Ok, so here we go with another “Let’s Blame the T” editorial (“The Cost of Poor Service, 3/1/05”) for all our problems with getting around the BU campus instead of looking at some of the underlying causes. Since many BU students are not from the Boston area, allow me to make one thing clear about the MBTA: it is an old mass transit system. Of course the Washington D.C Metro is a much more efficient subway system. That’s because it involved modern regional transportation planning when construction first began in 1969 and the first segment opened in 1976. The MBTA never had that luxury. It is a patchwork of public and private trolley and heavy rail lines built since the 1860’s and brought together under one government organization in 1964. For example, the “B” branch of the Green Line, the one that runs the length of BU’s campus, first began as private independent trolley service in 1896 until it was connected to the central subway in 1914 at a portal still visible today in the grassy median of Commonwealth Ave. just east of Kenmore Square. The present-day Kenmore station and Blandford Street Incline were completed in 1932, over seventy years ago. Many segments of the various downtown subway lines also predate World War I. The MBTA inherited this mess and now has to make it work within the limits of its funding, so it’s no wonder due to its age that the T has its problems. The editorial on Wednesday also suggests that the MBTA raise the subway fare by 75 cents to $2.00 in order to “allow the MBTA to make significant improvements” in its overall service. However, since many BU students not on scholarships (and even some who are) come from upper-middle income families that have Mommy and Daddy paying for their monthly T passes, it’s easy to disregard the fact that the MBTA is public transit — not the BU Shuttle — and that its service encompasses many lower-income areas which depend on its low fares for financial survival. Not to say that there should be no fare increase. Costs and inflation rise over time and the MBTA has to make up the shortfall somewhere when all its other revenue sources have been exhausted. Besides, we here at BU get the Green Line free outbound anyway, which amounts to a half-fare ride for round trip service. Maybe if BU students had to begin paying for outbound trips it would reduce some of the ailments that make the T “slow, overcrowded and unreliable” by decreasing outbound ridership. Also many students, including myself, usually take the T for free outbound and walk inbound on the return trip at no cost at all. Apparently then I can’t speak for the rest of the BU community when I say if I receive a free lunch, I don’t complain about the meal.

Chris Hanson CAS ’07

978-766-6379