Save our MBTA service! Public hearing and protest Tuesday 2/28 at Somerville High School

[ron_newman]

The MBTA wants to drastically cut service and increase fares on July 1. They are holding a public hearing this Tuesday at Somerville High School from 6 to 8 pm. A protest rally outside the high school will precede the hearing, starting at 5 pm.

Please come to the hearing and tell the MBTA that it is not acceptable to cut:
- Somerville bus routes 80, 85, 90, 92, 95, and 96
- many other bus routes in Cambridge, Medford, and other cities and towns
- ALL weekend service on the Green Line "E" branch
- ALL weekend commuter rail service
- ALL weekday commuter rail service after 10 pm

With these cuts, there will be: no way to reach the Assembly Square Mall or Burlington Mall at all; no way to take weekend daytrips beyond the inner suburbs; no weekend service to the Museum of Fine Arts, Gardner Museum, and much of the Longwood Medical Area; and no way for Somerville residents to reach weekend jobs in the suburbs (or suburban residents to reach weekend jobs in Somerville).

Here's a leaflet you can print out and post at your nearby bus stops.

If you can't make Tuesday's hearing, the T is holding another one Wednesday, February 29 from 6-8 pm at Cambridge City Hall.

Comments

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

As if the MBTA's debt, and the state's failure to act like grown-ups about it, weren't bad enough on its own, the new chief financial officer for the Mass. Dept. of Transportation (http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/main/tabid/1085/ctl/detail/mid/2937/itemid/149/MassDOT-Secretary-Davey-Appoints-Levenson-as-MassDOT-Chief-Financial-Officer.aspx) is an investment banker who thinks that leasing public infrastructure to private companies is an Awesome Idea. He did it when he worked for the city of Chicago, and I just can't /wait/ to see what delightful solution he'll come up with for the MBTA or other parts of our transportation infrastructure. It's his area of expertise, after all.

Here's an interview with the guy: http://www.governing.com/topics/finance/Dana-Levenson.html

And here's some things about the fiasco that leasing Chicago's parking turned into: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/ArticleArchives?tag=privatization