to talk to. You wouldn't get him between
Speaker 2: nine to five during the week because frankly he's too busy,
Speaker 2: But we got him tonight and he's available to you
Speaker 2: at six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, six, one, seven, nine, three, one,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. Those are the numbers. And even if you
Speaker 2: want to make a complaint, if you've had a good
Speaker 2: experience on the tea recently, or if you have a
Speaker 2: good experience regularly, I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: From the conversely, you've had a bad experience and you'd
Speaker 2: like to, you know, get it off your chest. Now's
Speaker 2: the time to do it. Coming back on Nightside right
Speaker 2: after the News at the bottom of the hour with
Speaker 2: Brian kin the executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board.
Speaker 2: And for those of you who don't understand, uh, necessarily
Speaker 2: what the advisory Board does, will recap that for you.
Speaker 2: And they have a tremendous amount of influence over the MBTA,
Speaker 2: representing the one hundred and seventy eight cities and towns
Speaker 2: that has some level of service from the MBTA here
Speaker 2: in eastern Massachusetts. Back on night Side, more phone calls
Speaker 2: coming up right after this.
Speaker 1: It's night Side, Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Fact with Brian Kane, the executive director since twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: so he's been there a while, the executive director of
Speaker 2: the MBTA Advisory Board, and I find him to be
Speaker 2: extremely refreshing. It is difficult for us, Brian, just to
Speaker 2: make a point, it's so difficult for us to get
Speaker 2: any representative of the MBTA to come on this talk show.
Speaker 2: And the reason for that is I think the public
Speaker 2: relations people at the MBTA, their their job is to
Speaker 2: protect the leadership of the TEA, whether it's Phil Ang
Speaker 2: or someone else from from talking to just te Riders.
Speaker 2: To me, it's absolutely insane. And I don't know if
Speaker 2: you ever want to raise that with Ang for us,
Speaker 2: but love to have him on talk about his accomplishments.
Speaker 2: But the PR department there is intentionally, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: obstructive to us at any time that we try to
Speaker 2: get them, even even on you know, to say hey, look,
Speaker 2: we just want to come on and talk about your
Speaker 2: successors they have. It's it's it's very difficult. So I
Speaker 2: just mentioned that. And the contrast is you're ail your
Speaker 2: a willingness to come on at the end of a
Speaker 2: long day. This is a full time job for you.
Speaker 2: This is not some ceremonial job. This is a full
Speaker 2: time job that you work at. So let's let's keep
Speaker 2: going here with our questions and give people an opportunity
Speaker 2: to talk with you. My next call is from Tom
Speaker 2: in Boston. Tom, you are on with Brian Kane, the
Speaker 2: executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board. Whatever commented question
Speaker 2: you'd like to make a right ahead.
Speaker 5: Tom, Yeah, then great topic, Brian, Thanks for being there.
Speaker 5: I am a long term PE writer. I did six
Speaker 5: years of high school where I did the a bust
Speaker 5: the red line in the green line, and that was
Speaker 5: that was entertaining. And then they did twenty five years
Speaker 5: on the commuter rail and that was a pleasure. But
Speaker 5: recently I've done that.
Speaker 2: The first comment was somewhat sarcastic. I think I picked
Speaker 2: up a note of sedcasting the first part of the comment.
Speaker 2: So we'll let that one go.
Speaker 3: And I like the idea.
Speaker 2: It was a pleasure.
Speaker 5: Go ahead talk recently going going to the Red Sox.
Speaker 5: If I if I take the commuter rail over to
Speaker 5: Back Bay, they have a transfer to the train going
Speaker 5: to Yackey Way, and you just transfer and you go
Speaker 5: to Frienway parking, no parking fees. It's fantastic. It's time
Speaker 5: perfectly for the game. But the other the other car
Speaker 5: i'd maker is when I go into Boston now and
Speaker 5: I'm in the express lane, the hother lane, and I
Speaker 5: look over at the traffic. I scratched my head and say,
Speaker 5: why would anybody drive into the city and pay for parking?
Speaker 5: And now we have bike lanes and all these altar
Speaker 5: I say, take the team.
