Boston Transit Safety: Happy Birthday MBTA – 115-Years-Old!

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) recently celebrated its 115th anniversary. It continues to be the country’s oldest subway system and officials with the Authority are not only proud of the early beginning of the system, they’re also proud of their continued efforts to advance it, modernize it and make it safer, according to the Boston Globe.
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“It’s nice to be the oldest subway in the United States. And I also think we’re the most innovative,” MBTA’s Acting General Manager Jonathan Davis.

Our Boston personal injury attorneys understand how big of an impact the T has made on residents and visitors to the area. It has transported billions of people to where they need to be. Officials threw the T a birthday party at the Park Street Station. This is the location in which the first of two stations opened up in Boston back on September 1st of 1897. The other station was the Boylston Street Station.

One of the newest features on the T are the new countdown signs. These signs that tell riders when the train is expected to arrive. The signs arrived at South Station last month.

There has also been a pilot program working toward mobile ticketing on the commuter rail. This program will allow participating riders to use a free application that will let these riders purchase and display their tickets on their smartphones. The app isn’t expected to fully launch until the fall. It’ll be available for Blackberry, Andriod and iPhone users.

The T also revealed its latest ridership numbers too — the July figures. This is during the time when officials with the MBTA implemented their controversial service cuts and fare hikes. However, ridership only dropped by one-tenth of a percent from the same time the year before. Analysts predicted that there would be a near 6 percent decrease.

While ridership on the both the subway and on the RIDE paratransit service dropped, ridership on the commuter rail, on the bus and on the ferry increased. Each year, the T transports about 400 million — or close to 1.5 million each day.

Davis says that he has just one birthday wish for the T: That the system be 100 percent accessible for all riders and be adequately funded! We would like to wish the MBTA 100 more years of safe operations!

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an accident, contact Injury Attorney Jeffrey S. Glassman for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights today. Call us at 877-617-5333.

More Blog Entries:

MBTA Safety Watch: Ridership Increases for 17th Consecutive Month, Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog, August 12, 2012

Man Dragged Down Tracks by MBTA Train, Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog, July 14, 2012

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