If Charlie's still on the MTA, he's probably in a faulty Orange Line car

Since covid - in truth, even before - our public transportation system has been limping along. The MBTA (which, when the Kingston Trio sang about it in their hit Charlie on the MTA, was called, well, the MTA) isn't terrible terrible. There are plenty of cities that would be de-lighted if their citizens could  hop on a subway, a train, a bus, or a boat and get where they wanted to go, rather than hop in their car. 

And when it comes to transpo access, I'm definitely on the fortunate side of things. I am less than a 10 minute walk from any of the rapid transit lines - Red, Blue, Orange, and Green.* And, the Silver Line, which is some sort of hybrid between a bus and rapid transit. And I'm about a 20 minute walk from the train stations to catch a train going to somewhere that rapid transit doesn't go. 

I seldom take a bus or the ferry, but they're there if you need to get to someplace they do go. This summer I may take the ferry over to the Encore casino in Everett.

Anyway, the T has been having a difficult time hiring, and the understaffing means schedule cuts. And that's on top of there being fewer riders as things aren't fully bounced back from covid, given that so many are now working from home at least part of the time. So, service cuts begat fewer riders, and so things spiral down from there.

An overarching problem has been the maintenance that's been neglected for a very long time - this is a perpetual issue that nothing ever seems to get done about - and the T's aging rolling stock.

To remedy the aging car situation, nearly a decade ago, Massachusetts - the state oversees the MBTA - went full bore on upgrading. 

In exchange for more than $800 million, a Chinese company would build 404 new Red and Orange Line cars for the MBTA by 2023 in a brand-new Springfield factory, resurrecting the long-dormant railcar manufacturing industry in Western Massachusetts and creating hundreds of stable local jobs.

But nearly five years after the factory got up and running, only 90 of around 340 cars that were supposed to have been delivered by now are in the hands of the MBTA, and even fewer are carrying passengers. A battery explosion, derailment, loose brake bolts, and electrical arcing have forced the T to repeatedly pull the new cars out of service and rely on faulty old cars that were supposed to be retired decades ago. (Source: Boston Globe)

CRRC was chosen because they were the low bidder, with a bid $200M less than the estimate that an independent group said would be the minimum for the project. And because they were going to make it in Massachusetts, CRRC would be bringing those coveted manufacturing jobs with it.

The deal has been pretty much of a fiasco.

Supply chain problems. Mismanagement. Worker complaints about quality and safety issues being ignored. Shoddy production practices. 

You name it...

No, let me name it: DYSFUNCTION!!!

So the T is still running ancient cars like the ones on the Red Line, now over 50 years old, that were newbies when I first moved to Boston in 1967. (That was when the Red Line began replacing cars that were, curiously, blue, with ones that were actually red, which are gradually being replaced with silver cars with a red stripe.) Last spring, due to a door malfunction, a Red Line rider was dragged to his death.

The Orange Line is an even more colossal mess. 

A side panel on one fell off in July, touching the third rail and creating a fire that sent passengers scrambling to
evacuate. The MBTA has been using only new Orange Line cars since reopening the line after a 30-day shutdown last year, but may put some old ones back in service as a “backup plan.”

The entire situation is U-G-L-Y. And to make matters worse, 

...on Wednesday [February 22], traffic was backed up on Interstate 495 in Chelmsford after a new Orange Line train being delivered to the MBTA was disconnected from a trailer truck, closing the breakdown and right travel lanes, and exit 89. (Source: Boston Globe)

Oy!

Charlie may be riding forever 'neath the streets of Boston, and if he is, it's probably in a faulty Orange Line car. (Will he ever return? No, he'll never return.)

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*Don't ask why in a city this small that there isn't a central node where all these lines connect, but there just plain isn't. The closest we get is Park Street, where the Red and Green lines, and sort of the Orange line - it's a subterranean hike - meet up. The Silver Line connects with the Red Line at South Station. The Blue Line? That meets up elsewhere with the Green Line, and elsewhere with the Orange Line, but never with the Red Line. Or the Silver Line. Once you know, you know.

**Of course our train stations don't connect either. South Station is on the Red Line and the Silver Line. Back Bay Station is on the Orange Line. North Station is on the Green and Orange Lines. The Blue Line? Once again, you can't get to there from here. But you can get to Logan Airport. Which is also accessible via the Silver Line.