Speaker 3: Well, thanks, Tom, And you're right. There are other shuttle
Speaker 3: buses not only from Back Bay station, but also from
Speaker 3: Ruggle Station. The folks are coming in on some of
Speaker 3: those other lines that might go to Ruggles. There's a
Speaker 3: free bus from there too.
Speaker 5: Mm hm.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about tom when you talk about driving
Speaker 2: in and the dedicated I think you called it the
Speaker 2: hover line. My question is do you have another person
Speaker 2: in that car or is that a blow up doll
Speaker 2: that that city? I got normally the car right.
Speaker 5: Normally we do. But I have heard about other people
Speaker 5: not having two people.
Speaker 2: I'm only.
Speaker 5: One of the plug. One of the plug is I've
Speaker 5: gotten now that I'm retired, I've gotten to enjoy the
Speaker 5: commute of boats and we've actually not created Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Are they running all you guys? Are they running all year?
Speaker 2: Are they still seasonal or what's what's the deal on those?
Speaker 3: So some of them run year round, then the Lynn
Speaker 3: Ferry because it has to sort of go out into
Speaker 3: a little bit more of the open ocean, and the
Speaker 3: Salem Ferry because for the same reason, they will be
Speaker 3: ending very soon if they haven't already ended. But the
Speaker 3: ones that stay sort of in the inner harbor, sort
Speaker 3: of the this side of hull in Winthrope, they'll run
Speaker 3: year round unless there's there's ice, or unless the Coastguard
Speaker 3: tells them not to, so they hang them. The Hall
Speaker 3: East Boston and Charlestown ferries are year round. They're fantastic.
Speaker 3: The people that take them love them, and they serve.
Speaker 3: They serve a few drinks there at the end of
Speaker 3: the day. If that's your If that's your.
Speaker 2: Choice, okay. On the return trip, not going in in
Speaker 2: the morning, that's important as well, Hey, Tom.
Speaker 3: One of the go ahead.
Speaker 5: One other comment. You mentioned mister Dougherty a little while ago.
Speaker 5: I think in your Civics class he told me about
Speaker 5: the intersection of massav and Huntington AB all the utilities
Speaker 5: that are there in the subway system. You know, the
Speaker 5: Boston subway system is how many years old? One hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty? I don't know.
Speaker 3: What. Yeah, eighteen ninety seven, Wow, I thought, okay, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Was that the same mister Dougherty that I referred to
Speaker 2: by by chance?
Speaker 5: Yes, I love Charlestown.
Speaker 3: Was he Chilestown?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure he's from. I had him as a
Speaker 2: ninth grade Civics teacher with Boston Latin School. Did you
Speaker 2: go to Latin School?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 5: I had him for history, but he was so entertained. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and I used to see him. I used to see
Speaker 5: him waiting at park streets for the trolleys that were
Speaker 5: running a little bit late.
Speaker 6: Tom, You've been a very enjoyable caller for me, humorous,
Speaker 6: you brought your a game and uh and I think
Speaker 6: Brian enjoyed it as well because there was nary a
Speaker 6: criticism here.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, thanks, thanks.
Speaker 2: Thanks Tom. Talk to you soon if we go to
Speaker 2: Bill in Norfolk, Massachusetts. Bill, you're next on NICEID with
Speaker 2: Brian Kane, m BT, a Advisory board executive director.
Speaker 7: Hey Dan, I also had Dolreaty and Civics ninth grade
Speaker 7: a lot.
Speaker 2: How about this is the small world here? This is I.
Speaker 8: Know he was, he was great.
Speaker 7: But I have something unusual here. I have praise for
Speaker 7: the n b T and a question. Okay, good, good.
Speaker 7: The first praise is I volunteer for the Red and
Speaker 7: we have a great relationship with the MBTA, And I
Speaker 7: tell you anytime we need them, we call them. They
Speaker 7: help us out. Just two quick stories. I did a
Speaker 7: big fire in Hull. I had about twenty displaced in
Speaker 7: a boarding house and we we got them hotels, you know,
Speaker 7: like ten miles away, so we had to get them there.
Speaker 8: Nobody had a car.
Speaker 7: One phone call.
