Although I was happy to return home to Boston having spent a semester in England last year, I have definitely begun to miss the advantages of studying abroad. Last year, instead of spending Easter with my extended family, listening to my aunt share the nail-biting details of her latest colonoscopy and watching my family stuff themselves with honey-baked ham, I spent the day picnicking in Hyde Park with my friends, feasting on chicken thighs, frozen vegetables and $3 bottles of wine. Last year, instead of frequenting fast-food restaurants and abandoned parking lots, my boyfriend and I dined in street cafes and traveled across Europe together. Last year, I happily traded Hershey’s for Cadbury, Bud Lite for Bass Ale and Billy Joel for the Beatles. And, best of all, last year, instead of creeping across campus on the B Line, I zoomed about London on the Tube.

While some might say the B Line ranks somewhere near Boston Common and Fenway Park on the list of “quintessential Boston,” the B Line’s slow and unreliable pace leaves little to desire and nothing to miss. On any given day, marathon winner Robert Cheruiyot, carrying Svetlana Zakharova, could beat the train in the time it takes to get from Packard’s Corner to Kenmore, any random College of Fine Arts student could drag her cello from class to the George Sherman Union in the time it takes to unload one car at St. Mary’s bridge, and my grandmother could Irish jig down Commonwealth Avenue backwards in the time it takes the freshmen on West Campus to fumble for their “T” passes.

Since my acceptance into law school, I’ve been unfortunate enough to become a regular on the B Line. That is, in order to offset the inordinate amount of money I’ll be borrowing from the government and private banks, I’ve been working two part-time jobs. Since these jobs are inconveniently located in two completely opposite ends of the city, I’ve relied on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to get me around.

As far as reliability and scheduling is concerned, I’ve found that depending upon the time of day, wind speed, traffic and what color shirt the driver is wearing, the B Line can take anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour to traverse campus. While the MBTA claims all B-Line trains run on schedule and travel at a blistering 25 miles per hour, anyone who has stood in the snow waiting for a B Line to clear the turn at Packard’s Corner knows that riding the “T” is like playing the lottery. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you wait five minutes, sometimes 20 and sometimes the train speeds right past your frostbitten, hypothermic body on a Kenmore-bound express.

Some blame the unreliability of the B Line on the new, state-of-the-art AnsaladoBreda subway cars, which seem to creep more slowly down Commonwealth Avenue than their rickety predecessors. Although the new cars got off to a shaky start last summer by repeatedly falling off their tracks, the MBTA claims they are safe. Moreover, MBTA officials claim the Breda cars are more efficient and far roomier – if, of course, you happen to be a prepubescent freshman, a circus contortionist or a professional Russian gymnast.

Others attribute the delays to the trains’ excessive stops. With seven stops between Packard’s Corner and Kenmore – some spaced less than a quarter mile apart – the trains spend the majority of their time idling, unloading and loading passengers.

Still others fault the lazy Boston University students for glutting the trains and slowing down the commute every day. Although BU is no longer a commuter school, its students haven’t realized it yet. Every morning, West Campus students take the “T” to class rather than venturing there on foot; every afternoon, the B Line is packed with students too lazy to hike back to the Student Village from the School of Management, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Communication.

Although the MBTA has admitted some rider dissatisfaction with the B Line and considered a reduction in Commonwealth Avenue “T” stops, perhaps officials should have considered this before renovating the BU Central and BU East stops – because only in a city where it takes two decades to rebuild the Central Artery would it take more than a year to create two new “T” stops. However, even with the two stops out of commission, BU students have seemed to manage walking an extra 200 feet to the combined stop in front of CAS. Had the MBTA realized this and combined the two stops, perhaps we could have avoided a year of construction, ripped up sidewalks, noisy jackhammers, excessive traffic and, of course, a painfully slow “T” ride.