A Few Words to Say About the MBTA

May 29, 2011

Dear Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority,
After putting up with an inefficient system for years, I am here to protest of my rights, specifically the bill of rights. No, it is not those 10 rights stated on an archaic piece of paper in the National Archives. But the five Customer Bill of Rights you pledge to honor: the right to on-time service, the right to safe service, the right to courteous, clean, accessible, and dependable service, the right to be notified of significant service delays, and the right to be heard. We expect these truths to be self-evident, and when any form of leadership becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
You fail to properly maintain your trains and tracks.
You fail to respond to emergencies effectively.
You fail to collect fares from all passengers.
You fail to adequately train your employees, who do not carry out their duties respectfully and sufficiently.
You fail to manage money efficiently, landing yourself in an $8.1 billion debt hole.
You, however, are able to readily pay off bonuses to your contract companies who meet the required expectations. Just the expectations.
So enough of the critiques. How, you may wonder, are we to be assuaged? Quite simple. Demonstrate what you stand for:
More responsible employees
Better customer service
Trustworthy trains, tracks, and technology
Accurate arrivals and departure

Now as a high school student, you may be wondering how the improvement could possibly benefit me. I concede that I take the T at best once a month. However, on my few trips on the T, Ive experienced less than stellar service, once being forced off a broken train to wait half an hour in below-freezing temperatures. But, the most important reason why I sit here writing a letter is that we live in Massachusetts, home to the most educated citizens and home to arguably one of the most technological savvy cities in the nation. Such an inefficient system just does not fit the characteristics of this state. So I ask for you today to act not only on behalf of the T commuters, but also on behalf of the state of Massachusetts.