Speaker 8: The teed buses there. I was actually emotional when I
Speaker 8: saw that TEA bus show up. We did a big
Speaker 8: fire in Randolph earlier this year. We had sixty displaced.
Speaker 8: One phone called in the MBTA.
Speaker 7: They had two buses there for me and it was cold, so.
Speaker 8: We had to get people, you know, into the tee.
Speaker 8: But that's the praise. My only question is I had
Speaker 8: a buddy.
Speaker 7: We did twenty years in the MBTA, and you know
Speaker 7: he got there early.
Speaker 2: He the way you carried. When you said I had
Speaker 2: a buddy who did twenty years, I wasn't thinking about
Speaker 2: the NBTA. He worked for the NBA.
Speaker 5: He worked, but he got a pension.
Speaker 3: Dan he was forty two.
Speaker 8: He's got a full at forty two. Is that still happening, guys?
Speaker 3: So no, I mean it's still it's still very a
Speaker 3: very very good deal. And let me see if I
Speaker 3: can briefly explain. So they have a pension system that
Speaker 3: goes back in pre day social security was negotiated back
Speaker 3: in the nineteen teams and it's still in existence. The
Speaker 3: deal is, if you go to work for the tea.
Speaker 3: You cannot get any money out of the system unless
Speaker 3: you're there. It used to be twenty three years, now
Speaker 3: is twenty five years in a lot of cases in
Speaker 3: the private sector, even if you work for the state,
Speaker 3: if you do ten years, you can get some money
Speaker 3: out to tee. The deal is you have to do
Speaker 3: twenty five before you can get a dime out. But
Speaker 3: once you do twenty five, you can get eighty percent
Speaker 3: of your highest three earning years. And that's and that's
Speaker 3: the pension system. Back in the day, folks used to like,
Speaker 3: like your friends would start working there and there at
Speaker 3: twenty at forty three, they'd be out. They pull their
Speaker 3: pension and then go get another job.
Speaker 7: And he retired twenty years after in another place.
Speaker 8: He had a pretty good deal.
Speaker 3: It's a good deal. It's also eligible for Social Security.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a real good deal. The only thing
Speaker 3: I'll say, and again I'm not justifying it. I'm not
Speaker 3: defending it. I don't I'm not in it. You know,
Speaker 3: those whatever they get when they retire tends to be
Speaker 3: what they get for the rest of their retirement, so
Speaker 3: it doesn't really go up very often. There's not the
Speaker 3: cost of willing increases that are automatic, Okay, but yeah
Speaker 3: it is. It's something that probably should get looked at. Well.
Speaker 2: The other fact taking that and I don't I don't
Speaker 2: want to defend it because I was as outraged as
Speaker 2: anybody is that if that pension program was instituted in
Speaker 2: the nineteen teens, nineteen fifteen or whatever, the life expectancy
Speaker 2: of the people who are working in the NATA, and
Speaker 2: you know that era they had been born in the
Speaker 2: eighteenth century, in their life expectancy probably was fifty five
Speaker 2: fifty six, fifty seven from an actual aerial basis. If that, uh,
Speaker 2: and as that system did not adjust over time, that's
Speaker 2: when you had the people who were retiring at forty
Speaker 2: two after twenty years. And then was we're able to
Speaker 2: tack on a second job and in some cases a
Speaker 2: second job with the MBTA by the way, really.
Speaker 3: Aware of that, yeah, or a contractor or a vendor,
Speaker 3: you know that, right? That's yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean I think there was one guy who ended
Speaker 2: up being uh, the general general manager after having worked
Speaker 2: in the T If I'm not mistaken. I don't want
Speaker 2: to mention the name that I think because I don't
Speaker 2: want to make a mistake, but I think it is
Speaker 2: even that was one of the more outrageous cases in
Speaker 2: my opinion. But Bill, you you raise great points. I
Speaker 2: thank you so much for your.
Speaker 7: Call and bring that message back to the Red Cross.
Speaker 7: I really appreciate it to what you guys do for us.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Thanks, sure, Brian will bring that back absolutely. Thank you, Bill,
Speaker 2: and by the way, thank you. As a Latin School alum,
Speaker 2: assume is PREMI to be involved in some of the
Speaker 2: programs that you were involved in as a volunteer. I
Speaker 2: don't want to ask you what year you graduated, but
Speaker 2: just tell me who your head master was when you're graduating.
