Whenever I see such stories, I always find myself taking a closer look at the math. Statistics are so frequently misused by news and media outlets that one of my favorite podcasts, More Or Less, exists merely to research and point out these errors on a weekly basis. It could be, I thought when I initially heard this story, that there was a good alternative explanation for why certain trains were cancelled more often than others. If this was indeed the case, it was a tough break for the MBTA. They would have no choice but to hope such misrepresentations did not happen again in the future.
Now, doing nothing differently yet hoping for a changed outcome is a little silly. It might help the MBTA if they became better at explaining their decisions in the future. But for the most part, I think if they researched all their options, came to a clear conclusion on what to do, and tried to treat their customers as fairly as possible, they would probably not find themselves being charged with sensational claims of 'transit racism' (!?!) by all of us know-it-all bloggers out here...right?
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In the fall of 2017, I had the pleasure of riding the MBTA on my way home from a wedding. I boarded the Orange Line at Stony Brook and rode north to Ruggles. There, however, I learned track maintenance meant the subway was shut down. All of us on the train were switched over to shuttle bus service. These shuttles were regular MBTA buses deputized for the day to replace the subway trains. The ride was bumpy and it was uncomfortable in the overcrowded bus. When we reached Tufts Medical Center, I again had to pay to re-enter the subway system.
After the subway took us to Downtown Crossing, I transferred over to the Red Line. I rode the train one stop to Park Street where, again, we passengers were asked to board shuttle buses due to a track maintenance project on the Longfellow Bridge. However, when we left the subway system, I found that these 'shuttle buses' were not the standard MBTA variety - these were proper coach buses, the kind travelers pay up to fifty dollars to ride in for trips crossing state lines. The comfortable and spacious seats allowed everyone a place to sit for the entirety of the smooth ride. The coach - excuse me, ‘shuttle’ - zigzagged through Beacon Hill, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in world history, before crossing the Longfellow Bridge.
The shuttle finally arrived at its final stop in Kendall Square, one of Boston's many affluent neighbors. In the shadow of the offices for some of the world’s richest companies - Amazon, Facebook, and Google among them - passengers got off the luxury bus - excuse me, shuttle bus - and strolled straight onto the Red Line platform without being asked to pay a single penny more to re-enter the subway.
I have a feeling I shouldn’t hold my breath to hear a statistically-based explanation for the 2016 Fairmount Line cancellations anytime soon on a More Or Less episode.
Footnotes / rebuttal
1. And yet, I'll still try to do the very thing I sarcastically ruled out at the end of the post...
This article from the Boston Globe adds further detail to the situation by pointing out a number of the factors that may have gone into the decision-making process. There is a little too much going on in the article for me to work with for now but I do expect to get back to the topic in a future post.
