Was the T not also required to assume the cost of re-routing the Red Line tunnel around the newly built expressway beneath Dewey Square? That being a project that inconvenienced transit riders a lot, but really only benefited drivers...

Thank the free spending state politicians and the free spending federal hawks serving in legislators making America great again. With high unemployment consider creating WPA depression era tool used to rebuild infrastructure. In 1939 Roosevelt created the Work Projects Administration; WPA This New Deal program could resolve the MBTA cash shortfall. Unemployed workers combined with experienced MBTA staff to form teams to save money. The unions would need to cooperate or face lay offs. "1939 the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects"

Interesting that the Globe uses the Red Line as an example. The Globe doesn't state the real situation though. The trains that they mention, built in the 60s, fail constantly shutting down the line in one direction. It is so common that don't think the T counts some this as a "delay" anymore. With the signal system it is not that it cant accommodate more trains and riders. It too fails constantly (3 or 4 times last week) bringing the entire line to a stop or crawl. The Red Line which carries 20% of T riders, twice as many as the entire commuter rail system was completely ignored by Davey during his tenure as T GM. Davey simply chose to spend what little money he had elsewhere. The only renovation he did was to replace the antiquated wiring that burned in the downtown underground fire in which the T so narrowly avoided a mass casualty situation. Even in this case only what burned was replaced leaving the rest of the antique wiring for a future fire. Some of the spending on other areas was forced by previous corruption at the T like the replacement of all the ties on the South Shore commuter rail (See the Patriot Ledger's coverage of this issue as the Globe has chosen to ignore the T spending millions of dollars that should have not needed to be spent). In reality it seems that Davey viewed the T the same way Mitt Romney viewed the governorship. A way to position himself to advance to a higher office. It is the riders who will pay for this attitude. It may also turn out more expensive in the long run for the state. The Red Line and perhaps other line is not safe. It is only a matter of time before something goes wrong and a mass casualty situation occurs. Even if you ignore the suffering of the people hurt the legal and medical bills will be massive.

The Big Dig transit commitments are an obligation of the Commonwealth, not the MBTA. As such, the debt burden never should have been shifted to the MBTA.

We subsidize roads we subsidize gas and oil production, we subsidize air travel, yet many expect anything on rails to be self sufficient. The governor had the right idea a few years ago when he wanted to raise the gas tax. http://trainweb.org/moksrail/advocacy/resources/subsidies/transport.htm