Speaker 3: I'll be able to figure out doctor Leary.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, I got I get a pretty good idea.
Speaker 2: We might have been classic.
Speaker 7: I'm right behind you, brother, I'm right behind you.
Speaker 2: Thanks. Bill, you're doing that. You're doing aid school problem.
Speaker 2: Thank you much appreciate it. Okay, Well take quick break.
Speaker 2: My guess is Brian Kane. Brian, you've had an easy
Speaker 2: ride tonight. You've got some really good response and we'll
Speaker 2: keep it up. We've got room for a couple more
Speaker 2: six one seven thirty or six one seven, nine three
Speaker 2: thirty coming back on night Side right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guess, Brian Kane is the executive director of the
Speaker 2: MBTA Advisory Board. We've talked about the tea. Now for
Speaker 2: this hour, we'll take another call at least if you'd
Speaker 2: like to jump on board if you got a question criticism.
Speaker 2: I think you've had a pretty good night here, no
Speaker 2: criticisms and mostly lawn its. Let's see what Sachi in
Speaker 2: Saugus has to say. Sachi, you are next on night
Speaker 2: Sign with Brian Kine, Executive Director, Sachi of the MBTA
Speaker 2: Advisory Board. Satu, you go right ahead.
Speaker 9: Yes, I have a couple of small questions that MBTA
Speaker 9: is one of the law actually not. It's the largest
Speaker 9: landowner in the entire state of mass and there's so
Speaker 9: much a land that is not being used by MBTA,
Speaker 9: and there's like kind of abandoned and finally they just
Speaker 9: realized and they you know, they leased it for ninety
Speaker 9: nine years lease for the bike bad and for an example,
Speaker 9: Lane Lynn, and they never finished the bike back and
Speaker 9: they're homeless shelter tents and they as needles and so on.
Speaker 9: So what MBTA is planning to do with the cities
Speaker 9: that they are not doing their job to complete the
Speaker 9: bike path and get all these tents out.
Speaker 3: So a good question, sat. So, I don't know the
Speaker 3: exact details of that particular piece of property, but if
Speaker 3: it's been leased for ninety nine years, it's probably been
Speaker 3: leased to a third party. I don't know if it's
Speaker 3: the City of wind or if it's a nonprofit.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: The responsibility for get cleaning up the needles and getting
Speaker 3: rid of the homeless encampments is up to the lease holder.
Speaker 3: So when the NBTA sort of leases it, it sort
Speaker 3: of says, now you're you're in charge. Uh. There are
Speaker 3: some there are some exceptions, and maybe the t is
Speaker 3: responsible for this particular one. I'm not sure this particular case,
Speaker 3: but you know what, let me let me take that.
Speaker 3: I'll see if I can find out if the is responsible.
Speaker 3: I'll talk to some folks tomorrow and if it's the case,
Speaker 3: I'll encourage them to get out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where where is the satchi satchi? Where exactly is
Speaker 2: the location so that you can help Brian Lynn.
Speaker 9: Right past Bennett Street Bridge, it's going all of it
Speaker 9: to the live NBT a line and it comes to
Speaker 9: a dead end in Lynn And you said you.
Speaker 2: Just did I hear you?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: You said Bennett Street.
Speaker 3: Bridge Bennett Bennett Street.
Speaker 2: Okay, good well look and the thing is.
Speaker 9: If you actually look at it, I have a land
Speaker 9: right next to it, and I have a bear that
Speaker 9: you know, stop the bear that a long time ago.
Speaker 9: If you google it on the bike path, that's a
Speaker 9: fast end, you know, end up my property. And after
Speaker 9: that it's all They didn't do nothing and just random
Speaker 9: people just pretense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, SATCHI let's do this. Sat listen to me for
Speaker 2: second place.
Speaker 6: Yes, I want you to leave your number with Rob,
Speaker 6: and Rob will give your number to Brian and I
Speaker 6: guarantee you that Brian will look into it and he
Speaker 6: will get back to you with some information.
