If the MBTA ran this way... (Boston, Beverly: house, schools, taxi)

[Amontillado]

We've had some discussions here recently about the MBTA's financial problems. But look at their approach to obtaining new transit vehicles in Hong Kong: just get to work and build the things for not much money.

BBC - Autos - Rebuilding Hong Kong's 20p time machine

[Dm84]

The T could never build their own equipment for less than someone else because the entire organization is so larded and corrupt. There are painters at the MBTA making $250k/year!

[Shizim]

Originally Posted by Dm84

There are painters at the MBTA making $250k/year!

Source?

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by Shizim

Source?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...j0N/story.html

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Dm84

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...j0N/story.html

That includes tons of overtime, because they don't hire the proper amount of workers. If they hired enough people, this overtime wouldn't be happening. A lot of people would be making over $200k if they were doing 40-60 hrs of overtime, I sure would.

It isn't their salary.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by timberline742

That includes tons of overtime, because they don't hire the proper amount of workers. If they hired enough people, this overtime wouldn't be happening. A lot of people would be making over $200k if they were doing 40-60 hrs of overtime, I sure would.

It isn't their salary.

Please stop the nonsense. It doesn't matter what their salary is if they walk away with that kind of money. Frankly it's impossible to work that much overtime which means their is serious fraud going on. No competent manager would ever allow that much OT so either everyone at the T is incompetent or they are able to approve their own time cards and lie about hours worked to boost their pay.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Dm84

Please stop the nonsense. It doesn't matter what their salary is if they walk away with that kind of money. Frankly it's impossible to work that much overtime which means their is serious fraud going on. No competent manager would ever allow that much OT so either everyone at the T is incompetent or they are able to approve their own time cards and lie about hours worked to boost their pay.

It does matter what their salary is, and it isn't impossible to work 40 hrs + overtime.

If the work needs to be done, and they're not allowed to hire people to do it (which is part of their problem, they're horrid budgetary restrictions, that is what is incompetent), they have no choice

You'd be the first to complain (It is all you EVER EVER EVER do despite having one of the best systems in the U.S.) if they didn't even try to do the work.

Don't do the work -> They're incompetent for not doing the necessary work! - DM
Do the work and pay the overtime -> The managers are incompetent for allowing them to do the work - DM

The only fraud going on is you as a poster.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by timberline742

It does matter what their salary is, and it isn't impossible to work 40 hrs + overtime.

Yes, it's completely reasonable to believe these guys are logging 100 hours a week every week. There's nothing suspicious about that at all.

If the work needs to be done, and they're not allowed to hire people to do it (which is part of their problem, they're horrid budgetary restrictions, that is what is incompetent), they have no choice

If it's really cheaper to pay one person the equivalent of 3 people's salaries per year in OT, it means the base salary + benefits is way too high to begin with.

You'd be the first to complain (It is all you EVER EVER EVER do despite having one of the best systems in the U.S.) if they didn't even try to do the work.

The system has severe delays every day of the week. You've been drinking too much of the Kool Aid if you really think this is good. Saying it's one of the best systems in the US is pointless because there aren't that many large mass transit systems in the US. Most are poorly run and inefficient.

Don't do the work -> They're incompetent for not doing the necessary work! - DM

Yes, we need PAINTERS to do the work so badly they earn twice as much as the Governor.

Do the work and pay the overtime -> The managers are incompetent for allowing them to do the work - DM

The managers are incompetent for not managing personnel properly.

The only fraud going on is you as a poster.

Whatever that means...

[mdovell]

Aa yes that argument. Here's a few things.

1) Not everyone even gets OT anymore

2) Union contracts can dramatically restrict who can do what. Not to say they'd go on strike but there was that wildcat bus strike a few years back.

3) Hiring new people also means medical costs and pensions. Not all contracts allow work to be done like that.

When I worked retail we had 3rd party vendors. They still exist today that do things like putting up displays, product demonstrations etc. Anyways what happened was the company was a bit ticked off because those that did this did so on the district level. If this person was out the whole district was hurt. Ok fine so the company decided it would take the funds that the manufactures would pay the vendors and made their own position. PSA It was thought eliminating vendors at the time would save money by doing things abit inside.

PSA's were not really on store payroll technically. So of course once managers got a whiff of this PSA's were grabbed to do other activities of which they didn't really have to do. Complicating matters further they weren't really told this either or that it was bad. Once the vending companies heard about this they were quite upset. Again back to the drawing board where now they had to hire a manager for the PSA's just to ensure that other management would not grab them.

This mind you is without any unions. So with transit you have a number of players. You have the subway system, bus system and committer rail system. Now they all have a different management company and chances are they all have separate union contracts. O and I forgot ever single change is subject to public meetings and created by a separate planning organization Home Page | Boston Region MPO

Transit is judged by ridership. Ok so how do you boost that? Lower the price? Yeah right. ok increase rides but if that doesn't get the volume the union snaps back as to why they do it. Advertising? Well if it's too controversial it gets pulled. It is hardly anything of the budget of transit at this point. The vast majority of transit system run at a loss. Some argue make it free so you get more on and subsidize it 100%. Maybe that might improve things but it depends. You have to maintain the whole fleet and financially report to the feds and the state and then deal with the local with security. I've met Beverly Scott and thought she'd be some far left wing person. Nothing further from the truth. She's actually a bit entertaining.

Fixing the t is something that has to be gradual. The advent of self driving cars isn't that far off. Paratransit is extremely expensive and if this takes the place of taxi services it could be a great help. Once they become the norm frankly bus services might be gone. Sure they'll be some 10-15% that still want to drive but the positive aspects of this are huge. No more need for house garages or parking authorities, no need to have as many car dealerships or auto parts stores, not much of a need for as many gas stations etc. Cities could use the space for more housing, restaurants, retail, schools etc. The latest Tesla can go 315 miles on a charge. Sure they'd be expensive at first but given that cars are only used 5% of a given day on average it means it would just go to one after another.

[FutureSoxFan?]

Wow.
I read the Globe article the other person posted. Top OT earner made about $330k on a base salary of about $85k.
Doing some (admittedly simple) math, and assuming some pretty generous triple OT for all hours worked over 8/day, this person is basically working 16 hours a day every day. I'm sorry , but if I were a manager or auditor or agency head, I'd have a whole lotta questions about that . . .