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After all is said and done, the MBTA appears to be a reliable transportation option that Bostonians can depend on. It operates when residents need it to and it has a substantial environmental impact which are both an indication of a well performing system. However, the world revolves around money so to further ensure that Boston has a good system in place, its important to look at the finances in and out too.
Here, the financial statistics for Fiscal years 2011-2021 can be seen. First, expenses are separated by operational fees such as paying workers, and debt service which is based on MBTA loan repayments. The things to note for expenses are that while the MBTA works constantly to improve, they had many restructuring plans completed in 2019 which led to more expenses paid out than anticipated and therefore less debts paid than budgeted.
Noting this restructure and viewing the revenues, the same spike can be seen as the MBTA increased its rider fees and saw operating profits increase while advertisements and non-operating revenues also increased.
Major decreases came in FY20 and 21 where COVID played a major role, cutting revenues below expectation. The MBTA still maintained its expenses as budgeted which speaks to their commitment to serve even during a pandemic.
Now that its clear how the MBTA has profited and worked towards improving rider experience, it all comes down to if people are happy. Over the years the MBTA has collected survey data, asking its riders How they would rate the T, their most recent trip and if the MBTA provides reliable public transportation services (The question of the hour!!).
The data speaks for itself. Notice that during the earlier years many people surveyed as uninterested with big percentages of Neutral and somewhat satisfied/dissatisfied. The red and orange dissatisfied sections also had much more weight. However, as time has passed and even throughout the pandemic, the tides have slowly changed and those somewhat satisfied responses turn to very and extremely satisfied. Those dissatisfactions decrease down to almost nothing.
So, In Conclusion (Again)...
So, In Conclusion (Again)...
The MBTA is the Heart of Boston. It is a reliable and relied upon system by all Bostonians. It is clear that residents depend on the public transport option to get to their jobs or classes, to go out for a weekend in the city or to just go watch the pigeons. No matter what, the T is there to bring them where they need to be and if it wasn't, Boston would be a completely different city. The MBTA stretches the Greater Boston Area and does so year round, nearly all day ensuring they improve as a system overall on a regular basis. They have worked towards becoming more fuel efficient and it has proven to be effective, just look at the data! Their efforts towards using Electric Propulsion for rails absolutely pay off environmentally and with the way the MBTA works towards improvements, there's almost no doubt they will continue to improve on that metric. They have restructured pre-COVID and maintained those efforts/finances through an unprecedented global pandemic implementing newer train cars for all lines. In the end, residents of Boston are more than satisfied with their public transportation availability and can sleep at night knowing they can get wherever they need to when they wake up. The MBTA may not even get the credit it deserves but rest assured, the answer is exceptionally - Boston's public transportation is performing exceptionally!
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