The MBTA for years has failed to run all of its scheduled bus and subway service under a money-saving policy of deliberate understaffing, General Manager Dan Grabauskas revealed last month in the Boston Herald. . . . read more – 97 reads

After nine months spent studying 12 MBTA bus routes, analyst Stuart Spina has reached his conclusions: the T can do better. Spina, who presented his report yesterday, has qualifications no T official can claim: he's 17 years old, and rides the bus daily. . . . read more – 142 reads

As Stuart Spina told the MBTA board some of the talking points from his exhaustive nine-month report yesterday, General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas nodded his head in approval. . . . read more – 128 reads

“I heard so much about how unreliable service was I wanted to look into it and see what’s going on behind the scenes,” said Spina, who is working with the T Rider’s Union, an advocacy group. . . . read more – 153 reads

Spina, a student at Commonwealth School, has studied 12 of the T's most notorious bus routes over the last nine months. He cited problems such as chronically late buses, overcrowding and buses that travel in packs regardless of schedule. . . . read more – 134 reads

"We're concerned," said Lee Matsueda, program director for the T Riders Union, a community group. "There's no way that the system can sustain itself the way it is set up now." The Riders Union and other consumer groups have been lobbying state legislators to bail out the T, arguing that riders cannot afford more hikes. So far, Governor Deval Patrick's administration has talked about restructuring the state's transportation agencies and raising money from proposed casinos, but he has not laid out a specific plan to plug all the financial gaps. . . . read more – 85 reads

“I had one very (senior-level) person say to me, ‘We knew we were dropping bus trips, so we’d go to the communities where we were dropping trips out of garages - and we would lie to people,’ ” Grabauskas said. . . . read more – 131 reads

The MBTA may have raised $70 million by increasing fares last year, but not without a cost: ridership figures obtained by BostonNOW show the T lost 15 million riders in 2007, after the fare increase. . . . read more – 111 reads

Another large fare increase on the heels of the last one would be devastating in terms of a loss in ridership. A service decrease would be even worse. Addressing the MBTA's unsustainable debt must be a top priority for the Patrick administration and the Legislature. . . . read more – 133 reads

The T is stuck in a harsh cycle of institutional poverty wrought by decades of borrowing. Of every dollar it spends, 27 cents goes to pay off debt [....] In the meantime, transit activists have continued to worry that the T is forced to scrimp on upkeep and that fare increases have not improved service. "When we talk to people, they're tired of it," said Lee Matsueda, an organizer with the T Riders Union, an advocacy group. "It's very simple." . . . read more – 99 reads