MBTA in a state of disrepair. (Boston, Worcester: lawyer, layoffs, university)

[msRB311]

I've been on a train with no heat before in February. It happens

[AtkinsonDan]

Massive Boatload of Travel Anxiety

[Urban Peasant]

MBTA buses are affected too:


https://www.boston.com/news/local-ne...p_featurestack


It could be the high heat but it could also have been shoddy maintenance or a combination of the two.

[mdovell]

Keep shutting them down for a month

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local...layed/2800556/

Not to get on a rant but the MBTA is just shambles. They over promised benefits for Generations between your highly unionized Workforce along with a complex procurement process of planning process that takes forever and a lack of funding and cooperation it just leads to the way how it is. I have absolutely no faith in the rail company making the red and orange line none. I've talked to former employees that left and I really don't think they're going to be able to meet these deadlines.

Okay so we've got a whole rail line shut down for a month and another partially line shut down for a month. What's going to happen if they don't get new rail cars in in the next 5 to 10 years are we going to be looking at a shutdown for months for multiple lines? Imagine if we would have had the Olympics in a few years how embarrassing this would have been?

The sad thing is there's really no simple solution to this it's not like they're going to rip up Rail lines and replace them overnight it's not like you can get a new rail car in a month all this takes so much longer which is why I argue in the other thread that telecommuting is going to continue. Eventually you're going to see a Breaking Point with not enough people can come into an employer because the MBTA shut down which then jams up traffic.

The fact that this is happening just as students move back in is going to be a huge challenge. I would not want to be in Boston traffic next month

[msRB311]

There's just too many people who need to use the non functioning mbta. Too many people on the roads headed to the same places too. These are the reasons I'm an advocate of moving business to other locations in MA but on this forum no one seems to see that. It's like Cambridge and Boston or bust. Apparently talented people can't or won't make their way out of Cambridge to work ? There must be other people out there who think like me and care about all this congestion. I think part of being a leader is being open to change and new ideas but there's a lot of close minded people as far as locations go I guess

[mdovell]

When something causes extra stress or effort it's natural to question why it's there. For example remember the blue laws? Retailers could not open up on Sundays so as a result if you're working Monday through Friday you'd be shopping on Saturday it led to congestion. Up until 1990 it was the law. Before we had online banking and direct deposits we had to go into banks with live checks all the time now that's totally different. So in order to justify doing things face to face in all honesty doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you can just reduce things to data.

I'm not even talking about Springfield at the moment. Let's say you live in Lexington or Concord or Wellesley. Your house is nearly a million dollars why would you have to go into Boston to do *anything* work related.

If you want to talk about attracting talent and high-end jobs and people I get that but most of the people that work in Boston don't live actually in Boston they either drive or take the t in. So if you're dealing with the same talent why would you have them going into Boston? You going to have a company issued laptop with a secure VPN. If somebody's an accountant and they've got a beach house on Duxbury Beach what reason would there be to actually go into Boston for work?

[timberline742]

I'm intrigued by this mythological world where people's jobs are entirely spent on a laptop with a sprinkling of a few meetings. I've never worked at such a place, and know incredibly few people that have.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by timberline742

I'm intrigued by this mythological world where people's jobs are entirely spent on a laptop with a sprinkling of a few meetings. I've never worked at such a place, and know incredibly few people that have.

I have been some variant of staff accountant or financial analyst for over 20 years and 99%-100% of my work has been on a combination of laptop and phone. Microsoft Teams has honestly replaced the need for in-person meetings that focus on financial issues.

[OutdoorLover]

Yes, there's no good answer. Even before the pandemic, there was a lot of hand-wringing about the quality of the service and the cost of significant improvements. And since the pandemic, revenues have fallen off greatly, making everything even worse. It might seem tempting to just say the heck with it - abandon the system... but there are still tons of people who really need it, and they're generally not rich people with lots of good transportation options.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by timberline742

I'm intrigued by this mythological world where people's jobs are entirely spent on a laptop with a sprinkling of a few meetings. I've never worked at such a place, and know incredibly few people that have.

I actually don't think it's that uncommon at all. But in my experience, these 100% remote/laptop jobs tend to be most available among either entry level/fresh out of college positions, or among near-retirees. The former are probably the most likely to seek out the city regardless of work location and the latter were not long for this metro area even before they had the remote work opportunity (many just moved up the full-time relocation to the second home or retirement destination). So it's not as if remote work was really going to have an outsized impact on either of these demographics in the metro area.

Most people I know in the age 30-55 demographic, especially those with some level of seniority at work, are unable to work fully remote. They now have added hybrid flexibility and do a lot more online, but they generally have to (or choose to) spend some time in the office. These people are still buying up houses in droves in and around the metro area. And even those in that 30-55 age group that could potentially be 100% remote often have roots in the area (a home, family, friends, kids in local schools with relationships of their own, etc.) that incentivize them to stay. Remote work isn't the only thing keeping people from moving to the greener pastures of Springfield.