As state reps tell the T to cut the fare crap, Grabauskas says he was scapegoated over fares

This should not be a political football, to be lied about. Aloisi declared in JUNE *before* the sales tax increase was passed, that the MBTA would need to raise fares AND get the $160 million to close the budget gap (for this year).

The state's transportation secretary announced today that fare increases of 15 percent to 20 percent would be necessary on the MBTA this fall, even if the Legislature comes through with an expected $160 million -- likely from a sales tax increase -- to help plug the current deficit.

So these so-called indignant representatives are either STUPID or LIARS to act as if this was the first they'd heard of the fare increases necessary to cope at the MBTA.

So, which is it, representatives? Are you STUPID or LIARS?

Adam, has anyone considered taking the debt back onto the state as a proposed solution? The state could steal pennies per person to cover the obligation whereas the T needs to take dollars per rider to cover the same amount of money.

But I'm guessing this is all about grandstanding and not about solutions. So, screw getting anything productive out of this meeting.

Maybe Deval should have waited until AFTER this boondoggle of a meeting to can the General Manager. Instead he did it leading up to the meeting thinking his sacrificial lamb would divert attention away from Aloisi and himself. Instead it just focused that attention because hey Grabby is gone, no use in blaming him anymore he has no power as of *looks at watch* oh a few days ago.

Bad political move Governor Patrick.

Legislators could have taken the golden opportunity presented to them when an alliance of the Greater Boston Chamber and other pro-business lobbies registered their concern over the crumbling transportation infrastructure and responsibly came out in favor of a 25 cent gas tax hike. We would then be talking about a real capital program to shore up the existing assets and perhaps, maybe, even a little responsible expansion.

Rather than doing so, legislators chose to follow their "leadership" and went for the idiotic sales tax hike.

When fares are raised I hope they are all voted out of office as a result of being exposed as ineffective or naive. I don't care which.

I am hoping we hear more from Dan about the inner workings of this entire brouhaha and other famous MBTA disasters. I'm hoping that since he's freed from having to talk from behind that opaque wall of PR and bullshit that surrounds the MBTA, plus he's incredibly bitter about the circumstances surrounding his departure, he'll be only more than happy to give us more insight into the agency.

It was wrong of me to blast Dan previously just because he was a figurehead. Unfortunately when you're mad at an agency that prides itself in not having to disclose anything that doesn't go thru a PR mouthpiece, you see only one target to focus your frustrations on. Who's to say he didn't have better plans that were quashed by other officials? I dunno. I guess I ought to have given him a break long ago, but it's so hard to rail against "The T" as this nebulous entity when you're not sure (or think you're sure) who's exactly responsible for the bad decisions that have left this public transit system in the horrible, sorry mess that it is today.

I guess the best analogy I can come up with is that this is like working for a company that has only one publically accessible phone number. You may be a lowly switchboard operator and have no say at all in any of the day-to-day business of the company, but that doesn't stop angry consumers from calling up and without even so much as asking for customer relations or what have you, immediately launch into a laundry list of all their problems. They do this because that's the only number they've got. And when you attempt to transfer them to someone who can take down their complaints, you're accused of giving them the runaround and how dare you.

(Disclosure: I've never worked at a switchboard, but I've sat next to one before and heard nothing but that all day.)

Dan was the only number we had, and now we learn that he was getting it from both sides now. I guess what I'm feeling now is this Earth emotion you call remorse. But only slightly.