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"The MBTA, which has raised fares three times this decade, is carrying $8.1 billion in debt and faces projected deficits over the next five years of between $357 million and $438 million." - Bumpy road ahead for MBTA study says - Boston Globe, 10/17/2007
If I am reading this correctly, MBTA will possibly lose $438 million dollars in the next 5 years. That is $88 million dollars a year, $240,000 dollar a day. Yes, $240,000 a day. That is in the range of people's mortgage. Every time a Green Line rings its bell (say,ever 6 minutes), MBTA basically shreds $1000 plus all the fares collected from all the passengers...on all of their lines.
Wow, right? Don't forget that this isn't how much they spend. This is how much they spend AFTER they have spent all the fares collected.
This means that if you pick up a penny on the street tomorrow, you are making more money than the MBTA. In fact, as long as you don't spend more than $239,999.99 tomorrow, you are doing better than the MBTA.
Readers have left 7 comments.  1. OMGIt's not that I trust you, but I took out a calculator and did the math too. While I was doing the math, I noticed that this estimate must have been, at one time, multiplied by "365", because when you do the math $438,000,000 divided by 5 divided by 365, it equals exactly 240,000, which doesn't seem too natural. 2. swesson ![[smiley=laugh]](http://www.unleashyouranger.com/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/simple/smileys/smiley_laugh.gif) Too funny!!! Yay, I make peanuts, but at least I am making more money than the T! 3. jah That is pretty sad. I wonder how many people are skimming off the top. 4. crashbang haha, funny way to look at it. 5. iwantamullet $8.1 billion in debt?? That is approaching big dig cost. How in the world? I gotta go with jah on this one... There has got to be some major corruption going on. Somebody is getting rich off of our tax dollars. 6. JCL Nice one, GreenOrangeRedBlueSilver. I saw this article published on BostonNow. Your post had quite an effect while I read it sitting on the Green Line. 7. Guest User According to Wikipedia, there are about 600~700,000 riders a day. They are losing $240,000 a day. So, if they increase the fare of every ride by $0.30~$0.40, they will be back in the black.
You are right. Even with my math skills, I can run MBTA! |
