Saturday, June 4, 2011

Ah, Spring! Time to Shop?

Spring is probably the best season for the Boston commuter. The early light makes it easier to wake up in the morning, the traffic has let up a bit with the college year over, and the crowds on the T seem a bit lighter--perhaps people are already taking vacations? Spring fever days? Calling in sick because of the awful allergy season?

It helps that this week I worked only three days. Monday was a holiday, and Friday was a "comp day" for me (because of my employer's conference the week before, wherein we all worked 14 hour days).

And the T has been in the news. Ridership is up again (although the economy appears to be tanking), and the T has hit upon a new way to make money: Selling tchotches. No, the MBTA does not have the cache of the London Tube, but for some reason they are thinking people will be willing to fork over real money for things like an Orange Line sign or a Blue Line mousepad. Check out the NECN story on this.

I'm not sure this is the salvation that the T's finance director really needs. Though, now that they've caught the counterfeit-T-pass guy, that should help the bottom line. This is the guy who worked for a company that issued T passes. He figured out a workaround to the system and was authorizing bogus passes that people were buying on Craig's List.

Which begs the question: When figuring those April ridership numbers, did they count the bogus rides?

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