Speaker 2: I just I don't want to leave your hanging.
Speaker 3: Okay, Oh no, no, the problem.
Speaker 9: And I have one more question besides that.
Speaker 2: Well, if you could be quick, I got another caller
Speaker 2: who I'd like to accommodate.
Speaker 3: I'd like something quick.
Speaker 9: That's the MBTA police still exist or did they change
Speaker 9: it to transit priest just for the federal funding. So
Speaker 9: we must save some money over there.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Transit Police still exists. They have jurisdiction in all one
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy eight communities and they're still I know
Speaker 3: they've had trouble recruiting SAT.
Speaker 6: You do me a favor, Please leave your number, Please
Speaker 6: leave your phone number with Rob and if.
Speaker 2: You'd like to get some update on this information. But
Speaker 2: I gotta get you, gotta let you go. I getta
Speaker 2: get one person in here. Let me get to George
Speaker 2: and Arlington. George, you're calling late. You got to be quick.
Speaker 2: You're on with Brian Kane. Go ahead, George.
Speaker 3: Okay. Two quick questions. One, uh, I love the tea?
Speaker 3: When a scooter scooter as bad as not? Is there
Speaker 3: an IRIS SAT? And why don't they ever get back
Speaker 3: to us when you make a comment. I'm sorry, I
Speaker 3: don't understand the question. What an I r C customer
Speaker 3: on the customer response thing is an IRIS? HEAT always
Speaker 3: responds you know we'll get back to you. Nobody ever
Speaker 3: gets back to us, is that right? I'm sorry? So, uh,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. Let me let me see if
Speaker 3: I can get in touch with you again. Dan, if
Speaker 3: you don't mind, can you give this gentleman my number
Speaker 3: and you can contact me and George.
Speaker 6: George, we're gonna, we're gonna we won't give you Brian's number,
Speaker 6: but we're gonna take your number.
Speaker 2: Rob will take your number, George. Uh and Brian, Brian,
Speaker 2: if you can remember. Well, obviously Satchie wanted to talk
Speaker 2: about the the the areas in Lynn and George is
Speaker 2: talking about a more general question, which is people getting
Speaker 2: back to them when they leave a comment on some
Speaker 2: sort of line. Uh, well, don't you hang up when
Speaker 2: when we finish, and we'll Rob will give you both
Speaker 2: of those numbers. Okay, I can't quite understand. I was
Speaker 2: trying to help Satchy more than he realized. Brian, you
Speaker 2: have helped us tonight and helped all the people who
Speaker 2: have an interest in the m bt A. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for coming on. And if you see the
Speaker 2: general manager, he'd love to I'd love to have him
Speaker 2: come on and and take some calls. And I think
Speaker 2: most people tonight are a little happy with the m
Speaker 2: b t A. They were the last time you were on,
Speaker 2: which is which is a sign of progress.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, Dan, it's a real honor to be on
Speaker 3: Night's side. And I have the utmost respect for you
Speaker 3: and your listeners and all that you and they do.
Speaker 3: And thanks again, and I hope you'll have you back sometime.
Speaker 2: You bet you, we'll have you back more quickly than
Speaker 2: you realize. And thanks again for tonight, and don't hang up, Rob,
Speaker 2: Will Giff get you those names and phone numbers. When
Speaker 2: we get back. Right after the ten o'clock news, we
Speaker 2: are going to talk about the decision by former Congressman
Speaker 2: Matt Gates to drop out to I would want to
Speaker 2: say withdraw his nomination, but I guess I'll say that
Speaker 2: he's going to withdraw his nomination. The President has already
Speaker 2: nominated a successor, the former Attorney General of the State
Speaker 2: of Florida, Pam Bondy. I had a different suggestion. I
Speaker 2: want to talk about this. This seems to me to
Speaker 2: be an unforced error that the Trump administration has made
Speaker 2: here with Matt Gates. I couldn't understand why the nomination
Speaker 2: was made in the first place, and I think that
Speaker 2: Gates did everyone a favor by dropping out. We'll be
Speaker 2: back right after the ten o'clock news talking some politics.
Speaker 2: Right after this