I was in Portland, OR, recently, and I’ve come to a conclusion. Those of us who ride (and pay for) the MBTA are getting screwed. Hands down, we’re just getting screwed.
Now, I understand that Boston is a much larger metropolitan area than Portland with many more routes to cover, and I understand that our system is very old. I also understand that our system here has historically been run by idiots.
Let me start with the most basic thing. TriMet, the system in the Portland area, was clean. The buses and trolleys were clean. People didn’t eat on the vehicles from what I saw, and people always took their coffee cups off the vehicle with them and threw them away on the trolly platforms. Oh, yeah, there were garbage cans on the trolley platforms there.
The automated fare vending machines were incredibly easy to use. The machine-printed ticket clearly stated what zones in which the ticket was valid and when the ticket expired. I will say that it took a little figuring to determine that the airport was in zone three. Oh, yeah, there were no shuttle buses to get from the airport terminal to the light rail. The light rail station was right at the terminal.
Oh, yeah, their system is cheap. An all-day, all-zone pass was only four dollars. On top of an inexpensive system, they’re expanding their MAX light rail system while still keeping fares low. The fare collection system is brilliantly simple. You show your proof of fare to the bus driver. If you’re on a trolley or the MAX train, they have random fare inspections. If you don’t have a valid ticket, you pay a hefty fine. It’s that simple.
The best part of the system there is the “fareless square” where you can ride within most of the core downtown area without paying a fare. That would never fly in Boston. Probably the biggest thing I noticed is that there was no stigma attached to riding a bus in Portland.
I’m convinced that the people of Boston are getting screwed. We just spent close to a half billion dollars on a train that will serve a very small number of people. That money could have gone into replacing the silver line bus service with actual light rail, bringing high speed, frequent service to an under served part of Boston. And that would be good for revitalizing a part of Boston that could seriously use it.
I was also in San Francisco, where I rode BART and MUNI both. Again, those systems work so much better than what we have in Boston. But that’s another entry for another day.