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The MBTA's new popularity
 5/7/08 - THE SURGE in gasoline prices has an unintended benefit in the Boston area: More people are taking the MBTA, saving money for themselves and reducing air pollution and highway congestion. The T, under the leadership of General Manager Daniel Grabauskas, has done much to improve the passenger experience. But its finances remain fragile.
Grabauskas, in a telephone interview yesterday, mentioned with pride the introduction of the Charlie Card, improvements in elevator and escalator reliability, better sound on the public address systems, and the purchase of 310 new buses. Even with all these enhancements, the T remains an aged system that requires regular and costly maintenance to stay on schedule.
The system was badly served by a reorganization mandated by the Legislature in 1999, which limited state subsidies to 20 percent of annual sales tax revenues and left the T with a debt that now totals $8 billion and enormous costs for retiree benefits. The MBTA has raised fares three times since then, most recently in January 2007.
To balance its budget in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the T had to take $19.3 million from reserves. Grabauskas has ruled out a fare increase for fiscal 2009, but another is inevitable soon thereafter without help from the state.
Long-term T finances were of little concern to MBTA commuters interviewed for a Globe article this week. The basic T fare, $1.70 with the Charlie Card, is a bargain with gasoline approaching $4 a gallon, and even with a more expensive commuter-rail ride added on, public transit is a good value.
The 6.2 percent ridership gain for the first three months of the year will be a temporary spurt if reliability flags or if the fares go so high that they cancel out the gasoline increases. The Patrick administration and the Legislature need to provide the T with the resources to cement its success.
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